The Hateful Eight trailer … 2 minutes of awesome!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over twenty years since Quentin Tarantino first made a huge directorial splash with Reservoir Dogs, in 1992. I have loved everything he has done since then, from Pulp Fiction to Django Unchained. Sure, he has been at times controversial, usually for his graphic violence or his colorful use of language, but no one can ever say that he hasn’t broken every mold in Hollywood. His use of dialogue and music has been trendsetting, to say the least.

His latest movie, The Hateful Eight, will be released later this year and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Channing Tatum, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. I am anxiously awaiting the movie—even more so now that the new trailer has been released!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Review of Scorpion, season 1 & finale

Before Scorpion started, CBS really promoted the concept: a team of geniuses that solved problems and got into dangerous situations. At least that’s the only thing I got from the commercials. It doesn’t matter, because they had me from “a team of geniuses…” I would at least give it a shot. I’m glad I did.

I am drawn to character-driven TV. I want to see three-dimensional characters, not cartoon stereotypes. Much like life, plots develop naturally surrounding real people. The formula for a good television show is to start with a strong cast—both character premises and actors. Scorpion surrounds “a team of geniuses”—they are socially awkward (most of them) but exceptionally smart. It’s not necessarily the most ground-breaking show, but I like it.

The highlights of the show, in my opinion, are Toby (played by Eddie Kay Thomas, aka American Pie’s “Shit Break”), a genius psychoanalyst and doctor who provides a lot of the comic relief; and Agent Cabe Gallo (played by Robert Patrick), the federal agent who employs the Scorpion team to work on homeland security cases. Robert Patrick is just a bad-ass, from the T-1000 in Terminator 2 (and Wayne’s World) to small roles on True Blood and Sons of Anarchy. Every time he shows up on screen, he kills it.

Walter O’Brien (played by Elyes Gabel) has an IQ of 197, making him one of the most intelligent people who ever lived. He is drawn to Paige’s son Ralph (played by Riley B. Smith), seeing a bit of himself in the boy. He also slowly falls in love with the non-genius Paige (played by Katherine McPhee), despite his “knowledge” that love doesn’t exist. The team is rounded out by Sylvester (played by Ari Stidham), a “human computer;” and Happy (played by Jadyn Wong), kind of like a young Asian female MacGyver.

Overall, the show doesn’t get too deep. No matter how impossible the situation might be (and each episode includes at least two or three impossible situations), the team is able to solve the problem using their superior intellects. Intelligentia ex machina.

If you haven’t seen Scorpion, click here to watch the entire season or individual episodes on Amazon Instant Video.

Warning: Spoilers below

Image from Season 1, ep. 20 (“Crossroads”) via cbs.com

The season finale aired this Monday, April 20, 2015. It begins at the end of the last episode (fittingly entitled “Cliffhanger”)—I believe the first time this season that the plot carried from one episode into the next. Walter had gotten into a fight with Paige over her leaving, and the team was on the verge of breaking up. Walter got into a fast car given to him by Richard Elia (played by The Office‘s Andy Buckley), some rich guy who wanted Walter to work for his think tank, and went speeding down the road and off a cliff.

As this episode began, the team was looking for Walter but couldn’t find him. Eventually they find him in the car, bleeding and delicately balanced on the side of the cliff, ready to fall to his death at any minute. Rescue workers come in and almost kill Walter with their silly plans to rescue him—even throwing Toby and Happy into the back of a police car for talking condescendingly to a police officer. Sylvester finds Cabe who shows up (after quitting Homeland Security that morning) and flashes his scuba license to gain control of the rescue efforts.

A bunch of stuff happens, including Walter cauterizing arterial bleeding near his spleen with a silver pen and a crow landing on the hood of the car. Eventually Cabe is able to rescue Walter just minutes before the car falls. I don’t think it exploded, but it should have. Paige and Ralph show up and Walter almost tells her that he loves her.

The episode ends with the team in the hospital where Walter is being treated, seemingly with a renewed sense of togetherness.

It will be interesting to see how Season 2 begins, considering that Cabe is no longer with Homeland Security.

Scorpion aired Monday nights at 10pm (Eastern) this season, and has been renewed for a second season.

Welcome to ClutterStuff!

Clutter Stuff ish 1In late 1994 I found a used photocopy machine behind an office building that had discarded it. Hauling it back to my bedroom in my mother’s basement—I was only 17 at the time, so it’s ok!—I decided to begin my professional writing career. Of course, by this I mean I started a zine. The first issue bore the unfortunate name of TRIPhukt, but only lasted an issue before I changed it to something more reasonable. Clutterstuff was born in the spring of 1995.

Zines were pretty big during the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. Think of them as do-it-yourself magazines. Or Stone-age blogs. Like blogs, zines covered nearly every topic known to man: music, art, poetry, tv, movies, Saturday morning cartoons, etc. Some were extremely personal, a bit like reading the diary of someone you didn’t know. Others actually achieved some mainstream success, moving into bookstore chains just to the left of Rolling Stone and The Source. Generally speaking, zine publishers did not make a profit. “Labor of love” generally fit.

At the time, Clutterstuff mostly covered alternative and indie music, with a couple of other random items from time to time. I typed up short articles and music reviews in WordPerfect or on an old thrift-store typewriter and literally cut-and-pasted them onto pages with art and photos from old books, comics, and magazines. Simple and anything but elegant. But I had a modicum of success (in zine terms): I talked a couple of high school girls into selling them at school, and, by trading them with other zine publishers, I managed to get them reviewed, leading to a few sales! I even got reviewed in Factsheet Five! (Okay, it was a big deal at the time.) [Another interesting fact: I received a review copy of Bloodhound Gang’s independently released EP Dingleberry Haze before their record deal was signed—maybe I’ll republish the review here at some point.]

Fast-forward twenty years. The world is very different. What better time to resurrect Clutterstuff than now?

I might talk about music from time to time, but more often I will talk about some of my other interests: comic books, television, movies, pro wrestling, and whatever else comes to mind at the time I feel like writing. Maybe I’ll republish some of my old articles or reviews from the zine days.

Hope you like it, but if you don’t … get stuff’d!