• Although we subscribe to the FiOS Extreme HD package (no movie channels though), I’ve noted there are no where near as many HD channels as their are SD channels. Standard def channels are 2-499, and then HD is just 500-599. I’ve also looked for HD versions of Cartoon Network, Nat Geo Wild, the Military Channel, but either they don’t broadcast in HD or Verizon doesn’t offer them. Rats.
• Even though the Verizon FiOS DVR contains an internal 160 Gb hard drive, this will only provide you 16-18 hours of HD recording time. You throw in a few 1 hour shows, a sporting event, kids shows, and whap! you are done. In just two weeks, we’ve been at the 90% mark where previously recorded shows were deleted, and today hit 100% capacity. There’s really not much on there that’s different — we didn’t go and record Bass Masters on the fishing channel in HD. It’s our usual coterie of shows. Interestingly enough, the Motorola DVR that Verizon uses has an eSATA port (that we could use to expand our capacity with an external drive), but Verizon has disabled it. Grrrr.
• HD shows look great vs standard def, so I’d rather live my life never watching standard def again. Sports in HD look cinematic. The scenes from the Tour de France hovering over the French countryside and the Alps are breathtaking. I probably could watch Bass Masters in HD.
• Netflix streams their video in 720p, which looks pretty good. However, Netflix only offers stereo sound for their streaming service. Maybe later this year, if the reports are correct. No 1080p anytime soon though, but I think it’s okay. Surround sound would be nice though.
• Speaking of sound, 5.1 Dolby surround sound for television shows is a nice plus. While I like surround sound, we have one too many remote controls. One for the AV receiver (sound), one for the tv (to change inputs and formats), and one for the FiOS DVR (changing channels and watching recorded shows.) I’ve got my wife seriously contemplating agreeing to move to the Logitech Harmony One universal remote. At least she’s beginning to understand my thought process. I have reasons for why I do the things I do, folks.
• I know Blu-ray is supposedly great and all, but from what I’ve seen, the PS3 is doing a great job upscaling my old DVDs. Nothing has looked choppy or soft yet.

Now, on to the movie review. Wednesday night, we all decided to catch the late showing of A-Team. If you haven’t heard, this is the latest 2010 remake of 70′s & 80′s entertainment properties. Now, I grew up in the 80′s getting my weekly fix of the A-Team. Who didn’t love Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Howlin’ Mad Murdock?

A-Team (2010)

Coincidentally, I recently caught a viewing of the pilot episode, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen. I had no clue that Dirk Benedict was not the first choice for Templeton “Faceman” Peck. It was some Tim Duggar fellow who lasted one episode, and he didn’t have the same charisma of Dirk Benedict. You need a guy who can turn on the charm, and this fellow was just some guy with dark hair. He was that nondescript.

Back to the movie review — how do I put this? Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Rampage Jackson, and Sharto Copley, this movie is an amazing movie to be written and directed by…. an eleven-year old boy. That’s the only explanation for a film like this that had no basis in reality, history, or common sense. I don’t know where to begin to describe it, except that I had major problems with the movie’s logic within the first, say, 10 minutes of the beginning.

I’m not a 34-year old A-Team fanboy complaining that Rampage Jackson wasn’t a good Mr. T. As a matter of fact, I generally liked the actors in their specific roles, but I do admit that Jessica Biel didn’t quite fit. Instead, I’m referring to the non-sensical plot. Very little in the movie makes actual sense. Some examples from just the 30 mins, in no particular order, and here’s the obligatory minor spoiler warning anyway:

1. Hannibal escapes from the hands of corrupt Mexican Federal Police, runs across the Mexican desert (no car), and coincidentally meets B.A. driving along deserted road. Tries to carjack B.A, shoots him, but all is forgiven as they are both former U.S. Army Rangers.
2. Together, they rescue Face from a corrupt Mexican general. Btw, Face is also an Army Ranger.  They head to a Mexican insane asylum, and look for a pilot (I didn’t skip anything, that’s what happened), find Murdock, then steal a broken-down Mexican ambulance helicopter.  Murdock is a good choice, as he’s both American AND ALSO a former U.S. Army Ranger. Did I mention that only only Face and Hannibal know each other, but there a lot of “former U.S. Army Rangers” hanging around in the same dusty part of the Mexican countryside.
3. While in the broken-down helicopter, they then get chased by the aforementioned corrupt mexican general…. in his own attack helicopter. No worries, as it’s flown by a pilot with terrible skills. He can’t maneuver to catch the rusty helicopter, nor can he hit them with any of assortment of guns or missiles. Murdock avoids a barrage of heat-seeking missiles by doing a loop (still in the rusty helicopter), and then does a move where he turns off the engine, the helicopter engine cools down unrealistically fast, and the missiles strike each other. Oh, and the helicopter restarts, establishes adequate upward lift, and they get away again.
4. Finally, Hanibal makes a plan? He “tricks” the general into chasing them via helicopters over the U.S-Mexican border where the Mexican general is promptly shot down by a F-22 Raptor miraculously patrolling that portion of the border. Then the movie jumps to “8 years and 80 missions later”, they are now all re-enlisted in the U.S. Army, and serving in Iraq. The Raptor wasn’t in service eight years ago. Why would the Raptor be flying around with weapons hot, and then only shoot down the 2nd helicopter (with the bad guys?) Why would the Army take back former Army soldiers who are noticeably much older than the normal age range?

