The Mentalist

The Mentalist is one of the many popular shows on American Television. It is a police procedural drama series. Created by Bruno Heller, the show has seen two seasons by now. It started in September, 2008. The story is based on the character of Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker. Patrick works as an independent consultant for CBI - California Bureau of Investigation in California. He is a man of amazing skills. He solves the cases assigned to him in short time. This is because he has got good observation skills. Patrick has got some mentalist abilities also which he uses to solve his cases. He used to practise his psychic abilities in his past. At that time he was kind of a celebrity. He stopped using his psychic abilities when a serial killer noticed him and finally killed his wife and daughter. This show is pretty popular with the audiences. It has got perfect mix of drama, suspense and psychic dose for American viewers. The protagonist, Patrick has been shown as a bit eccentric in this television series. He starts telling people that he does not hold any psychic abilities, when a serial killer killed his wife and daughter only to mock him.

He is amazing in observing things and events around him. This actually helps him to solve the cases with much ease. At times, Patrick is annoyingly correct in what he says. Another strong character is Teresa Lisbon in this TV Show. She gets annoyed by Patrick most of the time however she knows and understands that he is a very valuable addition to CBI. Teresa lost her mother to drunken driving situation. She now takes care of her brothers and father. Patrick shares a special bond with Teresa. He trusts her most in his team and shares his feelings and his past with her. Apart from Teresa, Jane trusts only Kimball Cho, who is part of the team in CBI. Jane considers, Kimball as his right hand. He trusts him a lot and share every detail with him. Kimball's character has been shown as the most down - to - earth character. He often requests Jane to help him solve his cases by finding clues. Jane does forward the help however, does not give all details at once. This annoys Kimball a lot.

Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt are other two members of the CBI. They are secretly involved in romantic relationship. This is because getting involved romantically is against the policies of CBI for co workers. The show has earned an award also. With rising popularity and getting ranks every season, the show is surely a must watch. The show has been nominated 5 times out of which won the award once. The award won by the show was of "Favourite New TV Drama" at the 35th People's Choice Awards. The show is definitely a good show. With suspense building, the creator of the show leaves the audience asking for more. This keeps viewers glued to it.

Garima Gupta Singh Freelance Writer & Corporate Trainer Please visit her blog for samples: http://www.garimagupta.blog.co.in You can also contact her via email: garima.gupta83@yahoo.co.in Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Garima_Gupta_Singh

Daytime Drinking New DVD Review

Daytime Drinking (Young-Seok Noh, 2009) - Daytime Drinking is a comedy out of South Korea about Hyuk-jin, a young man who, one drunken evening with his buddies, agrees to a spur-of-the-moment trip to a resort up north where another friend runs a spa, only to find, upon waking up after his bus trip the next morning, that none of his friends had followed him. The rest of the film finds our protagonist struggling to get back to Seoul, dependent on the warmth and hospitality of strangers, who, as Korean custom seems to require, all constantly offer him booze as part of the ritual of giving. As soon as he manages to sober up, there comes more booze that he cannot refuse. As a result of all this "hospitality" he can never quite get himself back on track.

This is not exactly the Korean Hangover. The jokes are much more subtle, much more observational, than that broad, dumb American picture. There are long periods of contemplation, and the moments of cruelty have real bite. It reminded me of a good Woody Allen dark comedy of manners. It's detached style is periodically punctuated by highly subjective POV shots, giving it a nice rhythm and character that is unexpected.

The young people who enter the story are all wandering souls, separated from any sense of community. They are cut loose by modern technology, yet set adrift at the same time, left to find their own way in the world. The film investigates the social codes and interactions between strangers. Expectations about the other person are raised that are rarely fulfilled, resulting in confusion and awkward moments. We are reminded in these interactions that each person is experiencing their own individual story. Here alcohol is the perfect solution to such a solitary existence. Any stranger becomes an instant best friend through the lens of drink, which is usually Soju, the national drink of Korea. This is a double-edged sword, however. Like the intoxication, the bond that is formed over drink is instantly dissolved in the light of the following morning.

