Chris O' Donnell | pinartarhan.com

7 Engaging Tv Shows with Suspense Featuring Castle, The Mentalist, House, NCIS Los Angeles and More

Posted on June 16, 2010 Written by ripitup

crime scene — Case-solving, murder, mayhem, mischief and mystery. These are the 7 shows to provide all or some of those elements. Image from: southcarolina1670.files.wordpress.com/

How do you like mystery? Crime? Drama? Thrillers? Secret Agents? Detectives? If you like smart characters that follow clues, pay attention to detail and solve cases or if you simply like to play spy, go under cover and enjoy shows with multi-tasking, multi-tasking operatives, I have 7 shows for you. The list is here.

But if you want detailed profiles on these shoes, below are the individual pages.

Alias starring Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan
Castle starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic
House starring Hugh Laurie
The Mentalist starring Simon Baker and Robin Tunney
NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’ Donnell and L.L. Cool J.
The Forgotten starring Christian Slater
My Own Worst Enemy starring Christian Slater

NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J

Posted on May 12, 2010 Written by ripitup

NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O' Donnell and LL Cool J.

I feel a bit like a hypocrite that I like NCIS Los Angeles. Not because I like the original NCIS starring Mark Harmon (which I do by the way) but I joked so much about the whole CSI franchise going on. You have CSI New York and Las Vegas and Miami…Hell, maybe they even made a 4^th one I don’t know about. I joked that what’s the point in giving a show branches? Well, it turns out I don’t complain that much when you like the branch’s actors and love the city its taking place in. Yes, I am in love with California and I like Chris O’ Donnell, so its like NCIS is tailored to me.

NCIS-a.k.a- Naval Criminal Investigative Service-is all about crimes related to the navy as the title suggests. The Los Angeles team has agents G. Callen (Chris O’ Donnell), Sam Hanna (LL Cool J.), Kensi (Daneila Rush) and Dominic (Adam Jamal Craig), psychologist Nate (Peter Cambor), the computer/tech guy Eric (Barrett Foa) and their boss Henrietta (Linda Hunt).

The premise is simple: a navy-related crime is committed, NCIS director assigns them the case, our computer expert gives/searches/hacks info, Nate gives them a psychological profile and agents provide their expert insights. Hetty always has some warning to do, like don’t bleed to NCIS wardrobe…

While the banter between members aren’t exactly original, it is almost always funny. I especially love the relationship between O’ Donnell’s and Cool J’s characters. I mainly knew Cool J as a rapper and this is either the only lead role I ever saw him and I have to admit, he is good. Callen and Sam Hanna have good chemistry as partners in crime-solving and their relationships is funny. Hett y is quite a character and frankly Eric is so far the only cute tech guy I see in a tv show. Kensi is gorgeous and smart. Dominic is the newbie who is not all that interesting and frankly, I don’t care much about Nate’s profiling either. After watching House, Castle and The Mentalist, he frankly gives the most uninteresting insight about our criminals.

All in all, this is one fun detective/criminal show to watch if that’s your thing. I like the genre and as I mentioned I am mad about Los Angeles and I l am an O’ Donnell fan. The cast is good. This show is not for the seekers of extremity or originality but a fun crime show to enjoy. While it is not very addictive, it is really fun. I actually crossed my fingers for more seasons .

Also on Chris O’ Donnell:

Three Depression Movies: Mad Love, Numb and Mr. Jones

The Bachelor

The Bachelor starring Chris O’Donnell and Renée Zellweger

Posted on May 8, 2010 Written by ripitup

The Bachelor starring Chris O' Donnell Renée Zellweger. Made in 1999. Brace yourselves for something very romantic and very funny. Image from filmamerica.com

The opening credits start in wide open land with lots of horses running wild. Our narrator/lead character

Jimmy Shannon (Chris O’Donnell) starts his story by telling us that every man (in America) is Mustang (the horse, not the car) at heart. He is too. He is also a happy bachelor who loves dating a variety of women without having to think about getting married. One day he meets Anne (Renée Zellweger) and even though he is still not even dreaming about marriage, he is happy just being with that one women. After a year of bliss, his luck starts to change. All his friends have been getting married inevitably Anne uses the ever-dreaded word “future”. He is the only single guy left in his circle. He decides to do the inevitable and screws up big time. But then something even more dreadful happens- his grandfather dies and leaves him a $100 million. What’s dreadful about it? Jimmy needs to be married in a certain time frame, be married for at least 10 years and have 10 children. What the ****? “Poor” Jimmy proposes to Anne again, screwing up more time. Anne leaves town to visit her folks and Jimmy has no choice but visiting all his exes one by one, a highly diverse list of women who include a feminist, an over-bearing one, a cop, one who is all business, a stockbroker, an opera singer…

So Jimmy spends a lot of time proposing to one wrong woman after another and failing to be engaged, until his friend comes with a “brilliant” idea that’s very entertaining for us the audience and a total nightmare for Jimmy….