 The movie made about as much sense as the old 1960′s Batman tv show. It is extremely illogical, and most of the time, you get the sense that certain events and scenes are just set up for the next action sequence.  The writers made up story elements so that these key events can occur, or to move the flimsy plot. At one point, the A-Team steals a C-130 Hercules plane (with tank) from 3 Air Force men, from an Air Force base, without any weapons. Oh, they didn’t sneak and steal it. They walked onto the plane, and told the soldiers they were stealing it. One soldier says, “Oh, you’re the famous Hannibal Smith!” and says ok, and the three airbase men walk off the plane. Absolute nonsense.

Adam Richman from Man v. Food

While I eat my dinner, I’m watching Travel Channel’s Man v. Food.  I’ve never seen this tv show before. Starring some guy named Adam Richman, he apparently travels the U.S., and trying to eat extreme and exotic foods. When I say extreme and exotic foods, I’m not kidding. 4-lb monster pancakes, 2 gallons of ice cream sundae, insane sandwiches with 13 ingredients. I’m eating a salad while watching this show, and it’s insane. And strangely intriguing.

Catchy, no? It’s almost as catchy as the Picard video that I’m still enthralled with to this day.

Exhibit #1 – Bollywood Dance Workout

This is a show actually on during the weekday. I was flipping channels and stumbled onto this in the onscreen guide. Does this help you lose weight? I’ve seen plenty of fat Indians dancing bhangra at wedding receptions, so I have my doubts. And who is losing weight and getting toned from that “mouth” exercise?

Exhibit #2 – Flirty Girl Fitness — Pole Dancing Workout

I saw this commercial while watching Hostel on the Chiller channel. I love how one of the exercises featured in the tv commercial reinterprets guys in the club dancing and pretending to be spanking some woman in the midst of intercourse. And erotic dancing on a chair? Best is the pole dancing workout, as seen below. A “fitness pole”? If you walked into someone’s house, and you saw a stripper pole in the living room, your first thought is, “Oh, I wonder who is doing Flirty Girl Fitness?!”

On second thought, I should buy this for my wife as an early Christmas gift “for my wife.”

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)

If you had a TV network called the Sci-Fi Channel, you would expect programming in the science-fiction genre. Science-fiction is a rich genre, and there’s a lot you can program for. Imagine my surprise to find horror and other questionable tv fare on the Sci-Fi channel years ago when first introduced. Those corny movies are a story in of themself. Have you seen the commercial for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus? Absolutely atrocious. It’s even sadder that it stars Deborah Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas.

Last year, the big network TV honchos elected to rename the network SyFy, in order to broaden the umbrella of what the network meant. SyFy? Is that supposed to be a better name? The programming has still left much to be desired. You’ve got Sanctuary, Caprica, and Stargate Universe, but what else? Oh, the occasional Star Trek rerun.

And now, SyFy has struck a deal to add Friday Night Smackdown to their nightly programming. Furthermore, they are relegating all their popular sci-fi shows to Tuesday nights. What else will the network TV geniuses going to think of next?

Blasphemy, I say. Blasphemy.

• Romano’s character is a neurotic family man with two kids, but his wife is divorcing him.
• Braugher’s character has a wife and kids, but is forced to work as a car salesman for his father’s dealership, in order to support the family.
• Bakula’s character is an actor and ladies man, but he struggles-and-despises the roles he’s getting, e.g Lifetime movies.

Men of a Certain Age (2009)

It’s a new show, so it hadn’t been getting stellar ratings, but I think it’s pretty decent. Good stories, and good acting. It’s interesting to watch these three guys deal with the crap in their lives, but still talk and bond with each other. In every episode, they meet up at a diner to talk about what’s going on. If my best friends lived nearby, I know I’d be doing the same thing. Out of all the characters, I identify the most with Andre Braugher’s Owen character. He’s a family man who hates working for his unforgiving father (and who constantly disrespects him), but needs to keep doing what he’s doing to take care of the family. I haven’t seen Braugher in much, but he’s a terrific actor.

The good news is that TNT renewed it today (January 14 2010) for a second season. Again, TNT must believe in letting a new show develop an audience (again, ABC, you suck.)

I am in love with this show, and frankly, I find it consistently better than The Office has been these days. This show has a fun ensemble cast, great writing, and is just a smart comedy. Meanwhile, ABC is apparently burning off episodes one after another, and not even bothering to market this show. I heard nothing about this show beforehand, so really, that kind of mistake is ABC’s fault.  What is with network television executives and their cliched stupid decisions? How can they get rid of good shows, and leave crap like According to Jim on the air since 2001?

If you search for news on Better Off Ted, you’ll find journalists and critics and regular Joe’s saying how great this show is, and that it is worth saving.

While it’s still available, watch the season 2 premiere “Love Blurts.” The company decides to dabble in eugenics by trying to hook up employees in order to save on health insurance.

I just started the first two mins of “The Great Repression” [also below] about sexual harassment, and it’s already great two mins in.

Watch the show.  Decide if you think this show is worth saving. Join the campaign with me! Facebook it! Tweet it! Email an idiot at ABC! Do something! Just don’t let dumb comedy win out.