It's plot can be compared to that of Scorsese's dark masterpiece After Hours. In both films, we identify with the protagonist as he struggles against the labyrinth of life simply to get home. He mostly has the best of intentions in his interactions with would-be saviors, but he can't help but occasionally act in a selfish way himself, as a result of which he is punished beyond all reasonable measure, not by an enemy but by a world conspiring against him. Thus, both films succeed in creating a complex relationship between us and the protagonist. They are selfish, but in such a world, can we blame them? Does that mean they deserve such punishment? In After Hours we get a strong sense of Catholic guilt, and we see a cycle of suffering and redemption. In Daytime Drinking, however, the threat is never quite so extreme, the suffering is muted and temporary, and the redemption never quite comes. Is this a Buddhist take on the same story?

In contrast to the ultraviolent Oldboy series or the fantasy blockbuster The Host, a reserved movie like Daytime Drinking does a fine job of representing a more realistic portrait of modern life in South Korea. Daytime Drinking doesn't quite live up to last year's brilliant Woman on the Beach by Hong Sang-soo, but the two films do share an ironic-skeptical view of life. While two films is hardly a corpus, there's enough similar in theme and style between them that one can begin to draw certain conclusions about a generalized Korean social and personal sensibility. Both show life as a singular, narcissistic endeavor where any new interaction with people is fraught with potential calamity. Both articulate their ideas in a detached, judgmental style. Its as if the filmmakers are saying that the world is a largely meaningless series of jokes and pranks through which some are elevated and some brought to tears, a hierarchy which through circumstance could easily be reversed the following day. Thus, while there is empathy for the suffering, the world's cruelty is not met with great outrage, but rather with contemplation, an ironic chuckle, and a reach for the next bottle of Soju.

Maxwell Anderson is an avid film watcher and blogger. He is also a freelance assistant video editor in New York City. You can contact him through his blog Ecstatic Text: http://ecstatictext.blogspot.com

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Man Verses Wild - Dangerous Advice?

There are some who say that the star of the television program Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls, is a fraud. I am not one of them. I think he has a lot of skills and training. He probably can climb and swim better than most of us, and more easily chokes down scorpions and worms for food. But he also sets a terrible example in almost every program, doing things that nobody in a survival situation should do.

For examples, I'll refer to just one program, the one in which he parachutes into the Montana wilderness. He starts by dropping into a lake because there are supposedly no other open areas to land, other than the grassy stretches the camera can't quite exclude. Obviously this is done for show, and choosing to get wet in a survival situation in the mountains of Montana would almost always be a bad idea.

To get to lower ground where it will be warmer, he then runs down a slope of loose rock. Scree-running may be fun, but if you are truly lost in the wilderness, the last thing you want to do is risk injury. This is just plain foolish.

The Waterfall

Grylls then follows a stream, which isn't a bad idea. But when it becomes a seventy-foot waterfall, he assures us that the best way to proceed is to climb down the slippery dead tree leaning against the cliff between the two parts of the falling water. The tree doesn't quite reach the bottom, so a ladder of sticks and para-cord is made, which still doesn't quite get him to the bottom.

I missed the last part (right after a commercial), but it is safe to assume that Bear Grylls did his trademark jump into unknown water to finish his descent. All you have to do is imagine a sharp point of a stump or rock just under the surface, right between where your legs will go into the water, to understand why this is a bad idea. Don't jump into water when you can't see what's there.

Of course, soaked again, Grylls must start a fire to dry his clothing. Now you have to ask it the time spent building a ladder, descending a slippery dead tree, swimming out and drying off for hours really saved time versus finding a safe way around the waterfall. In fact, I can tell you from experience that it is very rare to find a waterfall that doesn't have a relatively quick and safer route around it versus climbing down it.

