The Critic

What a great show this was. Probably one of the most under-rated animated shows that was ever on TV. It was so much better than the filth/garbage/trash we have today like Family Guy and American Dad. I wish they would come back and make a new season. I'm telling you, it was so fantastic because it has this melancholy random humor that's great. Jay is (was) the modern day Charlie Brown, always being picked on and such. Just hilarious.

And Jon Lovitz is just pure genius. This show was great. I wish they'd bring it back to TV at least so we could watch it again.

Here's some links to my favorite episodes on-line:

Eyes on the Prize (one of my favorites)
Marathon Mensch
L.A. Jay
Dr. Jay

The Dunwich Horror

Uh oh. This is a bad one. So this came on late on TCM around Halloween and I thought I'd sit down to watch it. Boy, was I in for a ride on the stupidity train. This movie was like The Langoliers combined with Touch of Satan, trying to be Arabesque. Wow. The only thing missing from this film was Tim Matheson.

So the movie is supposed to be based after an H.P. Lovecraft story, but I've read it's very loosely based (Most of the characters in the movie aren't even in the story, let alone entire plot elements!). But that's a good thing because you don't want to be connected to this movie in any way, shape or form. TRUST ME. So, first of all, the movie "stars" Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. I haven't seen any other Dean Stockwell movie except for The Langoliers, a film adaption of a Stephen King (who sucks in my opinion) story, which could quite possibly be the worst movie of all time. Sandra Dee is best known for her roll as Gidget in the 1959 classic, Gidget. What she was thinking when she decided to make this heap of crap movie, I doubt anyone will understand.

So the plot of the movie is pretty strained. There's this girl, Nancy, who's played by Dee. She and her friend work at a library with a copy of the Necronomicon. Right off the bat, it's like WTF!? Okay, so bare with me here. There's an old professor, Dr. Armitage who comes in and examines the book every now and again. One day, Wilbur, played by Stockwell, comes in, looking evil, or maybe just slightly gay. He tries to get the Necronomicon but Dr. Armitage doesn't want to let him get it. But since it's a public library, Nancy gives it to him. She also decides to go over to his house, because she's slightly intrigued by his mysterious darkness (or gayness).

So Wilbur drugs Nancy and starts using her in these bizarre rituals. Did I mention that meanwhile throughout this movie, there's random, half-second shots of naked people in finger paint running around? Some shots are violent I think, some are bizarre orgy-type stuff. All absolutely pointless. So he puts her on this stone table and impregnates her while she's passed out while all these evil spirits fly around. Apparently, he has to impregnate her and do these rituals on her to open a portal so that the beings (which are his ancestors) who lived on Earth before humans can come back.

Are you kidding me? Isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard? So Nancy's friend, who's name isn't even worth mentioning, comes by Wilbur's house looking for Nancy. Wilbur's weird, frightened little kitten of a father tries to make her leave, but she goes upstairs to the top floor where she's apparently eaten by some type of beast made out of hands, eyes and teeth. So the monster gets out (apparently it was somehow locked in the top room of Wilbur's home) and starts going on a rampage. Oh, and Wilbur's mom is in a mental institution, too. Did I get to that? The relevance of that is never exactly explained other than Wilbur had some type of evil birth. Anyway, is it wrong to say I don't even remember the end of this film?

Oh, and did I mention that Roger Corman was the producer of this movie? Yeah...

ANIMALS RULE! TIMOTHY CONQUERED!

Grizzly Man may be the greatest documentary film of all time. Not particularly just because Timothy Treadwell was crazy, but because it's a great portrait of a man. Timothy Treadwell was not just some nut-job, but a guy who had real problems that real everyday people have. He got into alcohol, then drugs for a bit and then reverted back to a child-like state mentally to kick his drug/alcohol abuse habit. When he was a child, his big thing was animals. So when his life totally went on the fritz, he just kind of resorted back to it like a mental auto-pilot.

But the part I love about Timmy Treadwell is that he actually tried to be an island. He left the confinements of human civilization to try to live with bear civilization. He thought that since he was rejected by humankind that he was just forsake it and live without people. In his mind, he developed this incredible mental fantasy that somehow bear social hierarchy was superior to human social hierarchy and that he was needed and loved by these bears and that he was their companion.

He also became their hero in his own mystical world. In real life, Timmy was nobody's hero. But out in the woods, he could be a hero to animals because they couldn't think or talk back to him, so he could just imagine their responses to his nonsense. They were just kind of puppets that acted in his psychological make-believe fantasy world. Puppets to make him believe that he was the hero, the alpha male, the samurai, the "kind warrior".

Kitchen Nightmares Tonight!

Finally! After a five week hiatus, Kitchen Nightmares is finally back on TV tonight! Tonight's episode is "J Willy's". As you may know, Kitchen Nightmares is an American adaption of the British show, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. RKN is one of my favorite shows, EVER. Last year, I downloaded the British shows the day after they aired in the UK. That's how obsessed I am with the show.

Gordon Ramsay is just awesome. Last week, I made his Butternut Squash Soup recipe, which I also adapted into a Pumpkin Soup recipe. It's become a yearly tradition to make the soup, it's absolutely delicious! Gordon Ramsay knows so much about food, it's absolutely ridiculous. I love his sense of what he calls "Modern Rustic Dishes". Anyway, I can't wait to watch tonight!

Here are some of my favorite clips of Ramsay: