FX’s run with un-PC comedies has weathered the cable storm of the years with successes like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and failed opportunities like Starved, now FX is bringing former South Park writer Kenny Hotz’s Testees to the small screen as a companion to Philadelphia, and while the series does induce a few laughs in its debut, the show still has a lot to live up to.

Testees is, at times during the pilot episode, a live action version of South Park, the characters are inherently dim-witted but likable, and the social norm-bashing is certainly in place, however Peter (Steve Markle) and Ron (Jeff Kassel) are no Stan and Kyle, they fall into place with what ever comes their way rather than point out the irrational behavior of everyone else a la the aforementioned animated duo.

Peter and Ron are introduced to the audience sifting through the couch in their rundown apartment looking for rent money, while a suggesting is made to just “buy more couches” in search of money, the pair return to their jobs at Testico testing out products with Peter usually receiving the product and Ron lucky enough to be rewarded with a placebo. Upon their return they’re entered into a clinical trial which, after a few days of gestation, appears to make Peter pregnant. The two prepare for their child as you’ve probably seen on nearly every sitcom known to man, however it doesn’t take a Hollywood writer to see where this is ultimately going. And that’s the problem with Testees, its almost too obvious at times what is going to happen, sometimes running the jokes completely.

There are a few jokes that sneak up on you, such as Peter attempting to abort his unplanned pregnancy with a coat hanger up his rear end, and as offensive as you think it might be, you have to realize that these guys aren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.

A B-story with fellow product tester Larry (Kenny Hotz) and his amazing “cockzilla” penis enlarging spray is a worthy distraction from the main storyline, but, again, smart watchers will see the punch lines (such as Larry passing out when engorged due to massing blood loss to his entire body) coming and while you’ll cringe at the bits you should cringe at, you won’t necessarily laugh at everything thrown against the wall.

While its obvious the show needs more time to establish the characters and show us if it will turn into a “product of the week” device facilitating all the jokes, there is promise in this show and for those interested, give it a few weeks before removing that season pass.

After spending a few weeks with the Nextar I4-BC you find that there are a lot of features packed into this little navigation unit, but, ultimately, the big guns in the nav arena just make it too hard for anyone to really stand out, this unit included.

The big selling point of the I4-BC is the wireless (almost) backup camera which can be affixed to your car near the license plate (it uses the top or bottom two retaining bolts to stay in place), however, while the camera is wireless to the navigation unit, it still requires power from the car’s reverse lights in order to properly work. The 12V+ power from the lights also sends the trigger to the camera (and the navigation head unit) that the car is in reverse. However, due to the installation limitations of the camera (including drilling new holes in our vehicles bumpers), the camera was not tested for this review. The instructions provided by Nextar, included in printed form and available online in PDF format, are detailed enough that any novice could complete the job.

The navigation unit was tested along side the built in Mitsubishi navigation unit in a 2008 Lancer GTS (see pictures in this review for a visual comparison). The head unit boasts a 4.3” touch screen with voice guided turn by turn prompts, over a million points of interest as well as bonus features like a picture viewer and MP3 player (only functional with a SD card installed). The picture viewer is a curious addition when the driver should probably be focused on the road, and while adding in MP3 support internally is great, the single, tinny speaker doesn’t provide great sound you would want to listen to over road and social noise inside the vehicle.

The maps on the review unit were instantly outdated with a date code more than two years old, leaving many locations in the ever developing Phoenix area completely off the map. Upgrading the unit requires an SD card, and while this is an acceptable means of replacing maps, it shouldn’t be the only way available as we would have liked to see USB support, or even over-the-air downloads of new maps or points of interest. Frequently navigation was jittery with our current location jumping around, almost as if there was significant lag in determining your fix. GPS start up times were long, sometimes taking minutes depending on location, and a few times we were forced to hard-reboot the unit in order to obtain a GPS location.

