Sick! Sick in the head!

  -No audio show last week.   1) I was and still am suffering from a bad head cold.  2) Just never seemed to have any free time last week.  Either my wife called in sick, my sister-in-law cut class or my brother came to visit.  Never had time to plan the show, let alone record it.  Fortunately, this may only disappoint a minimum of three people, one of them being myself.

-Monday has now usurped Thursday as the go-to night on TV.  My plate is loaded on Tuesday morning with Prison Break, 24, Heroes and Studio 60.

- Two movie recommendations.   The first is Idiocracy (2006).  A comedy from Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and cult classic Office Space.  This film got a suck-ass "limited release" rivaled only by Project Greenlight's Feast, but it wasn't buried because it was a bad movie, that's for sure.  It's about how an average Joe from today Rip Van Winkle's himself to the year 2505 to find that America has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator and he is now the smartest man alive.  It is hilarious and not to mention something to think about.  How far can commercialism, casual swearing and just plain stupidity go?  The future world presented in Idiocracy may not be too far-fetched.    Grade: A

 

The second recommendation is The Wicker Man (2006).   Nicolas Cage plays a traffic cop summoned to help find a missing girl on a mysterious island inhabited by a matriarchal cult.   Premise- interesting.  Trailer- intriguing.  Box cover- creepy.  Film- HORRIBLE.  Everything about this movie doesn't work and most surprsing of all is the terrible acting pooped onto the screen by the normally reliable Cage.  ( I was thinking about it before the nominations, but he earned a well-deserved Golden Raspberry for this garbage, which I whole-heartedly endorse.)  So why am I recommending the movie then?   Because it crosses that oh so wonderful line.  Yes, it's so bad that it's good.  The last half hour is a goldmine of unintentional comedy.  If you don't mind the "surprise" ending being spoiled, you can sample the high/lowlights on Youtube:    YouTube - Best Scenes From "The Wicker Man"

Grade as a thrilller: D   as unintentional comedy: B+