KABLUEY (***) - Starring Lisa Kudrow, Scott Prendergast, Christine Taylor, Conchata Ferrell, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Parnell and Angela Sarafyan.
Written & directed by Scott Prendergast.
In the beginning, I thought this was going to be awful. Lisa Kudrow plays a struggling mother who loses her husband to another year of Iraq War duty. She turns to her last resort - her loser brother-in-law - to help watch the kids, her two little terrors. All of this was peddling along without much hope of a decent movie emerging, but it finally got there.
After one day of babysitting, the bro-in-law (Prendergast) proves to be incompetant, so Kudrow deicdes she's rather have him get a job and help her pay for daycare, and his job is to wear the big blue costume of Kabluey, the mascot for Kudrow's company, a dot-com start-up that had 95% of its staff downsized right before construction on their new facility completed.
His job is to stand on the side of a country road and hand out fliers advertising space in the building, probably the least effective marketing he could possibly do besides putting an "Ask Me About Rental Space" sign on the inside of his bedroom closet. It turned into a weird meditation of isolationism, and Pendergrast's low-key direction started to give off that Jared Hess vibe.
Kabluey has a giant head; the size of it forces it to always slump forward, so no matter where Prendergast goes, his mascot looks dejected, a big blue Charlie Brown the morning after the NASDAQ crashed. There's plenty of physical humor, as Kabluey has no hands, so Prendergast must contort to do simple tasks.
It's not one to get overhyped for. This movie snuck up on me, and I liked it for that.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Noise - DVD Review
NOISE (**) - Starring Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Hurt, William Baldwin, Margarita Levieva and Gabrielle Brennan.
Writte & directed by Henry Bean.
This is a 30-minute idea stretched to 90 minutes. I liked the set-up, and I felt for the character. Tim Robbins is a guy being driven crazy by excess noise, especially the invasive sound of car alarms. He eventually becomes a vigilante known as the Rectifier, who vandalizes cars that have their alarms go off. He's also so angry anyway that car alarms feel like an excuse for him to go nuts.
I liked the first 15 minutes, and I liked the last 15 minutes, and the movie takes a couple walks around the park in the middle. I feel like more and more indies I've been seeing have been doing that, like they're all based on short story ideas, but they stretch it out to feature length. If they stay short, they know the only way they'll get seen is if they're nominated for Best Live-Action Short and then air on IFC or Sundance Channel. Full-length at least gives them hope of some DVD rentals.
But this movie makes a good case for the pointlessness of car alarms.
Writte & directed by Henry Bean.
This is a 30-minute idea stretched to 90 minutes. I liked the set-up, and I felt for the character. Tim Robbins is a guy being driven crazy by excess noise, especially the invasive sound of car alarms. He eventually becomes a vigilante known as the Rectifier, who vandalizes cars that have their alarms go off. He's also so angry anyway that car alarms feel like an excuse for him to go nuts.
I liked the first 15 minutes, and I liked the last 15 minutes, and the movie takes a couple walks around the park in the middle. I feel like more and more indies I've been seeing have been doing that, like they're all based on short story ideas, but they stretch it out to feature length. If they stay short, they know the only way they'll get seen is if they're nominated for Best Live-Action Short and then air on IFC or Sundance Channel. Full-length at least gives them hope of some DVD rentals.
But this movie makes a good case for the pointlessness of car alarms.
Baby Mama - DVD Review
BABY MAMA (***) - Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Martin, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Sigourney Weaver, Romany Malco, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, John Hodgman, James Rebhorn and Siobhan Fallon Hogan.
Directed by Michael McCullers.
30 Rock is a hit partially because Tina Fey is so willing to share the spotlight and concede the floor to her co-stars. Her persona lends itself to being straight man to whoever wanders in. Fey's also demonstrating a good nose for material. Mean Girls was a good movie, 30 Rock won its second Emmy, and now here comes a traditional SNL buddy comedy, except the buddies are women this time around.
Fey plays a career-first woman who suddenly finds herself at age 37 and regretting her single, childless state. She looks into adoption and in-vitro fertilization, but they don't turn out to be viable options. She seeks a surrogate mother, going through a reputable agency, but she lands Amy Poehler's free spirit, who winds being a little bit psycho.
Steve Martin gets a lot of laughs as her new-age boss at an organic foods company. Greg Kinnear is adequate as the obligatory love interest. Other SNL cast members pop up in decent cameos for positive effect.
Is it formula? Absolutely. But at least it's funny.
Directed by Michael McCullers.
30 Rock is a hit partially because Tina Fey is so willing to share the spotlight and concede the floor to her co-stars. Her persona lends itself to being straight man to whoever wanders in. Fey's also demonstrating a good nose for material. Mean Girls was a good movie, 30 Rock won its second Emmy, and now here comes a traditional SNL buddy comedy, except the buddies are women this time around.
Fey plays a career-first woman who suddenly finds herself at age 37 and regretting her single, childless state. She looks into adoption and in-vitro fertilization, but they don't turn out to be viable options. She seeks a surrogate mother, going through a reputable agency, but she lands Amy Poehler's free spirit, who winds being a little bit psycho.
Steve Martin gets a lot of laughs as her new-age boss at an organic foods company. Greg Kinnear is adequate as the obligatory love interest. Other SNL cast members pop up in decent cameos for positive effect.
Is it formula? Absolutely. But at least it's funny.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Righteous Kill - Movie Review
RIGHTEOUS KILL (**1/2) - Starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Carla Gugino, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Brian Dennehy.
Directed by Jon Avnet.
See it for the treat of watching DeNiro and Pacino act together in one movie, but it's no Heat. It's nowhere near Heat.
The two men have made some poor choices since their 1995 teaming. They've both had good projects too, but I can't help but look at DeNiro and think "15 Minutes? Hide & Seek?" or at Pacino and wonder "Two for the Money? 88 Minutes?"
I read the original script called for Pacino's character to be a couple decades younger than DeNiro's, and that makes sense. Pacino keeps joking that DeNiro's his role model, things like that. In real life, Al has a couple years on Robert.
It seems a series of criminals who have been getting off on technicalities have been getting murdered, and the killer leaves behind poems. So the cynical cops investigating don't mind the bad guys getting snuffed, but they recognize they have a serial killer out there and they need to stop him. It doesn't take long (and the preview gives this away) for them to figure out that the killer must be a cop as well.
Having seen two Avnet movies within a week of each other (the other being 88 Minutes), I noticed something exploitive about how he treats his women. 88 Minutes had a killer who likes to string his women up and cut them, so that they slowly bleed to death while he's raping them. There's only one main female character in Righteous Kill, and she's a cop who likes rough sex, insomuch that we first think she's getting brutally raped before we find out she's just roleplaying. Carla Gugino must have read the script and muttered, "The things I do to get to work with DeNiro..."
(Which reminds me of the American Express commercial of Tina Fey trying to meet with Martin Scorsese. "I may miss my chance to get kicked to death in a movie." But I digress.)
