Greetings...at this moment, that greetings goes out to Lora only....hi Lora! I plan on restarting the Reel Rhino blog and hopefully this will be the first of many.
As I sit here writing, I am playing catch up. Earlier today I watched the Pilot episode of Breaking Bad, an AMC show starring Bryan Cranston, formerly the papa bear on Malcolm in the Middle. He stars as Walter White, a high school Chemistry teach for whom things are spiraling out of control in his life. To make matters worse, on the day he has a blowout at his second job working at a carwash, he collapses. His trip to the hospital results in his learning he has lung cancer.
At his 50th birthday party, his brother-in-law Hank, a gun-wielding DEA agent, stops the party to have everyone watch a news clip of his recent bust: a crystal-meth lab in which hundreds of thousands of dollars are confiscated.
Walter's interest is peaked as he finds himself standing at the cliff o' dispair with his life and he just needs something. He asks Hank to go on a ride-along, and lo-and-behold they tag along for another Meth lab bust. The DEA arrests the chemist, but while waiting in the car, Walter sees the actual baddie get away, jumping out of a neighbor's window half-naked MILF longingly staring after him. Walter makes eye contact with the baddie and recognizes him as a former student.
The next day, Walter approaches his former student, Jesse Pinkman, and poses a deal. With Jesse's partner pinched in the DEA bust, Walter offers to become his new partner. Jesse knows the business, Walter knows the chemistry.
So they set out to live the American dream....they buy an RV and head out to the desert to cook some meth. Jesse is more than impressed with the quality of Walt's product, and he suggests they take it to Krazy 8, the local Starbucks for meth dealing. Krazy's brother Emilio just happened to be Jesse's former partner, and he just happened to make bail and be at Krazy's when Jesse comes by.
Things go bad very quickly, and at gun point, Krazy and Emilio take Jesse back to the RV. This leads to a death-avoiding promise by Walter to teach Krazy his recipe. Things go from bad to worse and in mere moments, Walter is in his underwear, rumbling the RV down a desert road with Jesse unconscious and Krazy and Emilio incapacitated in the back of the RV.
I won't spoil it for the uninititated, but I will say the ending of this pilot is worth the price of admission. Cranston brings to the part a comedic portrayal that is unintentional, but that enhances the feel of the show. I'm sure that had he not been Malcolm's pop, he would still have been the perfect choice for this part. Every actor brings to a part who they are and who they have been, and for Cranston it all seems to add up to a very rich character.
So why, why Reel Rhino have you told us this tale? Because I want you to watch this show. I am watching ep 2 right now and it is every bit or better than the first. I plan on playing speedy catch up because Season 3 is airing right now on AMC, having just rolled out episode 1 for the year.
My intention with this Blog, take 2, is to keep you posted on what I've been watching, which beyond today's viewing, will mostly be movies.
Speaking of movies, I did have the chance over the weekend to see Green Zone (4 horns out of 5), Brooklyn's Finest (3.5 horns), and Repo Men (3 horns). While I won't get into to these too much today, I will say that before you go see Repo Men, go and rent or order on-demand REPO! The Genetic Opera, a 2008 release that is based on a former stage play and re-written for the screen by the original artists. Darren Lynn Bousman did a wonderful job bringing this to the big screen (although make sure and note that it didn't have a wide release and played on far too few big screens) and the songs and tone are both great! DLB is a local boy to Kansas City and I love rooting for the local boys!
That's all for now...until the next time, head out to the theater and see something...anything!
The Reel Rhino
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