Clerks

Good day to you all, my fine collection of film enthusiasts. This week I am focusing on a writer/director that primarily makes movies that either touch your soul or disgust you to no end with its foul language, crude vulgarities and sexual metaphors to the like that would put Andy Warhol into a tizzy. No, no I don't mean Eli Roth. The writer/director I am referring to has entertained more people, stirred controversy to the Westboro Baptist Church and even somehow managed to be a husband and father. Right? He fulfilled two of the primary Nietzscheian philosophies via Adromeda. Also a producer of Reel Paradise, Small Town Gay Bar and Reaper. I am speaking of Kevin Smith. And while you are still reeling from all that info, let's check out his labor of love. This is Clerks.

These are not the salad days, my friend.

Now while this is quite loosely based on Dante Alighieri's play The Divine Comedy or Dante's Inferno, our protagonists Dante (Brian O' Halloran of Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Groupies, Dogma, Vulgar, Clerks: The Animated Series, The Flying Car, Clerks: The Lost Scene, Clerks II,The Happening and Mr. Hush) and his wisecracking wiseass, quick with the quips sidekick Randal (Jeff Anderson of Clerks, Dogma, Love 101, Vulgar, Clerks: The Animated Series, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Flying Car, Clerks: The Lost Scene, Clerks II, Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Randal's Monday) who are twenty somethings in and out of college, barely tolerating the endless salvo of stupid questions, lack of common sense and in general, the annoyance of customers. Hence the nine breaks in the film representing the nine levels. Yeah it's meta, move on.

Ah, the wall of my youth behind Randal.

Dante is called in to work on his day off and feels an moral obligation to do such. Apparently the store would ebb out of existence otherwise. With no direction, drive and ambition our terrible twosome deal with life as clerks at a convenience store and video store (A primitive format of electronic transfer to magnetic tape in analog not digital. Also known as VHS the video home system...I have young readers as well.) interact with customers, talk about girls, sci-fi and hockey.

Dante's girlfriend Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti of Clerks, Get a Job, A Packing Suburbia, Dead and Gone, Alien Armageddon, Starship: Rising, Lake Eerie and #RIP) is sweet, capable, driven in her studies and cannot fathom why Dante doesn't seem to want to move forward in life but takes her chosen love with a grain of salt. Alas for Veronica, Dante takes her for granted while pining for his ex that screwed everything that asked if she was interested. A hat drop and boom. Distrupting his plans for the day for hockey, he finds out the boss left to go to Vermont and left his underling holding the bag or in this case a almost 12 hour shift. Dude you can document that for the Better Business Bureau. He and Randal say "Screw it." close up the store and play street hockey on the roof of the Quik Stop.

Pondering the imponderables and asking the deep questions of what next brings our boys to dealing with all of life's truth and consequences as they deal with death, life, love and loss on in the span of a day.

Director Kevin Smith shot said movie at Quik Stop and RST video where he worked at late hours and was printing out from his word processor the script he was constantly working on. Maxing out all his credit cards for film stock, boom mic and expenses, Smith had to sell a generous portion of his comic book collection to pick up for re-shoots. 21 days to pull off this and delivered. I hear he still got a few issues that are rare to find out there so help a manchild out, huh? FYI, the reason for black and white is not for artistic purposes but black and white is cheaper on 16mm.

Director's taking a Kent break.

Number 850!!! Zombies for Halloween: Zombie Town

Well folks we have reached that plateau of the week as always. The end of it if you will. I hope your Halloween plans work out, that you play it safe and avoid drinking and driving while costumed. Oh and ladies skip the “Sexy” outfits. Seriously for most of the country it is going to be too cold to wear a fraction of that flimsy material outdoors. Now then I decided to take a peek at some of the indie titles via zombie films and after reading titles like MILFs vs Zombies, Porn Star Zombies, Ninjas vs Zombies and A Zombie Invasion I just threw up my arms in the air in disgust. So settling for an indie title I found a flick shot on film stock and not some crappy HD Camcorder. This is Zombie Town.

PACKERS!!!!

Normally I cringe at the prospect of a writer/director combo because it can lead to misery and pain but Damon Lemay knocked it out of the ballpark with a comedy horror film. Hillbilly hunters up in a cabin in the woods(Are you kidding me?? At least the name of two horror movies, man!) are getting hammered and bitching about their wives when they accosted by zombies. One infected attacks the others and it is fairly gory but looked impressive on film. Roll opening credits as we have no rhyme or reason why there are zombies other than a nod to the local swamp.

