The Loss of Another Hero - "Say My Name"

This week's breaking bad continued the season's runaway pace, ramping things up towards a presumably chaotic and monumentally cliff hang-y season finale. Come with me after the jump, friends, as we break down episode 7.

The Death Of Walter White - "Buyout"

You can bet your bottom buck this one's the national convention for spoilers 2K12, so follow me after jump and let's talk Breaking Bad.

Find out why this "hit me like a dream" and other reasons to watch Breaking Bad inside...

RIP Tony Scott, AWESOME Filmmaker

So it looks like Tony Scott, "Tony Scott, director of Top Gun" or "Days Of Thunder helmer Tony Scott" as all the major and even minor news sites (like news.internet) are going to be calling him, jumped from a bridge and killed himself. Same news sites are 'investigating it as a suicide' which is nonsense because that's what it was. They may as well investigate their own suspected use of words in the formation of sentences. I can't speak unselfishly about this because apart from having a really famous brother I'm not familiar with the Scott tribe and I'm not about to offer blog condolence to a bunch of people I'll never meet. Flip the coin, though, and you have what does sadden me, which is that this man will never make a film again, and as a fan of movies and in nearly all cases his movies, yeah, I'll take some sadness from that. That's what he devoted his life to doing, and that's what he'll never do again, and that sucks altogether. No longer is Ridley Scott 'the lesser Scott brother' - now he's the only one.

Scott with occasional collaborator, Fat Val Kilmer

I opened with that line about those Tom Cruise films because that IS what's going to happen, but those films never said a thing to me about what Tony Scott was capable of. Here's a man with a killer resume and all the great unwatched ever talk about is that one film he made in the 80s about the gay guys flying planes. Bullshit. Here's some of my faves. Watch these in celebration or remembrance or something that suits you and lament in some small way the passing of a pretty huge talent.

The Fan - Underseen Wesley Snipes vehicle with Rob De Niro in full on sociopath mode.

The Last Boy Scout - Failed attempt at breaking Damon 'the one from the sitcom' Wayans as an action star alongside genre workhorse Bruce Willis, that's otherwise totally excellent and far less discussed amongst casual action fans than it should be.

The Denzel Washington Saga

Crimson Tide - Geeeeeeeeeeeene Hackman on a sumbarine. Also James Gandolfini. Oh, fuck, and Denzel Washinton. That's important. This film is completely awesome and tense as one of those drums I tune too high because I don't know how to do that right.

Man On Fire - Denzel figuratively and literally on fire. Maybe he's only on fire in the deleted ending, but either way I ruined the movie for you! Also features a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack cobbled together from old albums.

Deja Vu -Adam 'that Jewish nerd' Goldberg sends Denzel back in time to save the life of a woman in a nice dress. Really good and completely absolutely batpoop crazy throughout.

(Sub-category - The Denzel Washington On A Train Mini-Saga)

The Taking Of Pelham 123 -John Travolta's second career renaissance continues... on a train.

Unstoppable - As a force on entertainment this is film is damn near unstoppable (!), and damn near perfect, too. No fluff, no frills, just the stuff of thrills. Crap writing 101, there, by me.

Texas 2012: Day -31

As I've probably made pretty clear already, food has been a pretty major contributor in my decision to go to Texas. Obviously I'll be in the heart of barbecue country for two weeks, and it's going to be awesome, but I'm almost equally excited about experiencing much of what America's fast food chains have to offer. This may seem strange - why would I go halfway across the globe just to eat some junk from a fast food joint, right? Well... I guess that's a fair point. But I couldn't live with myself if I left the US without having had some of the more crazy or elusive treats that we can only dream of on this side of the Atlantic. Here's a quick top five.

10 Reasons Why I Stopped Going To The Cinema So Often

Daybreakers. The deleted scenes from Blade spun into an entire movie. Stars Alan Grant off Jurassic Park, probably Ethan Hawke too. ETHAN HAWE IN is never a good reason to go to the cinema. The speakers crackled the whole time and I got nacho cheese on my Top Cat t-shirt.

The Other Guys - THE ROCK IS IN THIS MOVIE. The Rock dies at the start of this movie. The only time I ever walked out of the cinema, and one of about four times that I was in the cinema on my own but also Deborah was there.

Terminator 4 - I cannot - I can not - remember what happens in this movie. Like an acid flashback, I have glimpses: pregnant redhead, big golden Arnie, Chekov. Shite shite shite shite shite shite.

Youth In Revolt - Mike Cera finally plays against type - just after everyone gets over him. Who was the love interest in this? An, fuckin', an old lady? Or the opposite, a...fifteen year old? More nacho cheese problems. Not often I ventured to the Newry cinema. Reason.

Hot Tub Time Machine - Pretty much everything I hate about modern culture in one sitting, plus Lizzy Caplan.

Iron Man 2 - I mean, all I remember is Iron Man...1. Happening. Did I imagine this movie. Tony has a few drinks and that's our Tony-the-alcoholic storyline? Wasn't the end of the movie set in fucking Rapture?

Toy Story 3 - Yeah, yeah, it's a great film. And the power cut. And all the kids got riled up, and took ages as fuck to settle down again and near ruined the movie.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - A film with one joke and they stuck it in the trailer. To be fair, it was a cracking joke.

