It's been awhile since my first installment, so I'm back to revisit some movies that - good or bad - were integral parts of my pop culture education as a growing young man.  And coincidentally, this batch is all comedies. Club Paradise - Long before Robin Williams sullied his reputation in sub-par movies like Jack, RV, and License to Wed, he was sullying it with sub-par movies like 1986's Club Paradise.  I caught this on cable the other day for the first time ... Read on, Daddy-O

The fact that a movie like Tropic Thunder not only exists but is doing well at the box office is refreshing for two reasons - first because we live in age of political correctness run amok, where works of mainstream art are neutered beyond recognition lest they offend anyone; and because it's proof that genre spoofs don't have to be nothing but an endless parade of tired and already dated sight gags and pop culture references (I'm looking at you Epic Movie, ... Read on, Daddy-O

I think I'm gonna need some more time to process the season 3 finale of The Venture Bros., but for right now I can't help but feel a bit let down. I think that's because Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer haven't yet figured out what they really want their show to be.  Do they want it to be an homage/parody of the action/adventure genre, or do they want to fully invest in their own universe and mythology? All signs pointed to the latter ... Read on, Daddy-O

No more flashbacks, no more character sketching, and no more filling in questionably important bits of history - the season finale of The Venture Bros. is all about moving forward.  All the buildup and all the backstory is done, so I hope you were paying attention. Actually, if you think about it almost all of this season's back end has really been the finale, since most of the episodes have picked up right where previous ones left off.  So in that sense, everything ... Read on, Daddy-O

Setup episodes can be very tricky to pull off.  They've got to provide enough information to set the stage for what is to come, and yet be entertaining in and of themselves.  Too much information and the story becomes cluttered, and not very fun to watch.  But make things too subtle, and the episode can seem like a one-off at best, a throwaway at worst.  So how does "ORB", an obvious setup episode, fare? Pretty well, thankfully.   The mystery kicks off in the ... Read on, Daddy-O

At some point before season four of The Venture Bros. gets underway, I'm going to run a countdown of the top 10 episodes from the first three.  And right now I can't think of any reason why "The Lepidopterists" won't be on that list.  With a few exceptions, I've been thoroughly entertained by all of this season's episodes, but this one had me laughing out loud as much as when I discovered the show sometime around the beginning of season one.  And ... Read on, Daddy-O

Ever been on a blind date that you knew was a disaster right from the start, yet you felt obligated to see it through to the bitter end?  Such seems to be the recurring fate of the Monarch, forced to endure a supremely lame archenemy pairing at the beginning of "Tears of a Sea Cow" (working title "Murder O'Clock").  But soon the misery is over, and he turns his attention back to his true hate...Dr. Venture. After quickly (and permanently) dispatching his newest ... Read on, Daddy-O

Ahhh, now that's the stuff! What's not to love about "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman"?  There was plenty of action, mystery, and top-notch jokes.  Oh yeah, and my prayers about seeing more Hank and Dean were answered tenfold.  This was vintage Venture Bros. my friends. Save for a few brief (but extremely relevant) flashbacks into Dr. Venture's life, this was a completely self-contained episode; the first one of the season.  In it we find Rusty in the Amazon, where he has stolen a native ... Read on, Daddy-O

I missed watching new TV shows less than I thought I would, but it was nonetheless good to have some of my favorites back this week. Last night marked the post-strike return of The Office and Scrubs, and the two shows basically picked up where they left off in '07. The Office, "Dinner Party" There were lots of great lines in this one, but I think I was more entertained than amused. The cringe factor was kicked up about three notches (to ... Read on, Daddy-O

More out of morbid curiosity than anything else, I tuned in tonight for the series premiere of Cavemen. I'm already on record as saying this show was a bad idea, but I gave it a shot anyway. And speaking totally objectively it's...well, it's not good. As I feared, they completely failed to capture the vibe of the original Geico commercials, which was as critical to their success as the basic premise. So what went wrong? Well for starters, the ... Read on, Daddy-O