Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer ~ As far as word of mouth, and 2014's must see film, this was it. Everyone was talking about Snowpiercer. A future dystopic tale, where the world has been frozen over by an attempt to halt global warming and what's left of Earth's population has been loaded onto a constantly globe circling train divided by class into cars, just sounds insane, or at the least, very Terry Gilliam. In fact, and homage, John Hurt's character is even named Gilliam. Yes, it's a mental idea, but once you wrap your mind around it, it gets rather predictable, sadly.

Director Bong Joon-ho, probably best known for the wonderful new age kaiju eiga The Host, really wants to be Terry Gilliam here, and for the most part he succeeds. The amazing cast is caked in Gilliam grime, except for those who are clean and just plain odd. Captain America Chris Evans, The Help's Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill from "The Newsroom," Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, and supremely odd Tilda Swinton are among the all star cast that make this flick.

The film is based on a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige, and was Bong Joon-ho's first English language work. The class struggle turned into a rolling revolution is peppered with enough bizarro futurism and dystopian madness to keep things interesting. It's a science fiction ride that crosses The Poseidon Adventure with Les Miserables that has to be seen to be believed, and well worth watching.

The Newsroom

I love HBO. I think that they, along with the folks at Showtime, AMC, and Starz among others, just make the best television out there. Looking at ratings and award nominations, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that belief. I guess that's why "The Newsroom" is such a hard pill for me to swallow.

I tried to watch the first season of "The Newsroom" when it aired. I just couldn't get into it, and once the episodes started to pile up in the DVR, I gave up and resolved to catch up later. It's hard to start watching a new show. Some things like "Dexter," "Treme," and "The Walking Dead" grabbed me immediately from the first moments. Others like "Rome," "The Wire," and "Homeland," all of which I loved/love, took some time to warm up to. "The Newsroom" falls solidly in the latter category, but maybe without so much of the love part.

There's a lot to like about "The Newsroom." Jeff Daniels, in the lead as a on-his-way-out newscaster trying something new to stay relevant, is spectacularly selfish. He's been given something few actors get - a platform on which to act over the top. His supporting cast is amongst one of the best ensembles in television. Dev Patel is someone to watch, and Alison Pill is the real star of the show, definitely watch her. Most of the performances are high caliber, a hallmark of HBO.

The show is a little bit Network, a little bit Broadcast News, with just a touch of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" as well. The problem I have lies behind the scenes, in its creator, Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin belongs to an era and style of television I particularly dislike. Much like David E. Kelley, Sorkin doesn't just want to entertain audiences, he wants to teach, to preach, to ultimately force feed his opinions into the viewers, whether they like it or not.

Here, in "The Newsroom," it gets so bad sometimes as though it literally feels as though characters are merely taking turns on an imaginary soapbox than actually having a conversation or debate. It always takes me out of the show, and sometimes it's painful in its execution. Shame.

Except for that, "The Newsroom" is definitely worth watching, especially for Jeff Daniels, Alison Pill. Dev Patel, and also genre favorite, Oliva Munn. The Bin Laden episode made me cry, and that's saying a lot. The show is very very good, despite its preachiness, but it is, after all, HBO. Check it out.