When we were able to find a location to plot a route to the unit was accurate and seemed to emulate the similarly outdated built in navigation system in the Lancer, although its on the fly route updating did take longer than we would have liked, the turn by turn voice and navigation co-pilot where pleasant, clear, and much better than a few other navigation systems we’ve tested. The touch screen is responsive and organized logically with ETA, remaining time, and miles till destination presented on the bottom of the screen. There is a stylus hidden on the edge of the unit for precision use but it’s almost impossible to use it while mounted to either the dashboard or window and will require you taking down the unit.

Nextar provides an internal Li-Ion battery to power the unit as well as a 12V car adapter, wall charger, carrying case, arm mount with suction cup, USB cable, and the aforementioned backup camera.

The I4-BC is a very capable navigation system that suffers from a few problems that keep it from propelling itself to the next level. The unit is solidly constructed, the screen is clear, and the main features of a navigation system like route planning and turn-by-turn work great, however these are marred by a slow boot up time, and almost impossible to manage on-the-fly controls due to the touch screen. The backup camera is a nice addition to set it apart from the field, and for vehicles that don’t have one standard, and owners who are willing to do some rudimentary wiring changes, the I4-BC is worth considering.

To borrow a line from a very popular book, the Coen brother’s Burn After Reading is a mostly harmless affair with a brisk pace, sometimes lightening dialog, this dark comedy begins, does its thing, and leaves you to go on your merry way. The film, the first since the Oscar winning No Country for Old Men (a film not held in high regards among our staff), takes a collection of A-list celebrities, casts them in a movie with such obscene stupidity you can’t help but to laugh for 90 minutes before J.K. Simmons steals the entire film as he closes the book on the entire piece.

As with most Coen films Reading focuses on a collection of narratives that culminate together, with characters drifting between each of the stories bridging the gaps. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is fired from his CIA job because of a drinking problem, his wife, played by Tilda Swinton, is secretly having an affair with married Treasury drone Harry Pfarrer (George Cloony) who is also dating gym-worker Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand). Linda works with Chad (Brad Pitt) and the two of them come into possession of Cox’s financial statements which they believe are intelligence documents. The logical thing to do with any sensitive document is to blackmail the author, in this case the foul-mouthed Cox, or sell it to the Russians, both of which are attempted.

The plot whirls you around for about an hour and a half, cracking a few jokes along the way, makes you feel dirty for laughing, but producing some decent belly laughs and more than a few chuckles. The writing is done is such a way that not every joke known to man is thrown up against a wall to see which ones stick, each joke is carefully crafted and seem to hit their mark more often than not.

Being a Coen brothers film there is your fair share of outrageous, gratuitous violence including a point blank shot to the face and a hatchet to another supporting character’s head. Its so over the top and unexpected that you’re forced to just laugh and stare in disbelief for a second after it happens, reassuring yourself that you just witnessed what you think you did.

Bit-players David Rasche and J.K. Simmons steal the film however with their dry retelling of the climatic events as it closes and Simmons bewildered CIA director makes the film as funny as it aspires to be. This isn’t to say that the film is necessarily flat or insanely funny the apt principle of mostly harmless really sums it up, whether you watch it or not, enjoy it or not, laugh or not, its over in 90 minutes. For non-fans of the Coen brothers its out of sight, out of mind, for true fans it takes its rightful place in the land of Big Lebowski’s and snow covered Minnesota.

Mark Lewis’ Baystate Blues is subtitled “An Intimate Epic” and however you feel about the christening of an epic, or the definition of the word, unfortunately this full length debut for the director is a disappointment for a number of reasons.

Baystate Blues is the tale of one day in the life of a couple, Mike (Scott Lewis) and Devon (Allyson Sereboff), six months removed from a horrific accident that left Devon mentally and physically scared. Her struggle to regain composure in her relationship and everything else in her life is the primary focus of the film; however ample time is given to her two sisters, Virginia (Sharon Maguire) and Alex (Steffi Kammer) and how they intertwine with the plot. There’s a subplot about Virginia and her attempts to reconcile and rekindle a past relationship with Jason (Joe Tuttle), but at its core the movie is really about the struggles of Mike and Devon.

