Reid About It

The Friday Popcast is back, with today's show enhanced by gratuitous percussion. No, seriously. Everything's better with a tiny bit of drums.

Today, we talk about why kids would think of Spring Breaking in Mexico, why everybody hates the octo-mom, and why February is The Month No Cow Would Die for me.

More discussion and sarcasm available on the PopCast, as always.

Click here to download Reid's PopCast in .MP3 format (8.4M, 9:00m).

Like many of you, I watched the Oscars last night. Good show, I thought Hugh Jackman did a great job. The opening song was really good, although I still don't know why we make the host sing to start the show when we only have a movie musical about every three years. I blame Billy Crystal.

Anyway, Jackman was good. He can sing, dance, act, and he's Wolverine. He's got across-the-board credentials for Broadway, Hollywood, and comic book geeks everywhere.

I did notice within the first five minutes we got shots of Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke in the crowd. That's a good way to remind everyone of who's on their final career comeback, and that they're safe and sound and in their seats.

A weird work schedule and a generally short attention span means I don't get out to the theatres much, so for the ninth straight year I hadn't seen any of the Best Picture nominees. I was shocked to discover that "Saw V" wasn't nominated for any of the major categories, though.

That's the problem a lot of people have, actually. More people watched the Friday the 13th remake in it's opening weekend than saw three of the Best Picture nominees combined. "Milk," "The Reader," and "Frost/Nixon" weren't as popular as, say, "Transporter 3."

I live in East Texas, so some of those movies didn't even play around here. I really wanted to see "Frost/Nixon," but my local theatre wasn't carrying it. Instead, they were taking up the entire evening showing Larry the Cable Guy in "Witless Protection," then turning up the house lights for a roundtable discussion.

Here's the actual top ten movies of the year, and what stands out about them to me:
(#1) The Dark Knight - Made a billion dollars, and Heath Ledger won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
(#2) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I can't find anyone who admits to liking it, it was the victim of the most savage South Parking ever. And rightfully so, I might add.
(#3) Kung Fu Panda - Firmly established Jack Black as not quite so annoying in cute cartoon form.
(#4) Hancock - First super-hero movie since 1978 not to have action figures (see #6 below).
(#5) Mamma Mia! - Movie musicals aimed at women, gay men, and disco holdouts are a good idea sometimes.
(#6) Iron Man - Sold a whole bunch of toys, some of which went to me.
(#7) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - Proved very popular with people who like to move it, move it.
(#8) Quantum of Solace - Made lots of money in spite of having a title that made no sense.
(#9) WALL-E - If the movie business were the NYSE, I couldn't afford Pixar stock.
(#10) The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - This movie was made from a series of books I never read, thus putting it in the same category with the Lord of the Rings movies, Gone With The Wind, and anything based on a book published before 1990.

Variety is reporting that Mickey Rourke is on talks to play the bad guy in the next Iron Man movie.

Let's hold off on that one for a few minutes. I hear nothing but good things about his performance as a washed-up has-been in "The Wrestler," but that could be a bit of typecasting. The guy's headlined one movie in the past two decades that wasn't embarrassing, and the first thing he did with his rekindled fame was almost wind up in the main event at Wrestlemania. That's not exactly the mark of stability.

I love a good comeback story as much as the next guy, but let's make sure the train is firmly on the tracks before we all climb on board. Robert Downey Jr. had what, a dozen restarts on his career before making the current one stick? At this point when you see Mickey Rourke's name in a headline, you're still not sure if it will be followed by "Wins Academy Award" or "Assaults Hamburger-Chain Spokesman In Chemically Altered Drive-Thru Rampage."

Longtime readers of my stuff know what a fan of bad movies I am. In honor of the new movie, I'm reprinting my column on one of the longest running yet worst franchises ever...


He's more recognizable than your average Vice-President, only with a slightly higher body count. He's Jason Voorhees, everybody's favorite serial killer, and somehow he's had eleven movies and made more than three hundred million bucks in the past twenty-eight years.

No need for you to see these movies, I've already done it. In honor of the anniversary, here's what you need to know about each flick.

Friday the 13th This was after the movie "Halloween," when studios were green-lighting anything with a slasher and a calendar connection. "Prom Night," "Happy Birthday To Me," "April Fool's Day," basically any special event was cause for a whole boatload of people to get killed. Kevin Bacon is killed by Mrs. Voorhees, thus giving Jason a "Kevin Bacon Index" of two.

Friday the 13th Part 2 Jason's first appearance, wearing a potato sack for a facial covering. He appears to be a cross between the Elephant Man and the banjo player from Deliverance.

Friday the 13th Part 3 This movie was in 3-D, thus making it not only horribly acted, but awkward on cable. Jason picks up the famous hockey mask in this one.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter This movie wasn't the final chapter, obviously. Jason meets nutjob loonball Crispin Glover and parks a cleaver in his face. Sadly, Corey Feldman gets away. In retrospect, it would have been a mercy kill.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning This was the "Jason: The Next Generation" try, where they kept Jason dead and had someone else take up his exact MO. Accepting that one retarded super-psycho killer was hanging out and carving up teenagers at Crystal Lake was hard enough, nobody bought that there were two of them.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives Jason gets struck by lightning, then rips out the heart of Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter. No kidding. This was the movie where Jason effectively becomes immortal and unstoppable, and the franchise turns from "horror" to "comedy that makes you feel creepy about all of the teenagers in the theatre cheering for the serial killer."

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood Jason versus Carrie. A machete beats a telekinetic high school girl nine times out of ten, by the way.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan Jason leaves his country home for the big city, and winds up killed by nuclear waste. I think there was a metaphor of some sort there, but I didn't get it.

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday Again, "Final" obviously is just a marketing term. This film answers the question, "Why haven't the federal authorities noticed that Jason has killed a thousand people over the past ten years?"

Jason X Jason revives in the future, and in a world of laser cannons and virtual reality, he still hacks up people with a machete and people shoot at him with bullets. He's old school.

Freddy vs. Jason Jason has apparently killed everybody else by now, so he's being sicced on other fictional serial killers. Next sequel, he'll be fighting Hannibal Lecter, Sweeney Todd, and Voldemort.

And there you have it. I've wasted my youth watching them, no need for you guys to waste your brain cells. You're welcome.

The Friday PopCast returns, fresh off a bad case of the week-long low-down, feeling-crummy, sleeping-in-your-clothes-sick blues. I'll discuss why it's best to already have food and medicine on hand, how being sick just makes you sit there, and why people always think they're sicker than everyone else.

More discussion and sarcasm available on the PopCast, as always.

Click here to download Reid's PopCast in .MP3 format (8.8M, 9:29).

The Friday PopCast returns, of for no other reason that to celebrate life, love, and an allergy-induced case of Major Market Radio Voice.

Today, I'll lament the death of my DVR and the hilariously embarrassing run through the old season pass list, and also talk about the Super Bowl commercials. Not the game, though, don't worry. I will also for the first time reveal my Super Bowl comment that was banned from television.

More discussion and sarcasm available on the PopCast, as always.

Click here to download Reid's PopCast in .MP3 format (13.1M, 14:00).

As both a lifelong football fan and a guy who lives in the pop culture, the Super Bowl is my high holy day. It's the perfect storm of my interests.

My take on the game, the halftime show, and the commercials is up at Examiner.com. In addition to the game, I can promise you jokes about Michael Phelps, Rod Blagejovich, beer, Doritos, Vin Deisel, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Springsteen (and how nobody listens to his lyrics), The "Great Jack in the Box-Spokeman Murder of 2009," McGruber, and much more.

Check it out over at Examiner.com.