Brooklyn Nine Nine (Pilot – Episode 6)

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Roze-Verdict: If you find “stupid” funny and weirdly witty jokes funny, then it’s a MUST WATCH.

Plot: Detective Jake Peralta is one of the best in his department showing his love for putting away bad guys and solving puzzles. The only puzzle he hasn’t solved, is how to grow up. Once a new captain is appointed to the department, Peralta has to learn to respect the rules.

Starring;

  • Andy Samberg as Detective Jake Peralta.
  • Stephanie Beatriz as Detective Rosa Diaz.
  • Terry Crews as Sergeant Terry Jeffords.
  • Melissa Fumero as Detective Amy Santiago.
  • Joe Lo Truglio as Detective Charles Boyle.
  • Chelsea Peretti as Administrator Gina Linetti.
  • Andre Braugher as Captain Ray Holt.

I didn’t even know Andy Samberg had a comedy show coming out up until I saw the Jame Franco Comedy Central Roast, and watched him get constantly roasted about it getting cancelled within the first month (LOL). I knew I had to watch it especially after Samberg’s hilarious “roast”, I don’t think many people got it but he totally channeled into my sense of humor which is why I was pretty stoked that his brand of humor totally comes out in Brooklyn Nine Nine.

I think there was a lot of negativity about this show, just because so many shows get cancelled every year and why would this be different right. From the pilot alone I’m expecting some great things from the show. First of all the cast is awesome, we have the likes of Andy Samberg, Chelsea Peretti and Joe Lo Truglio who rarely fail to get laughs and their combo of funny is a match of gods. That is if their brand of humor resonates with you. The mix of overconfident, immature, boorish, eccentric behavior that exudes when their characters clash makes for a lot of funny situations and jokes. We also have Terry Crews who is a legend for many reasons, first being his sensual peck flexing and of course his badassness in general. We are also gifted with the casting of some lesser known actors who have just as big roles as the others, not breaking stride.

I think for a comedy series to be successful it needs to have an ensemble cast so that there’s a lot to play with in terms of character development and subplots. A lot more ideas can be generated when there’s more characters than just a few, this way we aren’t getting the same old generic episode plots. Of course there are the likes of “Two and a Half Men” and “2 Broke Girls” which seem to thrive but eventually the characters get dull. What I like about Brooklyn Nine Nine is that we’re given a large cast of different personalities and characteristics which opens up a massive door of joke opportunities which they utilize successfully making for a hilarious show. The characters are likable and interesting resulting in a fun and relaxing watch.

Based on the pilot I thought that each episode would present a case that the characters would have to solve, which posed a problem for me. If they were to go in that direction, 1) 21 minutes is not enough to sell a smart-ish crime plot, 2) what’s stopping it from becoming a carbon-copy of CSI but in spoof form and 3) eventually it would get boring. Luckily the show doesn’t emphasize too much on the crime solving but more on the wacky office antics.

If I was to find a description for Brooklyn Nine Nine, I would say it’s a cross between Archer and The Office with an awesome theme tune (not an overstatement). Just because we have a protagonist who feels he can do what he wants for being the best, who is surrounded by odd sometimes incompetent colleagues and the one perfectionist (Lana = Santiago). But then we have the humor of The Office and borderline Family Guy because, well a lot of the time they’re in the office doing a lot of dumb crap.

The Expendables 2 (2012)

2012-The-Expendables-2_1920x1200Roze-Rating: 4.5 / 5

The Expendables come back for a second go at a full on action flick. This time they have new members Billy (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) who help take on money hungry savage Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who has no conscience about the destruction he causes along the way to fortune. His actions prompt Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his men to track him, find him then kill him.

I really wasn’t a fan of the first one, I enjoyed the action but everything else was just pure… fail. The acting was terrible, dialogue cliched and the plot was just stupid. Thankfully Mr. Stallone has recognized a few of the problems and fixed them quite successfully, but of course he forgot a few.

The cast has some how gotten awesomer from the first film with introductions of Liam Hemsworth and Chuck Norris and more screen time from Bruce Willis and “The Terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger. Action junkies will be pumped just by seeing all these action stars together, and that alone is satisfying, as it was for me. Although not all of them put in their best performances, and well there’s a reason that I’ve had a blind eye towards it. It’s unusual because you can really separate the real actors from the action stars. That being said, a lot of them did improve since Expendables 1, and Jean-Claude Van Damme makes a brutal villain, and he plays it to perfection; one of the only good performances.

The action is relentless as it should be and plays tribute to all of the past action classics. It’s loud, violent and unnecessary which is what makes it a lot of fun. It even improved in that aspect of the film. This is what I think was done a lot better than the first, it had clear intentions, which was to pay tribute to these action stars past films and parody them. This will become apparent when you see Arnold Schwarzenegger tell the crew “I’m back!” and when he replies to Bruce Willis with a “Oh yippee-kai-yay”. This film doesn’t takes itself seriously which is where the first film really faulted. This made me look past the below par acting and stale dialogue, because the film isn’t meant to be “excellent”, its meant to be mindless, gratuitous, blood stained fun. It finds the right balance between fun and seriousness.