Righteous Kill was one of those movies where we get an obvious red herring, a more subtle red herring, and then who I thought the actual killer is. But it actually wound up being the subtle red herring. I thought the subtle red herring was too obvious, but with mysteries, I guess it's pretty hard these days to surprise audiences with whodunit.
Directed by Jon Avnet.
See it for the treat of watching DeNiro and Pacino act together in one movie, but it's no Heat. It's nowhere near Heat.
The two men have made some poor choices since their 1995 teaming. They've both had good projects too, but I can't help but look at DeNiro and think "15 Minutes? Hide & Seek?" or at Pacino and wonder "Two for the Money? 88 Minutes?"
I read the original script called for Pacino's character to be a couple decades younger than DeNiro's, and that makes sense. Pacino keeps joking that DeNiro's his role model, things like that. In real life, Al has a couple years on Robert.
It seems a series of criminals who have been getting off on technicalities have been getting murdered, and the killer leaves behind poems. So the cynical cops investigating don't mind the bad guys getting snuffed, but they recognize they have a serial killer out there and they need to stop him. It doesn't take long (and the preview gives this away) for them to figure out that the killer must be a cop as well.
Having seen two Avnet movies within a week of each other (the other being 88 Minutes), I noticed something exploitive about how he treats his women. 88 Minutes had a killer who likes to string his women up and cut them, so that they slowly bleed to death while he's raping them. There's only one main female character in Righteous Kill, and she's a cop who likes rough sex, insomuch that we first think she's getting brutally raped before we find out she's just roleplaying. Carla Gugino must have read the script and muttered, "The things I do to get to work with DeNiro..."
(Which reminds me of the American Express commercial of Tina Fey trying to meet with Martin Scorsese. "I may miss my chance to get kicked to death in a movie." But I digress.)
Righteous Kill was one of those movies where we get an obvious red herring, a more subtle red herring, and then who I thought the actual killer is. But it actually wound up being the subtle red herring. I thought the subtle red herring was too obvious, but with mysteries, I guess it's pretty hard these days to surprise audiences with whodunit.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Burn After Reading - Movie Review
The previews we had didn't get much reaction except for Oliver Stone's W. People were groaning and I heard one woman say, "That looks awful." I'm curious because I liked JFK and Nixon, even if Stone was, shall we say, "playful" with the facts.
Other previews: Milk (awards bait for Sean Penn), The International (bland big-conspiracy movie starring Clive Owen), Doubt (looks like a powerful acting tour-de-force with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and The Brothers Bloom (looks like a mediocre con comedy).
BURN AFTER READING (***) - Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, David Rasche and JK Simmons.
Written & directed by Joel & Ethan Coen.
I must admit, if I ranked all the Coen brothers movies from my favorite to least, The Big Lebowski would be in the bottom half. I've only seen one movie of theirs I'd thumb down - The Ladykillers - and its main problem was the usually clever dialogue was replaced with over a hundred F-words. Some movies do funny things with this word - Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino come to mind, and HBO had Deadwood - but much more often, it's a lazy screenplay space filler. It's the 21st century's "very."
Now with The Big Lewbowski tending to be the favorite Coen movie of many Coen fans, I've wondered if I need to revisit it. Maybe a ClearPlay version, I don't know. And now Burn After Reading joins The Big Lebowski and The Ladykillers for me as Coen movies where it would have been a better movie if they'd been more creative with the dialogue than a parade of F-words. Without looking it up, as far as I know, this one had the same amount of F-words as Fargo, but it sure doesn't seem like it. Fargo was a better movie.
That aside, it has many elements of classic Coen comedy. Most of the characters are idiots, and the way things spiral out of control is hilarious. Clooney plays a Treasury department employee sleeping with a doctor (Swinton) who's married to an FBI man (Malkovich). Sensitive information about him is accidentally left on a CD at a gym, where two dim employees (Pitt, McDormand) decide to use it for extortion.
My favorite parts of the movie came from David Rasche (who will always be Sledgehammer! to me) as Malkovich's boss. He's keeping an eye on the situation, even though he can't tell what's going on, and he brings regular updates to his boss JK Simmons, who finds it all more confounding.
This isn't one of their best movies. I'd rank it around Intolerable Cruelty or The Hudsucker Proxy or The Big Lebowski, but I can think of half a dozen Coen movies I liked more.
Other previews: Milk (awards bait for Sean Penn), The International (bland big-conspiracy movie starring Clive Owen), Doubt (looks like a powerful acting tour-de-force with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and The Brothers Bloom (looks like a mediocre con comedy).
BURN AFTER READING (***) - Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, David Rasche and JK Simmons.
Written & directed by Joel & Ethan Coen.
I must admit, if I ranked all the Coen brothers movies from my favorite to least, The Big Lebowski would be in the bottom half. I've only seen one movie of theirs I'd thumb down - The Ladykillers - and its main problem was the usually clever dialogue was replaced with over a hundred F-words. Some movies do funny things with this word - Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino come to mind, and HBO had Deadwood - but much more often, it's a lazy screenplay space filler. It's the 21st century's "very."
Now with The Big Lewbowski tending to be the favorite Coen movie of many Coen fans, I've wondered if I need to revisit it. Maybe a ClearPlay version, I don't know. And now Burn After Reading joins The Big Lebowski and The Ladykillers for me as Coen movies where it would have been a better movie if they'd been more creative with the dialogue than a parade of F-words. Without looking it up, as far as I know, this one had the same amount of F-words as Fargo, but it sure doesn't seem like it. Fargo was a better movie.
That aside, it has many elements of classic Coen comedy. Most of the characters are idiots, and the way things spiral out of control is hilarious. Clooney plays a Treasury department employee sleeping with a doctor (Swinton) who's married to an FBI man (Malkovich). Sensitive information about him is accidentally left on a CD at a gym, where two dim employees (Pitt, McDormand) decide to use it for extortion.
My favorite parts of the movie came from David Rasche (who will always be Sledgehammer! to me) as Malkovich's boss. He's keeping an eye on the situation, even though he can't tell what's going on, and he brings regular updates to his boss JK Simmons, who finds it all more confounding.
This isn't one of their best movies. I'd rank it around Intolerable Cruelty or The Hudsucker Proxy or The Big Lebowski, but I can think of half a dozen Coen movies I liked more.
Tobey Maguire set for Spider-Man 4 & 5
So, now that The Dark Knight has set a new standard on what a superhero movie can be, and since Spider-Man 3 is widely considered the weakest installment in the franchise, what are Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire going to do next?
I genuinely hope they make Peter Parker grow up. He can be a freelance photographer in the comic books for decades, but in the movies, he needs a more natural progression. I think the best way to get Peter to grow up is to have Mary Jane get killed in Spider-Man 4. I say that selfishly because I think Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen would be a better romantic pairing than Kirsten Dunst's increasingly mopey MJ. They could also have him start out at the beginning of SM4 actually affected by the death of Harry.
