Leave Nothing

Dogg: By now most of you football fans have seen this commercial. However, let Dogg explain to you why Michael Mann is a frakkin' genius. Forget his movies, lets talk about this commercial.

T-Bowe: Even I have to admit this is pretty dramatic for a football commercial. Mann captures the essence of the game, the hits, the hurt, the desire to win, the quest to keep going. You don't leave it on the field, you keep going until you have nothing left. You LEAVE NOTHING...

Dogg: First of all Shawne (The Beast) Merriman, fresh off steroids, shows how you play the game. And then, Steven Jackson, the 49er killer, doesn't kill the 49ers in this commercial. That what would have made this more authentic and put it over the top for Dogg...

T-Bowe: Shut up. What are your Dolphins? Like 30 years since they meant something? Mann brings an interesting in your face perspective to this commercial. The camera is up close and personal. In case you think you heard the music before, if you've seen Mann's film, The Last of the Mohicans, this is the music from the final scene. The piece is called Promentory. Speaking of music, the sounds of this commercial alone are enough of a reason to watch it. Listen to it carefully, listen to how Mann pays attentions to detail. The breathing, the hits, the determination.

Dogg: This piece of music adds to the drama of this commercial. In fact, it helps in letting Dogg's Peeps know what type of struggle both players are going through.

T-Bowe: Mann has a flair to the way he directs. Whether its the way he films shootouts, like the one in Heat. The way he details his characters, like he did in Collateral. Or the emotions he can put on screen, like he did in The Last Of The Mohicans. In this commercial, he brings that same sense of realism and authenticity that he is known for. Some people were born to direct, Mann was one of them.

Dogg: This commercial has to go down as one of the best FOOTBALL commercials ever. Nike knows if you want something done right, go to the best. They evidently decided to LEAVE NOTHING.

The Best Movie Ever

Dogg: We are trying something new for no apparent reason, and because no one reads this any way. Well, that and we have time to kill. I don’t have a job and have nothing better to do with my time.

So I’ll call this segment Dogg’s look at the movies. Today we start with the best movie ever made ‘Cool As Ice’. The reason this is the best movie ever made is this; 1. some how, some way this movie made it past the motion picture association and onto the movie screen. 2. now days this movie is so rare you can’t even find it in your local video store to rent or to purchase.

T-Bowe: You’re not going to subject us to watching it again are you?

Dogg: Of course not. I almost cost you all of your friends and your relationship by subjecting every one to this the last time. As I recall Buffy, ain’t even talking to you no more because you made her watch this.

T-Bowe: This movie stars Vanilla Ice and-

Dogg: That alone is enough. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THIS MOVIE SERIOUSLY. You don’t need to mention other actors. Just Vanilla. This movie was so well crafted the director never found work again.

T-Bowe: This movie is so bad, you would have fun getting a bunch of friends on a couch and enjoy the comments that will follow, the acting is so horrible, the dialogue so cheesy…

Dogg: Wait. My favorite line, “Kat (short for Kathy) drop that zero and come get with the hero.” Or another one of my favorites, “Yup, yup she likes me.” I mean this movie has every thing, elements of CSI: Vanilla when he has to track down a kidnapped victim. Soft porn, a woman actually shows a bit of leg, not to mention the over the top love scene!

T-Bowe: You can’t be serious…

Dogg: What? Of course I am. Then the Jet Li like fight scene which was so well crafted we have never seen another one like it. This movie is so great there is even a part when Vanilla breaks out in song because the party was boring.

T-Bowe: Hasn’t this movie been banned in like 100 countries?

Dogg: That’s blasphemy! How dare you even say something like that. It was banned in 120 countries at least; get it right and give the movie its props.

T-Bowe: This movie is definitely on the list of my worst movies; EVER, but it’s a must see because of it. You’ll come out thinking 'I’ve just wasted an hour and a half of my life when I could have been hanging out with my girlfriend, who I had to hold down and force to watch the entire movie,' I think she called it a form of torture and said she would tell me every thing.

Dogg: Didn’t she threaten to kill you?

T-Bowe: That was after she said if I loved her I wouldn’t subject her to such a trauma again.

Dogg: Watch this movie. You can’t find it any where, but luckily I have the movie on VHS and I’m thinking about putting it to DVD for the sake of quality. We don’t want to give away to much of the plot because of the awesome plot twists.

T-Bowe: Be advised; watch this one at your own risk. I will not be held accountable for your friends whoopin' your ass or any other bodily harm that may occur during the pains-taking act of watching this film.

Dogg: I give this movie and awesome 2 out of 10

T-Bowe: All that because I have to give it score I give it 1 out of 10

BSG...

Dogg: You know, Dogg has to talk about this. It's one of the greatest fraking sci-fi shows ever... It's so good they made it twice.