Local mechanic Jake LaFond (Adam Hose of Zombie Town) and his brother Denton (Phil Burke of Hell on Wheels, Dirty weekend, Wind Walkers and Legend of the Lich Lord) are trying figure bills and how to make ends meet inheriting their late father's garage. They get the call for an abandoned truck in the woods and our brothers LaFond make their way to the plot device. A quick nod to his ex-girlfriend Alex (Brynn Lucas of The Vault, Convict, Eve of the Dead and Mondo Americana) Denton tells Jake he needs to get off his slacker ass and make something of himself.

Wow, never seen projectile vomiting like that before.

Denton is attacked by one of the hillbilly zombies and has a few issues with that. Otis is a remote town up in Vermont, mountainous and isolated so only one major road leads in and out of town. Jake notices something odd in the town of Otis as people seem to be keeling over. Bad batch of KFC perhaps? Whatever the case may be, there are some of the residents getting back up and becoming ravenous zombies in search for the flesh of the living. Alex is an environmentalist/scientist of obscure notion finds something unusual.

Jake's rival Randy (Dennis Lemoine of The Hiking Trip, Illegal Aliens, Tricks of Love and The Invention of Lying) teams up Jake trying to figure out what in the nine hells is going on. Randy is a decent enough guy but has his eye on Alex.

Parasitic slugs seem to infect and incubate in the bodies of the victims creating more incubators i.e. zombie hosts. Their reproduction is exponential creating more parasites.

Can our trio handle this infection before spreads? Will the whole town be infected? Must everything be solved with a napalm strike?

Between the fairly amusing dialogue, gore effects are pretty effective and keeping the cast down to a few allows for clever interaction. Contained in a small town with local support, the silly gorefest was fun.

Scaffolding protect us!!!

Savage Titles: Savage Sisters

Howdy all and welcome to Day 1 of Savage Titles. As I previously mentioned, the word savage does seem to crop up in quite a few exploitation movies and one of the titles is just that and not just any exploitation film but a women in prison film. Oh yes you know the week is off to a good start when you have Sid Haig making an appearance. So imagine a general being more of a war lord scheming to handle ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!.. out of his region and put in an off-shore bank account I imagine. Well not if Gloria Hendry has anything to say about it. This is Savage Sisters.

My man Rob Zombie can hook you up with a role!

Oh we are in safe hands with director Eddie Romero (The Ravagers, The Passionate Strangers, Brides of Blood, Black Mama White Mama, Beyond Atlantis and Teach Me to Love) as he tells us the slightly risque, possibly tawdry tale of women in prison, revolutionaries and General Balthazar (Leopoldo Salcedo of One More Chance, Bandolera, Vivian Volta, Happy Days Are Here Again, Burlesk Queen and Blood Run) needs to move on an armed caravan full of money and forms a very uneasy alliance with less than trustworthy Malavasi (Sid Haig of The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown, House of 1000 Corpses, House of the Dead 2, The Devil's Rejects and Halloween) and his one-eyed willie er..um...I mean sidekick One Eye (Vic Diaz of Revenge of the Street Warrior, Crackdown, Strike Commando 2, Blackbelt II, Bloodfist, Fortunes of War and Caged Heat II: Stripped of Freedom) plan to execute the idea of the snatch and grab only to double cross the revolutionaries and keep that cool million for themselves. Meanwhile revolutionaries Jo Turner (Cheri Caffaro of Ginger, The Abductors, Girls Are for Loving, Too Hot to Handle and Extreme Ghostbusters) and Mai Ling (Rosanna Ortiz of Roulette, Bank Robbers, The Young Idols, Panic!, Savage!, El negro and Ransom) committed to the cause get captured before they can hook up with their comrades and are hoisted off to the prison.

Ernesto, I feel a round of exposition coming up.

Refusing to give up their male counterparts, the ladies have been given to Lynn (Gloria Hendry of Hell Up in Harlem, Live and Let Die,Black Caesar, Black Belt Jones, Seeds of Tragedy, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings and Lookin' Italian) Sgt. Jackson if you're nasty, to get the info out of them. Captain Morales (Eddie Garcia of Dirty Games, Free to Love, Kamlon, Get My Son Dead or Live, Malisya and Life Begins at 40) knows Jackson will get the girls to talk and he is well on the way to his promotion...little sidenote, his female colonel got a little BDSM on him, lashed him and treated like her sex puppet. Really wasn't expecting that.

Ms. Jackson, we need you to go undercover as a college girl nympho.