If I were doing it, I'd write a treatment that has introduces a cousin Osbourn that gets all of Harry's stuff, and one of his business prospects is the movie industry, and a disgruntled employee there is Quentin Beck, who becomes Mysterio. He then tries to make a name for himself going after Spider-Man.
Meanwhile Dr. Connors finally does his regeneration experiement which turns him into the Lizard. Spidey thwarts the Lizard, and now he has two foes after him, but Lizard's more destructive ways get in the way of an elaborate scheme Mysterio had set up, so they hate each other too. Peter eventually finds a cure for Dr. Connors, and he's restored to normalcy while Spidey and Mysterio have a showdown. Mysterio has kidnapped MJ but winds up accidentally killing her. Spidey goes to a dark place, but Gwen and Connors are there to stop him from murdering Beck. Mysterio is exposed and jailed. Gwen can now be there to pick up the pieces with Peter. Ominous final shot shows the Lizard cure is only temporary.
Spider-Man 5 could go anywhere from there. Sandman, Lizard and Mysterio are all still alive. Hobgoblin could pop up, or Electro, or Chameleon, or any of the other supervillains. Even Kingpin, though he's already been in Daredevil. Or maybe Spidey 5 can have some sort of cross-over with the Avengers or some of the X-Men. Anything's possible in this synergous world. I'd only suggest Carnage if I thought they could do him justice, but I hear they might do a spinoff Venom movie, so Carnage would be the perfect villain for that one.
I genuinely hope they make Peter Parker grow up. He can be a freelance photographer in the comic books for decades, but in the movies, he needs a more natural progression. I think the best way to get Peter to grow up is to have Mary Jane get killed in Spider-Man 4. I say that selfishly because I think Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen would be a better romantic pairing than Kirsten Dunst's increasingly mopey MJ. They could also have him start out at the beginning of SM4 actually affected by the death of Harry.
If I were doing it, I'd write a treatment that has introduces a cousin Osbourn that gets all of Harry's stuff, and one of his business prospects is the movie industry, and a disgruntled employee there is Quentin Beck, who becomes Mysterio. He then tries to make a name for himself going after Spider-Man.
Meanwhile Dr. Connors finally does his regeneration experiement which turns him into the Lizard. Spidey thwarts the Lizard, and now he has two foes after him, but Lizard's more destructive ways get in the way of an elaborate scheme Mysterio had set up, so they hate each other too. Peter eventually finds a cure for Dr. Connors, and he's restored to normalcy while Spidey and Mysterio have a showdown. Mysterio has kidnapped MJ but winds up accidentally killing her. Spidey goes to a dark place, but Gwen and Connors are there to stop him from murdering Beck. Mysterio is exposed and jailed. Gwen can now be there to pick up the pieces with Peter. Ominous final shot shows the Lizard cure is only temporary.
Spider-Man 5 could go anywhere from there. Sandman, Lizard and Mysterio are all still alive. Hobgoblin could pop up, or Electro, or Chameleon, or any of the other supervillains. Even Kingpin, though he's already been in Daredevil. Or maybe Spidey 5 can have some sort of cross-over with the Avengers or some of the X-Men. Anything's possible in this synergous world. I'd only suggest Carnage if I thought they could do him justice, but I hear they might do a spinoff Venom movie, so Carnage would be the perfect villain for that one.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Promotion - DVD Review
THE PROMOTION (***) - Starring Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, Jenna Fischer, Gil Bellows, Lili Taylor, Bobby Cavanale, Masi Oka and Jason Bateman.
Written & directed by Steve Conrad.
This movie spoke more to today's economy than just about any other movie out there, which made the humor sting just a little bit more than if it had been about two hotshots trying to get a CEO spot.
This is about two middle-class guys, decent, dorky, vying for a new management position at their grocery store chain. The movie permeates with their economic desperation. If they don't get this promotion, they'll be stuck. Dead-ended. Slyly, they start undercutting each other at work, while pretending to still be friends.
It has this easy Election-type vibe to it, and the laughs aren't hardy, but they earn the smiles, whether pained or frivolous. Fred Armisen (SNL) is just the kind of nerdy, lazy supervisor you wanna slap. The highlight is the cameo from Jason Bateman as a teambuilding coach, but then, he usually is the highlight.
Written & directed by Steve Conrad.
This movie spoke more to today's economy than just about any other movie out there, which made the humor sting just a little bit more than if it had been about two hotshots trying to get a CEO spot.
This is about two middle-class guys, decent, dorky, vying for a new management position at their grocery store chain. The movie permeates with their economic desperation. If they don't get this promotion, they'll be stuck. Dead-ended. Slyly, they start undercutting each other at work, while pretending to still be friends.
It has this easy Election-type vibe to it, and the laughs aren't hardy, but they earn the smiles, whether pained or frivolous. Fred Armisen (SNL) is just the kind of nerdy, lazy supervisor you wanna slap. The highlight is the cameo from Jason Bateman as a teambuilding coach, but then, he usually is the highlight.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Fall TV Preview
Here is the fall schedule for the networks.
(New shows in caps; excluding those acronym shows)
=SUNDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
CBS - The Amazing Race
NBC - Football Night in America
FOX - The Simpsons / King of the Hill
The CW - VALENTINE
9:00/8:00
ABC - Desperate Housewives
CBS - Cold Case
NBC - Sunday Night Football (3 hrs)
FOX - Family Guy / American Dad
The CW - EASY MONEY
10:00/9:00
ABC - Brothers & Sisters
CBS - The Unit
My DVR Plans: Amazing Race*, Simpsons, American Dad
New Shows:
Valentine - a show about Greek gods living in L.A. Dexter's Jaime Murray plays Aphrodite, for one. The premise is enough to make me watch one episode and see how it goes.
Easy Money - It's about a quirky family who runs a payday loan business. Vice Versa's Judge Reinhold and Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf are amongst its cast members. Ehh.
=MONDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Dancing with the Stars (90 mins)
CBS - The Big Bang Theory / How I Met Your Mother
NBC - Chuck
FOX - Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
The CW - Gossip Girl
9:00/8:00
ABC - Samantha Who? (9:30)
CBS - Two and a Half Men / WORST WEEK
NBC - Heroes
FOX - Prison Break
The CW - One Tree Hill
10:00/9:00
ABC - Boston Legal
CBS - CSI: Miami
NBC - MY OWN WORST ENEMY
My DVR Plans: Dancing with the Stars*, Chuck, Terminator*, Heroes, Prison Break, My Own Worst Enemy
New Shows:
Worst Week - TV Guide called it the best comedy of the fall, and hailed its star Kyle Bornheimer as a promising talent (I know I've seen him on commercials). It's about a nice guy who keeps having things screw up on him.
My Own Worst Enemy - This feels like the natural follow-show after Heroes. Christian Slater plays a man with two alter-egos, neither of whom are aware of the other, and one of those is a secret agent with deadly enemies. I'm intrigued.
=TUESDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
CBS - NCIS
NBC - The Biggest Loser (2 hrs)
FOX - House
The CW - 90210
9:00/8:00
ABC - Dancing with the Stars results
CBS - THE MENTALIST
FOX - FRINGE
The CW - PRIVILEGED
10:00/9:00
ABC - Eli Stone
CBS - Without a Trace
NBC - Law & Order: SVU
My DVR Plans: The Mentalist*, Fringe
New Shows:
Opportunity Knocks - A game show where they build a studio in your front yard, and the neighbors are the audience. J.D. Roth (Endurance) hosts.
90210 - The next generation. A sibling set from Kansas moves to Beverly Hills. Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth reprise their roles, but they're now in their 30's.
The Mentalist - Simon Baker (The Guardian) plays a detective who's really good at observation, to the point that people think he's psychic. CBS has had trouble with Tuesdays for a decade, outside of JAG/NCIS. Maybe this conventional crime procedural can be an anchor.
Fringe - TV Guide called it the most promising drama of the fall. JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost) is the creator. It's about a father-son genius team (Joshua Jackson, John Noble) who are recruited to examine paranormal activity. Call it a cross between The X-Files and Alias.
Privileged - A Yale grad gets fired from her NY magazine job, so she heads to Palm Beach to be a tutor for two spoiled girls while she works off student loans. It's compared to the Gilmore Girls teaching the Gossip Girls.
=WEDNESDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Pushing Daisies
CBS - Old Christine / GARY UNMARRIED
NBC - KNIGHT RIDER
FOX - Bones
The CW - America's Next Top Model
9:00/8:00
ABC - Private Practice
CBS - Criminal Minds
NBC - Deal or No Deal
FOX - Til Death / DO NOT DISTURB
The CW - STYLISTA
10:00/9:00
ABC - Dirty Sexy Money
CBS - CSI: New York
NBC - Lipstick Jungle
My DVR Plans: Pushing Daisies, America's Next Top Model *, Dirty Sexy Money
New Shows:
Knight Rider - There was a TV movie a few months ago that got good ratings, so the actual show is coming. I saw the movie and found it boring enough to not see how it ended.
Gary Unmarried - Another sitcom starring an SNL alum as a newly divorced parent. So nice that it follows The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Do Not Disturb - Hijinks at a hotel. Now that Jerry O'Connell's with Rebecca Romijn, he's taken over for John Stamos as king of the quickly-cancelled sitcoms.
Stylista - More than one reviewer has called it The Devil Wears Prada: The Reality Show. It's an Apprentice-style reality show where the contestants are competing for a cush job at Elle magazine.
=THURSDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Ugly Betty
CBS - Survivor: Gabon
NBC - My Name Is Earl / KATH & KIM
FOX - HOLE IN THE WALL
The CW - Smallville
9:00/8:00
ABC - Grey's Anatomy
CBS - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
NBC - The Office / 30 Rock
FOX - Kitchen Nightmares
The CW - Supernatural
10:00/9:00
ABC - LIFE ON MARS
CBS - ELEVENTH HOUR
NBC - ER
My DVR Plans: Survivor*, My Name Is Earl, Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, Life on Mars
New Shows:
Kath & Kim - Based on a hit Australia sitcom, it's about a boozy mom who thinks she has the house to herself until her daughter moves back in after she ends her two-month marriage. Molly Shannon and Selma Blair star.
Hole in the Wall - Another Japanese-style game show creation.
Life on Mars - Based on the BCC show about a cop who wakes up in 1973. Jason O'Mara, Harvey Kietel, Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol star. With ER's fading ratings, Without a Trace moved to a new night, and a lead-in like Grey's Anatomy, it's poised to be a hit.
Eleventh Hour - Rufus Sewell plays an expert brought in at "the elventh hour" to help solve tough crimes.
=FRIDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Wife Swap
CBS - Ghost Whisperer
NBC - AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS
FOX - Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
The CW - Everybody Hates Chris / The Game
9:00/8:00
ABC - Supernanny
CBS - THE EX LIST
NBC - CRUSOE
FOX - Don't Forget the Lyrics!
The CW - Top Model encore
10:00/9:00
ABC - 20/20
CBS - Numb3rs
NBC - Life
My DVR Plans: Crusoe
New Plans:
America's Toughest Jobs - Reality show where contestants take part in some of the toughest jobs around.
The Ex-List - Elizabeth Reaser (Grey's Anatomy) plays a woman is told by a psychic she's already met the man of her dreams, so she starts looking up all the men she's ever dated to see which one was her soulmate that she let get away.
Crusoe - Robinson Crusoe: the TV show.
=SATURDAY=s are a wash.
*wife shows.
So how will the new crop do? My predictions:
ABC has only two new shows this fall, so I'm guessing Life on Mars will succeed and Opportunity Knocks will fail.
CBS has five new shows. I'm guessing Worst Week will succeed and Gary Unmarried will fail.
FOX has three new shows. I'm guessing Fringe will succeed and Do Not Disturb will fail.
NBC has five new shows. I'm guessing My Own Worst Enemy will succeed and Knight Rider will fail.
The CW has seven new shows. I'm guessing 90210 will succeed and Easy Money will fail.
----
ONE YEAR AGO:
28 new shows, ten made it.
ABC - Eight new shows, four are returning (Samantha Who?, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice). Cavemen is not.
CBS - Five new shows, one returning (The Big Bang Theory). Viva Laughlin is not.
FOX - Five new shows, one returning (Kitchen Nightmares). Nashville is not.
NBC - Four new shows, two returning (Chuck, Life). Journeyman is not.
The CW - Six news shows, two returning (Gossip Girl, Reaper(mid-season)). Online Nation is not.
----
FIVE YEARS AGO:
ABC didn't have a single hit, but it tried with titles like Karen Sisco (with Carla Gugino) and Married to the Kellys.
CBS scored with Two and a Half Men, NCIS, Cold Case and Joan of Arcadia. It also fell on its face with The Brotherhood of Poland NH.
FOX came out with Arrested Development, a critical hit that stayed on life support for three years. Everything else flopped. Remember a show called Skin?
NBC's sole success was Las Vegas. It crashed and burned with Whoopi and The Lyon's Den (with Rob Lowe).
UPN and WB were still separate networks, but that was the year One Tree Hill debuted. So did The Mullets.
(New shows in caps; excluding those acronym shows)
=SUNDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
CBS - The Amazing Race
NBC - Football Night in America
FOX - The Simpsons / King of the Hill
The CW - VALENTINE
9:00/8:00
ABC - Desperate Housewives
CBS - Cold Case
NBC - Sunday Night Football (3 hrs)
FOX - Family Guy / American Dad
The CW - EASY MONEY
10:00/9:00
ABC - Brothers & Sisters
CBS - The Unit
My DVR Plans: Amazing Race*, Simpsons, American Dad
New Shows:
Valentine - a show about Greek gods living in L.A. Dexter's Jaime Murray plays Aphrodite, for one. The premise is enough to make me watch one episode and see how it goes.
