Outsourced, NBC's Comedy Jackpot

We mentioned Community in one of our earlier reviews as one of NBC's funniest comedies on the air. While our hearts still remain true to it, Outsourced, an NBC comedy whose premise is that an American company outsourced an entire call center to India and the manager is sent along with it to train his eventual replacement. The studio was hesitant at first, believing that it may offend the Indian community but after successful debut, they gave it a full season of production.

The fascinating array of cultural jokes and gimmicks mixes well with the brilliant cast members. You'll always find yourself laughing at this. While the idea of outsourcing jobs to India may not sit well with many Americans, this pokes fun at it and even does a good job of making it funny.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but its definitely worth the watch.

One of Mid-American Novelties more interesting employees, Gupta.

Madhuri, a rather... quiet employee.

Be on the lookout for more reviews!

BTW - the geniuses at NBC have relegated this show to the slot of the living dead, it is soon to be canceled. Perhaps we should outsource them?


Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

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Zombies are People too...

Not everyone knows they are a Zombie and hey is it really their fault that they go around looking the way they do, behaving the way they do - eating other people and wrecking civilization? What about the Zombie perspective? Well, thankfully there is a movie that tells their side of the story - a movie that finally answers the question - what's it like to be a Zombie. The movie, originally titled "Wasting Away" is now called "Ahh Zombie." We're not sure whether we like either of the titles for this 2007 cult film, but we certainly love the movie.

So, this all begs the question - why are Zombies so freaking popular - why do so many people love watching Zombie movies? Is it our dread fascination with life after death, it is our realization that we all pass through life utterly oblivious and only concerned about satisfying our need to spend money and gain weight? These and many other deep questions are completely ignored in the movie, "ahh Zombie." What we do get treated to is a genre-busting premise that allows us to parody the entire Zombie pop-culture trend while laughing our heads off (not literally of course even though something similar does happen to the lead character in the film).

We suppose that the deeper philosophical question embedded within the plot is fairly profound - we are not always who we think we are and we tend to see ourselves as something we'd like to be but likely never will be. In this sense the Zombies in this story are just like us - coming to grips with reality and making the best of it. In the end, there's no cure but the movie does give us a bizarre vision of Zombie utopia.

We all tend to see ourselves as slightly different than we are...

Ahh Zombie is destined for Cult film immortalization - which seems appropriate given it is a movie about the undead. It proves that just when you think a genre has run out of just about every creative variation possible - a whole new spin can breath new life into it (pun intended).

Zombies are everywhere - Zombies are cool - Zombies invented Facebook

Ahh Zombies is by no means the only innovative Zombie action flick to come out of Hollywood recently. Woody Harrelson and that Facebook kid made a big splash last year with ZombieLand. At the same time the AMC network has launched a clever new show giving us tips on how to survive the coming Zombie Apocalypse. We will be reviewing both of those here on Raving Reviews in the coming weeks.

Well, we couldn't resist including the best song ever written about Zombies - we're pretty sure Zombies wrote, directed and produced this music video too..

To finish up today we will treat you with some of the best Zombie quotes we could find:

• "Zombies almost had my ass for dinner!" Bangkok Zombie Crisis (2004)
• "Bill, just because your father tried to eat you, does that mean we all have to be unhappy? Forever?" Fido (2006)
• "Who died and made you f**king king of the zombies?" Shaun of the Dead (2004)
• "Zombies don't read. They ain't hooked on phonics. So give it a rest." All Guts, No Glory (2005)
• "The first rule of Zombieland: Cardio. When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go, for obvious reasons... were the fatties." Zombieland (2009)
• "Against an army of zombies, no armies could stand. Why, even blown half to bits - undaunted by fire and gas - zombies would fight on so long as the brain cells which
  receive and execute commands still remain intact." Revenge of the Zombies (1943)

Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

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Why is Charlie Sheen so Crazy?

It's hard to lampoon someone who has gone to such lengths to humiliate themselves. This has become the year of Hollywood Celebrity meltdowns; Mel Gibson, Randy Quaid and now most spectacularly - Charlie Sheen.

We find it odd and disturbing when people we used to like go crazy, especially in situations where you'd think all would be well considering their career success and the lifestyles they enjoy. Americans enjoy the illusion of Hollywood success, perhaps because life is getting so much harder for the rest of us.

Charlie Sheen is both a drug and a weapon of mass destruction...

