Justified: City Primeval

 

Justified is back on FX in an 8 part miniseries based on Elmore Leonard's City Primeval. I haven't seen the premiere but the critics have - and they liked it. May not have seen the show yet but I have read the book and it seems some changes have been added. Really looking forward to this.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting look behind the curtains that is the dysfunction that is the Los Angeles Lakers.

- Cool - surface tension

- Scott Adams formula for a happy life

- Today marks the 100th anniversary of the eclipse observations that confirmed Einstein's Theory of General Relativity

- Keanu Reeves training for John Wick 3

- What Timothy Olyphant learned from Deadwood. A little disappointed to learn the mustache in the movie is fake.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting - thieves have stolen sunken warships right down to the last bolts. Whodunit and how they did it remain a mystery.

- And just like that John Cusak was dead to me

- Alan Sepinwall's interview of Timothy Olyphant on the set of Deadwood: The Movie

- Sometimes I have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy. This is one of those times. I laughed so hard at this.

- The Huawei ban is worth the pain. "The national security issues raised by the company's technology transcend any trade dispute." 100% agree.

Justified Season Five

It's been a couple of weeks since the final episode of Justified's fifth season and I just wanted to comment on what was by consensus the weakest season of a great show.

There were two main issues with this season. First Daryl Crowe Jr. and his clan just did not match up to the level of badassness of Bo Crowder, Mags Bennett or Robert Quarles from previous seasons. It's a given that those three represent three of the "best" heavies in modern TV drama history so it was a tough bar to match to begin with but Michael Rapaport never rose above a certain cartoonishness in my eyes. It was tough to root for or against him. I just didn't care that much.

The second issue was the storyline of Ava Crowder in jail. Once again - I just didn't care that much. Honestly I would have much preferred that most of her screen time instead be spent with Raylan indulging in his ice cream habit or random barroom singing acts (like season 3's Jack and Coke scene).

The good news is next season seems to be lined up pretty nicely with the final showdown of Raylan versus Boyd Cowder. Looking forward to it!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- In defense of Red Sox mediocre off-season moves.

- This could be a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter. Timothy Olyphant to guest star on Archer.

- Holy crap! Exploding killer lakes! A lake "exploded" in 1986 and killed 1,700 and I never heard about it till now.

- I wish this honest man Godspeed!

- 11 ways to save money in 2013

Movie Hitmen

I hate sloppy lists and I found this list of movie hitmen to be awfully sloppy. I found myself driven to post just to get thinking of the sloppy list off my mind (like getting a crappy song stuck in your head).

The article starts by mentioning Clint Eastwood in the first sentence but the article never mentions Clint's Eiger Sanction one of his most under-rated movies in which he plays a mountain-climbing, art-loving hitman. Oh and for the record - Eastwood didn't play a hitman in The Outlaw Josey Wales. You could make the case for Unforgiven but not Josey Wales. Sloppy.

The article also mentions Quentin Tarantino but fails to mention perhaps the most menacing hitman Tarantino created - Virgil from True Romance played by a pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini.

If I had written an article about movie hitmen I'd probably mention Timothy Olyphant's title role in the movie Hitman. Not rocket science.

I'd also give a final shout-out to the scene-stealing hitmen, Mr. Kid and Mr. Wint, from the James Bond classic Diamonds are Forever.

Those were just off the top of my head. If I got paid to do a list you could be sure it wouldn't have been as sloppy as the one I linked to.

Favorite Actor

A buddy of mine last night asked me who was my favorite current actor in a drunken attempt to start a conversation between hands of cards. I told him Gabriel Byrne to throw him off his game (I knew he wouldn't know who Gabriel Byrne was).

This morning after thinking about it for a while - I came to the conclusion that I don't really have a favorite actor (someone who I'll watch just because they are in something). The closest to that for me is Nathan Fillion and Timothy Olyphant.

Favorite actor of all-time? Not sure I have one of those either but either Ward Bond or William Powell come closest to fitting the bill.

Slip Slidin' Away

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

The Red Sox chances of advancing to the World Series are slip slidin' away. The Red Sox were trounced last night 13-4 and now trail the Tampa Bay Rays 3 games to one. This is a hole I don't think the Red Sox will be able to dig out of.

There I said it.

Does that make me a bad fan? No it just makes me a realist. I'll still follow each of the team's offseason moves with baited breath but I'm now convinced the offseason is much closer than Red Sox fans wish it was.

I only watched the first inning of last night's game. Does that make me a bad fan? No it just makes me squeamish. After seeing the Rays race out to a 3-0 lead off two HR in the first inning I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach. The same feeling you got watching an old Lucy Show or Laverne and Shirley show where you knew the girl(s) were going to get into trouble of their own making. That feeling makes me uncomfortable.

Instead of watching - I tuned into the movie Hitman on HBO.

I enjoyed the mindless violence and especially the fact that it starred Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant. The movie was a blatant rip off of the Bourne Identity movies even with the same ominous techno background music. But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

During the movie - I kept track of the game on Yahoo! That was much less enjoyable.

I couldn't even bear to watch the lowlights on SportsCenter - so I watched a re-run of Rome instead.

It will probably end up being a Tampa Bay vs. Philly match-up in the World Series. I'll be rooting for Philly. It's not that I'm vindictive against the Rays - it's just that I have friends in Philly and I'll be pulling for them.