Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Blue Blur: A Sonic Memory for His 20th Birthday



After waiting patiently the whole night before, it's finally Christmas morning.  I awake quickly, and jump out of bed, running downstairs to rip open my newest presents that were carefully wrapped by Santa and placed ever-so-gently underneath the tree downstairs.  What could await me underneath the red and green multi-colored wrapping papers?

Footloose: An 80's De-Make


Some remakes are good:  Halloween I and II, 3:10 to Yuma, The Ladykillers, King Kong, and the list goes on.  However, it does not seem like Footloose will be one of those good remakes.

The Geek Show: Reaper!



I'll admit this: before I got a Netflix account, I had never heard of the show Reaper.  For that, I apologize.  After doing some research, I found out that many people never had the chance to watch the TV show, and that's a shame!  Reaper definitely deserves the relatively small cult following it has.

Reaper is about a young man named Sam (pun intended) who finds out on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born.  So naturally, Sam is now forced to be the devil's bounty hunter for escaped souls.  Pretty solid, awesome premise!

I'd like to start out by saying that the cast was amazing.  I honestly couldn't stop laughing throughout the episodes, and I'd mostly like to thank Sock (played by Tyler Labine of Mad Love,) and the Devil (Ray Wise) for this.  Sam (Brett Harrison) is perfect for the son. the I feel bad for poor Sam because he just can't catch a break thanks to that damn devil.

Tell me that's not the most awesome Devil ever!


Each episode brings something new and hellish into Brett's life.  First, there's the vessel  Brett, Sock, and Ben use to catch the escaped souls.  It comes in a devil's box of some sort, and then they have to figure out how to use it.  They always prove to be something really random and laughter-inducing, such as an 8-track, an RC car, or a Dirt Devil.

How...ominous!


So, in between doing all this, Sam keeps trying to have a normal life that the Devil keeps ruining.  He tries to get Andi, the girl he works with, and keeps failing miserably because the Devil keeps throwing new things his way.  He can't catch a break at his weird work, where they do the Paint Can Rodeo.  Yeah, go check that out I'd love the Paint Can Rodeo.

It is a shame that the show got cancelled, though.  Now instead of a full story, we only get a glimmer of what could be.  There are only two seasons, and that is the only downfall of this show. However, there are talks of bringing back the show in the form of a series of comic books, but there's no word on when this will happen, but I really hope it will!

Overall, it's really solid and I think mostly the work comes from Kevin Smith, of Dogma and Clerks fame, being the Script Supervisor.  I'd definitely recommend Reaper.  It's on Netflix Instant, but you can watch the episodes on IMDB for free through HULU as well.

I give the show 3.5 out of 4 mushrooms, because there's just not enough show to go around!