The main problem is that, with such a small cast of characters, it’s nearly impossible to find one to identify with or really find attractive as a person. Devon, even though suffering Post-Traumatic Stress, comes off as whiny and annoying throughout the entire feature, and while this may be intentional, the film’s ending with her regaining clarity on her life is both open-ended and too little, too late for the audience’s relationship with the character. Her sisters present themselves as the 2D caricatures of the tough-on-the-outside but emotional-on-the-inside female who goes from hating men to accepting marriage by the end of 89 minutes, and the flighty, quirky sibling is involved in one of the movie’s most oft-putting plot twists. It isn’t like you don’t see the adulterous revelations at the end of the film coming, but you almost hoped it didn’t happen as it does no real service to the characters or the film as a whole.

Lewis’ script just doesn’t paint anything new on this canvas as the plot is slow at times and awkward dialog and an extremely long shoot at a stone church during one of Mike’s normal working days just make the film drag on rather than build up the suspense or drama towards a suitable conclusion. As mentioned before, the climax itself is left so open ended that it almost does a disservice to the viewer not knowing how things turn out but by now you’ve lost all hope for the characters.

On the technical side of things Lewis maintains a rather static camera on the action, even during a mid-film and ending musical montage to progress things along. The montages themselves are done well and the chosen scenery, like the aforementioned church, is beautiful to look at and shoot around.

While this “epic” does tighten things up towards the end of the film, with its driveway fight club and the needless will-they-won’t-they questions, the preceding hour just did so much to muddle and drag the audience along that they just might not care anymore. This all comes down to the characters and how hard they are to follow and identify with, with roughly half a dozen interacting there just needs to be something unique, different, and most importantly, likeable, about them for a viewer to show any attachment and emotion as they make some of the biggest choices in their lives.

Hungarian director Attila Szasz’s Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is a harrowing, supernaturally-infused short film that grasps you by the mind and never lets you go through its 30 minute runtime. All aspects of the film come together in such a coherent, cohesive, collective package that you almost need to take a step back and realize that this was a low-budget independent film, these types of films aren’t suppose to be this good, are they?

The most notable aspect of the entire product is Szasz’s flair for the cinematic. The cinematography is excellent throughout with an overhead rain scene rivaling the much-ballyhooed kin in The Matrix Revolutions. The camera work is smooth with lots of close up shots, slightly out of focus long shots, and effective use of lighting and blocking to create something so clean. The signature shot is that of silhouettes being used from a long shot.

The story itself features only three characters, a mother (Dora Letay), a father (Erno Fekete), and a son, Alex (Vitez Abraham), and through the running of the film it becomes more and more obvious that there is something else going on behind what the audience has been shown.

While keeping the review as spoiler free as possible, the final heart-wrenching and powerful revelation at the film’s climax will have you close to tears as you reexamine previous scenes for clues. Even relating it to other films will give away the more exciting portions of this revelation, so let’s leave it as a surprise.

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is a powerful feature film fitted into the shoe of a low budget indie. While the story as a whole isn’t as developed as you would get from a full length project, it does everything right in getting its point across while simultaneously pulling in and pulling at the audience in its gripping finale.

The Shield‘s Kurt Sutter branches out on his own with Sons of Anarchy a show thematically between the grit of the aforementioned cop series and the dark humor of FX’s own Rescue Me dramedy. The pilot episode, creatively named “Pilot” introduces us to the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club lead by Clay Marrow and featuring an eclectic mix of do-gooders and criminals all with noble intentions but less than noble, or lawful, ways of attaining those goals.

The story focuses primarily on Jackson Teller (Undeclared‘s Charlie Hunnam) the VP of the MC with a newborn baby and the stickling feeling that the gang has fallen away from its real intentions since his father’s, the former president, death. Jackson initially has to deal with his premature infant son and the thought that he might not survive his untimely birth from a drugged out mother (guest star Drea de Matteo).