Jackson tells the girls to co-operate or they get rough. Like the power drill dildo... Yes I didn't make that up. We saw electrodes, clamps and no safety word in sight. Baltazar arrives at the prison with the remains of the revolutionaries and the banditos they worked with are still at large with the million. With the men dead on the ground, the girls' hearts sink but remain adamant. Jackson almost admires the girls' convictions but she has a job to do.

Billingsly (John Ashley of Hud, Beast of the Yellow Night, Apocalypse Now and The A-Team) a hustler for hire and fixer nearly is shot by Malavasi after showing off his stolen million and he also happens to be an on again and off again lover of Jackson's who tells her the girls might know how to get to Haig and the money. Billingsly sporting his Ron Jeremy mustache and groovin' pimp clothes leads the prison break, scoops up the girls and hightails it out of there not before they smoked close to 20 men. Will they get the money? Will Malavasi will get his just desserts?

Clearly not one for the kids, one of the first films having three female protagonists that can actually kick ass, take names and use men like Kleenex. I was expecting hosing down, torture and the like but we are actually spared all that and have a decent story, mild nudity and some screwy gunfights.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THAT MAN??!!!

As the Seasons Go On:

Howdy folks!  Sorry this is starting a bit late.  Migraines makes Jake a cranky writer/person/boyfriend and in general a real dick to be around.  That aside, this week I blew the dust of my archived TV series to talk about.  No the bag of tricks is not empty, merely a detour was made around.  As you may have noticed I tend to write about series that hold my interest and not enough of them for the general public so I am getting some TV series of past and present the love and attention that many of you wrote me back about.

Little something for the ladies.

Again I can be reached at the following: https://twitter.com/RottenReelz and https://www.facebook.com/RottenReelzReviews  for all comments, queries and complaints so keep them coming, folks.  Always love some feedback.  I am going to jump in the way back machine as soon as I can gag and bind Sherman and go cruising the timestream with Mr. Peabody.   Or I will just fly around with that madman with the blue box.  Either works.   At this time my co-host Shawn and I will be starting up an Indiegogo beg-a-thon for funds for our podcast Rotten Ramblin' On.   We are just working out the kinks on that and should have it up and running before August.   So without further adieu I present you the week and hope as always, you are amused and informed.   Keep those comments coming in people!

What do you mean Season 111??? Dear God gimme strength!

Summer Blockbusters of 1985: Real Genius

Howdy folks and welcome back to Day 5 of The Blockbuster Movies of 1985. This time around we enjoy a fun romp of parodying college life, being brilliant and the need to partying and cutting loose. With actors of such caliber as : William Atherton, Val Kilmer, Jon Gries and Patti D' Arbanville. This is Real Genius.

Miss, can you help me find my dog? I think he went to the hotel across the way.

The CIA are off in a secluded room in a secluded location view a VHS presentation of a top-secret project called Crossbow. A space shuttle has a laser weapon mounted via computer program allowing the weapon to flash fry a man on the ground with pinpoint accuracy. The problem still can't put out the power requirements for a steady laser stream. Professor Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton of Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Die Hard 2, The Last Samurai and Defiance) has taken the Pentagon's money to rebuild his house and is on the hook for this power issue to be corrected. Prodigy Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret of Real Genius, Apollo 13, Poseidon and Frost/Nixon) joins this prestigous Pacific Technical University and will room with physics god Chris Knight (Val Kilmer of Top Secret, Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, Thunderheart, True Romance, Tombstone, Heat and Red Planet) who turns out to be a slacker who enjoys parties, pranks involving cryogenics. Hathaway foists off the laser project to his intern students and expect great things from them.

Safety, schmaftey. Let's burn something!

Under pressure to deliver the upgrades Hathaway gives Knight and Taylor a time table that is ridiculous and Knight rebels by having a indoor pool party with a bit of construction and Taylor meets Jordan (Michelle Meyrink of The Outsiders, Valley Girl, Revenge of the Nerds, Real Genius and Permanent Record) a hyperactive brilliant girl and lastly a mysterious guy Lazlo Hollyfield (Jon Gries of Joysticks, Running Scared, The Monster Squad, Martin, Beverly Hills, 90210, Get Shorty and The Maze) living in Mitch's closet.

The kids work together and crack the laser power problem and at the height of celebration only to be pointed out by Lazlo this is clearly a weapon of mass destruction. Our teen gang must work diligently to repair this problem and stop this weapon to going into production. Can the kids get this test to go belly up? Will Hathaway be forced to fork over his advancement?

