Love/Hate: Watching Modern Family on Hulu

Love: Modern Family.
In 3 short episodes Ed O'Neil has won me over. I never liked O'Neil as Al Bundy in Married with Children, but his portrayal of Jay Pritchett on ABC's Modern Family is incredible. The show itself if incredible. It feels like the creators took a little bit of Arrested Deveopment and gave it a whole lot of heart. The show follows three seperate couples that are all related and tells their stories. It may sound pretty standard but the show really excells at what it is trying to do. It is an funny, emotional story about a family living in today's society.Hate: Watching shows on Hulu
Yes, it is free. Yes, it is easy. But man sometimes I just hate watching stuff on Hulu. It seems like every other time I try and watch something on the popular streaming tv website I find that I spend about as much time watching my video buffer as I do watching my shows. It's not that I have a bad internet connection, I can stream, download, play, and dilly dally online at great speeds but when I get onto Hulu sometimes it just disappears. It's a shame too because Hulu provides a great service the way it is right now.

The Adult Swim Takeover

Co-Written by Carly Hallman

In eight short years, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim has evolved from a twice-weekly late-night break from children's programming and into a powerful media empire in its own right. Adult Swim, which now airs every night between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Central Time, has spawned a host of offshoots, live events, and imitators.

Merchandise
If a talking rabbit and a pants-wearing sea sponge can have their own derivative t-shirts and toys, why can’t a street-wise, trash-talkin’ wad of meat? Like any good media empire, Adult Swim has begun the process of turning everything magical into something purchasable. Adultswim.com offers fans a large variety of “to-be-expected” merchandise and apparel, as well as a few cleverer items-- the website is currently offering fans a chance to fill their own DVD with 110 minutes of their favorite Adult Swim show episodes. The party, and the buck, doesn’t stop online, though. Josh Feldman, VP of ad sales and marketing for Adult Swim, said “[We have an] obligation to stay true to the network's brand when creating marketing partnerships.” So, what corporations has Feldman deemed worthy? Mall-staple Hot Topic hawks t-shirts, plush toys, and other assorted knick-knacks, and Adult Swim partnered with Midway Games to release 2007’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am for PlayStation 2.

Ratings
Since its first night on air, Adult Swim has rated well according to Nielson Media Group. But in 2007, when Nielson began to include college-aged viewers in their surveys, Adult Swim’s ratings skyrocketed. Currently, Adult Swim is one of the most popular late-night destinations for channel-surfing adults aged 18-34. The station continues to break ratings records for both men and women in said age group.

Live Shows/Appearances
Rock stars do tours. Best-selling authors do tours. Politicians do tours. Now, thanks to Adult Swim, weirdos, misfits, and fictional characters do tours, too. In 2008, resident Adult Swim oddballs Tim and Eric performed in festivals and clubs across the country on a sold-out 14-city American tour, and in 2009, embarked on a second tour. T&E describe their live act as a “fast-paced, live variety show complete with short films, parodies, pranks and musical numbers.” Others on Adult Swim’s payroll are hopping on the bandwagon. Aqua Teen Hunger Force creators and voice actors, Dana Snyder and Dave Willis, recently appeared at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse for two nights of short films, stand-up comedy and audience-participation activities involving kazoos and “Squidbillies” DVD giveaways.

Movies
In 2007, Adult Swim released their first movie “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters” which was based on the animated comedy “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” And while the film, which told a twisted version of the Aqua Teens origins, was critically unsuccessful, it still managed to gross around $5.5 million (not bad for a $750,000 budget). Adult Swim currently has plans for a sequel, tentatively titled “Death Fighter,” that is set to release in 2011.

Imitators
Other networks, after seeing how successful Adult Swim has been with their programming, have tried to achieve similar success with shows that bear striking resemblance, in style and sense-of-humor, to those on Adult Swim. Both “Tripping the Rift” and “Drawn Together” are adult-themed animated shows that arrived on the scene just after Adult Swim started seeing big rating numbers. Neither “Tripping” nor “Drawn Together” has performed quite as well as their Adult Swim counterparts, but thanks in large part to Adult Swim paving the cartoon “road less traveled,” both have found decent-sized audiences.

Zac Efron's Twilight Induced Break

Just read a funny little article about Zac Efron and his gratitude to teen-heart-throb-of-the-moment Robert Pattinson for taking the spotlight momentarily.

Teens, moms, and tweens are currently all feasting on pictures, interviews, movies, and magazines that have Pattinson's face plastered on them right now because of this weekends release of The Twilight Sage: New Moon. This gives Efron a chance to take a breath. Here is a link to the full article.

I typically try not to think too much about the life of a teen heart throb as my oppurunity to be one has long since passed me by. But on the off chance I do think about it things like this rarely cross my mind. If I was in Efron's shoes would I be thankful or jealous? Can't really say. More power to him though for embracing the break.

Efron's newest flick Me And Orson Welles comes out this Wednesday.

Waterworld: Day 3

This post is part of an ongoing project where I attempt to watch all of Waterworld in 5 minute chunks.

The boat continues to sail and eventually makes its way to a giant floating fortress. Costner has to show his wares in order to get in. They still won't let him so he shows off his big jar of dirt. Astonishment! The gates open to reveal an awe inspiring city atop the water. Maybe it isn't awe inspiring...but whoever was in charge of composing music for this movie thought it was. Costner looks around and sees some people scavenging the dead corpse of a hammer head shark. Then a giant tree that is some how alive on a man made island? I'm glad that I know very little about science of this would be a tough one to believe.

Someone is chanting. And I think there is a funeral. Now Costner is docking is boat. He wows the local hoodlums with a beat up rear view mirror. Some Mickey Rourke lookin dude seems to be the sheriff of this here town. Tell Costner he's got one hour. It is so difficult to watch this and not think about how directly it rips off the world of Mad Max.

Now we're at the local merchant's shop and Costner is trying to trade his dirt for money. Hmmmm kinda like trying to make people pay to watch this movie. The guy tastes the dirt, you know to make sure it's dirt. 3.2 Kilos! That is a lot of dirt! 62 chits for all that dirt. Costner asks for twice that AND GETS IT! Now a evil looking guy is bribing some homeless guy for information with water. The guy looks like a 90's era pro wrestler. Costner walks up and asks some lady where the store is and she tells his he's looking at it. The camera comically pans down all the empty shelves.

Old News: Predators Cast

I don't how this slipped past my radar but according to /film Adrian Brody has been cast as the lead in the Robert Rodriguez produced Predator reboot Predators. The article also reports that Topher Grace might also be involved. Last I remember the only confirmed cast member was Danny Trejo. Still no announcment on whether Carl Weathers will be reprising his role.

80's Rocker Time Machine

Here is a quick glimpse of my past life as a burnt out 80's rocker.

Movie Review: King Corn

Documentaries are tricky business. On one hand they can be an entertaining exploration of something that most viewers won't really have knowledge on (think "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" the Donkey Kong documentary that came out a couple years ago) but on the other hand they can be a boring waste of an hour and half where a monotone narrator tries to make you feel bad about something that is happening in the world. King Corn falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

The film follows two college friends as they move to Iowa to grow an acres worth of corn. Along the way they learn all about how dependent this country, and the world, is on the production of corn. The filmmakers never directly condemn the mass production of corn but we are shown enough footage to get the point. King Corn shows us what it thinks without pounding into our head over and over again.

To top it all off the movie has got a pretty good sense of humor too. Unless it is about something that I personally have a huge interest in I try and avoid documentaries, in fact I wasn't all too excited when my girlfriend suggested this one but King Corn was as entertaining as it was educational.