Features-The Jerk's 5 favorite Netflix shows 8/22

It's been a little longer than a week since I was able to update the best of the best Netflix has to offer on the boob-tube.  But alas, I have returned with a list of what all of you Jerks should be watching.



5.  Deadliest Warrior- What a manly show.  "Let's take 2 killers and test their weapons to see who would kill who".  With warriors like Jesse James, Shaka Zhulu, and The Nazi SS, there is no shortage of carnage dealt forth in the labs.  Inaccurate as the tests may be, it is still just awesome to watch weird dudes with big guns tear stuff apart.

4.   American Dad-  Family Guy sucks pretty badly.  I hate to say that but it undoubtedly just sucks.  American Dad is a different story altogether.  Seth Macfarlane takes the "Like that time I"'s out of his overweight, high-voiced man-child and replaces them with one of the wittiest, most ridiculous, but mainly- American men to ever grace our screens.

3.  Park and Recreation- I was born ready.  I'm Ron f*cking Swanson.  Watch Leslie Knope, Tom Haverford, and the rest of the Parks Department take on menial, at best irritating problems with the veracity and passion of- well I can't think of a branch of our government that cares this much.  That sucks.

2.  Trailer Park Boys- The boys just want to drink liquor, smoke dope, and live like kings in Sunnyvale Trailer Park.  Is that so much to ask?  Apparently it is.  Trailer Park Boys is the remarkably, stupidly genius Canadian comedy about Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles living the white trash dream.  Despite their best efforts the boys just seem to wreak of arrest warrants.  Give this little-known gem a try when you miss out on that promotion.  You deserve it.

1.  South Park- Every now and then I go on a South Park kick that makes me wonder why I am not always on a South Park kick.  Cartman, Kenny, Stan, and Kyle may have some pretty messed up adventures, but their friendship has kept me in stitches for over a decade now.  Keep it up boys.  Never reach middle school.

Review- Insomnia

I need to start this by saying Insomnia is a very good movie.  It has all the elements a suspense movie should have, and it is acted and directed to a 'T".  I had some issues with Insomnia though.  And I don't think my issues necessarily deal with the story, the talent, or even the archetypal path the movie tends to follow.  My problem is with Christopher Nolan.  That isn't something you'll often see here.  My problem is with Christopher Nolan.  I respect the man.  I have yet to see a Nolan movie that I didn't at least understand the merit in.  I was one of the guys that saw Inception numerous times.  To top that I enjoyed the movie very much.  I know that 1/2 of America thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but I thought it was very adequate.  Good even.  But not outstanding.  No.  My opinion of Christopher Nolan as a director is not determined by Inception.  It was set long before that on the basis of Memento, The Dark Knight, and The Prestige.  I was disappointed in Christopher Nolan here.

In my opinion, Nolan wears a lot of different masks.  He is a brilliant technological director.  He is also a brilliant comic book reviver, suspense director, and talent-seeker.  What is hard about Insomnia is that it has no traces of Nolan behind the camera.  All of the evidence of a Nolan-esque story is there.  Potentially ambiguous ending, moral wrestling- it seems right up his alley.  But I think the real error here is that he is using somebody else's story.  Nolan thrives on bringing his own scripts to life- not rehashing stories originally told by others.  Still, back to my first comment- Insomnia is a very good movie.

The movie begins with detectives Dormer (Al Pacino) and Eckhart (Martin Donovan) traveling to Alaska to help solve the murder of a 17-year-old girl.  On a side note, I assure you I am not trying to write consecutive reviews about little-girl-murders- it just happened.  As the case is revealed, we learn that Dormer is in a bit of trouble with Internal Affairs.  This, we are told, is a driving factor behind getting the detectives out of town.  Later, in a dinner conversation between Dormer and Eckhart, Eckhart   tells Dormer that he has been offered a deal for immunity for any information he may have regarding the investigation.  Eckhart, being a family man and feeling the need to protect himself, voices his intention to accept the deal to the disgust of Dormer.  From here forward we see their relationship deteriorate as it becomes clear that Dormer feels betrayed.

The case regarding the murder of our young damsel trudges on with most of the heavy-lifting falling to Dormer and the young Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank).  A lead reveals itself in the form of a book bag that is found.  In order to lure the killer back to the site, Dormer orders that a dispatch in search of the book bag be broadcast over public airwaves.  However, when the suspect does arrive he is spooked by a megaphone and darts into the Alaska fog- shooting one of the supporting officers in the leg in the process.  Dormer follows the suspect on foot and as a figure appears in the cloudy haze, Dormer fires.  As he approaches the downed man, he quickly discovers that it is, in fact, his partner Eckhart.  Dormer, knowing how this will look scrubs the scene to make it appear as thought the suspect killed Eckhart.  The one thing he has neglected, is that the suspect saw everything.  Through a series of phone conversations and meetings we learn that our suspect (who reveals his guilt in the murder) is Walter Finch (Robin Williams), a local mystery writer.  Having been caught in the act, and facing an inability to catch a good night's sleep, we see Dormer wrestle with his own morality, and indeed sanity.

Insomnia is not a miss, but it isn't a solid hit either.  The story is intriguing enough and the cast each plays his/her respective role to satisfaction, and in some cases (Robin Williams, Maura Tierney) to perfection.  My only complaint truly is that the story is (and feels) very recycled.  Based off of the Norwegian film of the same name released just 5 years earlier, it lacks the originality and imagination that we have become accustomed to seeing out of Christopher Nolan.  Insomnia is definitely worth a watch.  it is a quality film with capable players, but for this Nolan fan, "short-changed" is the only way to really describe the feeling of the credits rolling.

Overall Rating- 7/10

Review- The Pledge

I really wanted to like The Pledge.  I love Jack Nicholson.  I love Aaron Echart.  I love Sean Penn in the director's chair (see Into The Wild).  I did not love The Pledge.  The real annoyance of this movie is that it could have been so good.  We'll get to the "fixing" part later, but first let's look at the movie that actually exists.  There is nothing that sticks out in the performances, or even the directing that is particularly off-putting.  In fact, the conviction with which Nicholson plays his grizzled old detective is actually part of what is so vexxing.  Sean Penn does a beautiful job of creating a taut, tense thriller- textbook actually.  The real problem is that he doesn't do anything with the environment he creates.  The story just isn't there.  I did a little research on the film, and it is based on a book by Friedrich DurrenMatt.  This story must have worked on the page, but it certainly doesn't on the movie set.  

The story starts with a retirement.  After 30+ years of service to the Reno Police Department, Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is retiring to a life of fishing and leisure.  Of course this all changes when his retirement party is interrupted by news of the brutal murder of a 7-year-old girl that has taken place that night.  Jerry goes with his replacement, Stan Krolak (a mustachioed Aaron Eckhart) to investigate the crime scene.  It is determined that an eye witness has pin-pointed the man he saw fleeing the scene and he is waiting at the police station.  Our suspect is Toby Jay (Benicio Del Toro).  Toby is a mentally retarded man who Krolak sees as an easy confession.  Toby was found guilty in a very similar crime years earlier and, with just a bit of pressure applied, Krolak gets his confession.  Black doesn't buy it though.  He is able to (somehow) sense that Toby was talking about the previous crime.  Of course, none of this matters for Poor Old Toby, as he promptly seizes a cop's gun and blasts his teeth through the wall (literally).  We then see Black move to the area where several similar crimes have taken place and begin to investigate.  From this point forward we have the typical unraveling of clues about town, and we see Black fall in love with a little, blond girl remarkably similar to those murdered, and her mother (In a delightfully trashy turn by Robin Wright-Penn).  As his former colleagues begin to doubt his sanity, Black begins to feel the threat of violence nearing.  When the killer's presence surfaces close to home, can Jerry Black save his new found family?