Oh boy, time of facts that only film freaks enjoy!

The movie was inspired very loosely on actual events at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. The "liquid nitrogen" coins have baffled viewers for many years and was actually in the first draft of the script points out that Chris preemptively made the frozen column hidden in the thermos. The scene in the trailer showing Chris floating on his lounge chair to several balloons is not shown in the VHS release and I am not certain if the DVD or Blu-Ray editions ever re-attach that scene.

Ugh pink on a blonde? Tsk!

David Tennant Week: What We Did on Our Holiday

Well hello all and welcome back for Day 4 of David Tennant Week. As it has been pointed out, our lanky Scot has done a bit more than running about in Converse and a sharp suit and today is no exception at all. This time around we see him in a family oriented comedy about a couple having marital problems, three kids and the need to put on a strong face for the sake of others. This is What We Did on Our Holiday.

You missed the turn.

Doug McLeod (David Tennant not the Highlander's Christopher Lambert or Adrian Paul) and his wife Abi (Rosamund Pike of Die Another Day, Pride & Prejudice, Jack Reacher and Gone Girl) are united in a very tense separation decided to to travel with the kids to the Highlands to visit Doug's father Gordie (Billy Connolly of The Imposters, Still Crazy, The Boondock Saints, Beautiful Joe and Who Is Cletis Tout?) for his 75^th birthday, as the may be his last birthday ever due to cancer. Doug and Abi both agree they do not want Gordie to go to his grave knowing his son and his own family are falling apart. Doug's brother Gavin (Ben Miller of The Armstrong and Miller Show, The Parole Officer, Birthday Girl, Johnny English and The Prince and Me), a millionaire many times over wants to throw a lavish party for Gordie and has invited the whole neighborhood that grew up with this warm man.

Chasing women and buses can leave ya behind, laddie.

That in mind they are attempting a long distance drive with each other and the kids are starting to wear down from the arguments and shouting. Eldest daughter Lottie (Emilia Jones of House of Anubis, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Doctor Who, Utopia and Residue) decides that Gordie deserves the truth and she is going to rat out the folks and how it is hurting her, her brother Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge of Foster, Casualty, Topsy and Time and Cockroaches)and sister Jess (Harriet Turnbull of What We Did on Our Holiday) seeking advice from an adult that isn't disgruntled, moody or shouting every twelve minutes. Clearly she has never seen Billy Connolly's comedy acts and thank God for that. Brilliant man but filthier than a New York pigeon.

Doug and Gavin apparently have a huge rift and more sibling rivalry than imaginable. They start in on each other about meeting responsibility, family matters and even who was the favorite and so on. Will things be sorted? Will Gordie have to smack both his boys for being complete twits??

A few points to make about the film now. Everything I have discussed is revealed within the first 15 minutes of the movie setting a tone of dysfunction but warmth. These events unfold in a nice, slow and methodical period which is something you should look for in a film. As much as I love seeing Billy Connolly, David Tennant and Rosamund Pike interacting and playing off each other, the kids will leave you with sore stomachs from laughing. The scene with Jess and her stones that happen to be her friends will charm you to no end.

Why I am not ginger??!!!

David Tennant Week: Takin' Over the Asylum

Welcome back readers and I do hope you enjoyed yesterday's series and watched it in its entirety. Moving on to Day 2 of David Tennant Week we flashback to the year 1994... while some of us were just graduating high school, others were being born and smathering of us were listening to Metallica: Black. This time around we look into BBC Scotland providing us a drama about a radio station within a whacko basket... that is a pyschiatric hospital. Another six part mini-series at a fictional hospital St Jude's Asylum. This is Takin' Over the Asylum.

Gooooood Morning Glasgoooooooowwww!!!!

Our story revolves around aspiring DJ/ insulation window glazing salesperson Eddie McKenna (Ken Stott of Your Cheatin' Heart, All Good Things, Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story, Shallow Grave, Rhodes and The Boxer) operating his normal business hours of people taking their sweet ass time on window panes they can afford and what would look smashing with the exterior as well as the interior. While this soul crushing work pays for his bills, Eddie really wants to dazzle the world with his radio personality all the while be a functioning alcoholic. At St. Jude's he encounters a pantheon of folk with a variety of mental illnesses.

Hallo, I'm the Nutter.  Just the Nutter.

