And now, a study in opposites as I review one terrific show kicking off its 4th season with a solid, firing-on-all-cylinders episode and a brand-new show that already feels stale. Deception…I like to do the bad news first, and NBC’s new Monday night drama Deception (for those that are restless for Revolution to come back)…
Author: Alabama Liberal
Down & Out in Bumblefuck: Alabama Wins the National Championship in a Blow Out…Again…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that the University of Alabama, a.k.a. The Crimson Tide, a.k.a. The House that Bear Bryant built has won another national championship. Well, maybe not thrilled since it’s hard to get too invested one way or the other, but if anyone is going to win I’m glad it’s a team from Alabama….
Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty
My pick for the third best movie of the year is tense, thrilling, and contains yet another great performance from phenomenon-on-the-rise Jessica Chastain. The film contains one big flaw (which I’ll get to below) but it’s hard to imagine anyone really hating this movie. It’s not the near-perfect film that The Hurt Locker was, but…
Movie Review: Django Unchained
It’s not possible for Quentin Tarantino to make an uninteresting film, but I would argue that Django Unchained may be his first bad one (depending on exactly how you felt about Death Proof, his half of Grindhouse), and left me underwhelmed. Is it in poor taste to make a slavery/spaghetti-western/blaxploitation mashup? Maybe it is, but…
Movie Review: “Promised Land,” an Underdog Movie You Should Seek Out
Sometimes a movie opens and you can just tell it’s destined to slip through the cracks and be underrated. Promised Land is already one of those movies, as it opened and died in theaters this weekend and is unlikely to get any Oscar nominations when those are announced on Thursday. And yet, it’s my pick…
Mom Jokes: The Medium
In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the Mystic delivered grave news: “There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I’ll just be blunt. Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year.” Visibly shaken, Laura stared at the woman’s …
Bubba’s Sex Tips: Bubba Reviews Les Miserable
I guess Alabama Liberal had figured he’d learned too much about women and how to seduce them from me, and decided he’d rather have me review a movie. At first I was excited for the job, and would have enjoyed giving my two cents on Expendables 2 (best movie of the year) or reviewing a timeless classic…
Petty Issues: Kardashian’s Pregnant, Hillary Clinton’s Admired, and 5 Men Sue Alcohol Company for Shitty Lives
Kim Kardashian announced she was pregnant on New Year’s Day. Just the way we all want to start the year off…Maybe the Mayans were off by a few months. Hillary Clinton tops a recent Gallup of the Most Admired Women in the world. She has now won this title 17 times and broken the record…
Every 2012 Movie, From Worst to Best
Just like last year’s list, this won’t be every movie that came out in 2012, but instead a list of the movies I’ve reviewed (and some that will be reviewed in the near-future). Because, well, one of our favorite things about the end of a year is listing everything we liked (or didn’t), so why not get…
How Did I Do on Last Year’s New Year’s Resolutions
On January 8th, I posted a Sunday’s Sermon about my resolutions for 2012, calling it “New Year’s Revolution,” and getting all pumped about all the things I was going to give up in the brave new wonderful known as 2012, the year some of us thought the world might end. [I guess I figured it…
The 10 Best Novels of the Year
Are these the best books of the year? Obviously, I have no idea, as I haven’t read a large majority of the novels that were released in the last year. I’ll just say I’ve read most, not all but most of the ones that have been placed on End-of-the-Year lists (notable exceptions include The Twelve…
Book Reviews: This is How You Lose Her, Sutton, The Round House, Live by Night, and Back to Blood
Note: Nearly all of these books have been featured on “Best Books of the Year” lists, and yet, I found all of them to be lacking in some fundamental way. The subtitle of this article could almost be “When Everyone Else Loves a Book that You Merely Like” but that wouldn’t fit on the Twitter…
5 TV Shows to Swear Off in the New Year
Sadly, Christmas is now behind us, and it’s time to focus on the New Year. And what better way to do it than to think about managing your time. And what better way to think about managing your time than to start picking off good-for-nothing TV shows that might have started off good but have…