Predators - Genuinely fell asleep. Adrien Brody's an action hero now huh?

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - A film about wankers for fucking wankers.

And all the deadly films I missed and had to watch at home because of this shite - Easy A, Warrior, Drive, Bridesmaids - man, life is fuckin' hard.

Grapes

GRAPES.
ARE.
AWESOME.

Breaking Bad - Dead Freight

Ok, I did not see that coming at all. I like to think of myself as somewhat of a television pro; I can usually work out where certain things are going based on previous examples in other shows. It's a bit harder to do this for all these cable dramas nowadays, where more free creative license is granted to the showrunners - so they get to surprise us a bit more. But I've rarely been as shocked in my life as a fan of television as I was at the end of this week's episode of Breaking Bad. Follow me if you will, but ONLY after you've seen this week's episode, heavy spoilerage ensues..

Tell Me This Then....

Why don't they make excellent TV shows about teenage boys? I was just thinking about this new MTV Show Awkward and about how its like this genereation's Freaks And Geeks or My So Called Life. And for that matter the films Juno and Easy A. Its that end of the spectrum of media. But apart from maybe Charlie Bartlet the film and Malcom In The Middle which doesn't 'count' for some arbitrary reason not even known to me, I've never seen an equivalent show about actual crap teenage boys, acted by actual teenage boys. ....FUCK. I literally just remembered The Inbetweeners. But anyway... Here's another point: Why don't they make TV shows about the Police? I've seen TV shows about hospitals and fire fighters but never... Fuck.

The Firstening: HBO's Girls

Shit! The week damn near ended and I didn't follow up on a promise I made in an blog I write for. Also I brothe and slept this week. Still fully functional, it seems.

Remember how I said what I said about what I planned to do? I decided to start with HBO's Girls, starring and created by and written by and directed by and very possibly catered by Lena Dunham, on account of having heard (or imagined hearing, as previously discussed) it was good and Judd Apatow's name being attached to it (Apatow's like Spielberg in that if he's producing instead of directing it's still nearly guaranteed deadly). Now, what the plan was was to watch the first episode, write a few things down and move onto the next show in my list of planned newshow discoveries (including The Newsroom, Men Of A Certain Age, Louie and Justified), but instead I watched all of Girls' first season in that same sitting and didn't even notice it getting dark outside. I'm not sure when the last time I did something like was what but as I've gotten a little older and a lot rounder I'm considerably less diehard when it comes to TV and movie marathons and was sure I'd forgotten how to. Does it go without saying I enjoyed it that much? It should do. I didn't watch it all at once because I hated it. I'm not... Un-Paul. Look, you wanna meet me after the jump because this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. Yes, I wrote the introduction last...

Enter... The FIRSTENING

Fellow Dick Donavan is my go-to guy for American Television Programs, except that doesn't happen outside my mind. Don's pretty up to date on what's making waves (...AIRWAVES) across the pond, and I am the dark ages. If he's Twitter I'm a carrier pigeon. He's a phone call and I'm screaming in sandals on the cusp of the desert. As far as being on the ball goes, this is Donavan:

And this is me:

I mean to change that and you, my treasured reader, shall be privy to my first steps on the journey from ignorance to enlightenment as I devour the first episodes of five television programs I have either no or a little interest in as a result of hearing, reading or imagining Donavan talking about them. On the comedy side I'll opt for his perennial tout, Louie, as well as the latest Apatow Production Girls (which is not easily found on torrent search engines, but also which I didn't do that because, erm, the law, oh snap...) On the drama front - Justified and The Newsroom. Also a fifth thing I've not decided yet. That one with Everybody Loves Raymond in? Yeah, that'll do. Check back later in the week for thoughts on these things and the resultant levels of guilt/ antipathy for not having acted sooner as I embark upon...

THE FIRSTENING!

The Big Three (And Their Lil' Friend) - An Addendum

Oops. Sure, it may have soured the 'Big Three' titling if I'd covered four things in my last blog, but I can't help feel I've missed a trick not mentioning Dirty Laundry. Not seen Dirty Laundry? Watch it now (it's right below) without reading any of the comments. If you're awesome you can download it in 1080p from savemedia.com and watch it on your TV with a good set of speakers. Whichever way you end up choosing, follow the jump for trite discussion and a picture of a cool dog (as an added-value incentive).

Texas 2012: Day -45

Top Five foods to try in the Lone Star state:

The ignorance of humans continues to astound me

I wish Americans (specifically those whose NFL podcasts I listen to) wouldn't talk about football (our football, mind) like they know what they're on about.

Music, Music Everywhere... And Not a Drop to Drink

I've long been toying with the idea of compiling various lists, of a musical variety. I thought of doing all the standards such as top 5 albums/songs of all time (according to me... obviously) and some such. However, reflection led me to realise that not only was that incredible boring/egotistical, but that the whole idea was rather finite. How could I try and top "MY 4 MOST FAVOURITIST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVA"?

So instead, I thought I'd write a regular blog that contained 5 songs I think people should listen to right now. Chances are they won't be current (I'd be surprised if ANY were) and there's a fair chance you know them already. I'm going to try to do this once a week so that I can get into the habit of writing regularly (any feedback or discussion will probably make this a more interesting and easier task - although I'm sure some of the stuff I post won't be everyone's cup of tea).