TV Binge: House of Lies [Season 2, 2013]

Earlier this week, I wrote about the first season of House of Lies.  If you missed it, you can check it out HERE!

Due to not enough backlog and just real life being busy, I decided to bump this post up a little. It also means I can continue watching House of Lies Season 3. Yay! House of Lies seriously took me by surprise and it just is really funny to watch despite all the business stuff in it.  Let’s hope that Season 2 holds up the greatness of the first season! 🙂

House of Lies
[Season 2, 2013]

Creator: Matthew Carnahan

Cast: Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell, Ben Schwartz, Josh Lawson, Donis Leonard Jr., Glynn Turman, Dawn Olivieri, Jenny Slate, Larenz Tate, Bess Armstrong

The second season of House of Lies picks up a (few?) week(s) after the incident that destroyed the deal that was going have MetroCapital take over Galweather, the business consultant company that Marty and The Pod works for.  However, danger is still close.  The incident caused the company to be taken over by a very reputable business woman, Julianna Hofschrager, played by Bess Armstrong. Julianne has an agenda to turn the business around and with a new management comes its own worries.  Marty and The Pod get sent out to take care of a huge client in Las Vegas and the difference of the first season and this one is that the second season focuses around landing this casino deal and working it out throughout most of the season.

 Having one case along with a few other little ones on the side is a good decision.  It adds a little different pacing to the story. Now, we can actually see the characters develop more. On one hand, we get a closer look at Marty and his family especially as he patches up things with his son and deals with his brother that crashes at his place.  On the other hand, not so much him but Jeannie is dealing with the memories of how things left off in Season 1 and wondering about the feelings she might have.  However, this time around, we get a much deeper look into Doug’s character and something like how he becomes more independent along with Clyde.  A new member is added onto their team. The new member is part of Marty’s past. Also, Jenny Slate joins the show as Doug’s girlfriend and her character is rather complex as well but one I like a lot! We need some more ladies on the show with depth.  Although, in a quirky and sly way, Bess Armstrong is also fantastic as Julianne Hofschrager.

One of the most unpredictable bits of Season 2 is really in not truly knowing who to trust or how much we do know the characters.  Everyone seems to have their own story and at this point, we only have skimmed the surface so when things happen out of the ordinary, it becomes a surprise. Its also the series where the characters are more independent.  They have more outside influence and each are trying to embrace whatever suppressed feelings they have to secure their future.  The Pod is more and more dangerous because both Marty and Jeannie seem to have their dangers and it seems like a time bomb waiting to explode.  The feeling of uneasiness is always present however House of Lies is quite masterful at keeping a certain humor constantly in the forefront.  That is the part I enjoy and appreciate the most.

Plus, Season 2 ended with a guest role for Adam Brody and well, this was before blogging days but my high school days was very much being in love with The O.C. so his small part here was the cherry on top.  However, we can’t discount some of the other guest roles that occurred and maybe even some of them I suspect might reappear in future seasons.

Overall, Season 2 of House of Lies was a lot better than the first season.  It develops each of the characters better and gets more personal.  The story has a continuity and danger.  The new characters add some complexity but maintains the humor it had in the first season.  Don Cheadle is still incredibly charismatic even in his very flawed character while Kristen Bell is absolutely fantastic.  Jenny Slate is one of my favorite additions to the show and I can’t wait to see how her character develops. Its a lot of fun to watch and Season 3 is heading into a completely different direction and I’m excited to start it up!

Are you a fan of House of Lies? How about Don Cheadle and/or Kristen Bell?

Time for Season 3! I’ll be back with the next TV Binge soon! 🙂

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia came around a lot faster than I imagined.  I’m going to be honest here and say that it didn’t appeal to me at all from the posters or the snippets that I saw.  My eyes were The Secret Life of Pets, which kind of reminds me a little of Toy Story but with household pets. However, Zootopia is a Disney animation and I love those to bits, even the few not so at par ones over the years. It was time for another theatre viewing! I rounded up my lovely girl friends and we were off for movie night! 🙂

Let’s check out Zootopia! 🙂

Zootopia (2016)

Director: Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush

Voice Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Stu Lakes, Tommy Chong, J.K. Simmons, Alan Tudyk, Shakira

In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a fugitive con artist fox and a rookie bunny cop must work together to uncover a conspiracy.-IMDB

 Going into Zootopia, its obvious that I had no expectations.  Actually, I didn’t even really know what the story was about. The only thing I knew was animals living like humans. Does that appeal to me? Well, I’m not quite sure.  Will it work out? Who knows, right? I went into Zootopia with one hope in my mind: to have a good fun time.  Did it deliver? HELL YEAH! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.  It was a funny yet heartfelt movie that I found could relate to both adults and some equally cute moments for kids.  Maybe not too young because some kids next to us started squirming around a little impatiently near the last quarter of the movie.

One of the best parts of Zootopia is its production design.  The city along with its districts are thoughtful and detailed.  The beauty of the animation moving one place to the next in Tundratown, Rainforest District, Zootopia metropolis, down to the little country areas where our main character Judy comes from, Bunny Burrow, reflects what they are trying to get across.  Cities can live together but they also keep to themselves in many ways.  There is still a part of the animal complex that will stick to what they biologically need even if the predator and prey complex is no longer there. And that reflects on our reality as well, in many cases.

