Ironman 2 was bitter. I don't know why they thought they needed to divert from the formula they used in the first installment: stuff blowing up, occasional hottie, crunking and sarcasm. RDJ generally thrives in this type of environment, but too much of those good things always leads to a train-wreck (Larry Drew II). When you consider the fact that RDJ used to be a drug addict, jacking up the volume on the formula was a terrible idea. During certain scenes it seemed like he was trying to invoke the days of his famous coke binges. If Ironman 2 was supposed to be about why drugs are bad, this might be good, unfortunately, it's a stupid comic book movie so I don't really want to see a guy hit rock bottom and then try to pull off witty sarcasm. Nor am I a fan of swapping Dr. Dre (Terrence Howard) for Don Cheadle. Cheadle is the more capable actor but he didn't once utter "yaaaooo Tonnaayyy," and that's a fail. On the whole it seemed as though they desperately wanted to out-do the first one and it wound up hurting them in the end. It's a watchable film, just get ready to cringe and roll your eyes a lot.
Robin Hood, on the other hand, I found very sweet. I know a lot of people didn't like it because he wasn't robbing rich people, but we have the US Government for that. They gave us a solid prequel that seemed pretty effortless. The story flowed, the bad guys were French (never a bad fail-safe), the acting and directing was decent, it ended with a few battle scenes and set up nicely for a few sequels. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? IS THIS NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE? (SPANIARD! SPANIARD! SPANIARD!) Don't get me wrong, it was nowhere near as good as Gladiator, but it's definitely nothing like it as a lot of people have claimed. There weren't a bunch of scenes with Russell Crowe daydreaming with sad music in the background, he wasn't a ruined man trying to pull himself back up from his bootstraps and he wasn't rebelling against his own government (that's next movie). If Ironman 2 was watchable, I'd classify this as re-watchable.
The NBA Playoffs started out pretty bitter but they have very recently become increasingly sweeter (and by recently I mean the first half of Game 4 Suns-Lakers). Lebron James was a huge disappointment, but not as big a disappointment as his coach who should have played Varajao and Hickson at least 20-25 minutes a game each. It still might not have mattered, though, because the Celtics are not fucking around. When did Rondo become a guy I fear when I am rooting for the other team? He can't shoot unless it's a layup or floater, not even free throws! He's the one thing I am looking forward to if there's another Lakers-Celtics Finals; I'll finally be able to root for him. You know who else came out of the woodwork and turned out to be pretty sick? Goran Dragic. He is one dirty mofo. When Steve Nash finally retires or dies on the court from a freak injury, the Suns might actually have a guy who can be 80-90% as good as him. How often does that happen to a team that loses an all-time great? Oh, yeah, it happens every fucking decade with the Lakers. Fuck the Lakers. And what the hell is going on with Kobe's underbite face whenever he makes a big shot? STOP IT!
The farewell season of 24 was a roller coaster. It started out like the past few seasons--with Jack somehow being roped back into saving the world and being hindered by the same law enforcement officials that are supposed to be helping him. It's like MJ going one-on-one against Reggie Miller for a game winner and then having his teammates setting picks for him and cutting behind him bringing with them potential help defense for Reggie. And yes, Jack Bauer vs a well-funded terrorist cell backed by the Russian government aided by the President of the USA is as much of a mismatch as Jordan vs Miller one-on-one. That might even be a compliment to MJ. Anyway, the writing and plot twists were pretty weak until about the 12-hour mark when the show went into an overdrive the likes of which I hadn't seen since Season 4 with the override followed by AF-1 going down followed by an actual nuke. It was all set-up for a promising series finale except the rich asshole writers decided to dumb-down the ending so they could make way for a 24 movie. What a tragedy. It went from sucking, to awesome and back to sucking. If the movie isn't as good as all-three Bourne movies combined, then they failed. Pretty damn bitter if you ask me.
LOST was sweet. I'm not totally on-board with the last 10 minutes or so of the finale, but they did a damn good job with the rest of it. I know people are pissed that they didn't answer every question, but I feel like they answered the questions that didn't involve answers that would piss me off. I don't want to know where the Smoke Monster came from, it's such an absurd concept that any explanation would be dubious to the point where people would be looking at the TV like they just smelled a fart. I'm just fine taking some of those supernatural things for granted as long as the character arcs were resolved. I am of the opinion that they accomplished this very important goal and simultaneously left some room for debate about what certain phenomena represented. They even gave us an old school Hurley nickname (Bigfoot) from Sawyer. The only bitter thing about Season 6 is that my LOST fantasy team crapped the bed because of picking Ben over Sayid and having a hunch that Walt would come back from his hiatus and lace people Gandalf style. I've already convinced myself that the plane they showed crashed on the beach at the end was the Ajira flight which was carrying Kate back to civilization where she would have undoubtedly wreaked havoc. Stay dead, Kate.
I would say that the cancelation of Flash Forward is bitter, but that show has taken such a turn for the worse that it's a non-event. I'm just mad I invested time in it in the first place. Hopefully next month will make up for some of May's shortcomings. We have the NBA Finals, a rare FIFA World Cup, the NBA Draft and Jonah Hex to look forward to. That's right, Jonah fucking Hex. Megan Fox attempting a western accent--who thought that would be a good idea?