Easy Money - It's about a quirky family who runs a payday loan business. Vice Versa's Judge Reinhold and Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf are amongst its cast members. Ehh.
=MONDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Dancing with the Stars (90 mins)
CBS - The Big Bang Theory / How I Met Your Mother
NBC - Chuck
FOX - Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
The CW - Gossip Girl
9:00/8:00
ABC - Samantha Who? (9:30)
CBS - Two and a Half Men / WORST WEEK
NBC - Heroes
FOX - Prison Break
The CW - One Tree Hill
10:00/9:00
ABC - Boston Legal
CBS - CSI: Miami
NBC - MY OWN WORST ENEMY
My DVR Plans: Dancing with the Stars*, Chuck, Terminator*, Heroes, Prison Break, My Own Worst Enemy
New Shows:
Worst Week - TV Guide called it the best comedy of the fall, and hailed its star Kyle Bornheimer as a promising talent (I know I've seen him on commercials). It's about a nice guy who keeps having things screw up on him.
My Own Worst Enemy - This feels like the natural follow-show after Heroes. Christian Slater plays a man with two alter-egos, neither of whom are aware of the other, and one of those is a secret agent with deadly enemies. I'm intrigued.
=TUESDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
CBS - NCIS
NBC - The Biggest Loser (2 hrs)
FOX - House
The CW - 90210
9:00/8:00
ABC - Dancing with the Stars results
CBS - THE MENTALIST
FOX - FRINGE
The CW - PRIVILEGED
10:00/9:00
ABC - Eli Stone
CBS - Without a Trace
NBC - Law & Order: SVU
My DVR Plans: The Mentalist*, Fringe
New Shows:
Opportunity Knocks - A game show where they build a studio in your front yard, and the neighbors are the audience. J.D. Roth (Endurance) hosts.
90210 - The next generation. A sibling set from Kansas moves to Beverly Hills. Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth reprise their roles, but they're now in their 30's.
The Mentalist - Simon Baker (The Guardian) plays a detective who's really good at observation, to the point that people think he's psychic. CBS has had trouble with Tuesdays for a decade, outside of JAG/NCIS. Maybe this conventional crime procedural can be an anchor.
Fringe - TV Guide called it the most promising drama of the fall. JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost) is the creator. It's about a father-son genius team (Joshua Jackson, John Noble) who are recruited to examine paranormal activity. Call it a cross between The X-Files and Alias.
Privileged - A Yale grad gets fired from her NY magazine job, so she heads to Palm Beach to be a tutor for two spoiled girls while she works off student loans. It's compared to the Gilmore Girls teaching the Gossip Girls.
=WEDNESDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Pushing Daisies
CBS - Old Christine / GARY UNMARRIED
NBC - KNIGHT RIDER
FOX - Bones
The CW - America's Next Top Model
9:00/8:00
ABC - Private Practice
CBS - Criminal Minds
NBC - Deal or No Deal
FOX - Til Death / DO NOT DISTURB
The CW - STYLISTA
10:00/9:00
ABC - Dirty Sexy Money
CBS - CSI: New York
NBC - Lipstick Jungle
My DVR Plans: Pushing Daisies, America's Next Top Model *, Dirty Sexy Money
New Shows:
Knight Rider - There was a TV movie a few months ago that got good ratings, so the actual show is coming. I saw the movie and found it boring enough to not see how it ended.
Gary Unmarried - Another sitcom starring an SNL alum as a newly divorced parent. So nice that it follows The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Do Not Disturb - Hijinks at a hotel. Now that Jerry O'Connell's with Rebecca Romijn, he's taken over for John Stamos as king of the quickly-cancelled sitcoms.
Stylista - More than one reviewer has called it The Devil Wears Prada: The Reality Show. It's an Apprentice-style reality show where the contestants are competing for a cush job at Elle magazine.
=THURSDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Ugly Betty
CBS - Survivor: Gabon
NBC - My Name Is Earl / KATH & KIM
FOX - HOLE IN THE WALL
The CW - Smallville
9:00/8:00
ABC - Grey's Anatomy
CBS - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
NBC - The Office / 30 Rock
FOX - Kitchen Nightmares
The CW - Supernatural
10:00/9:00
ABC - LIFE ON MARS
CBS - ELEVENTH HOUR
NBC - ER
My DVR Plans: Survivor*, My Name Is Earl, Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, Life on Mars
New Shows:
Kath & Kim - Based on a hit Australia sitcom, it's about a boozy mom who thinks she has the house to herself until her daughter moves back in after she ends her two-month marriage. Molly Shannon and Selma Blair star.
Hole in the Wall - Another Japanese-style game show creation.
Life on Mars - Based on the BCC show about a cop who wakes up in 1973. Jason O'Mara, Harvey Kietel, Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol star. With ER's fading ratings, Without a Trace moved to a new night, and a lead-in like Grey's Anatomy, it's poised to be a hit.
Eleventh Hour - Rufus Sewell plays an expert brought in at "the elventh hour" to help solve tough crimes.
=FRIDAY=
8:00/7:00
ABC - Wife Swap
CBS - Ghost Whisperer
NBC - AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS
FOX - Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
The CW - Everybody Hates Chris / The Game
9:00/8:00
ABC - Supernanny
CBS - THE EX LIST
NBC - CRUSOE
FOX - Don't Forget the Lyrics!
The CW - Top Model encore
10:00/9:00
ABC - 20/20
CBS - Numb3rs
NBC - Life
My DVR Plans: Crusoe
New Plans:
America's Toughest Jobs - Reality show where contestants take part in some of the toughest jobs around.
The Ex-List - Elizabeth Reaser (Grey's Anatomy) plays a woman is told by a psychic she's already met the man of her dreams, so she starts looking up all the men she's ever dated to see which one was her soulmate that she let get away.
Crusoe - Robinson Crusoe: the TV show.
=SATURDAY=s are a wash.
*wife shows.
So how will the new crop do? My predictions:
ABC has only two new shows this fall, so I'm guessing Life on Mars will succeed and Opportunity Knocks will fail.
CBS has five new shows. I'm guessing Worst Week will succeed and Gary Unmarried will fail.
FOX has three new shows. I'm guessing Fringe will succeed and Do Not Disturb will fail.
NBC has five new shows. I'm guessing My Own Worst Enemy will succeed and Knight Rider will fail.
The CW has seven new shows. I'm guessing 90210 will succeed and Easy Money will fail.
----
ONE YEAR AGO:
28 new shows, ten made it.
ABC - Eight new shows, four are returning (Samantha Who?, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice). Cavemen is not.
CBS - Five new shows, one returning (The Big Bang Theory). Viva Laughlin is not.
FOX - Five new shows, one returning (Kitchen Nightmares). Nashville is not.
NBC - Four new shows, two returning (Chuck, Life). Journeyman is not.
The CW - Six news shows, two returning (Gossip Girl, Reaper(mid-season)). Online Nation is not.