We will let you determine the extent of King Charlie's madness by sharing with just a small handful of his recent quotes:

• "Boom, crush. Night, losers. Winning, duh."
• "Duh! So, we're asking you now, what are some of your favorite lines that this warlock brain produced?"
• "For now, I'm just going to hang out with these two smoking hotties and fly privately around the world. It might be lonely up here, but I sure like the view."
• "Here's the good news. If I realize that I'm insane, then I'm okay with it. I'm not dangerous insane."
• "From my big beautiful warlock brain, welcome to 'Sheen's Korner' ... You're either in my corner, or you're with the trolls."
• "I don't have time for their judgement and their stupidity and you know they lay down with their ugly wives in front of their ugly children and look at their loser lives and then they look at me and they say, 'I can't process it' well, no, you never will stop trying, just sit back and enjoy the show. You know?"
• "I have a different constitution. I have a different brain; I have a different heart; I got tiger blood, man."
• "I have to tell them that last night was a shameful train wreck filled with blind cuddly puppies."
• "I have defeated this earthworm with my words. Imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists."
• "I'm dealing with fools and trolls and soft targets. It's just strafing runs in my underwear before my first cup of coffee. I don't have time for these clowns."
• "Slash sat me down at his house and said, You've got to clean up your act. You know you've gone too far when Slash is saying, Look, you've got to get into rehab."

So he is obviously crazy - but that begs the question once more - why is he crazy. Many people claim it is drugs, others booze, others contend it is a combination of sibling parental rivalries and some believe it is because his family moved from Dayton, Ohio to Hollywood. We however have another theory - we think Charlie Sheen is living a dual life as actor and Middle Eastern potentate. We think Charlie Sheen is in fact, Muammar Gaddafi.

Charlie Sheen gets animated, literally...

We came to this conclusion after noticing strange similarities between Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen, including

• They both possess Tiger Blood.
• Both are surrounded by goddess bodyguards.
• Both are universally loved.
• Both are excellent public speakers.
• Both are moderately entertaining.
• Both seem to be stuck in the 1980's ("Reagan bombed my gnarly tent").
• Both are fond of oil.
• The gradual transformation of Charlies facial features into those seen on the 70 year old Gaddafi.

Some believe that Muammar Gaddafi & Charlie Sheen are in fact the same person

This theory explains a lot. Next up - Why is Randy Quaid is so crazy.


Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

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The (Needs Lots of) Adjustment Bureau

Fedoras... they have them.

We'd like to apologize for the lack of reviews recently, but here at Raving Reviews HQ we've been busy with plenty of exciting projects! That aside, let's get to the matter at hand...

Official Trailer

When I first saw the trailer for "The Adjustment Bureau" in the theater awhile back my first reaction was a rush of excitement to see an Inception-esque movie coming out. The sight of several fedora-clad 1940's looking "fate" agents adjusting the life of David Norris (Matt Damon), a NY politician was fascinating to me. It's based on a short story by the renowned sci-fi author Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly) and quite frankly, my expectations were set unusually high. 


They were crushed. 


I rarely get tired, or feel like falling asleep during a movie... but TAB (Which I'll be referring to the movie as for the rest of this review) really took the cake. It was far more boring than I could have ever anticipated. The opening sequence introducing his political campaign was too long and uninteresting. While the acting was good (including the chemistry between Damon and Blunt) and the chase scenes were... alright the rest of it just really failed to entertain.


The fedoras that the agents wore were ruined too, used as a plot device to open doors in a seemingly random order... I wonder why they didn't figure out that fedoras are cool all by themselves (look at Indie Jones). But that aside, the director was definitely trying to achieve the Inception theme but didn't go in deep enough. It was mentioned when the movie was released that it was to be "light" sci-fi. This was a feather in comparison to other "light" sci-fi movies.

The true Hat Squad (that looks frighteningly similar to the Agents in the film)

The movie ends rather disappointingly... and the decision of Norris' fate is telegraphed in nearly the middle of the film. Yawn. I won't give it away in case you actually want to see the film (god help you)


While the movie didn't totally bomb at the box office, it was below the already low expectations set by the studio. This is the second movie that Matt Damon decided to star in that didn't fair well at the box office... something tells me he should fire his agent (or at least, get his life adjusted).


Final Verdict: The Adjustment Bureau started out as a fascinating idea, but was poorly executed as a "light" sci-fi movie (more like a Romantic-Thriller). While the question of Free Will vs. Control is discussed in the movie, the "lighter" version seems to crop up more often than a deeper analysis. 


I certainly hope that the upcoming movies "Battle: Los Angeles" and "Super 8" can drag me out of this godforsaken "light" sci-fi wallow I'm in right now. It's bad enough that SyFy is still spewing out buckets of its own brand of sci-fi... but now that its spreading... ugh... I'm outta here, be on the lookout for more reviews soon.


-J. Michael

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