Andrew Fillmore

What do you think of when you hear the term “MMA”? Some might think did you just say “MDMA”? I think about the time that guys in my residence hall two years ago had a fight club and beat up each other. Others know exactly what I’m talking about and are huge Chuck Liddell fans.

“Warrior” is set in the world of MMA and stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as estranged brothers/fighters/foreigners with American accents. Nick Notle is their alcoholic (also estranged!) father.

The Oscars seem to love them some boxing movies (“Taxi Driver,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Rocky,” etc.), and some people said that “Warrior” was snubbed this year Oscar nom-wise. So that’s basically why I watched the movie and why I’m writing about it now.

The movie’s actually pretty solid, and I liked the three main leads a lot (especially Nick Notle, who received the movie’s only and much deserved Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor). I did feel like there wasn’t enough emotional payoff at the end, but I’m not going to get into that because I don’t want this blog entry to be spoilery. The script has some problems in that it feels almost hokey at times, but I was surprised at how grounded the film always felt.

“Warrior” has a final scene that almost makes up for all of the movie’s flaws, so in general, movie reviewing terms, I give this movie a thumbs up!!! See it!!! No, I’m not going to resort to that. I can see how some people could really appreciate this movie (and others not so much), but if you enjoy old-fashioned movie drama with some interestingly-choreographed MMA fights thrown in, “Warrior” is for you.

Plus, it’s really great to see Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton (two stars that movie studios are really betting on in the coming years) act alongside each other. This movie made me a (bigger) fan of both actors.

“Downton Abbey” is the buzzy British drama that all your friends (and cousins in Nebraska) are probably talking about right now, but I encourage everyone to give “The Hour” a look.

The mini-series, which aired on BBC America last August/September follows the production of a news program in Cold War-era England. I’ve been watching the series this week (I still have one episode left), but I would highly recommend it. When it originally aired, it received a lot of comparisons to “Mad Men,” but I think that’s a lazy comparison. Wow! They are both period pieces! They’re not really that similar.

I’m still wondering how all the mysteries are going to be solved in just one more episode, but what I admire most about “The Hour” are the three leads/characters, portrayed by Ben Whishaw (who has a prime gig in the next James Bond movie), Romola Garai (one of the Brionys in “Atonement”) and Dominic West (known to most people as that evil Senate guy in “300″). These three characters are given amazing depth in just six episodes, and though the situations we see them in are familiar, the way they react to the situations and people around them are surprisingly different than you may think.

I don’t have anything against ”Downton Abbey,” but if you’re looking for a quick, quality mini-series, try “The Hour.” And yeah, I’ll eventually get around to watching “Downton Abbey.”

In the meantime, please bare with me as I experiment with different layouts for my blog. My post-grad job search has begun, and I want to make my blog as appealing as possible. Hire me! Yeah!

Even though I repeatedly said I never would, I finally registered for a Pinterest account today. If you don’t know what Pinterest is by now, you’re a robot. Actually, robots probably know about Pinterest, too.

I gave in and got an account as part of an assignment for my Print & Online Design class. Yeah, basically our assignment was to use Pinterest this weekend. I’m looking forward to populating my boards full of things that inspire me. And I can actually see some of these things generating ideas for class projects.

So brb I’m going to go pin some pictures of futura typography. And did you know that the social bulletin board site became one of the Internet’s top 10 social networks in December? It’s taking over.

It’s not that I don’t care about the Golden Globes; it’s that I don’t care about the Golden Globes.

I support any telecast that encourages a bunch of celebrities to get together in one big room to drink and give speeches, but in all honesty it’s just a party that means nothing to awards season in general. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) votes on the winners every year, and I don’t care about the opinions of 90 foreign journalists. And didn’t “Avatar” and “The Hangover” win Best Picture two years ago? Enough said.

Then, last year, there was that whole scandal about “The Tourist,” and now this year producers are threatening to not show up because there isn’t enough room in the Beverly Hilton for all of the ensemble casts. Oh, and Ricky Gervais: the more you talk about how “provocative” you are, the less provocative you are. So stop.

But, like I said, I’ll watch anything involving celebrities. So I’m rooting for these people, even if the award they might win means nothing in the long run. But yay for you if you win!

• “War Horse” and “Game of Thrones” in general
• Charlize Theron for Best Actress – Comedy/Musical (“Young Adult”)
• Ryan Gosling for Best Actor – Comedy/Musical (“Crazy, Stupid, Love”)
• Jessica Chastain for Best Supporting Actress (“The Help”)
• Christopher Plummer for Best Supporting Actor (“Beginners”)
• Madeline Stowe for Best Actress – Drama (“Revenge”)
• Jessica Lange for Best Supporting Actress on Anything on TV Blah Blah (“American Horror Story”)

I have officially endorsed you all, so do me proud! Write your acceptance speeches now and drunkenly forget them later!

No, this entry isn’t about a “Chelsea Lately” spin-off. I just wanted to spread the word about the latest TV show that I have become obsessed with.

You see, for some reason I always need to be obsessing over/conquering a new TV show. Is it because I hate being bored? Or because I love crossing things (including TV shows) off to do lists? Or because I may or may not have a mild obsessive personality disorder? That could be it.

This winter break I decided to get into “Cougar Town,” mostly due to Entertainment Weekly. The writers at EW.com love to champion under-appreciated shows, and since I have TV taste similar to a lot of the writers, I thought I’d give it a shot. EW is my Bible 78 percent of the time. The other 22 percent of the time I spend wondering why they keep talking about the same shit over and over.