T-Bowe: I don't think it was that great in the 70's...

Dogg: Blasphemy, then again, it wasn't so great in the 70's, but it was good enough for them to do again. Dogg has great love for this show, and to show some love Dogg will change Dogg's name for this post.

T-Bowe: What?

Dogg: For the rest of this post, call me T.D.

T-Bowe: T.D.?

Dogg: Top Dogg, T.D.'s call sign for the evening.

T-Bowe: Oh lord. Anyway, lets talk about what makes this show different than most. Battlestar Galactica did what almost no sci-fi program did before it, it relied on human nature and not science techno babble.

T.D.: T.D feels ya. The fact that they actually took a piss, got drunk, killed civilians and little kids... awesome!

T-Bowe: Guy, that's horrible. Anyway, basic premise of the show, the humans have created robotic beings (Cylons) to do there bidding. The machines rebel and a war ensues. The machines come back and virtually wipe out the human race over night. There were a little over 55,000 survivors.

T.D.: T.D. was in love with the running survivor counter. Numbers were dwindling from week to week.

T-Bowe: However, we want to talk more about what made this show so compelling, and sometimes gut wrenching.

T.D.: Gut wrenching? You sure it wasn't that Chinese food you had last night? T.D. can tell you exactly what it was that made this show so fraking great-hold on T.D. has a thought... it's fading... yeah, it's gone. Bowe, why don't you tell them what made the show... what you said?

T-Bowe: Yeah, anyway. What made this show compelling is easy; the characters, you cared about them, we wanted them to survive, we wanted to follow them as they looked for a new home.

T.D.: T.D knew what he wanted, and it involved a 3, a 6 and an 8.

T-Bowe: A 3, 6, and 8... D'Anna, Caprica and Boomer? Oh Lord. But he brings up a good point somehow-the new models of Cylons look like humans. There are 12 models, the three he mentioned above are all female. In case you decide to watch the show, now available on DVD, I won't give away any spoilers.

A show like BSG, can get bogged down by special effects. After all, it is Science Fiction; however, like I was mentioning before I was interrupted, the character's and their chemistry made this show great.

T.D.: Yeah. T.D. has to admit, for the first time in a long time T.D. found himself routing for the good guys, but the survivor counter dwindling kept T.D. happy. Bowe wants to talk about characters so T.D. will start with his personal favorite. James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar, the only real comedy relief on the show. Callis plays Balter like Channey played the American people, with such appeal and conviction. Wait- Chaney didn't have much of a personality, bad reference. Anyway... Baltar is a real opportunist throughout the series, but the interesting question T.D. found himself asking was what would any one do in Gaius's place. Personally humanity would never want to count on me. T.D would be the only one left, T.D. and the roaches...

T-Bowe: Callis did do a wonderful job. There was a love / hate thing with Gaius... My personal favorite was Commander / Admiral William Adama, the no nonsense leader of the fleet on the run, played masterfully by Edward James Olmos. The voice, the attitude, the look, he had it all down. He made the character his own. Olmos's Adama was a career military man, and he played it as such, with a commanding presence. Adama was the glue along with Mary McDonnell's President Laura Roslin, they had a brilliant chemistry together but also a commanding presence apart.

T.D.: Then their was Lee played by Jamie Bamber a British guy faking an American accent and Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff. First of all let T.D. say there was evidently a sense of sexual tension here, will they? Won't they? Should they? Why not they... T.D. wouldn't have thought twice, there wouldn't have been tension with Starbuck at all, Starbuck, Boomer, or...

T-Bowe: Stop it; The character of Starbuck is like most of them a tragic one, she just can't seem to make the right choices and when she does she never seems to catch a break. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing.


T.D.: Nope she was just FRAKED! I love that word frak, and she said it so much... say it with me Bowe; frak...

T-Bowe: No. Funny how that word survived from the old series in the 70's. If Starbuck couldn't catch a break, Lee wouldn't give himself one. He was the moral center of the show, always trying to do what was right and usually, you got it never catching a break. Bamber played Lee with a strong conviction, this was evident mostly at the end of Season 3 at the trial of Balter. It was really compelling stuff...

T.D.: All they needed was the Donk. Donk and we would have had a Law and Order type trial. Starbuck and Lee these two belong together like Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet and that couple from Last of the Mohicans.

T-Bowe: There are a lot of characters from the show, we don't have time to talk about them all however. What are talking about now?

T.D.: T.D. wants to talk more about the effects and music. One word, KICK-ASS.

T-Bowe: That's two words...

T.D.: Nah man, that's why T.D. added the dash and you're the one with an English minor.

T-Bowe: The special effects were very good for a T.V. show, and the music very compelling. Bear McCreary made sure you knew the mood of the show, whether it be a sense of celebration, hopelessness or a deep sense of loss, the music always aided the mood.