----
FIVE YEARS AGO:
ABC didn't have a single hit, but it tried with titles like Karen Sisco (with Carla Gugino) and Married to the Kellys.
CBS scored with Two and a Half Men, NCIS, Cold Case and Joan of Arcadia. It also fell on its face with The Brotherhood of Poland NH.
FOX came out with Arrested Development, a critical hit that stayed on life support for three years. Everything else flopped. Remember a show called Skin?
NBC's sole success was Las Vegas. It crashed and burned with Whoopi and The Lyon's Den (with Rob Lowe).
UPN and WB were still separate networks, but that was the year One Tree Hill debuted. So did The Mullets.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
August - DVD Review
AUGUST (**1/2) - Starring Josh Hartnett, Naomie Harris, Adam Scott, Robin Tunney, Rip Torn, David Bowie, Andre Royo and Emmanuelle Chriqui.
Written by Howard A. Rodman.
Directed by Austin Chick.
I remember August 2001 very vividly. I'd been working for a dot-com company for four months, and in those four months, the NASDAQ went from 5000 to 2000. I watched that dot-com company buy brand-new computers for every new employee, when computers only a year or two old collected dust in the basement. I remember when we were all summoned to a mandatory meeting at a hotel lobby at 3:00pm that day. How naive I was. I had a lot of stuff saved on my laptop, but at 3:05pm, it was all erased. We were divided into three rooms, and me, my boss, my boss's boss, half the company was laid off. That dot-com eventually sputtered out of existence.
This movie captures the 2001 mood. Everyone's falling apart, and while some egoists refused to see reality, their on-paper empires crumbled around them. I think the one I was at had a good model, but it was bought out by a company from India, and after that there was no clear management or direction. Each department had no idea what the other departments were doing.
This had some details of that time that rung true. But it doesn't really address what led to their company's failure, or what their company does. Sure, there's some techno-jargon tossed around, meant to dazzle those who've never been in business or technology, but for the majority of people they'll see through it. I realized halfway through the movie that trying to figure out what Landshark.com does was like trying to determine Chandler's job on Friends.
Josh Hartnett is good at playing a jerk who's spiralling out of control and losing all his money, and he's dragging down his employees with him. It's an unpleasant flashback to an uncomfortable time when people lost everything, without much insight into the how's and why's.
The highlight is David Bowie, but he doesn't show up until the last five minutes.
Written by Howard A. Rodman.
Directed by Austin Chick.
I remember August 2001 very vividly. I'd been working for a dot-com company for four months, and in those four months, the NASDAQ went from 5000 to 2000. I watched that dot-com company buy brand-new computers for every new employee, when computers only a year or two old collected dust in the basement. I remember when we were all summoned to a mandatory meeting at a hotel lobby at 3:00pm that day. How naive I was. I had a lot of stuff saved on my laptop, but at 3:05pm, it was all erased. We were divided into three rooms, and me, my boss, my boss's boss, half the company was laid off. That dot-com eventually sputtered out of existence.
This movie captures the 2001 mood. Everyone's falling apart, and while some egoists refused to see reality, their on-paper empires crumbled around them. I think the one I was at had a good model, but it was bought out by a company from India, and after that there was no clear management or direction. Each department had no idea what the other departments were doing.
This had some details of that time that rung true. But it doesn't really address what led to their company's failure, or what their company does. Sure, there's some techno-jargon tossed around, meant to dazzle those who've never been in business or technology, but for the majority of people they'll see through it. I realized halfway through the movie that trying to figure out what Landshark.com does was like trying to determine Chandler's job on Friends.
Josh Hartnett is good at playing a jerk who's spiralling out of control and losing all his money, and he's dragging down his employees with him. It's an unpleasant flashback to an uncomfortable time when people lost everything, without much insight into the how's and why's.
The highlight is David Bowie, but he doesn't show up until the last five minutes.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Summer Box Office Winners
1. The Dark Knight - $502.42 million
2. Iron Man - $317.57
3. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $315.34
4. Hancock - $226.55
5. Wall-E - $217.91
6. Kung Fu Panda - $212.96
7. Sex & the City - $152.44
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $141.55
9. The Incredible Hulk - $134.5
10. Wanted - $134
11. Mamma Mia! - $131.51
12. Get Smart - $128.29
13. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - $99.68
14. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $97.83
15. Step Brothers - $97.82
16. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $94.58
17. Tropic Thunder - $83.83
18. What Happens in Vegas - $80.25
19. Pineapple Express - $79.77
20. Hellboy II - $75.39
The Dark Knight will not beat Titanic, but it will take a comfortable second on the All-Time domestic gross list. Three of the top ten are comic-book movies. Five of the top twenty are sequels. Tropic Thunder is sure to pass $100 million and climb a few spots. The Mummy 3 will squeak across $100 million too. I'll revisit it in a month when the numbers have settled.
Modest Break-Eveners: The Happening ($64), Made of Honor ($46)
Low-Budget Success: The Strangers ($52), Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 ($41), The House Bunny ($27)
Flat-Out Bombs : Speed Racer ($44), The Love Guru ($32), Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($29), Space Chimps ($28), The X-Files 2 ($20), Swing Vote ($15), Meet Dave ($11), The Rocker ($6), Babylon A.D. ($70 million budget; it'll probably end up getting around $25 million back)
2. Iron Man - $317.57
3. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $315.34
4. Hancock - $226.55
5. Wall-E - $217.91
6. Kung Fu Panda - $212.96
7. Sex & the City - $152.44
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $141.55
9. The Incredible Hulk - $134.5
10. Wanted - $134
11. Mamma Mia! - $131.51
12. Get Smart - $128.29
13. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - $99.68
14. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $97.83
15. Step Brothers - $97.82
16. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $94.58
17. Tropic Thunder - $83.83
18. What Happens in Vegas - $80.25
19. Pineapple Express - $79.77
20. Hellboy II - $75.39
The Dark Knight will not beat Titanic, but it will take a comfortable second on the All-Time domestic gross list. Three of the top ten are comic-book movies. Five of the top twenty are sequels. Tropic Thunder is sure to pass $100 million and climb a few spots. The Mummy 3 will squeak across $100 million too. I'll revisit it in a month when the numbers have settled.
Modest Break-Eveners: The Happening ($64), Made of Honor ($46)
Low-Budget Success: The Strangers ($52), Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 ($41), The House Bunny ($27)
Flat-Out Bombs : Speed Racer ($44), The Love Guru ($32), Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($29), Space Chimps ($28), The X-Files 2 ($20), Swing Vote ($15), Meet Dave ($11), The Rocker ($6), Babylon A.D. ($70 million budget; it'll probably end up getting around $25 million back)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - DVD Review
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (**1/2) - Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson and Mark Strong.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.
I was looking through things and saw this title, and for a second I'd forgotten I'd just seen a couple days before. It's so light and fluffy and inconsequential, it disappears from the memory like water drops on a hot sidewalk. Most of the cast acts like they're in a farce, so much that I decided it would have been more entertaining to see as a play. This is ideal dinner theater.
