I was flipping around TV and came upon VH1's new series, I Love the Millennium.

First thought: really. VH1, you really couldn't wait another two years and tie everything up into a nice decade-sized package like you did the last three decades? They must be making a ton of money/ratings between those and the Best Week Ever series (now I see even comes in Best Day Ever flavor) because they're apparently not patient enough to wait to spew out more.

The freaky part is that you find yourself actually feeling nostalgic over events that only happened 7 or 8 years ago.

And another problem is that, at BEST, they can only really make 8 episodes. Which you know they're going to repeat ad nauseum. At least, until their next genius stoke, I Love Money.

Apparently this new series follows in the footsteps of their "Of Love" series (Flavor, New York, Rock), by simply taking contestants from those shows and having them compete against each other, Survivor-style. And it's actually a little refreshing. VH1 is being honest with the public by saying, "Yes, these people never were really interested in finding love with Flava Flav to begin with, so we're stretching their 15 minutes of fame even further." That certainly explains why shows like this manage to get sequels.

Now, follow along with me, this might get complicated. If I remember correctly, this all started with the third season of The Surreal Life, with Flava Flav and Brigitte Nielsen hooked up to Strange Love. Two years of that, they broke up, Flava got into Flava of Love. The second season introduced "New York", who went onto two years of her own series. Now, we have this new show which stars former contestants from this and the other shows.

So, in effect, I Love Money is the spinoff of a sequel of a spinoff of a sequel of a spinoff of a sequel of a sequel of a spinoff of a sequel of a sequel of a show. And it possibly gets more complicated if you count stuff like Charm School or Rock of Love 2.

Ugh.

Labels: television, VH1

posted by Tim at 10:23 PM

2008 Summer movie reviews, part 1 of who knows...

Iron Man. Awesome. Go see it. Again, if you already have. Top-notch from beginning to end. Loved all of the little (and not-so-little) references alluding to the comics and future movies. Here's hoping for the Mandarin in 2010!

The Incredible Hulk. Not quite as awesome. It's been a while since I saw the 2003 Ang Lee version, so I pleasantly forgot all of the daddy issues going on in that one. This, however, I felt was just a series of CGI and special effects fight scenes loosely tied together. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering all Hulk really do is smash. I suppose I just kind of feel that it felt a little more...hollow. The opposite side of the spectrum than the first movie. Still, it's nice to see that the movie is about the Hulk, and not creepy Nick Nolte.

Kung Fu Panda. To be honest, I kinda wanted to see this, but I wasn't completely sold on it. So it was great that it turned out better than I expected it to be. It moved along at a fairly good clip, which I expected for a movie geared more for children.

What struck me most about this movie was how much of 2D animation elements (including the actual 2D sequence for the introduction) were blended into this movie. It reminded me of most previous 3D animated movies, like Shrek or most Pixar fare, where it was simply that; animated. Those movies were just presented to you, one scene to the next, everyone doing their thing. But Kung Fu Panda included very stylized techniques, with a very strong Samurai Jack flavor. I'm thinking of multiple panels onscreen, overlaid on each other, flipping around, pauses in the action anime-style, stuff like that. I was pleasantly surprised that the Dreamworks team are incorporating different things, which very much fits the style of the movie.

Minor note: I was also surprised how much merchandising this movie has gone through. I don't know, maybe it's just been a while since we've had a property that could be utilized in such a way. I mean, with stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man, Transformers, and the like, that stuff you kind of expect. And there are the old standbys like Power Rangers and most comic properties. So, here's another one, I guess.

Another note: Concerning the previews. Apparently later this summer is Fly Me to the Moon, about flies that tag along a space mission. I knew beforehand that Space Chimps is also due this summer. Now, I don't know the production companies of these movies off the top of my head, but I know there are now more animation studios besides Pixar and Dreamworks. However, haven't we gotten past the point where these studios need to make too-similar-to-be-a-coincidence movies? There are plenty of ideas out there*, I don't think you need to resort to copying each other to get the leg up on the competition anymore.


(* You know, ideas like Alternate Delusions... ¬_¬)

Labels: Hulk, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, movies

posted by Tim at 11:34 PM