Can we start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90 pound girl? Because that's never getting old.

It’s back, it’s beautiful, it’s better than ketchup, it’s the Mustard.

So let’s just jump right into it, shall we:

SERENITY

To put it bluntly this move rocked. I will go on record and say that it was better than any of the Star Wars prequels. Yes, I did like Episode III but let’s face it, to someone who watched the first two prequels thinking “George, what the hell are you doing?”, that didn’t take too much. But this movie had all the action, all the intrigue of Star Wars and oh, yeah, dialogue which was actually, you know, good. Not to mention that the movie is funny as hell. But that’s what I’ve come to expect from the guy who wrote all the jokes in Toy Story (quick bit of trivia there for ya). Ok, so what’s great: the characters are spot on. These actors are phenomenally talented and by now they’ve got all their characters down pat to the point where they just aren’t even acting anymore. It’s just natural. Nathan Fillion’s Mal is the best scoundrel with a heart of gold since, well, Harrison Ford. Alan Tudyk, after scoring big as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball, still gets the best lines as Wash though Adam Baldwin’s ethically deficient tough guy Jayne comes in close second. The best line, however, definitely goes to Crowley’s crush, Jewel Staite during a big shootout at the movie’s climax. Summer Glau really shines through here and her River gets to suddenly be the badass of the group. Plus her random lines just are hilarious. Honestly, I could just go on about every cast member, but they all are just exceptional. The new addition of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the honorable in-his-own-way/mind assassin, the Operative, is an excellent villain, one of the best of Firefly Universe. Fans of the TV series get a whole lot of explanation on several points from the Firefly universe. The movie’s plot actually took several turns I wasn’t expecting and I loved that. And of course I will warn that this is Joss I’m-not-afraid-to-kill-off-anyone Whedon and there’s definitely death that I didn’t see coming. It makes quite an impact on fans of the show. Honestly, the only negative points are not negative but rather the fact that with the limited time frame of a movie, Ron Glass’s Shepard Book and Morena Baccarin’s Inara get a little short shifted with screen time. Which in Glass’s case is a shame as his character was always one of my favorites. But if the worst thing that happens is that I wanted more, that’s not too shabby. Now I have state that this review is coming after I’ve seen the whole TV series so I can’t speak for everyone. However, I went to see the movie with one person who like me had seen the whole series, one person who had only seen the pilot and one person who knew nothing about Firefly but was a big Joss Whedon fan. All of them loved it. In fact, once the movie was over the two people who hadn’t really seen the series both immediately said they now wanted to watch it. So that says something. Now, finish reading this blog entry and then go out and see the movie. See it!!!

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Jamie Cullum – Twentysomething

Ok, imagine the Jazz piano music of Norah Jones or Harry Connick Jr. Now instead of covering classic American tunes, like Harry, you cover Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, the Neptunes and Jeff Buckley. That’s what this album is. Honestly, his cover of High & Dry is just something I want to put on repeat and listen to over and over again. And Cullum does cover some American songbook tunes but flips on their heads and makes them sound totally new. Singin’ In The Rain has this synth beat behind it which just makes me wait for the Postal Service to kick in. I Could Have Danced All Night is almost completely percussion and a low bass guitar punctuated occasional by strings. His original pieces are also mighty fine with Twentysomething and At the Sea standing out.

News and Notes:

Hockey’s back! Catching the Ranger/Caps game on Monday.

Tonight could be the beginning of a very long winter for Red Sox fans. I swear to God if I hear just one of them bitch about it, I’m dumping whatever drink I happen to be holding at the time over their heads. The Red Sox are lucky to even be in the playoffs after choking their division lead to the Yankees and barely squeezing past the Indians for the Wild Card. Plus the fact that THEY WON LAST FREAKING YEAR!!!!

The strip is written, just need to find time to actually do it. Time hasn’t been a plentiful commodity as of late.

Props to Booter for his casting in a local theater production. Just remember: Mine is an evil laugh. Do it!

Until next time:

"We've got a picture of you with Saddam Hussein."
"I thought that was the guy who played the Soup Nazi. I told him how much I liked his work!"