The Bachelor is a typical romantic comedy but I am saying it with love and affection. I really do like this movie. I love the idea, the actors, the scenes and the dialogue. Sure, as a modern woman I resent the idea of all men being portrayed as commitment-phobic and women crazy about marriage. I resent the idea that all women see marriage as bliss but men as a nightmare. It might be true for a lot of cases but hey times are changing a little. But who cares? The casting is perfect. If any other guy was giving you all the talk about Mustangs, a girl might be pissed. But hey, it is Chris O’ Donnell. One of the cutest and prettiest actors to date, he lights up the screen and even in his desperate moments, he doesn’t annoy you. He makes you laugh. Put an average guy in there and you would say “Oh, screw you, who would want to marry you, anyway?”. This is a romantic comedy meaning it is (unfortunately) targeted mostly at women and I am being honest.

Brooke Shields and Mariah Carey make very fun appearances. Even though I don’t like Mariah Carey at all, she was the perfect choice as the over-the-top opera singer.

It is a fun romcom with all the regular amount of cheesiness. But the funny bits are really funny and the romantic part is romantic. So if you like the genre, suspend your cynicism for the duration of the film and have fun.

Other Chris O’Donnell Posts

The Three Musketeers starring Chris O’Donnell, Kiefer Sutherland Charlie Sheen

NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J.

Mad Love starring Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell

All Posts on Renée Zellweger

11 Actors, 11 Drastic Weight Changes for Roles: With Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Renee Zellweger

4 Good Movies with Awesome Soundtracks: Shoot ‘em up, Jerry Maguire, Reality Bites and Vanilla Sky

Mr. Jones starring Richard Gere and Lena Olin

Posted on August 6, 2009 Written by ripitup

Mr. Jones starring Richard Gere and Lena Olin

Jones (Richard Gere) is hyper and fun. His lust for life is extreme. It is like he has the energy of ten men restored in him. His energy and happiness are contagious. Oh, sure it can be irritating as hell, depending on how your own day is going. He loves to laugh, flirt and spend. He loves to dance and he can play music so incredibly well.

But this is a good day. It is the manic side of his manic depression,also called the bipolar disorder. He hates being hospitalized and he hates medicine. What he likes, though, is the pretty doctor treating him: Elizabeth (Lena Olin). She wants to treat him. He is more intrested in flirting. After he dodges hospitalization,however, his doctor’s fears/or let’s say the realistic expectations are realized. The depression takes over.

The depressed side is maybe even worse than a regularly depressed patient, because you fall down so hard and so fast- and you really don’t know what has hit you. You hate yoursef,your life, and life in general. You transfer from being your best friend and your fav. person on earth to your biggest enemy and someone you don’t really recognize. So this time Jones is too desperate to turn down treatment. However a psychiatric hospital makes Jones even more depressed. The thing with manic-depression is that you are aware of the ridiculousness and the extremity of the situation. You are sane. So while his mood swings are balanced with medication, his personality is sedated too. He is miserable there.

So what do you do with a patient who is- on a good day- better and more rational than you and on a bad day questions everything, feels isolated and lost? After Elizabeth’s intrusion in his previous life (partly from curiousity and partly for his treatment and, welll partly she has feelings for him) – they have a huge fight, Jones gets angry and leaves. Liz doesn’t let him go and well, things gets even more complicated for both…

Both characters are problematic and romantic. Both leads are beautiful. The movie brought me really up and put me down at the same time. It still haunts me. Because people, you can dismiss the actions of Liz, and the relationship as romantisized but Jones is very true to heart. No, this is not my Richard gere crush talking. I know a manic- depressive very well…

Mr. Jones starring Richard Gere and Lena Olin Richard Gere and Lena Olin in Mr. Jones

Richard Gere and Lena Olin in Mr. Jones

P.S: Give Mad Love a chance too. Depending on whether you are a little crazy/impulsive by nature and/or manic-depressive you might identify with Drew Barrymore’s character. If not, the sensitive Matt (Chris O’ Donnell) might appeal to you.

Another good movie about depression:

Numb starring Matthew Perry

Other Posts on Richard Gere

Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle

Sommersby starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster

Nicolas Sparks vs. Happy Endings – featuring Nights in Rodanthe starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere.

Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts

Allure of the older Guy feat. Richard Gere