3 Cancelled/Ended TV Dramas That You Should Be Watching

This is a continuation of my previous post entitles 3 Current TV Dramas That You Should Be Watching. This post focuses on cancelled or ended TV shows.

3. House MD

Although I'm disappointed that they didn't have the guts to end the series the way that they should've, this show almost always managed to keep my attention.  Hugh Laurie was perfect as the eccentric Dr. House, and Olivia Wilde was just straight up fine.  The stories were usually pretty interesting (and I've been told that they're remarkably accurate by an old roommate who was in pre-med at the time), but my favorite aspect of the series was the witty dialogue.  Listening to House belittle his friends and co-workers was the highlight of my week for 8 years.
House MD isn't on Netflix, which sucks.... But you can download it off of Amazon Instant here.

2. Firefly

A lot of you have probably heard about Joss Whedon's cult series Firefly or maybe his follow-up movie Serenity. If you haven't seen these yet, I would highly recommend watching them.  There's only 14 episodes in the entire series, and then a 2 hour movie. You could hammer through the whole thing in a few days if you live a sad life where you can spend 6 hours a day in front of a TV (I know that I do). The whole western/space mash-up was unsettling at first, but within a few episodes I was already warming up to it. By the time you finish Serenity, you'll be wishing that there was more.
Firefly and Serenity are both on Netflix right now.

1. Deadwood

It may be a little premature for me to suggest this series, since I only discovered it about a month ago. Even though I haven't even finished the first season, I'm already blown away by this show.  The characters are so complicated and just plain messed up. When I started watching it, I was (foolishly) expecting a typical western in a TV show format - gunfights, good vs evil, etc. What I got was a brilliant show about civilization coming to the wild west, and the struggle of the people living in Deadwood, SD who are trying to adapt. I have never been as attached to fictional characters as I am right now. The acting is near flawless (Powers Boothe as Cy Tolliver is possibly the most mind blowing performance I have ever witnessed in television), and the story somehow keeps me on the edge of my seat with minimal action. Watch this show. You Won't regret it.
Deadwood is available on Amazon Instant here. 

Bonus - The one upcoming TV series that I couldn't be more excited about

Has anybody else noticed that pirates don't get the attention they deserve in film? Look at this list. The only mainstream movies from the 21st century are the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Maybe it's just because I'm nostalgic from spending a huge portion of my childhood doing this, but I think pirates are the coolest thing ever, and we need more of them in film. Anyway, apparently NBC has approved a series called Crossbones about the life of Edward Teach. I'm not sure about their choice of John Malkovich to play Blackbeard, and I'd rather see it aired on a premium channel such as HBO or Showtime, but I'm still hopeful. If this project is done right, maybe it will summon in a new era of pirate movies and television.

3 Current TV Dramas That You Should Be Watching

This was originally one post, but I'm breaking it out into two - the first will list three current TV shows, while the second will post three TV shows that are no longer on air.

3. Vikings

Like many people, I was slightly wary of History Channel's first scripted programming.  I was also pleasantly surprised.  This is a fantastic show about Norse legend Ragnar Lodbrok and his family.  If you aren't familiar with his story, I would recommend not doing any research on him.  There's no way of knowing how closely the series will reflect traditional Viking lore, but it may be better to play it safe to avoid any spoilers.  Regardless, this is an intriguing new series that gives some fascinating (although maybe not always 100% accurate) insight into a culture that seems to be underutilized by modern film and television. 

The series will return for a second season sometime in 2014 on History Channel.
 

2. The Walking Dead

This show is great.  I love a good zombie movie every now and then, and this delivers just enough zombie action every week to keep me interested.  The pace seems to dip a bit every now and then, but it always manages to pick itself back up.  I do have to point out though, that they manage to kill off all of the characters that I like while keeping all the awful ones.

The series will return for a fourth season in October 2013 on AMC.

1. Game of Thrones

If you haven't seen any Game of Thrones yet, you're probably sick of hearing about how awesome it is and having people try to get you to watch it.  Stop reading right now and watch it.  The reason your friends are telling you to watch it is because they love you.  The acting is incredible, the special effects are stunning for television, and the story (based on George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire) is absolutely breathtaking at times.  If you only watch one TV show at a time, this should be that show.

The series will return for a fourth season in Spring 2014 on HBO.

The 5 Most Mind Blowing Plot Twists in Film

Nothing is more satisfying to me in a movie than an insane plot twist that I never saw coming.  As much as we love to be able to guess the ending of a film, something inside of us loves to be surprised.

Major spoilers ahead - if you haven't seen any of these movies, leave this page immediately and watch them.

