Carentan

The men of Easy Company head to the French village of Carentan, where they they experience heavy fighting with the Germans defending that town, and lose a number of soldiers. Much of the episode follows a soldier named Blithe, who seems like a simple young man who struggles to deal with the fear and danger of battle, and rightfully so. Good episode, but again, I struggle to keep track of who is who in the fog of war with so much happening. I’m not saying that they could change anything, but it’s hard for a viewer to tell guys in matching brown uniforms and helmets apart in the midst of a battle. Ah well, what can you do?

Replacements

Since Easy Company has lost quite a few men since the Normandy invasion, new guys join the ranks, including one soldier played by James McAvoy! As part of Operation Market Garden, which I recall from the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far was an abject failure, the troop is dropped into the Netherlands. The troops suffer heavy fighting and must retreat, but the “replacements” prove themselves to be worthy of Easy company. What I also liked about this episode, besides James McAvoy showing up, was that this episode featured Michael Cudlitz as the commander of the new guys. Cudlitz, of course, stars in one of my favorite shows and police dramas, Southland.

Overall, good episodes again. The video and audio quality on these blu-ray discs were good. My only complaint is that there are only two episodes per disc, so it’s going to take me a long while to get through all ten episodes.

First step was start watching Band of Brothers. I watched the first two episodes of Band of Brothers on Blu-ray. The video quality is very good. Although the picture is washed out in that wartime sepia color, the detail is certainly there. The audio quality is excellent, featuring DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround, and an extremely active surround sound atmosphere. When the bullets are coming in from the left during an intense firefight during the Normandy invasion, or when a tank drives by on the right and it shakes the the room. Excellent, excellent audio soundstage.

Band of Brothers (2001)

The story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in WWII Europe from Operation Overlord through V-J Day. The cast is large, and there are some interesting favorites in terms of character actors — Ron Livingston, Michael Cudlitz, Kirk Acevedo, David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg, Donnie Wahlberg (yes, NKOTB), Neal McDonough, Michael Fassbender, to name a few. Since there is a large cast, the story basically follows Lt. Dick Winters (Damien Lewis) as the commander of Easy Company.

The first two episodes are “Currahee” and “Day of Days.” The first episode takes place initially in the few days before the Normandy invasion of June 1944, but features flashbacks to basic training back in the States. The drama arises from the reign of terror of sadistic Herbet Sobel (David Schwimmer) who pushes them to excel, but also punishes them with capricious punishment. The episode ends with Easy Company loading up and taking off for the invasion.

In “Day of Days,” the story takes Easy Company into their less-than-ideal drop into the northwest French countryside, scattered and far from the expected drop zone. In the chaos, Easy Company’s paratroopers attempt to regroup and take out a German artillery bunker that are firing on the Normandy beaches. I found the acting and storyline to be good. While I like the large cast, the downside is that it’s a little difficult for me to tell the difference between the soldiers in the heat of battle.

There are a total of 10 episodes in this mini-series, so I’m 20% into this. Next up? “Carentan” and “Replacements.”

Have you watched Fringe? As per IMDB,

A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

I never watched The X-Files back when it aired in the 90′s, though my sister was more of a fan of the spinoff Millenium. Fringe is a lot like X-Files, as I like the stories, the characters, and the overall arching conspiracy storyline. There are three main characters:

• Anna Torv (who was the voice for the main character in the PS3 exclusive game Heavenly Sword)
• Joshua Jackson (of Dawson Creek fame, though I never watched.)
• Peter Noble (of Peter Jackson’s LoTR fame.)

All three actors are great. I plan to catch up on the 2nd season in the next few weeks, and eventually the 3rd season as well. I know the show has been moved to the Friday night death slot, but I hope it survives. It’s a good show, which means it will get cancelled, but as they old adage goes, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”

Fringe cast photo

• The Human Torch replaced by a floating robot?
• Wonder Woman needs a husband?
• Wonder Woman is a ninja?
• Spiderman fights giant monsters in his giant robot (of course, only in Japan.)
• The Brady Brunch spun off a Brady Kids animated show with pandas and a magic-wielding bird?

The clips are priceless, so please, view the clips. My favorite is the Fantastic Four clip featuring a bizarre Magneto. Please, please, please. Otherwise, Magneto will get angry!

• Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel
• The Universe on the History Channel

I’m currently watching an episode of The Universe on the History Channel in high definition about alternate universes, the unified theory, and all that jazz. These are available in SD, but watching them in HD is beauty on a whole different level. It’s been interesting that Albert Einstein touched upon many of these topics in the early-to-mid 20th century — that man was truly a genius.

The shows use lots of computer graphics and interviews with scientists to help explain the topics, but the science is mind-boggling, I often rewind once or twice to try to understand a particular concept. And I’m sure these topics have been dumbed down or “laymanized” for the every man who is watching.

• 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.”