Crazy for the Celluloid

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of getting my digital cable receiver installed in my bedroom (for only an additional $2/month, which is sweet), so now I get 300+ channels of TV that I'll hardly ever watch. Awesome!

But the most awesome part is that I watched the Big Brother 11 episode that I missed on Tuesday night. (Which was very, very cool. I loved seeing the athlete clique implode.) Watching my summer guilty pleasure got me to thinking about other goodies that I've seen recently at the movies or on TV.

Here's what's what:

So, I went and saw Transformers 2 over the Fourth of July weekend and, as much as I loved the first one, I wish that this little picture to the left were accurate. I wish the autobots would attack Michael Bay so he'd stop making these movies. They're only going to get worse. Spare us, please.

But then I went to the movies last weekend and saw something really good: The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3. My dad, being the old fogie that he is, had told me that, "That's a re-make, won't be as good as the original." Whatever. He might be right. But it's also true that this was a book first (which I now want to read to see what the original plot line was because it was written back in 1973), so even the original film version was a rip-off. But enough about our family in-fighting, on with the movie.

I really enjoyed this. There were a couple of cheesy points and implausibilities, but overall good dialgoue and acting. Good cinematography and sound editing. I'd recommend this one around.

This past Sunday I watched the first two episodes of Big Love Season 1 via my Netflix hook-up. It was... hmm... very HBO. I actually enjoyed the storyline and I'll watch more, but the sex is kind of crazy. I don't necessarily mind a little bit of the what-for in a story (especially if its central to the story line as it is in Big Love), but this is so very, very HBO. It's like with each original show they try and top themselves with the number of penis shots and protracted scenes of regular (not-quite-so-hot) people grinding away on each other. I got it with Sex & the City, thought they were trying to go "edgy" in The Wire, but this just seems like a bunch of pasty suburbanites doing their business. Not overly provactive, in my opinion, just cheap. But I'll keep watching for the story (especially with the teens, I like that part).

Then Sunday evening I watched the debut of Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime. I enjoyed this original "programming for women," but I wonder how long I'll stay with it. It seems as if the show's gimmick (in this case a model dies and comes back to life in the size-16 body of an intelligent model) might get a little old. This happened to me with Eli Stone... loved it for a while, but then got tired of the song and dance. I'll keep you posted on my love-age of this one.

Hit me up in the comments and let me know what's been rocking your visual world lately.