The show struggled to find its tone/concept in season 1, but now that it’s been on the air for two full seasons, I’m glad it has found its voice. A strong ensemble cast sitting around drinking wine, playing pennycan and complaining about pop culture? That sounds awful. JUST KIDDING THAT SOUNDS PERFECT.

Thank you, Bill Lawrence, for creating this show. And for the endless funny title gags during season 2. Also, I’m sorry for never liking “Scrubs” and complaining about how unfunny it was/is. Yay TV!

Blah blah blah I don’t really feel like writing a real review of David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (which I saw by myself last Friday morning), so I thought I’d just leave some of my thoughts here. You’re welcome.

I read the first book in the Millennium Trilogy last summer, and I was a big fan. A lot of things felt right for me in the movie: the tone, the look, the casting. But I think one of the movie’s problems is one that it shares with the book: it doesn’t know when to end. Steve Zaillian did a great job of adapting the book, but the last 20 minutes or so of the movie felt completely unnecessary (in fact, I think he ends up cramming the first 100 pages or so of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” into this movie). Larsson has the same problems in his book: sure, we care about what happens with Blomkvist’s revenge… but let’s be honest: we don’t care THAT much.

Okay, I’m going to stop complaining. Some things I liked: (YAY FOR LISTS)

• Trent Reznor and Karen O. covering “Immigrant Song.” I think enough has been said about that.
• David Fincher’s fascination with technology. After this movie and “The Social Network,” it’s evident that Fincher is obsessed with it. And I’m totally okay with that.
• The little things. Like the way Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist wears his glasses. And how he accidentally knocks a water bottle off a fridge in his cottage. I found myself loving little moments like this.
• Wait. Joel Kinnaman from “The Killing” (boo hiss zzzzzzzzz) is Christer Malm? Let’s hope he gets something to do in the sequel.
• The use of “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” by Enya in one of the creepiest scenes toward the end of the film. I don’t really know what else happened in that scene because I was so interested in this song choice. Embed below!

On tap for the rest of this week: I’m probably going to write about the TV shows I’ve been watching lately (“Revenge”! “Cougar Town”!) and come up with my Most Anticipated of 2012 list.

When Jessie J’s single “Domino” was released in August, it instantly landed on my “at work” playlist on Spotify. How could it not? It’s so catchy. Duh.

After about 50 or so listens, I grew tired of it. Now that it’s getting radio play, I’m starting to appreciate it more. When I was driving the other day, it came on the radio, and (naturally) I turned up the volume. The funny part was the the DJ (on Mix 93.3 KC (yes I listen to Mix 93.3)) introduced the song as the “poppiest pop song of all time.” And I’ve got to agree with him. It’s a shame that this didn’t get radio play earlier in the summer because I think it could have been a summer anthem.

Jessie J’s a weird girl, her foot has been in a cast for a million years and Justin Timberlake has called her the “best singer in the world.” So I guess she deserves to have sung the poppiest pop song of all time. And she wrote the second poppiest pop song of all time – “Party in the U.S.A.” Trivia!

“I’m feelin’ sexy and free / Like glitter’s raining on me / You’re like a shot of pure gold / I think I’m ’bout to explode.” THIS SONG IS PERFECT.

Okay, don’t get me wrong: TV has always been relevant to my life. I’m talking about live TV here.

I didn’t really watch a lot of TV until my freshmen year at KU.  But I did all my TV watching on Hulu or on DVD… my roommate and I didn’t even own a TV. Those were back in the days when I was forcing myself to watch Castle every week, Lost was still going strong and Fringe was just an okay show.

The same goes for my sophomore and junior years at KU. I’m a avid TV watcher, but I would always watch my shows a day (or two) after on Hulu or other sites which I won’t mention on this blog.

But this year I’ve made it a point to watch a few shows every week live. Why? Because I kept finding myself getting spoiled via Twitter, blogs that I read or in Facebook status updates. I still remember the day that I got the fourth season finale of Dexter ruined for me.

(***SPOILERS AHEAD***)

“Like OMG they killed off Rita on Dexter. Why did they have to kill off the hottest girl on that show?!?”

Yeah, thanks asshole. I’ll keep your name anonymous here but in reality I’d like to do something something Dexter, knives and saran wrap – your body in Bay Harbor. That moment was probably the high point of the show (which I’ve now quit watching), and the wounds are still kind of fresh.

My point is that I think social media has made live TV relevant again. This fall I tried to watch Glee, Once Upon a Time and Breaking Bad live because I was wary of being spoiled. If I don’t watch them live, I’ll most likely accidentally stumble upon a wall of .gifs from the latest episode on Tumblr the next day.

Now that I watch these shows live, I can join in conversations on Twitter, for example, during the actual broadcast.

“Like wow that was an awesome performance by the Trouble Tones. #Glee”

With almost every show promoting hashtags in the bottom corner of the screen, “social TV” is now more prominent than ever. You can watch a show live by yourself but be a part of a community of fans through social media. Just stay away from my Twitter feed if you have to watch Glee later this week – you don’t want to be spoiled.

Two new movie trailers premiered online today, and feel like I need to share my thoughts with you about them. So here we go.

“This Means War”

So basically it’s like a slightly less hot version of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” right? Right? (Also, I love “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”) But whatever I’ll probably end up watching it anyway because I have a soft spot for this cast. Way to go, McG!

“The Cabin in the Woods”

This trailer isn’t much better, but I’m a sucker for horror films and anything that Mr. Joss Whedon has his name attached to. And we’ve waited long enough for this movie to come out (Chris Hemsworth actually shot this movie before “Thor”).

Now look! You’re so educated about upcoming movies now! Talk about them at the watercooler tomorrow. Because everyone has a watercooler.