Another really fantastic aspect of Zootopia was the voice acting and the character designs.  Most of the characters, especially our main characters, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps are absolutely endearing.  Watching their friendship/partnership grow despite their differences and prejudices was a pure joy.  They had beautiful and touching and really funny moments. A lot of credit has to go to their talented voice cast.  Ginnifer Goodwin does the voice for Judy Hopps and I like her a lot.  Nick Wilde’s voice was done by Jason Bateman who is becoming an increasingly fave of mine. Not to mention, the Mayor is voiced by J.K. Simmons and one of my fave voices here is Bellwether voiced by Jenny Slate.

Its essential when discussing Zootopia to go right back to talk about the humor and the pacing and the message.  For one, Zootopia is funny.  Many jokes and puns might go over the head of the younger children but they still have some funny expressions that will keep them intrigued.  Plus, they use some pop culture references like The Godfather.  At the same time, there is a lot of action going on.  This is an investigation in the end about missing mammals in Zootopia.  There are chase scenes and danger in the horizon.  At the same time, it also delivers inspirational and motivational messages of accepting diversity, pushing away prejudices, discrimination and stereotypes and chasing your dreams even when everyone thinks its impossible.

I’m forgiving towards Disney movies and animations, especially because they are usually geared towards children.  Zootopia doesn’t need to be forgived though.  I’m not sure it will hold up that 99% Rotten Tomatoes score as a memorable Disney classic but it does a lot of things right.  The animation is beautiful, the production design is detailed and thoughtful, the voice acting is stellar and the characters are fun and intriguing.  Its downright entertaining with lots of funny moments and a meaningful message to go with it.  I loved it! It gave me exactly what I wanted and some more.

Have you seen Zootopia? What did you think of it?

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)

First review (out of 2) before the August recommendation month officially starts 🙂 Watched this before I decided to do that!

I just realized that I hadn’t done a review of the 2nd Alvin yet but if you are interested, you could check out the review of Alvin and the Chipmunks HERE!  Honestly, after the second one didn’t really do too well for me, I’ve been hesitating to watch the third one: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.  There’s only so much of chipmunk singing pop songs that I can take before it gets old.  But hey, it was on Netflix so means I technically am watching it for free since its in my first month of subscription! Why not, right?  Lets see how it was…

Director: Mike Mitchell

Cast: Jason Lee, David Cross, Jenny Slate, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Amy Poehler, Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Alan Tudyk

Dave (Jason Lee), Alvin (Justin Long) and the Chipmunks (Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theordore (Jesse McCartney)) and Chipettes: Brittany (Christina Applegate), Eleanor (Amy Poehler) and Jeanette (Anna Faris) are going on a cruise for some R&R before their performance at the International Music Awards. On the ship, Dave sees  Ian (David Cross), who is now a pelican mascot for the cruise ship, Ian vows to watch the chipmunks closely to plot revenge and get them kicked off the ship.  After some mischief with Alvin, they get banned to one area of the ship. When Dave falls asleep, the chipmunks crew accidentally end up flying off in a hang glider and ends up on a deserted island.  Due to this, as Dave was trying to save them, Ian gets involved and they also end up stranded in the ocean and eventually find the island. Determined that he will find the chipmunks on the island, he sets off with Ian to find them while the chipmunks are learning their own lessons and making acquaintance with a girl, Zoe (Jenny Slate) thats been trapped there for almost a decade.

How would I describe this movie? There was a lot of chipmunks singing, for everything and everywhere.  In the first movie, it was not that much singing and it had more of a storyline.  We hit this third one and its all become a lot of chipmunk voices singing to lead through every sequence. I think that affected this flick a lot. I get that its for children and probably young children but there is also the fact that Alvin was known to the 20s-30s crowd or whatnot.  I’m not exactly sure of the time frame.  That really made this movie really boring and man, it was long.

Plus, there isn’t much changes.  The only difference is that a different character learns the meaning of life in a different scenario.  The first one was about Dave learning to accept the chipmunks as families and learning to take responsibility and care for them as his kids.  Now this time, think parents teaching kids to grow up and the concept of responsibility and that the only way they learn is through making mistakes to learn to be grateful and more understanding for both Alvin and Dave.  Its also about learning to be courageous and at certain times, embrace being fearless for Simon.

This time around we bring in a new character called Zoe played by Jenny Slate who has been stranded on the island for eight to nine years. She’s not completely there and her friends are different types of sports balls and she names them with their brand.  Stealing ideas from Cast Away, right? “Wilson!!” Sorry, I’m having a moment right there.  She’s not a bad character though.  She just didn’t get a great script.

Overall, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was pretty disappointing even though  I didn’t have much expectations.  You know I find positives in even the worst movies if you’ve been following my reviews but really, this one didn’t have much.  I just didn’t really enjoy myself and felt I might have wasted my time and almost turned it off.  I did tough it out till the very end.  At least Theodore got enough parts to keep me “aww-ing” over his cuteness 😉 I can’t get enough of him in these.  Just way too adorable! Who I recommend this to? Kids might enjoy it…I don’t have kids so I don’ t know but young kids might get a little more enjoyment than I did. It has a lot of good values and lessons to learn just its not really set for a wide age range.

How do you feel about Alvin and the Chipmunks? Do you know if they will be doing a sequel after this?