Phoenix-24

I had intended to just watch the opening, after so many people I know were recommending this to me. "I gave it a shot," I was going to say. "It's just not my thing." Minutes later, I was shushing my family so I could hear the movie. I couldn't turn it off until the credits rolled. SO good. Such a fantastic character study of these quite different people, their quite different lives, and their shared dedication to Dota.

I'm not into Dota. Not even a little. I think I played it one time, and didn't enjoy it. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this either. 75 minutes of Dota? Yawn.

But it's not 75 minutes of Dota. In fact, for a documentary about a Dota tournament, there's very little Dota in it. They don't really explain the game much at all, or why certain units were chosen over others. This was 100% fine with me (since, let me stress, I am not into Dota). Instead, it was all about the _players_, and was incredibly compelling.

Who do you cheer for, when you have sympathy for all of them?

There are two very different versions of "Oh Mikey!" The original Japanese version is funny, fast-paced, satirical, and witty. The actors know just the right way to over-act their lines and the entire effect is hilarious.

The English-language version is dreadful. The actors (and entire localization team, apparently) did not "get" the humor of the original. It's like they're trying to explain the "plot" of the original, as if the plot mattered _at_ _all_. All of the wordplay is gone. They just don't know how to play the lines, and the entire effect is strange and stale and stupid. The whole thing just rings false.

This is not a show for everyone. It is definitely odd-ball humor. But I would go further and say that, if you can't speak Japanese enough to watch the original, just skip this one, because the translation just does not do it justice.

I just watched the first episode of this show. Ugh. I didn't laugh a single time. I didn't even grin. I could see where they were trying to be funny, it just wasn't working. The supposed edginess just feels dated. And the animation was awful, it was like watching a slide show. I don't see this show going anywhere. I want my half-hour back.

I laughed when I saw this show. Twice. That's about one laugh per 15 minutes of show time. The vast majority of the show telegraphed its humor so far in advance that by the time the punchline arrived, the joke was stale. Actually, it looked like some of the jokes were stale before the show aired.

Personally, I don't see this show lasting very long. Watching people act helpless while bad things happen to them is not as funny as some television executives seem to think. I get enough of stupid people acting stupid in real life.

I didn't plan on even seeing this movie, but I saw the first few minutes and was hooked in. This movie has more humor than most comedies, and it takes a more subtle approach, doesn't force every scrap of plot down your throat. Every scene is fantastic, and highly enjoyable (except for one, if you see it you know which one I'm talking about). The ending is great. Far exceeds my expectations (I sort of thought of it as a Benny and Joon type).

By far the best part of the movie, though, is Juliette Lewis' facial expressions. Fantastic. : )

What's the deal with all this subtlety? I don't want to spend time trying to recognize all those little plot twists and turns. I want my shows to be plain and obvious, like all the other shows on TV. Speaking of which, this show has a complex plot that changes from episode to episode! Where is that standard sitcom conclusion at the end where nothing ever changes and everything remains the same? I miss that! I want everything wrapped up in 22 minutes so I can stop wondering what is going to happen next.

And the writing! I'm not very smart, so I need the shows I watch to use tried and true cliches that I'm sure to see coming, since I've seen them previously in other sitcoms. This has nothing but out of the blue witticisms and banter that moves so fast you actually have to pay attention. I don't want to have to think when I watch TV!

And is it a sitcom or a drama? Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's the other. It's like watching two shows at the same time. I don't like that, I need to have my entertainment clearly delineated into specific categories.

Also, why call a show Sports Night when it has almost nothing to do with sports? It's all about these people's lives, who just happen to do a sports broadcast. So call it Making of Sports Night instead, because I confuse easily enough as it is.

Of course I'm being sarcastic. Sports Night is so good, it goes off the meter. There are no other shows to even compare it against. It is the best-written show on television today, possibly ever. The only real complaint one might say is that this show could be before its time. It is intelligently written, unlike almost every other show on television today. The characters are smart, and don't have to have all the answers handed to them, nor do they even have all the answers. Bad things happen, as well as good, just like in reality.

Seriously, it is the best show on. Period.

Having seen this film just yesterday after being bombarded with tales of how wonderful and fantastic it was, I must say that I am extremely disappointed.

It wasn't the taboo subject that I had a problem with, it was the way the film dragged on, at once trying to cram as much story into each scene as possible and remaining all the more boring because of it.

Also a problem was Jeremy Irons' character. While Jeremy Irons is a fine actor, even he was unable to make me care for the fate of Humbert Humbert. An audience likes to be able to identify with the protagonist, but Humbert Humbert is a complete idiot. It is hard to identify with one so stupid.

In the end, I felt that the overall film had no point other than to create controversy, and it left me feeling that I had just wasted more than two hours of my life in watching it.