American Pickers

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz travel all over America in their Mercedes Sprinter van looking for people with cool stuff they can look threw and pick out and purchase items they can sell and make money on. In the beginning they are based in Le Claire, Iowa at a shop called Antique Archeology, and later at a second location in Nashville, Tennessee. Frank Fritz has his own place in Savanna, Illinois called Frank Fritz Finds. In later episodes they switch to a Ford Transit van.

It is fun to watch these folks digging through stuff and coming up with treasures. A lot of the stuff looks like junk but I get surprised when they say what the value actually is. Maybe my spouse will let me collect more junk now! Maybe if I get her off of ‘Hoarders‘ first…hmmm…

Cast includes: Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, Danielle Colby-Cushman, Lauren Wray, Robbie Wolfe, Dave Ohrt

Available on: Amazon, Yidio, Google Play, Netflix

American Restoration (TV Series)

From the History Channel.

American Restoration is the daily operation of Rick’s Restorations in Los Vegas, Nevada. Rick’s Restorations restores all manner of antiques and collectibles. The variety of items that come through the shop is amazing. The techniques used to restore items is both entertaining and informative. There are even short ‘how to’ segments done by Rick explaining the best methods to use to accomplish desired results.

American Restoration, Counting Cars, Pawn Stars, and American Pickers are all offered by the History channel and cast members often have cameos on other shows. I can’t stand an excess of profanity and unrealistic emotional outbursts in reality shows and this show has achieved a balance of those that allows me to enjoy the program. I enjoy this show.

Cast Includes: Rick Dale, Tyler Dale, Kowboy, Brettly Otterman, Kyle Astorga, Ted Hague, Ron Dale, Kelly Mayer, Rick Harrison, Austin ‘Chumlee’ Russell, Danny Koker, Corey Harrison, Bob Yuhas, Chris Matthews, Horny Mike, Niko, 

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, Yidio, Netflix

Futurama

Fry is a pizza delivery boy. Moments before the year 2000, Fry is frozen in time for the next 1000 years.  In the year 3000, he refuses to return to being a delivery boy, and meets a new friend named Bender by accidentally stepping into a suicide booth. They both live and decide to mooch off of his living distant nephew, Dr. Farnsworth, incidentally Dr. Farnsworth is looking for a delivery team for Planet Express. Leela the career assignment officer decides to abandon her job, and joins Fry and Bender on the Planet Express team. Fry meets Dr. Zoidberg the Planet Express doctor who is an lobster-like alien, and Amy Wong a rich engineering student at Mars University. The main plot revolves around the Planet Express company and it’s employees and the central group (Fry, Leela, and Bender).

Voice Actors: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman.

WE LOVED THIS SERIES! Mostly me though. I was so thrilled when I saw the ending, which is a real tearjerker and an utter surprise at that. Even though this show had lots of crudeness it was maybe one of the best endings to a TV series that I’ve ever seen. I was very pleased that it didn’t end on a cliff hanger.

Available on: Netflix, Google Play, and Amazon.

The Host

Alien body snatchers called Souls invade Earth possessing nearly all humans. A few humans are able to resist and even fight back. One Soul possesses a young woman named Melanie Stryder and meets strong resistance. Over time the relationship between Melanie and the Soul, that calls itself Wanderer, possessing her becomes cooperative and even friendly. As Wanderer learns more about humanity it’s attitude changes.

This movie is based on a book by Stephanie Meyer who also wrote the Twilight series. The movie is done really well. I have not yet read the book so I cannot say how well the movie follows it. I suspect not everyone will be happy with the alien body snatchers being referred to as Souls. The vehicles with chrome-like exteriors were kinda cool. There are some great sports cars in the movie especially the Lotus. I also like the Unimogs. I enjoyed this movie.

Cast includes: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger. William Hurt, Boyd Holbrook, Scott Lawrence, Shawn Carter Peterson, Lee Hardee, Phil Austin, Raeden Greer, J.D. Evermore, Emily Browning, Mustafa Harris, Bokeem Woodbine, Alex Russell, David Lichtenstein

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, YouTube

House (TV Series)

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) an unconventional doctor with amazing skills at a fictional hospital (Princeton Plainsboro) in New Jersey. He works as the head of Diagnostic Medicine with his team working on the most puzzling cases, . He deals with constant pain from muscle damage by popping pain relievers. His physical disability causes him to be depressed and moody, as a result Dr. House is not exactly a ‘people person’, quite the contrary, he is frequently quite offensive to people around him but his medical brilliance and dedication tend to overshadow his rudeness.

