The Amazing Race
Whenever I watch Survivor or (especially) The Amazing Race I try to figure out who is there instead of me, i.e. who demographically represents me if I had been on the show. I also look at it from the standpoint of how would I do against this group. The married Asian couple is obviously who my wife and myself would be. Self-professed mean husband, cute wife. The interesting thing about the season so far (as much as you can tell in one episode) is there isn’t a single pair that I don’t think my wife and I could wipe the floor with.
The teams (caveat this with I’m sure they’re all really nice people they just don’t come off that way):
Brent and Caite: Probably one of the stronger teams, believe it or not. She’s not going to win a Nobel Prize (well Obama did so it’s not out of the question), but they seem to be very competitive. She’s famous for a major gaffe on a major stage, but she seems to have come to terms with it. One of the teams to watch. Made the rookie mistake of not reading the clues. He comes off as a major tool. Didn’t care for her “we really came in second” comment. Ah, no you didn’t.
Carol and Brandy: Self professed shoppers, can’t see them doing well. If you’re giving up on challenge one, you’re not going to go the distance.
Dana and Adrian: People like them piss me off. What I mean by that is you get this amazing (pardon the pun) chance and you give up. On the first task. Really? There are many people that were not picked so you got to run the race, and you give up? Get off my show.
Jet and Cord: Were weaker than I expected. Did get from the funicular through painting to the mat quicker than anyone else. I would say they will be a team to watch once they get used to being on the race.
Jody and Shannon: I have mad respect to anyone who does marathons and things like that. I honestly think age is going to be their undoing which is too bad. They’re cool and interesting, but I don’t see them going far.
Joe and Heidi: This season’s me. Guy said he would be a jerk. I didn’t see him that way. They could go far, but they didn’t impress me in the opener. Not great, not bad. Put them into the wait and see column.
Dan and Jordan: Didn’t really get a feeling either way for them. They were funny, but didn’t get any indication of their competency or their drive. Losing the paintbrush does show a lack of attention which could hurt them later.
Jeff and Jordan: FSM bless her. Jordan is not bright. Jeff is no rocket scientist, though he is familiar with Technotronics, so that should help. I don’t see them going far, because eventually a mental task will do them in.
Louie and Michael: I thought the whole idea behind being undercover detectives was to have your identity as unknown. Consider that cover as blown. Was surprised with how poorly they did in the first leg. I bet they rebound and do well.
Monique and Shawne: I don’t see them doing too well in the long haul. No matter what you feel about religion, I really doubt God is paying attention to The Amazing Race. Nice enough people, but I figure them for middle of the pack.
Steve and Allie: I would have them as a dark horse. I think they have potential, but it is too early to tell. She’s cute, so I’ll be pulling for them.
Thoughts on the first episode: In the beginning (and actually through-out the race) there is safety in numbers. The three people who won the earlier flight could have been thoroughly hosed because of mechanical problems. Something to think about.
Walking the wire would have been cool as hell. Would it have been scary? Sure. Could my wife have done it? Probably not. I could have kicked that pig in no time. Giving up is unforgiveable. I understand that you have a love for your spouse and this wouldn’t be a deal breaker, but ask him to man up. Seriously. I can imagine my wife being one of the people yelling encouragement as I’d be going across the wire. That’s fine, but just do it once every couple of minutes, if that often. I know I would have been asking her to STFU and let me do my thing. This would have been an issue.
Painting the house had to be one of the simplest tasks ever. What could it have taken to paint a 2 x 2 square? Three minutes? I think the hardest part was just finding the house. Funny when the two people just started randomly painting the inside of someone’s house.
Two penalties on the first leg, both because of not paying attention. This potentially is a harbinger of things to come for these two teams. You’ve got to concentrate. Interesting that there was no detour, or at least there wasn’t one shown. The ganging up shown in the preview is something I wouldn’t put up with if I was a team on the outside. There is etiquette and I’ll be damned if you’re going to cut in front of me with 1 million dollars on the line.
Movies:
I have low standards. Just ask many of my former “girlfriends” and you’ll see that this is a true statement. When I go to a movie, all that I ask is that I’m entertained.
However, when you have a movie like Avatar maybe I expect just a little more. As the biggest movie ever (purely from a box office standpoint) I would (naively) assume that it would be good. Avatar was a major letdown. It was very pretty, and with the exception of one shot very early in the film, the CGI was great. The 3D was cool, although unnecessary, and definitely not worth the extra $4. $11 for a matinee, what a fucking rip-off.
I’ve had a bad stream of luck regarding movies lately, whether it be those on the big screen or those off of Netflix.
The bad series of underwhelming films started with Friends with Money. Of course this is not my fault, because it was one of the wife’s choices. Okay movie, but plodding and nothing really happens. I did find out that it was originally a play, which it probably would be more successful as.
This was followed with Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. Halloween II (the original sequel) is one of my favorite horror films of all time. It has really good tension, and an amazing sequence using security monitors which works extremely well. Rob Zombie’s take on part 2 didn’t work, was boring, and just didn’t work at all.
The Final Destination. I should have known better. The first three “death is gonna get you via some Rube Goldberg method” movies weren’t masterpieces, but were entertaining. This one suffered from the 2D 3D curse, and the acting was just awful.
Couples Retreat. Awful. Hard to believe that the same people that wrote Swingers wrote this garbage.
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