There's young Campbell (David Tennant of The Tales of Para Handy, A Mug's Game, Jude, Duck Patrol, Terry McIntyre, Doctor Who: Dreamland, The Catherine Tate Show and The Decoy Bride) a helpful and sometimes insightful lad that has an askew look on life one minute and then just concrete the next due to his bi-polar. There is the schizophrenic electrical engineer Fergus (Angus Macfadyen of Braveheart, Alias, Saw III, Saw IV, Eleventh Hour, Californication, We Bought a Zone and Assassins Run) who has a habit of escaping the premises but commonly just return back before there is any issues. Yeah no serial killer patient at the hospital thus far so bummer. Long time depressive Francine (Katy Murphy of Dangerfield, Roughnecks, A Mug's Games, Mike & Angelo, Fish and Cemetery Junction) who self inflicts wounds on herself and Eddie has a soft spot for and lastly Rosalie (Ruth McCabe of The Bargain Shop, Fatal Inheritance, Scarlett, Silent Witness, The Fitz and Wild About Harry) A housewife approaching middle age with OCD on cleanliness to the point of sterilizing people as they pass her in the halls and confused to the impeding divorce from her husband.

This basket of mixed nuts are the cornerstone of the story arc as each have their own reasons, illnesses and dreams being put on hold due to the mental issues. This is much drama as there is comedy but at the end of the day it feels truer to life than the film Awakenings. Each title of the mini-series is named after a Beatles tune which really maks it embrace its surroundings along with the musical score blends so well with the soundtrack and all the action in the foreground it makes me wonder why America has rarely produced something so dark, witty and loving. I guess a story of nuts in the nut house have to be kooky, pants dropping and lighting things on fire every day. A tad monotonous to say the least.

And now it is time for those wacky fun facts!!

The scenes in the hospital were filmed in Gartloch Psychiatric Hospital in Glasgow, before it closed up. Interestingly enough, many of the extras in the scenes were actually former patients, David Tennant bowed out of the BAFTA Awards Ceremony so Angus Macfadyen's girlfriend at the time, Catherine Zeta-Jones could go in his stead.   

Absolutely no Nickelback!  Drives the patients spare.

David Tennant Week: Blackpool

Welcome one and all to Day 1 of David Tennant Week. Given I have written several Doctor Who episodes starring the fellow of the week I thought it would be nice to see some other BBC projects that he managed to snare prior his sand shoes, suit, brainy specs and long coat. Such as is the series today involving an arcade owner who is attempting to turn his arcade into an almost casino style hotel worthy of Vegas in the hopes to rake it in and give people something to do. All is good until a young man is murdered and the DI has to get into our arcade owner's business and personal life. This is Blackpool.

Well the name says it all.

The murder of a young man occurs in Ripley Holden's (David Morrissey of Stoned, Derailed, Meadowlands, Sense & Sensibility, Five Days and The Walking Dead) arcade and no stone must be left upturned. The DI (Detective Inspector, you poor yanks) in charge is one Peter Carlisle (David Tennant of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Secret Smile, Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest, The Decoy Bride and The Escape Artist) who comes off charming and good natured but is in fact quite manipulative and is convinced that Holden savaged the boy for skimming from the till or had a fight with him that went out of hand. Everyone's lives have been turned upside down as the coppers have to back and forth from the arcade to their homes and disrupt their lives in search of the truth behind the murder.

Fresh out of Jelly Babies. That was 6 regenerations ago.

Holden has his own family to think about. His wife Natalie (Sarah Parish of Cutting It, Our Hidden Lives, If I Had You, The Holiday, Mistresses, Monroe and Atlantis) who grows weary of putting on a happy face when her family is in chaos, Holden takes her for granted and in general she is lost in her own life. Their kids Shyanne (Georgia Taylor of Coronation Street, The Royal, Blackpool, Casualty and Law & Order: UK) a rotten to the core spoiled brat constantly undermining authority in need of more understanding, love and so on and Danny (Thomas Morrison of Brideshead Revisited, Doctors, Casualty, Monroe and The Theory of Everything) an awkward and deeply troubled boy that is constantly berated by his own father for not being what he deems a man. From the get-go you can see Holden has a temper but years of restraint keeps it under wraps. At the end of the day though, he screams bully and you can see how his rage take ahold of him. Our good DI seems to want Holden to be the murderer, in his heart he needs him to be the murderer as this case is eating him up. Carlisle starts to take a shine to Natalie and concluding to himself he just needs to get into Holden's head and get him to come forward and confess.

The musical score is vital to carrying the elements of the show when it gets downright sinister to the tender budding romances. Tennant and Morrissey come off as they genuinely hate one another.

Is Holden the murderer? Will Carlisle pursue Natalie and will she in turn pursue him?

And now some trivia... because you all do bar crawls and trivia games... well maybe a few of you.

Character actor David Bradley, David Morrissey and David Tennant all have a connection. Both Bradley and Tennant have been in Harry Potter and Morrissey and Tennant were in Doctor Who: The Next Doctor Christmas Special. Furthermore David Bradley portrayed William Hartnell the First Doctor in An Adventure in Time and Space. Complex that is, eh?   

What do you mean NO MORE WALKING DEAD ROLE???!!!

David Tennant Week

Hello and welcome back to the dark recesses of my mind. Last week I went AWOL(Absent WithOut Leave) due to the fact of trying to find a decent at home job. However, the great state of Nebraska is so greedy and myopic with view they have annexed many an at home job offers away that it is very difficult to find something with decent hours and fair pay. Y'know, like any other job market out there but worry not because we shall carry on regardless.

OooOo sat on myself.  Stings a bit.

This week I have chosen an actor to follow and hopefully I can drill it in the heads of several Americans that the fellow in question has done more than one character on TV as well as a few movies. He is an acclaimed Shakespearean actor that has starred in several plays, one of which was Much To Do About Nothing with his co-star Catherine Tate. He has played legendary debaucherous and decadent Cassanova to a hardened Detective Inspector Carlisle. He has been in Doctor Who for more than 4 years including two animated movies and a video game.

Voice work also allowed him to children material such as The Pirates! Band of Misfits, How to Train Your Dragon and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I speak of none other than David Tennant. This week we shall see the famous 10^th Doctor in other roles of both past and present. Okay so it is a bit of a time lord feel but sue me, it is the easiest look for me to cosplay.

That being said, let's start the week right. Allons-y!!

Just establishing I have more female and male fans panting over me, Matt.

Anime Picks Week: Goldenboy

Welcome back for Day 4 of Anime Picks Week. Sorry for yesterday as there has been some trouble acquiring the job I want but enough of that! Let's get back to the anime of the day and this is no exception at all. The subgenre falls under erotic comedy so yes this series is indeed not for the kiddies. We find our main protagonist is a undersexed, easily distracted and somewhat ridiculous perv. The lad's world is filled with landmines of the female persuasion, tempting him at every turn... according to him at least. This is Goldenboy.

Derp!

Our show hails from the same named manga by mathematician and writer Egawa Tatsuya (Be Free, Dead Man, ONE ZERO NINE, The Last Man, Golden Boy and Happy Boy) who found the ability to combine story arcs with humor, adult language and adult situations in manga form. His stories were so bizarre and goofy it is no wonder this was turned into a six-part series. Meet Kintaro Oe, age 24: left his studies at Tokyo University without graduating in spite of having met all his requirements for his law degree, he deems himself a free spirit and constant student of life. Kintaro takes on various jobs within each new town he bicycles himself to.

Oh yes young man, they are real.  How sweet of you to notice.

Our young adventurer seems to always land a job around or nearby exotic, strong-willed women that he either lusts after profusely or their personalities dare him to strive to their expectations. His typical first impression from the girls is he is a loathsome pervert trying to sneak peeks and make lewd comments. He is in fact young and inexperienced in the matters of polite society and tends to speak what is on his mind before he thinks it through. He is good natured and considerate but must battle with his inner demons of gawking at this provocative women that surround him and his work-site. As a student of life, he keeps a constant update on his finding with his prized possession, his notebook. At the end of the day, he is a hyperactive geek that is awkward at times and sweet at others. Always aiming to learn, help where he can and see bewbs, Kinatro is a beacon of goodness that just happens to be tarnished by being headstrong and hormone ridden.

Just a few points on the show now. Most of the humor surrounding this series is incidental, happenstance and the lad simply has the worst luck when dealing with the opposite sex. He endeavors to be smoother, wiser and more of a capable man. The typical other dimensional Dragon Ball Z effects occur in the form of speed lines, lighting and booming voices when he needs to get a point across or someone is flogging him for his hedonistic ways. My real complaint about this almost hentai series is the women are only two types. Strong, independent and quick to judge or meek and subservient. The portrayals of either doesn't exactly paint girls and women well.

That being said, this series is goofy, fun in an adult theme and makes most guys realize that this could be them if they don't straighten up. The nudity as a whole is light and there is sexual situations but nothing graphic or detailed. Subtle as a brick but tame enough to not offend in a horrible light.   