The Rest of The Story

Bear finds a lake that is several miles across, and decides, without really explaining why, that it's important to cross it rather than follow the shore. As in many episodes of Man Vs Wild, he runs into the water fully clothed, ignoring the common sense rule to keep clothing dry when in a wilderness with cold nights. He finds a broken canoe in the muck and cleans it out, patching the holes poorly.

Almost across the lake using a kite made from the remains of his parachute, the canoe is full of water and capsizes, soaking him for the fourth time that day.

Later in the program things get really ridiculous when Bear decided that rather than finding a safe way into a deep gulley (which he thinks he must enter), he'll create a "zip line" and slide over to a tall tree. I won't get into all the details, but he uses a grappling hook made with a deer antler, and a cable he found by an old homestead. Hooking onto a tree with an uncertain attachment and climbing out over a deep gulley on a thin cable is clearly reckless and unnecessary, to say the least. Anyone with modest abilities could have found a safe route down and been waiting for him at the bottom long before he completed this asinine maneuver.

Along with other reckless actions I probably forgot, he eats uncooked grasshoppers, risking parasites while standing next to a perfectly usable fire. He later climbs at least 100 feet up a train bridge over a meadow, in order to follow the train tracks, rather than simply walk along them below. He even throws a chain over the lip at the top and swings out into space to climb up, with no idea what he hooked the chain on. Of course he probably knew, had safety crews up there, etc, but that wouldn't be the case in a real survival situation.

Did I mention the death-run out of the narrow train tunnel by the whole film crew, ending in them jumping to safety just as the train came through? Man Vs Wild is entertaining. Bear Grylls is fun to watch. But it seems likely that people will be hurt if anyone in a true wilderness survival situation follows his advice or example.

Copyright Steve Gillman. Get the ebook "Ultralight Backpacking Secrets" (And Wilderness Survival Tips), as well as gear recommendations, and a new wilderness survival section, at: http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com.

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The Invention of Lying - Movie Review

Rated PG-13 (language, sexual material, and a drug reference)
Comedy
Starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Louis C.K.
Directed by Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson

Ricky Gervais kicks off his film-directing career with this high concept comedy about a world where everyone tells the truth, until one man stumbles upon the idea of telling the first lie. Gervais is perhaps best known as the star of the original BBC series "The Office", but has also appeared in smaller roles in several Hollywood films, including "Night at the Museum", as well as his own show, "Extras", on HBO.

The story begins in this alternate universe where everyone speaks what is on their mind, no matter how insulting it may sound. This is very amusing to observe, as we see Mark (Gervais) arrive at the house of his date for the evening, played by Garner, and watch poor Mark subjected to repeated insults as his date openly admits she's not attracted to him in the slightest and that the date will surely not end in any hanky panky. Mark's coworkers treat him with similar dispassion and occasional contempt. When Mark goes to the bank one day and needs more money than he has in his account, he gets the idea of lying to the teller, which works, and she hands him whatever amount of cash he requests.

Mark's lies continue to escalate until he has the townspeople believing he can talk to God and knows about the fate of all mankind. I laughed out loud many times at this film. Admittedly, I've been a Gervais fan since "The Office". I've listened to his podcast and seen most of his TV and film work. He always pushes the envelope with a humorous concept and has a slight devilish quality that combines with a childlike sense of mischief to create a very satisfying character no matter what story he's in. He often reminds me of the late, great Benny Hill in many ways, another British comic innovator who wrote and performed his own material in ways that were unique and entertaining.

If you're a Gervais fan, this film is a must. If you have not yet discovered Gervais, you might try the original BBC version of "The Office" first, or just jump headfirst into the deep end of the pool with this wonderfully imaginative film.

Grade: B+

B. Nathan enjoys Benny Hill and he also writes about Little Tikes Kitchens at http://littletikeskitchens.net/.

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