5. Star Wars Episode IV: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
I'm going to start with a cinematic classic, one that doesn't even seem like a plot twist anymore. I first watched the movie when I was 8 or 9, and I knew going into it that Vader was really Anakin Skywalker.  The movie had already been out for 11 years when I was born, so I think it's safe to say that almost nobody in my generation didn't know what was coming in that iconic scene.  If you wasted your time doing the math, you now know that I turned 8 in 1999 - the same year that The Phantom Menace was released.  While the hype around this movie did nothing to help shelter me from potential spoilers, can you imagine growing up post episode 3?  Kids these days have even less of a chance than I did to have their minds blown when Vader reveals his true identity to his son.

4. Memento (2000)
In the immortal words of Michael Scott: "Looks like I'm the killer. You never expect that you're the killer. It's a great twist. Great twist."  Seriously though, my mind was already hemorrhaging blood from the insanely complicated plot structure, and when Jonathan Nolan dropped this bomb on me, my brain literally exploded out of both sides of my skull (in the figurative sense).  If you haven't seen this movie yet, I would recommend watching it alone.  Having your idiot roommate talking through the whole movie will absolutely ruin the movie (looking at you, Sauder).

3. Fight Club (1999)
This is another classic, and while it's hardly the first time that we've seen this plot twist in film (or last), it may be my personal favorite.  I actually predicted this twist (only because I had literally just finished reading a book with almost the exact same ending - even down to the multiple personalities holding each other at gunpoint), but I was still very impressed with the way they pulled it off.  Even if you already know the twist, this movie is worth a watch.  Who hasn't considered starting their own fight club?

2. The Sixth Sense (1999)
This may be one of the most famous plot twists on this list (aside from the first).  Everybody knows the twist to this one, even if they haven't seen it.  Regardless of how well known the ending is, you can't deny how great it is.  Shyamalan's film quality has suffered since then, but we have this movie to serve as a reminder of how great he once was.  Seriously, watch this movie twice.  You'll be impressed at how different it is the second time.

1. The Prestige (2006)
This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and for good reason.  On paper, it's about as perfect as it can get - written by Jonathan Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, Andy Serkis, etc.  Seriously, this movie was destined to be fantastic, and it had no problem following through on that promise.  If you only watch one movie twice in your lifetime, it needs to be this one.  I won't even reveal the twist to this one, in case somebody is ignorantly reading through these before watching them.  Watch this movie, and it will blow your mind - guaranteed. "Are you watching closely?"

Honorable Mention
Citizen Kane (1941), Psycho (1960), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Sting (1973), Unbreakable (2000), Secret Window (2004), Shutter Island (2010)

My 5 Favorite Hans Zimmer Scores

The score of a movie is an incredibly important aspect of a film that goes unnoticed by many people, but is subconsciously vital to their appreciation of the movie.  As far as composers go, Hans Zimmer is by far my favorite.  His scores brilliantly accent aspects of the film that always make me appreciate a great movie even more.  If you aren't familiar with any of these scores mentioned, I would recommend giving them all a listen.

Note: This list is based off of how much I enjoy listening to the score by itself. The score of Inception worked very well with the movie, but it is too subtle for me enjoy without the movie for the most part.  Any scores that I regard in this way are all listed with the honorable mentions at the end.

5. Sherlock Holmes
This would've been a good movie even without Zimmer's touch, but his score really pushed it over the edge into fantastic in my eyes.  I loved the use of the quirky instruments to give it a "period" feel such as the cimbalom, the one and only Experibass, and broken pianos.  As great as Zimmer's music may be, the musical high point of the film may actually be the use of The Dubliners' song The Rocky Road to Dublin in the bar fight scene.

4. Gladiator
Once again, this would've been a phenomenal movie even with a lesser composer working on the score.  In fact, I consider this to be one of my favorite movies ever.  That being said, the score that Zimmer created for this movie does a excellent job of drawing you into the movie.  In the same fashion that the Holmes score sets a "underbelly of late 19th century London" mood, Gladiator's score makes you feel like a warrior with its epic sounding themes.  Listen to The Battle and Barbarian Horde and tell me that you don't want to go grow a beard and strangle a lion with your bare hands.  Zimmer closes this score beautifully with my favorite song from the album - Now We Are Free - which has an uncannily heroic and inspiring tone to it.

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The aspect which I find most impressive about this album is the way that he brought over the themes that make Pirates of the Caribbean so recognizable, while changing things enough that you don't feel like you've heard it before.  Listen to Palm Tree Escape and tell me that it isn't Pirates, yet totally different.  Rodrigo y Gabriela make this score what it is with their urgent flamenco guitar giving the score an unmistakably Spanish feel.  If you only listen to one track from this album, listen to Angry and Dead Again (note: if you listen to this song you will change your mind and listen to the entire album at least once).