YOU CAN'T JUST OGLE MY GIRL IN FRONT OF ME!!!

Anime Picks Week: Phantom Quest Corp

A bit hearty welcome to Day 1 of Anime Picks Week! A quick bit of background on today's choice. Our story revolves around our heroine Ayaka Kisaragi, a talented woman descended from an ancestral line of Japanese exorcists... but given she is sick of their ways and traditions, she decides to open a business to exploit those talents for a fee. This is Yugen Kaisha a.k.a. Phantom Quest Corp.

That ginger could poke your eye out!

Created by writer Mami Watanabe (Heavy Metal L-Gaim, The Record of the Lodoss War, X and Araiso Private High School Student Council Executive Committee) this offbeat horror/comedy is a good hybrid claiming ancient monsters in the modern world.

Ayaka's headquarters operates from her family home wedged among the various buildings in Shinjuku, Tokyo. With her traditional methods of exorcism of demon banishment, mantra, water collected from holy rivers and circles of protection, Ayaka is also adept with martial arts, a laser sword which manifests from her lipstick and her earrings that seem to possess a spiritual charge of explosive proportions. With at least 5 to 6 people in her employ along with working with the U Division 's Detective Karino's case load, you'd think she would be a renown philanthropist by now.

Mystic marvels at money!

Alas between mad shopping sprees, karaoke and what I can only estimate as GALLONS of Sake the business is often in the red. Her boy genius, Mukyo who balances the books, sets appointments, takes cases and client information and in general has to boot Ayaka out of bed due to her binge drinking late sleeps it is a wonder he has not gone completely crackers. Karino of U Division operates from the logic/science base of supernatural happenings and relies heavily on Phantom Quest Corp's traditional exorcism, magic, occult and witchcraft practices to save the day.

With occasional aid by seer Madame Suimei, staff Buddhist exorcist Rokkon and a pyrokinetic (able to project and control flame)14 year old Namai things may get hairy but there is enough diversity in the staff to combat most of what creeps in the dark. Horror content with humorous subtext makes this a fun show with incidental humor worthy of Marx Brothers but enough sexual innuendo to make it mildly lewd. Right away you get the vibe that Karino is head over heels for Ayaka in spite of her horrific drunken singing and carousing as she does. Is there chemistry between them? Will Phantom Quest Corp ever get out of the red? Will Mukyo cook the books, fund a nest egg and disappear to an island?

Now a few facts of the show. Due to some similarities to a previously existing series called Ghost Sweeper Mikami, the only thing this series got was four episodes and then that was that. While the animation, comedy and action sequences were praised by the critics there was too much backlash from the Ghost Sweeper Mikami fans. Also many felt there was not enough plot depth or character development like, how does a 12 year old boy balance all the accounts, appointments and finances for a business? Aside from that, two soundtrack albums were released along with a Japanese novella or light novel and one issue for an English manga.

With a combination of Ghostbusters, X-Files, a hint of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, this series was taken before its time.

Hey! That's not Batman!

Anime Picks Week

Hey folks. Sorry if I went AWOL last week but I am ATTEMPTING to find more gainful employment and that isn't working to the greatest extent it could. With that in mind we last left off with Joan Crawford Week and I thought this time around we have not done any cartoons or anime so clearly it is time to fix that. For those of you that have been living under a rock, stream or gully for the last 50 years, Anime is a term describing Japanese animated product, whether it be penciled, inked and colored or computer animation, this particular style of animation seems to focus in the very same genres as any other TV or movie series.

Stoopid bike!

For your viewing pleasure, it can be original Japanese voice acting with English subtitles or the English dub with American and/or English voice actors. Unlike Disney based animation which primarily focuses on movement of the characters, background and foreground, anime translates from a pose to pose basis allowing the cel or plate animation to have more of an artistic look to it but still give it story arc... unless it is Card Captors. I haven't met a Card Captors fan.

Given the copious amounts of genre I shall do my level best to provide as many examples of as possible throughout the week. This is Anime Picks Week.

Haha! Your ship is pink, Ralph!

Season One Shows: The Crazy Ones

Welcome back readers to Day 5 of Season One Shows. Yeah I am going to make it a priority if a day in the week is skipped we get the full 5 days. Betcha weren't expecting that level of dedication, were ya? Aside from a few lapsed weeks it is clearly time to buckle down with the write ups and give you the info and humor in one delightful package. This next show I speak of I enjoyed immensely due to the pairing of its lead actors the late Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar as a father daughter dynamic as well as business partners. This is The Crazy Ones.

