adamjbernay Reviews

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for the Road (2006 TV Special)

You People are NUTS

[9/10 · 4 November 2006]

Except for Larry the Cable Guy (whom I have never liked), I thought this installment easily was up to the level of the rest of them, and that end bit with the photos was the funniest end bit of all of the shows. The jokes they're telling at the beginning of the closing are old, but they seem funnier when being told by these guys.

I don't get how these are "running out of jokes." There was a TON of new material in there, especially in Foxworthy's session. Yeah, a lot of this material is reflective on where they've been... but it's billed as "One for the Road," COME ON, PEOPLE, THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR.

As far as Foxworthy's fat jokes... I am very much overweight, and I found them HILARIOUS.

E-Ring (2005–2006)

Great Show!

[27 September 2005]

The pilot of this show was great. Action-packed, well-written, and well-acted. It reminded me a lot of Tom Clancy's writing. Those who think the show was too "macho"... well, that's Special Forces for you. They ARE like that. I wouldn't be surprised if Benjamin Bratt spent some time for Special Forces types in preparation for the show. I also loved Dennis Hopper as the colonel (great to see Hopper in action!) and the actor playing the under-secretary is one of my favorite character actors. The Marine sergeant was the perfect senior NCO -- "I make things work while you guys skate on thin ice". The characterization was brilliant! I enjoyed "E-Ring" immensely and will be following it weekly... and I'm not just saying that because a cousin worked props on the pilot!

Oil Storm (2005 TV Movie)

I must disagree with Token B Girl

[8/10 · 5 June 2005]

I am a conservative-to-libertarian politically and a conservative morally and ethically, and I have to disagree in the strongest terms with Token B Girl. This was NOT a liberal perspective, not mostly. Her comparisons the six hurricanes in 2004 are spurious, since those hurricanes didn't hit the kinds of major oil points this fictional storm did -- and COULD hit whenever hitting a couple of key Mexican Gulf states like Louisiana (as this one did) and Texas. Here's my review, as posted on my LiveJournal blog (my LiveJournal nick is maccabee, if you're curious about any of my other writing):

The plot of "Oil Storm" is fairly straightforward: a "What-If" about an oil crisis brought about by governmental and public overreaction to the effects of a hurricane on a major oil intake and drilling port in Louisiana. The hurricane's devastation created a 13% hole in the country's oil supply.

While a problem in and of itself, this would not have been so bad, and could've been handled, had calm heads prevailed. The public's overreaction to a temporary fluctuation made a relatively minor shortage worse by people buying up as much as possible, thus sending the stock market into tumult, and the federal government into over-zealous action... which is, unfortunately, government's usual reaction to problems.

Stupidity piles on top of stupidity, much of it caused by people not understanding what to do in a problem situation, and a basic non-understanding of the laws of supply and demand. The public's hording of gasoline after the hurricane's effects were announced directly led to a crisis occurring.

Had government officials' (and the oil companies') first reaction been to tell people to keep calm, and that we could weather this without major disruptions in the economy and society if people would buy LESS gas instead of MORE gas until things were straightened out, the tide could've been stemmed.

But, of course, that didn't happen... probably because if it did, there would have been no movie... and because the chances of people reacting sensibly in that kind of a situation are probably not good...

I won't give away all the rest of the plot, but according to a friend with sources in Washington D.C. with access to the same kind of information the filmmakers used to base this on, this is a highly accurate depiction, based on the information on world and domestic affairs we have currently.

One problem I had with one of the subplots -- a wholly unnecessary subplot, to be perfectly honest, and other subplots could've been developed better had it not been indulged in -- was to crank out the myth that farm subsidies are what keeps inexpensive food on the American tables, and without the subsidies all the family farms would go away.

This myth, widely believed, is just not true. The Mid-West, where the vast majority of farm subsidies go to, is no longer the main food provider to the country. For several decades, it has been California, and especially the area I live in, the Central San Joaquin Valley, and we get virtually no farm subsidies, yet we produce most of the food the country eats. According to the California Farm Bureau Federation's website <<< California's 84,000 farms cover about one-third of the state's total land area. Nearly two-thirds of the farmland is rangeland and one-third is cropland. California ranks fifth nationally in farm numbers, but farms in the Golden State produce more than half of the nation's fruits, vegetables and nuts from just 3 percent of the nation's farmland.

One California farmer supplies enough food, fiber and flowers for 135 people. California farms and ranches are characterized by high-yielding, high-value cash crops that use advanced levels of technology, capital and management.

Twelve California counties were members of the "billion dollar club" in 2002. Nine of the nation's top-ten farm counties are in California. >>>

<<< In value of production, the five top ag states are:

California: $30.2 billion Texas: $13.2 billion Iowa: $12.9 billion Nebraska: $9.8 billion Illinois: $8.9 billion >>> (this information extracted from a graph on the above website)

The Dakotas, where I believe this farmer was from in the film, don't even make the list! Significantly, it takes the next three states (Texas, Iowa, and Nebraska) combined to equal what California puts out all on its lonesome... and we do it basically without farm subsidies.

Anyway, back to the film: I give it an 8.5, subtracting a half point from my initial score of 9 based on the airing of this national myth about farm subsidies and the mid-west. It's definitely a must-see!

Pleasantville (1998)

Thinly Veiled (Im)morality Play Praising The Sexual Revolution

[1/10 · 25 March 2004]

The premise of two modern teens being sucked into a Leave it to Beaver -esque sitcom and the shocks of their different views of the world sounded very interesting. Then I watched the film...

It turns out this movie's message is: "Life before the sexual revolution was gray and insipid. Living a life of convention values is a dull, dorky way to live. Casual sex and violating the sanctity of marriage is the way to happiness." This is the attitude that brought the world the AIDS epidemic, massive teen pregnancy, single parent homes, and multiple generations of black inner-city families living in poverty with no way out.

The point-of-view in this movie is deluded. The black-and-white people are vicious caricatures of late 50s/early 60s conservatives, and the "colored" people are self-aggrandizing portraits of the New Left of the 60s. You wouldn't know that the motives of the New Left were, in fact, to destroy the American way of life and bring about a socialist state.

I am not speaking of the original Martin Luther King-led civil rights movement when I speak of the New Left; instead, I am speaking of the post-King Left that not only did not uphold Americanism as King did, but in fact reviled King in favor of Malcolm X, until King became a folk hero in later generations.

For more on this, I recommend you read the autobiography of one of the primary intellectual leaders of the New Left who saw the folly of his ways, "Radical Son" by David Horowitz. Also, his slim volume "The Politics of Bad Faith" is worth reading as well (all of his books are worth reading, to be honest).

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Some People Just Do Not Understand

[10/10 · 14 December 2003]

I've read a lot of your comments, and it amazes me how some people seem to think that the function of this mini-series (and hopefully series) is to cater to the whims of the fans of the original series. Sorry, that's not it.

The die-hard types -- the "fans" (and I am one, of BSG, BSG2003, Trek, B5, etc.) -- are never going to be more than a small fraction of the viewership of any television program. It must appeal to a broader audience, or it is DOOMED.

Ronald D. Moore -- in my opinion, one of the better writer-producers in sci-fi today -- took a concept that pleased just about nobody but the fans and reproduced it in a manner that made it interesting and watchable to a modern audience. And if you step outside of your "I want Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict" temper tantrums, you will find it interesting and watchable as well.

As for some of the main cast members -- like the Adamas pere et fils -- being stiff and inhuman...my friends, welcome to career military officer types. I would bet you're the same people who complained about Commander Jeffrey Sinclair in the first season of Babylon 5 as well. These are TRUE TO LIFE heroes, not the Saturday morning cartoon comic book heroes.

As for remolding Starbuck (does she drink a lot of coffee? ;-) and Boomer into women... well, I had my doubts at first, but I thought they did a magnificent job. As for the Cylons looking like humans now... well, only some of them do. And, to be perfectly honest, it makes a lot of sense for them to be able to blend in with their enemies. Anyone who has knowledge of terrorists in the Middle East knows that the reason they can get in to major civilian population centers and cause hideously evil damage and destruction is because THEY BLEND IN. Use some logic, people!

Much like when going to see a movie based on one of Tom Clancy's novels, I didn't go into this expecting to see the original. I went into it expecting to see something new and interesting with some similarities at the plot level. And I was not disappointed.

Since ENTERPRISE seems to be killing the Trek franchise -- and I admit, I enjoy ENTERPRISE a lot of the time, but a lot of people don't, and I can see why -- I am in high hopes a series based on BSG2003 can revitalize hope for on-going TV science fiction. I don't see why it shouldn't as long as people stop thinking they're going to get Lorne Greene. They're getting Edward James Olmos, one of the most brilliant actors in Hollywood, coming BACK to TV after a successful movie career... and how often does THAT happen?!?

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

I hope this is just the pilot!

[10/10 · 14 December 2003]

I liked the original series, but I *LOVED* this mini-series. I think the characterizations are even better than the original, the writing is crisper and, of course, the effects are better. I, for one, am in high hopes this becomes a regular series on the Sci-Fi Channel!