T.D: T.D. is a great fan of the soundtrack. Thought about buying it, stole yours instead. Anyway the FX Department did a job and a half, sort of wish I had one of those.

T-Bowe: What a job? Yeah I wish you had one too. The Galactica looked like an older ship, she had battle scars, which remained throughout the series. It was always in need of repair. It wasn't a brightly lit, technology everywhere type of ship. They used old fashion corded phones to communicate. Had communal bathrooms they had to share. It was, in theory, an aircraft carrier in space and the crew lived as such. The wall of the dead in the ship seemed to make it more alive. The Galactica itself was a major character, she protected her inhabitants, as long as the crew didn't fail the ship, the ship never failed the crew.

T.D.: Why state the obvious man, the show is called Battlestar Galatica, not Adama and friends, not Cylons and Company, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Of course the ship plays a central character.

T-Bowe: This program shows what smart T.V. can do when you don't dumb down a show. It got better every year, I'm glad they got to go out the way they wanted and didn't try to stretch the show out longer then they had to.

T.D.: As far as T.V. series go this one has to be top 5 of it's day easy. An easy 8.7 out of 10.

T-Bowe: I'll give it a 8.5 because it did have a few filler episodes that didn't have to be there.

T.D.: How long is this review going to be again? The series lasted four years, this review didn't have to be as long. Don't we want the T.D.'s peeps to sound off?

T-Bowe: Of course, everyone should always have their say-and they are not your peeps. So if you've seen the show, sound off. If you haven't, give it a try, you might enjoy it. As well as it might not be your cup of tea.

T.D.: T.D. knows his peeps, and his peeps know T.D. and T.D will never lead them astray. T.D. highly recommends this show.

Watchmen... It's been a long time...

Dogg: Doggs loyal fans it's been a long time since Dogg has reached out to you... his adoring peeps...

Bowe: You can't be serious? What do we have like 2 people that actually read what we write?

Dogg: You just mad because you don't swagger like us.

Bowe: What? Haven't I told you about drinking before you write your part? Anyway on to the review; I don’t know how many of you have read the Graphic novel Watchmen, but there was something surreal about it when I read it years ago.

Dogg: Dogg never read it but Dogg wants to know; was Dr. Manhattan swinging in the wind in that too?

Bowe: We’re here to review this movie…

Dogg: If Dogg were Laurie Jupiter he'd be offended.

Bowe: Because Manhattan was naked?

Dogg: Because she was hot and he was like Bizkit… Limp.

Bowe: Come on man… anyway Watchmen the feature length film directed by Zack Synder is actually quite a feat in itself. For the most part the film stays true to the novel, but the changes I felt help modernize the story and not let it get dragged down by the other secondary characters. It would have made a long movie even longer.

Dogg: Forget that… did you have to say even longer? Dread was naked!

Bowe: For the most part Synder had most of the work already done for him, the characters, the story, the story boards, the imagery, and in keeping with most of the comic stories of the day, the suits.

Dogg: Dogg personally thinks the recession hit this film which is why they couldn’t afford any more clothes for the CGI dude.

Bowe: Running at two and a half hour plus, this movie will either make you restless or you won’t notice the time. I rather liked the movie, not as a fan boy but on an artistic level;,also the story itself was rather compelling. It was a lot more complex than some of the dumb down plots we get today.

Dogg: It wasn’t what Dogg expected, but the girl was hot even though Manhattan didn’t think so. The imagery was a touch dread, but what made the movie for Dogg was Rorschach, his character was off da chain. Don’t know the guy who…

Bowe: Jackie Earle Haley

Dogg: Yeah, that guy... He brought the best character of the movie to life.

Bowe: I would have to agree, Haley did a incredible job with the Character of Rorschach, because the other characters were sort of bland but Rorschach and his ever changing ink blotted mask kept the movie rolling. I won't give away the plot because that's just not cool...

Dogg: You know Dogg will say this, take away the visual aid, this was just an average movie, with great sound. It was almost a soft porn minus the actual... Nope never mind brethren was swinging in the wind...

Bowe: You won't let that go will you?

Dogg: You know what, we've been here almost as long as the movie was on, let's let our adoring public have their say.

Bowe: Ok, but I still liked this movie and I'll probably purchase the Blu-Ray... I'll give it a high 7.

Dogg: Dogg gives it a high 6, it lacked the punch Dogg was looking for it was reaching but never made it over the top. Little Stallone reference there...

Bowe: Stallone... what? anyway it wasn't about punch... It was about choices, and how far is too far... We've always used excuses about the greater good, but at what point does it become too much? How much has to be sacrifced?

Dogg: Oooook. Are we going to talk about Galactica next time?

Bowe: Sure...