The Sons of Anarchy operate out of fictional Charming, CA, a small town they use to work day jobs, protect the local businesses from meth-heads and Mexican gangs, oh, and run guns, lots and lots of guns for gangs in the Bay Area. The pilot establishes the less than cozy relationship between the Sons and the Mayans and brings a third player into the mix by the end of the episode.

The brutality of the violence is often overshadowed by impeccable comedic timing such as how a character achieved the nickname “Half-Sack” (it IS what you think) or the steps to taxidermy a deer’s head. While these moments are few in the pilot the nature of the characters and their relationships play well off of each other, the friendly taunting you see in close circles is very evident here.

The two big names on the roster are Hellboy‘s Ron Perlman, for once not disguised in make-up, and Married With Children and Futurama‘s Katey Sagal who lights up the screen in the rare opportunity to show her drama chops (aside from a few guest spots on Lost). Sagal manages to handle her character (Jackson’s mother) in such a cold, domineering fashion that there is more going on behind the scenes than she lets on. In the episodes pinnacle moment between Jackson’s ex-wife and herself, Sagal becomes almost frightening. Perlman, on the other hand, is his usual charismatic self, commanding the screen in every moment of the episode he appears in as a calculating leader and tough guy.

Sons of Anarchy continues FX’s tradition of breaking the mold of traditional dramas with out-side-the-box characters in situations you don’t usually see on TV. The strength of the pilot alone brings along a host of characters and branching storylines to cover over the first season, and while the impending war between the Mayans and the meth-heads is all but a given, we’ll have to see how the season’s other episodes flesh out the characters and the story as we go along.

If Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race 2000 remake has anything going for it, it’s the old adage; it knows what it is and doesn’t strive for anything more or anything less. Death Race, the remakes simplified name, is a blistering film drenched in pure octane and lacking much of anything else, but this isn’t award winning cinema here and at no point does the film strive to be, its simply there to entertain for nearly two hours and be done with and almost forgotten about on the ride home.

Death Race, sloshing around in development hell for the better part of the new millennium, even having Tom Cruise attached at one point, is now a budget release for Universal in the doldrums of August when the summer has passed us by, but we aren’t quite ready for award season yet. Jason Statham starts as Jensen Ames a man falsely accused of murdering his wife and thrown into Terminal Island prison. As the beginning of the film explains, the economic turmoil in the United States has lead to private corporations taking over detention duties and reality TV becoming slightly more obscene than Flava of Love.

Drivers are now forced to race for freedom, five wins gets you out, however no one has ever gotten five wins so who knows if the rules of a tyrannically warden (Joan Allen) will hold up when she’s faced with losing her biggest moneymaker. You already know Allen’s Hennessey has set up Ames to get him in her prison and star in her TV show. Coming along for the ride are notables like Tyrese Gibson (whose Transformer‘s check must not have cleared) and Ian McShane (who must be really heartbroken by the cancellation of Deadwood).

From the very onset Death Race grabs you by the groin and pulls you along with arresting shots of cars going fast, rockets exploding, and angry men ramming into each other. Its one testosterone drenched scene after another as Ames tries to find a way to escape and stay alive as Hennessey plots to destroy him after he’s served his purpose.

Statham is his everyday self, gruff, bald, quippy, and incredibly fun to watch in what ever he does. It seems as though writers always try to find a way for him to take his shirt off and work out, or work in a really good fight scene where he will take his short off and work out. Allen does a complete 180 from her turn in the Bourne franchise by hamming up a villain-role that is both unbelievable and utterly unbelievable.

That’s the problem with the movie in general; it sets rules and regulations for its universe and then completely negates them as time goes on including the ease of escape for the prisoners at the end of the film, you’ve probably been in Home Depots more heavily guarded than this maximum security prison.

Still, if you have the right mindset for entering, Death Race can have some amusing moments, usually provided by the interchange between Statham and Allen with McShane thrown in for good measure. Paul W.S. Anderson has never really shown himself to be very capable as a writer/director, usually excelling at the director part and failing miserably at the writing half, and that holds true here with horrible dialog and a story strung together for one explosion after another, but you do get fast cars, hot women, and a damn good, albeit forgettable, time.