Did that sound like a cheesy, trailer description?  Well that is probably because that is what watching it feels like.  The movie spends a great deal of time and effort making sure that we care about the characters- that we understand the importance of their plight.  But it takes all of that emotional investment and dumps it in our empty popcorn buckets.  There is no payoff.  No final sense of denouement.  There doesn't always need to be a satisfying ending in film.  But psychological thrillers need to have one.  You can't (effectively) pull a No Country For Old Men-style ending for thrillers.  Something needs to happen.  And the ending for The Pledge just sucks.  Watch it- you'll see what I mean.  I'm not going to say anything else because I don't like spoilers, but check out the Wikipedia site if you don't want to sit through it.  And it really may not be the ending that is so terrible.  It may be that the movie seems like it is going to be great.  The cinematography is beautiful.  The score is perfect.  Even the performances (including cameo roles by Helen Mirren and Harry Dean Stanton) are really, quite good.  It is all of this quality and potential that makes the payoff so disappointing.  

So here is what we have.  A movie with a top-notch cast.  A movie with some beautiful shots of the stunning American west.  A movie with a really compelling story.  And a bad movie.  What does that tell you?  Something went wrong in transit from the page to the screen, and even the capable hands of veterans like Penn and Nicholson weren't enough to separate The Pledge from the dime-a-dozen thrillers that come out every month.  Sorry Jerks, but stick to Unbreakable and The Usual Suspects.

Overall Rating- 4/10

Features-The Jerk's 5 favorite Netflix shows 8/2

These aren't the 5 most critically acclaimed shows available through Netflix.  They aren't the 5 most watched shows on Netflix either.  These are the 5 shows on Netflix that get the most viewing from this Jerk.  I love watching movies on Netflix- LOVE IT.  But more often I need to relax after a day of school and work and just gaze blankly into the boob-tube.  These are the best shows to enjoy when you just need to enjoy a show.

5.  American Dad-  Family Guy sucks pretty badly.  I hate to say that but it undoubtedly just sucks.  American Dad is a different story altogether.  Seth Macfarlane takes the "Like that time I"'s out of his overweight, high-voiced man-child and replaces them with one of the wittiest, most ridiculous, but mainly- American men to ever grace our screens.

4.  The Office- The Office has fallen off a bit in recent years.  I'll be the first to admit that.  But there was a time when Michael, Dwight, Jim, and the rest of our weekly co-workers made us enjoy Thursday nights.  We all clearly enjoy Thursdays for It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia now, but The Office is what we can stream instantly anytime.  Never a bad choice after a particularly horrible day at work.

3.  Intervention- This is going to sound bad.  I am giving you ample warning.  But there is nothing better than being able to say "Hey, at least I'm not that guy".  I told you it would sound bad.  But it is so true.  Relax.  Kick your feet up.  Crack open a cold one.  Hell, crack open 6.  Because I guarantee you can flip this show on and confidently say "It's okay.  At least I don't huff computer air-duster and walk on sunshine all day".

2.  Chappelle's Show- Sketch comedy is great.  Shows like SNL, and MADtv are pretty enjoyable.  Dave Chappelle reinvented sketch comedy.  In 2 (sort of 3) seasons, Dave Chappelle turned sketch comedy from something you chuckle absently at, to something you laugh uncontrollably, constantly at.  Everything about this is amazing.  The stand-up, the sketches, the cast, the writing- everything.  What a shame Dave Chappelle retired.  No less, this show will remain a testament to one of the funniest men of the last 20 years.

1.  Trailer Park Boys- The boys just want to drink liquor, smoke dope, and live like kings in Sunnyvale Trailer Park.  Is that so much to ask?  Apparently it is.  Trailer Park Boys is the remarkably, stupidly genius Canadian comedy about Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles living the white trash dream.  Despite their best efforts the boys just seem to wreak of arrest warrants.  Give this little-known gem a try when you miss out on that promotion.  You deserve it.

And stay tuned!  These shows will be updated weekly according to what the Jerk is currently watching.  Leave a comment. Tell me what I am missing out on.