Frances McDormand is a 1930's governess, fired from her agency, who snags a client in a spoiled socialite juggling rich men, trying to advance her career as an actress. It almost got made into a movie in the 1940's for Billie Burke (Glenda from 1939's The Wizard of Oz). I can see that.
I liked seeing Ciaran Hinds in a romantic role. I liked seeing McDormand and Adams act off each other. It's deeply, distractingly predictable, and sometimes the high-energy playing-to-the-balcony style got on my nerves, especially when so much time is spent in the apartment. So it was okay. But it would work better as a play.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.
I was looking through things and saw this title, and for a second I'd forgotten I'd just seen a couple days before. It's so light and fluffy and inconsequential, it disappears from the memory like water drops on a hot sidewalk. Most of the cast acts like they're in a farce, so much that I decided it would have been more entertaining to see as a play. This is ideal dinner theater.
Frances McDormand is a 1930's governess, fired from her agency, who snags a client in a spoiled socialite juggling rich men, trying to advance her career as an actress. It almost got made into a movie in the 1940's for Billie Burke (Glenda from 1939's The Wizard of Oz). I can see that.
I liked seeing Ciaran Hinds in a romantic role. I liked seeing McDormand and Adams act off each other. It's deeply, distractingly predictable, and sometimes the high-energy playing-to-the-balcony style got on my nerves, especially when so much time is spent in the apartment. So it was okay. But it would work better as a play.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? - DVD Review
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? (***1/2) - Starring Morgan Spurlock.
Written & directed by Morgan Spurlock.
The War on Terror for Dummies. Cliff Notes of the Middle East for the junior high students across America. Fine with me.
Spurlock is like Michael Moore without the one-sidedness. He had his first hit with Super-Size Me, and his FX show 30 Days has decent ratings. He's a red-state guy who can just turn on a camera and see where it takes him. He also can't resist side theatrics. I would have liked to see less cartoon graphics to make his point and more of him talking to people on camera.
Ignoring the contrived set-up and silliness of showing Spurlock vs. Osama in a Tekken-type video game, the movie really begins once Spurlock touches down on foreign. We see him interview people in Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, some of the scariest places in the world for an American to travel. I'm a bit surprised he couldn't make it to Iran.
The running theme with most of the countries is that the people there like the American people but hate the American government, and while many are mad at Osama bin Laden, many are more upset with the sloppy, violent reaction and overreach of the U.S. One Palestinian man made a good point when he said one fifth of the world is Muslim; we can't afford to have the other four-fifths hate us and afraid we want to kill them all. Spurlock also interviews a Muslim shiek who preached they will fill graveyards with Christians and he's looking forward to the day that all Muslims unite and declare war on all the Christians and Jews of the world.
I also found it interesting how the Palestinians were pretty cordial with him whereas in Israel the people there got violent, gathered a mob, shoving him and his crew to where they needed a police escort to get out of there. I feared for his safety, as I'm sure he did.
In the end *spoiler alert*, he doesn't find bin Laden. He gets to a sign in Pakistan where in big red letters it says "No Foreigners Allowed Past This Point." In a region where the Taliban is still thriving, he knew his chance of getting kidnapped or killed would increase dramatically if he crossed that point. And he has a pregnant wife at home.
So even if bin Laden is captured or killed, the movie makes a decent case that it really wouldn't change much. The U.S. government is still seen as evil in sizable chunks of the world. Whether it's Obama-Biden or McCain-Palin in November, they have their work cut out for them.
Written & directed by Morgan Spurlock.
The War on Terror for Dummies. Cliff Notes of the Middle East for the junior high students across America. Fine with me.
Spurlock is like Michael Moore without the one-sidedness. He had his first hit with Super-Size Me, and his FX show 30 Days has decent ratings. He's a red-state guy who can just turn on a camera and see where it takes him. He also can't resist side theatrics. I would have liked to see less cartoon graphics to make his point and more of him talking to people on camera.
Ignoring the contrived set-up and silliness of showing Spurlock vs. Osama in a Tekken-type video game, the movie really begins once Spurlock touches down on foreign. We see him interview people in Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, some of the scariest places in the world for an American to travel. I'm a bit surprised he couldn't make it to Iran.
The running theme with most of the countries is that the people there like the American people but hate the American government, and while many are mad at Osama bin Laden, many are more upset with the sloppy, violent reaction and overreach of the U.S. One Palestinian man made a good point when he said one fifth of the world is Muslim; we can't afford to have the other four-fifths hate us and afraid we want to kill them all. Spurlock also interviews a Muslim shiek who preached they will fill graveyards with Christians and he's looking forward to the day that all Muslims unite and declare war on all the Christians and Jews of the world.
I also found it interesting how the Palestinians were pretty cordial with him whereas in Israel the people there got violent, gathered a mob, shoving him and his crew to where they needed a police escort to get out of there. I feared for his safety, as I'm sure he did.
In the end *spoiler alert*, he doesn't find bin Laden. He gets to a sign in Pakistan where in big red letters it says "No Foreigners Allowed Past This Point." In a region where the Taliban is still thriving, he knew his chance of getting kidnapped or killed would increase dramatically if he crossed that point. And he has a pregnant wife at home.
So even if bin Laden is captured or killed, the movie makes a decent case that it really wouldn't change much. The U.S. government is still seen as evil in sizable chunks of the world. Whether it's Obama-Biden or McCain-Palin in November, they have their work cut out for them.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Prom Night - DVD Review
PROM NIGHT (*1/2) - Starring Brittany Snow, Jonathan Schaech, Scott Porter, Dana Davis, Idris Elba, Jessica Stroup, Mary Mara and Ming Wen.
Written by J.S. Cardone.
Directed by Nelson McCormick.
This is a slasher film written by and for 12-year-olds. Oh, says here that the writer's older than 12, as is the director. Hm. Well, then, that blows that theory. I would say it's for youngsters who've never seen a slasher movie before; maybe it will scare them. Then again the first slasher movie I ever saw was Friday the 13th Part IV when I was 11 or 12, and I found it fascinatingly unscary. So who is this for? 9-year-olds? Do we really want the 9-year-olds of the world watching slasher movies? Of course, to keep it in PG-13 bounds, there's not much blood, and the kids get killed before they can pair off to have sex, so the exploitation factor's gone... Man, what is the point to this movie?
I guess it's to give decent TV actors supporting roles. There's ER vet Ming Wen as a psychiatrist. There's The Wire vet Idris Elba as the incompetant police officer hunting down the killer. (Only when the movie hits the 70-minute mark does he suddenly become good at his job.) No, that would be a benevolent reason. It's about marketing. They knew they could put together a good trailer and get a decent opening weekend, and horror films tend to live longer than any other genre on DVD and cable. I don't know how much care was put into making it an actual good movie.