Three bean burrito has its revenge!

Created and produced by writer/producer David E. Kelley (L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., Picket Fences, Lake Placid, Snoops, Chicago Hope,Ally McBeal and The Practice) comes an advertisement agency in Chicago actually shot in Chicago, ran by Simon Roberts (Robin Williams of Mork & Mindy, Moscow on the Hudson, The Fisher King, Hook, Aladdin, The Birdcage, Good Will Hunting, Happy Feet, Night at the Museum and The Big Wedding), a child with ADD in a man's body with his bizarre outlook on life brings the goods to the clients every time in spite of his unorthodox methods and unpredictable behavior would have gotten him fired ten times over. I am talking blacklisted from the gig, thank God he is the boss.

Where are his pants? Laura, stop looking.

His polar opposite, partner, VP and daughter Syndey (Sarah Michelle Gellar of Swans Crossing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scream 2, Simply Irresistible, The Grudge, Call of the Dead video game, All My Children, Ringer and Robot Chicken) is diligent,ambitious and focused as she has put her name and credibility on each and every client trying to appease them and at the same time hold on to her dignity. When she is not parenting her father, she is in awe of his genius. Along with our twosome is the talented and charismatic copywriter Zach Cropper (James Wolk of Front of the Class, Solving Charlie, You Again, Lone Star, Always Woodstock, Mad Men and You Must Be Joking), wisecracking and in the same mindset as his insane boss with rapid fire riffs that everyday is fun coming to work.

Well-spoken,smart but lacking full confidence in himself, art director Andrew Keanelly (Hamish Linklater of Gideon's Crossing, American Dreams, Fantastic Four, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Battleship, 42, The Newsroom and Magic in the Moonlight) who aches for Simon's approval and crushes adorably for Sydney so that you hope he just mans up and actively pursues her. Lovely and deviously brilliant assistant Lauren Slotsky (Amanda Setton of What Happens in Vegas, One Life to Live, Gossip Girl, The Mindy Project, Black Dog, Red Dog and Hawaii Five-0) navigating through the insanity that is her office pool but manages to have a rapier wit and the tongue to skewer with.

Unfortunately not every scintillating idea is in the budget, enter Accounts manager and business partner Gordon Lewis (Brad Garrett of Hercules, Mad Jack the Pirate, Superman: The Animated Series, Everyone Loves Raymond, 'Til Death and Ratatouille) a shaved Sasquatch of a man whose size is easily matched by his volume but his husband loves him so.

A few comments now on the series that could have been.

Taking it back to an old school approach of one camera shooting to that of the Dick Van Dyke Show or Mary Tyler Moore breathes a hint of nostalgia and wonder into a show. So why did this show go belly up? Eyes bigger than the stomach with the budget? This was Sarah Michelle Gellar's fourth TV series and Williams hadn't been on the small screen in almost 31 years as a lead character. This show delivered the goods combining drama and comedy. The cast blended so well but especially Williams and Gellar. You'd swear she called his daughter for pointers to get better insight. This had the same vibes as Newsroom and definitely deserved more airtime and love. Granted I could not see how it would continue with Robin. 22 episodes of delight, debauchery and devilishly clever writing. Give it a binge watch folks. You won't be disappointed.

It's a trick.  Get an ax.

Season One Shows

Let's face it, we have seen plenty of shows. Shows that moved us, shows that disgusted us and shows that didn't get enough of a chance at life. Welcome to the week ladies and gents and this week I wanted to do a little TV as I have steered clear of it for a bit.  Ranging from drama, comedy and even a little sci-fi, I thought it good and proper to discuss shows that did not get the opportunity to blossom into a series people would not stop yapping on about * cough * (Walking Dead) and bring more subject matter into our homes for great writing, fine acting and excellent direction.

Ugh, girl parts.  Where do I put my hands?

What if that show isn't allowed to be? What if due to scheduling conflicts, writing strikes, FAR TOO MUCH reality TV and poor Nielson ratings that show is terminated with extreme prejudice? For the week, this week be all about shows that did not get the breath of life past Season One and the fans are still miffed. Let's see why, weigh the pros and cons of each show and the genre it hails from.

Shiny...

For those of you already bored with this idea, well there are better written and well researched blogs out there. Believe it or not, there are actually far poorly constructed ones as well. Clearly I need to make some cleavage shots for this one to boost the ratings. Hmm, lacking boobs so on with the write-ups instead and welcome to Season One Shows.

Patch Adams and Buffy.  Weirdest Crossover yet.