I love watching House even if it’s the reruns, but I think it might be an acquired taste for many. The cases they face can be quite amazing! I was surprised how good Hugh’s American accent was, since he is British, it was spot on.

Cast includes: Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn, Odette Annable, Charlyne Yi

Available on: Netflix, Google Play, Amazon

Crazy Taxi City Rush – App Review

Crazy Taxi is a mission based application published by Sega. It’s really a fun game that keeps you coming back, The game allows you to choose your driver, buy the taxi that you want, upgrade your taxi, and add decorations to get more cash. The major enjoyable part is that the game has multiple maps, and it allows you to beat your previous scores. I also enjoy the fact that the whole thing seems to have a story line.

This app is available on: Itunes and Google Play

Longmire (TV Series)

Walt Longmire(Robert Taylor) is the sherrif of the fictional Absaroka County in the state of Wyoming. He leads his office against the criminal element in his area. Walt is a widower but has one grown daughter. With only four police officers available the Sherrif’s office personnel are in high demand even though it is a rural area. With big ranches,indian reservations, and industry nearby racial, and environmental tensions cause problems too.

The Longmire TV series is based on the book series called The Walt Longmire Mysteries written by best selling author Craig Johnson. The show obviously has a old west feel with all the western trappings such as horses, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats. The main character even reminds me a bit of Matt Dillon(James Arness). As a matter of fact the show is a lot like Gunsmoke just adding in a few modern conveniences and production advances. I like it.

Cast includes: Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff, Bailey Chase, Adam Bartley, Cassidy Freeman, Lou Diamond Phillips

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix

Foyle’s War

Christpher Foyle(Michael Kitchen) is a Detective Chief Superintendant in Hastings, Sussex, England during World War Two. As such he fights against crime that frequently takes advantage of the war-time condition such as pilfering, the black market, profiteering and murder. Foyle is assisted by Detective Sergeant Paul Milner(Anthony Howell) and a driver named Samantha Stuart(Honeysuckle Weeks).

I really enjoy Foyle’s War. It must be quite a challenge to make films about the past when it comes to sets, props, wardrobe and slang used at the time(or banter for you Monty Python fans). I am impressed by the job these folks have done making season after season always maintaining a high level of attention to details even when it comes to the background of shots, especially when shooting outdoors. That is representative of the overall quality of Foyle’s War.

The Official Foyle’s War Fan Site

Cast includes: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell

Available on: Hulu Plus, Google Play, Yidio, Netflix

Caprica

Caprica is about two families on the planet Caprica the Greystones and the Adamas. Both families are among those devastated by a terrorist attack. Each family responds to the attack in their own way. The attack is found to be the work of a small group advocating the worship of one God over the worship of many Gods which is the norm on Caprica.

With major advances in virtual reality Daniel Graystone decides to attempt to build an VR avatar of his daughter and offers the same to Joseph Adama but the one God group has different ideas for the VR technology. Greystone’s company is working on battle robots for the Caprican government and in an attempt to bring his daughter into the real world he attempts to install the avatar of his daughter into his prototype.  Here ends the spoilers!

Caprica is a 2010 spin-off prequel of the Battlestar Galactica series. It is set about 50 years before the Battlestar Galactica timeline. The show has a very complicated storyline but it holds together well. Effects are good enough but not amazing. There is some decent action but a lot of dialogue getting to it but a complicated storyline requires a lot of plot and character development. Caprica did and does offer the science fiction fan a few new ideas and that is rare. This is a really good show.

Cast includes: Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Sasha Roiz, Brian Markinson, Polly Walker

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix

Automata

It is the year 2044. The Earth’s pollution damaged atmosphere has allowed solar flares to cause the progressive desertification and irradiation of the world killing over 99% of the population. Robots called Pilgrims were created to stop the desertification and rebuild but when they failed were made manual labor.

The robots are controlled by two unalterable protocols first they cannot harm any form of life, and second they cannot modify themselves or other robots. The reason for the first protocol is clear but the second protocol was so that robots couldn’t evolve.

The main character is Jacq Vaucan (Antonio Banderas) an insurance investigator for the robotics company. A robot is shot when it appears to be self-repairing and Jacq is sent to investigate…

This movie was done very well. All the actors did a really good job, except for Antonio Banderas who did great! The effects were nearly undetectable from live action. The story is classic science fiction done very well. All in all I am surprised this movie wasn’t a bigger hit. Enjoy it!

Cast includes: Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Tim McInnerny, Melanie Griffith

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix