Micro Review: Halt and Catch Fire

The next time you need some high quality TV to binge, allow me to recommend Halt and Catch Fire. Halt is a show from AMC that just finished its fourth and final season; highly lauded but never quite generating the attention of Mad Men or other critical darlings. Much like Mad Men, it paints a complex narrative on the canvas of a specific era and industry. Rather than the advertising world of 1960s New York, it's the burgeoning computer and tech scene of the early 80s through mid-90s. The machinations of the industry provide compelling and fun story lines to follow as our players constantly struggle to get one step ahead of the game and find the right idea at the right time. We get to experience a number of different tech touchstones as a result; the birth of the personal computer, the birth of the internet, etc. However, the meat of the series are the characters themselves.

Gordon, Donna, Joe, Cameron and Boz all have very satisfying character arcs and experience massive, organic growth over the four seasons of the series. Lee Pace is particularly captivating as the Steve Jobs inspired Joe Macmillan. Joe begins as a tortured and highly volatile futurist. You'll have to watch to find out where he ends up, but the writers do a great job of making it feel like a natural progression.

A limited number of seasons is another reason to watch. The series feels fully realized and perfectly paced. The producers knew their end date at the moment they began, which means you aren't going to suffer through any filler, nor do you have to work through ten seasons to finish this thing out. You can be in and out in a couple weeks (or months) depending on your pace.

Micro Review: Baby Driver

I'm late to the game here, but so be it. I'll start by saying you have to admire Edgar Wright's runaway imagination and style. The guy always goes for it and the way he marries music and image in Baby Driver feels a step beyond where others have dared to tread; matching music beats meticulously with action in long one-shots. Sneaking lyrics into background graffiti as they pass, etc, etc. He uses so many songs in the soundtrack and yet I never felt overloaded. You can tell very choice was made with pride and carefully considered, much like a Tarantino piece and un-like a gratuitous, clueless dump of music like Suicide Squad.

Wright's biggest triumph may be the casting of Ansel Elgort as Baby. The kid has an embarrassing amount of charisma and southern charm to burn. I can imagine someone falling in love with Baby the way I love The Dude and returning to this movie again and again as a result. I'll say I was moderately sad that Baby wasn't able to keep his figurative hands completely clean. A more significant disappointment; Kevin Spacey's Doc feels way too surface level and like any other paint-by-numbers Spacey villain until we get a small turn at the end.

In short, if you love a high-paced chase film and can stomach a lot of stiff language, this is absolutely the movie for you. You're going to have a blast. It may be a bit thin on story, but it is masterful in style, pacing, and fun.

The blu ray? Looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, and has a very healthy dose of special features to dig through.

Goodbye, Tom Petty

We've lost another great musician. I'm a big fan of Petty and he provided the soundtrack for more than one of my college video projects. I know it's probably blasphemous to mention a compilation album for some of you audiophiles, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits is among the elite of the elite of greatest hits albums. So, I leave it here for you to enjoy over the course of another sad day.

More Of This

Years after Avatar's release, there's one thing Steven (Ryan Gosling) just can't get over. #SNL #SNLPremiere #SNL43 Get more SNL: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live Full Episodes: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-liv... Like SNL: https://www.facebook.com/snl Follow SNL: https://twitter.com/nbcsnl SNL Tumblr: http://nbcsnl.tumblr.com/ SNL Instagram: http://instagram.com/nbcsnl SNL Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/nbcsnl/

This. I love this. The idea, the execution; it's all perfect. I share this with you now because I had to. It might be my favorite Digital Short since the Lonely Island guys left SNL. Plus, we just got done telling Todd he needs to get on board with Ryan Gosling. Further proof.

Goodbye, Harry Dean

Harry Dean Stanton. Universally revered by the legendary directors he worked with, his Hollywood peers and those who have followed. Enjoy this piece posted by Fandor for a taste of Harry Dean's film career and stay tuned for our thoughts and an examination of this Kentuckian's life's journey on the next episode of Talk Hard.

He Who Laughs Last - Space Cops Ep11

The Mini Chief is minutes away from rage-fueled death and the hunt is on for a saboteur!

In the Season One finale, the Mini Chief is moments away from rage-fueled death and the hunt is on for a saboteur!

Life Is Short - Space Cops Ep10

The Chief miniaturizes himself and the shrink ray disappears. Geronimo and Ritz must find a solution before the Chief's rage destroys his tiny body. http://spacecops.tv http://facebook.com/walksoftlyfilms http://twitter.com/walksoftlyfilms Get official Space Cops t-shirts at http://walksoftlyfilms.com/store

When the Chief finds a shrink ray, he gets more adorable... and more dangerous!

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube.  Get your Space Cops T-shirt.

Scapegoat Zoo Pt. 3 - Space Cops Ep9

Don uncovers bad things at the Good Times Zoo and Jonny must decide where his loyalties lie. An evil genius is revealed and the Chief may be the only hope for escape. http://spacecops.tv http://facebook.com/walksoftlyfilms http://twitter.com/walksoftlyfilms Get official Space Cops t-shirts at http://walksoftlyfilms.com/store

Don uncovers bad things at the Good Times Zoo and Jonny must decide where his loyalties lie. An evil genius is revealed and the Chief may be the Space Cops' only hope for escape.

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube and get your Space Cops T-shirt.

Beyond the Show - Talk Hard 36

There was so much ground to cover after four weeks without Talk Hard! On Episode 36 we decided to dig through a ton of Hollywood news with a game of Yay or Nay.

YAY or NAY

• Daniel Craig signs on for two more Bonds - YAY:Todd & Scott  NAY:Allen
• Letterman on Netflix - NAY if he keeps the prospector beard
• Seth Meyers rebooting The Munsters - NAY
• Hasselhoff wants to relaunch Knight Rider starring himself - YAY
• Macchio and Zabka launching a Cobra Kai show on YouTube RED - YAY
• Will Avatar last through all four planned sequels - NAY
• Wonder Woman a Best Picture contender - NAY
• Will Captain Marvel be the first Marvel Studios flop? - YAY
• Is Spider-Man: Homecoming the best Spider-Man movie? - YAY:Allen  NAY:Todd & Scott

1893 Pepsi Taste Test

Well Pepsi's fancy new cola turned out to be all can and no flavor. At least in my opinion. It kind of tasted like Pepsi, only weaker; so I'm not sure how they can claim it's a "bold spin" on the original cola. This one is the opposite of bold. And Allen was turned off by the after-taste. However, as we said, Todd is the real cola connoisseur among us and he gave it the thumbs up. So for the official record, here were the results...

• Scott: MEH
• Allen: GROSS
• Todd: THUMBS UP

Space Cops t-shirt

We covered episodes 4-7 in great detail so there isn't much additional info I could provide here. But, I can talk about our t-shirt drawing. After we reached 100 subscribers on the Space Cops YouTube Channel, we drew the winner of a Space Cops shirt on the show (and live on Facebook). Congrats Greg Pursifull. We also announced that if you aren't Greg, you have one more chance to win a t-shirt. All you have to do is rate Talk Hard on iTunes. You get your name in the hat once for a rating (we love 5 stars, but that's up to you) and twice if you also write a review. But HURRY; the YouTube drawing was one in a hundred, this drawing is one out of the next twenty ratings.

Force Watch: The Greasy Strangler

On the pod, I don't believe I adequately explained just how PO'd this movie made me. Allow me to clarify. Anyone can make this garbage. Anyone. This isn't the product of an avant-garde genius; it's the thoroughly lazy scribblings of a man bereft of any true imagination. Do you know what's difficult in filmmaking? It's taking the audience on a journey full of text and subtext, delivering them to the destination you intended and holding their attention all the while. It takes no talent as a writer to go from scene to scene asking yourself, "What's the weirdest thing that can happen now?" and moving on. As much as the film festival circle might argue otherwise, absurdity is not a genre. People do it because it's easy. It doesn't take effort. It is difficult to move and surprise an audience in intellectually honest ways. It is difficult to construct jokes with punchlines and create genuinely funny scenarios. Absurdity relieves those burdens. You can easily shock and disgust over and over without being beholden to a plot or the need to tell a story that ultimately makes sense in any fashion. You can repeat a nonsensical phrase over and over and over in hopes that the audience's awkward discomfort leaves them no choice but to laugh. That isn't comedy. I could walk up to a lady on the street and act bizarre enough to illicit nervous laughter. That doesn't mean I'm funny; it means she was afraid for her life. She isn't going to go home and tell everyone she met a comedian. So, just in case I wasn't clear... The Greasy Strangler is hot garbage and the worst kind of idiotic drivel that passes itself off as art. Anyone who lauds this movie as such...

"Insanely compelling and funny, one of the best films of 2016" (Empire Magazine)

...is a self-important moron who believes they're the only one smart enough to "get it." Liking an unpopular band doesn't mean you have elite taste and can hear what no one else can hear, it means you like a crappy band. And finally, for the love of all that's holy, do not watch The Greasy Strangler on our account.

OH... and I kept saying the phrase from the movie wrong. It was "Hootie Tootie Disco Cutie." (Of course. Because Tootie Frootie Disco Cutie would just be stupid. I'm so embarrassed.) There are two scenes of this. THEY DO IT TWICE!! And I refuse to embed either. I can't even link them here because there's wayyyyy too much skin involved. So... yeah. Thanks for listening everybody. We'll effort another episode soon.

Scapegoat Zoo Pt. 2 - Space Cops Ep8

Jonny meets his Little Sister at the Good Times Zoo and Don goes undercover to watch his partner's back.

Ritz phaseports to the Happy Days and Good Times Petting Zoo to begin his punishment and Geronimo goes undercover to watch his back. Jonny quickly learns a valuable lesson on bullying, but he better keep one eye on his Little Sister.