2. Man of Steel
Before you judge me, I would like to say that I loved John Williams' classic Superman theme just as much as anyone.  I earnestly believe that Zimmer's score flawlessly embodies what a Superman movie should sound like.  In fact, if I was given one word to describe the sound of this score it would be "heroic."  Zimmer very elegantly contrasts his most recent super hero undertaking (The Dark Knight trilogy) by creating a big, bold, and inspiring sound instead of the subtle and dark music he composed for Batman.  While there are certainly low-key moments in the film that needed to be accommodated, Zimmer went all out for the action scenes (of which there were plenty).  Although there are many strong points in the album, the song that really stood out to me while watching the movie on opening night was Flight.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
How much credit Zimmer deserves for the penning of this score ad how much belongs to Klaus Badelt is beyond the scope of this article, although I will say that it clearly sounds like a Hans Zimmer piece.  Regardless, this is by far my favorite movie score of all time.  It sounds like a pirate movie should, and makes it easy to picture all the swashbuckling and plundering that your feeble imagination can handle.  I won't list any specific tracks for this one, because it's all good.  I strongly recommend listening to the album straight through.

Honorable Mentions:
The Lion King (1994), The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Last Samurai (2003), Batman Begins (2005), Pirates of the Caribbeans: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Thoughts on Going to the Movies

If you're anything like me, you have no problem with self-identifying yourself as a geek and/or nerd.  It isn't an insult, it's just who we are.  I earnestly enjoy my programming classes, and I not only know the name of Chewbacca's home planet, but I know how to spell it off the top of my head.  In the grand scheme of things, I would probably be considered a light weight by "real" nerds who I'm sure know all about the (fictional) soil composition of Alderaan (probably).  Compared to the average human though, I could be considered quite nerdy just based on the fact that I find it more relaxing to navigate Linux through a terminal than use Windows or Mac's GUI.

My point is that while others may find it useful to categorize nerds through tangible identifiers such as big glasses, weak arms, white skin, no social skills (not to be confused with hipsters), we self-identify by what we know/what we like to do.  Because our knowledge and skill sets are such a large part of our identity, it's something that we take quite a bit of pride in.  It's important for us to be smarter (or at least as smart) than anyone else in any given situation.  I believe that competition drives innovation and productivity, so this can be a great thing.  On the other hand though, this can also cause a mob mentality of cynicism and condescension.

While there's nothing wrong with being cynical, I believe that it's more beneficial in today's world than being naive, it can be counter productive when people are constantly try to be the "most" cynical.  "Oh, you think the iPhone 6 will be cool? I think it'll suck. You must be stupid to be so optimistic."  "You liked Prometheus?  You must be stupid to not realize how bad it is.  Let me send you links to all the websites that told me what to think about it."

See?  This post really is about movies after all.  A good or bad movies is completely subjective, and depends on so many variables that we shouldn't pretend to have the final word.  I loved The Marine with John Cena.  Was it an awful movie? Kind of.  I've seen it countless times, and I still have no idea why Cena killed everybody - because the plot is awful.  I like it because it's fun to watch Cena throw people through walls.  Some people love indy movies, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Apparently it's a thing for men to like My Little Pony (this is actually too far, now you're just begging for attention).  My point is that we should be going to movies to enjoy them - not because we're looking for everything wrong in the movie so we can impress our friends with how cynical we are.  If you want a movie without plot holes, then why the heck are you watching a Die Hard movie?

Online Store

We have a few items in our online store hosted by CafePress.  You can find these items by following this link:

http://www.cafepress.com/turbadieselmovies

Currently, only the following items are available:

Mousepad - $13.19
"Keep your mouse rolling in style on our durable cloth top mousepad. A great gift for geeks, gamers, or anyone with a computer. Rubber backing prevents the mousepad from sliding. Machine washable." - Description from CafePress

Logo T-Shirt - $19.19
"Our tagless, ultra-soft premium cotton light t-shirt offers comfort, durability, and less shrinkage. With a wide range of size choices from Small to 4XL, men and women of all shapes and sizes will find their perfect fit. This light t-shirt is not only fashionable with jeans or pants, but also is perfect for lounging around in your sweats or pajamas." - Description from CafePress

Logo Mug - $13.19
"The perfect size for your favorite morning beverage or late night brew. Large, easy-grip handle. Treat yourself or give as a gift to someone special."  - Description from CafePress

However, I would like to get more items up if people actually buy these.  I'm considering buying all three for myself as well.

The logo on all three items will become our official logo.  It was designed by a good friends of mine, who will be working for us as a graphic artist as well as a reviewer.

As always, we'd be happy to know what you think about our content.  Feel free to contact us at turbadieselmovies@gmail.com