Brittany Snow, the snob from Hairspray, is our heroine, and she's good at jumping and screaming at something suddenly startling her from behind, be it obtuse friends just tapping her shoulder, or a lampshade she backed into. Yes, one of our jump-scares is committed by a lampshade.
Some of these kids are terrible at running from the killer, in traditional Friday the 13th fashion. Tripping over tiny objects, running while looking backward so the killer can suddenly be in front of them.
Our killer is not a masked man. It's Jonathan Schaech. We see his face plenty during the beginning, middle and end. He's a former teacher who became obsessed with a student and wound up killing her family to get her for himself. He escaped his mental institution and he's hunted down our heroine to her prom night. Why does he start killing her friends? I don't know. Because he doesn't want her to have friends?
I never saw the original, and I really don't think that would affect what I thought about this.
Written by J.S. Cardone.
Directed by Nelson McCormick.
This is a slasher film written by and for 12-year-olds. Oh, says here that the writer's older than 12, as is the director. Hm. Well, then, that blows that theory. I would say it's for youngsters who've never seen a slasher movie before; maybe it will scare them. Then again the first slasher movie I ever saw was Friday the 13th Part IV when I was 11 or 12, and I found it fascinatingly unscary. So who is this for? 9-year-olds? Do we really want the 9-year-olds of the world watching slasher movies? Of course, to keep it in PG-13 bounds, there's not much blood, and the kids get killed before they can pair off to have sex, so the exploitation factor's gone... Man, what is the point to this movie?
I guess it's to give decent TV actors supporting roles. There's ER vet Ming Wen as a psychiatrist. There's The Wire vet Idris Elba as the incompetant police officer hunting down the killer. (Only when the movie hits the 70-minute mark does he suddenly become good at his job.) No, that would be a benevolent reason. It's about marketing. They knew they could put together a good trailer and get a decent opening weekend, and horror films tend to live longer than any other genre on DVD and cable. I don't know how much care was put into making it an actual good movie.
Brittany Snow, the snob from Hairspray, is our heroine, and she's good at jumping and screaming at something suddenly startling her from behind, be it obtuse friends just tapping her shoulder, or a lampshade she backed into. Yes, one of our jump-scares is committed by a lampshade.
Some of these kids are terrible at running from the killer, in traditional Friday the 13th fashion. Tripping over tiny objects, running while looking backward so the killer can suddenly be in front of them.
Our killer is not a masked man. It's Jonathan Schaech. We see his face plenty during the beginning, middle and end. He's a former teacher who became obsessed with a student and wound up killing her family to get her for himself. He escaped his mental institution and he's hunted down our heroine to her prom night. Why does he start killing her friends? I don't know. Because he doesn't want her to have friends?
I never saw the original, and I really don't think that would affect what I thought about this.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Street Kings - DVD Review
STREET KINGS (**) - Starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews, Naomie Harris, Common, The Game, Martha Hirageda, Amaury Molasco and John Corbett.
Written by James Ellroy & Kurt Wimmer & Jamie Moss.
Directed by David Ayer.
There are some things Keanu Reeves is really good at, but there are other things where he is not. He is not good at Shakespeare, and he is not good at playing a dirty cop.
He plays Ludlow, a cop who shoots first and asks questions later. He's Dirty Harry. But he's Keanu Reeves, so how dirty can Harry be? This is a Mark Wahlberg type role.
He actually isn't my main problem. He's my second problem, but my main problem is that the writers couldn't see how predictable their story was. James Ellroy was the guy behind L.A. Confidential. Then again, co-writer Kurt Wimmer was the guy behind Ultraviolet, so when two very different worlds collide, you get something like this. In the middle. It actually reminded me a lot of Dark Blue, anotehr corrupt-cop movie, and James Ellroy wrote the story and David Ayer wrote the screenplay for that. So there it is.
I knew exactly where this movie was going ten minutes into it, and when that happens, I have to suspend my disbelief that none of the characters on screen can figure it out either. It was a bit strange to see all these comedians (Cedric, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews, etc.) in serious roles too.
Written by James Ellroy & Kurt Wimmer & Jamie Moss.
Directed by David Ayer.
There are some things Keanu Reeves is really good at, but there are other things where he is not. He is not good at Shakespeare, and he is not good at playing a dirty cop.
He plays Ludlow, a cop who shoots first and asks questions later. He's Dirty Harry. But he's Keanu Reeves, so how dirty can Harry be? This is a Mark Wahlberg type role.
He actually isn't my main problem. He's my second problem, but my main problem is that the writers couldn't see how predictable their story was. James Ellroy was the guy behind L.A. Confidential. Then again, co-writer Kurt Wimmer was the guy behind Ultraviolet, so when two very different worlds collide, you get something like this. In the middle. It actually reminded me a lot of Dark Blue, anotehr corrupt-cop movie, and James Ellroy wrote the story and David Ayer wrote the screenplay for that. So there it is.
I knew exactly where this movie was going ten minutes into it, and when that happens, I have to suspend my disbelief that none of the characters on screen can figure it out either. It was a bit strange to see all these comedians (Cedric, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews, etc.) in serious roles too.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Tropic Thunder - Movie Review
TROPIC THUNDER (***1/4) - Starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Reggie Lee, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise.
Directed by Ben Stiller.
Movies that are too inside-Hollywood don't tend to do well. This movie is about pampered actors making a movie who stumble upon the real thing, and it skewers everything from Method to Academy politics to agents to studios to Vietnam flicks.
The movie starts out on four great funny notes. First we get a fauz ad for Booty Sweat, an energy drink pimped by the rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). Next we get a preview for Scorcher VI, from fading action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller). Next we get a preview for The Fatties: Fart 2, starring Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) in a bunch of fat suits as all the roles. Next is a preview for Satan's Alley, about the forbidden love between two monks in medieval times, starring 5-time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) and MTV Movie Award winner Tobey Maguire.
And then the fun begins. Speedman's an actor seeking credibility, but coming off a widely-panned Oscar-bait movie where he plays a mentally handicapped man, he could use a hit. Portnoy's a heroin addict. Lazarus is the type of Method actor who refuses to break character when the cameras aren't rolling, and he's playing an African-American soldier with Fred Williamson's hair and sideburns. Alpa Chino, an actual African-American, keeps getting annoyed at Lazarus's constant 1970's ghetto-speak. The fifth soldier is the troop is Kevin Sudansky (Jay Baruchel), a young actor in his first real movie, the only one without a vainglorious ego, the only one who sent to boot camp before they started shooting, the only one who's actually read the whole script.
Not everything about the movie works, but each actor gets their moment, and not just the five, but Nolte, Coogan, McConaughey (as an ego-feeding agent), and Cruise (as a megalomaniacal studio head). In fact seeing Cruise do comedy made me hope the long-gestating Hardy Men project between him and Stiller happens.
Directed by Ben Stiller.
Movies that are too inside-Hollywood don't tend to do well. This movie is about pampered actors making a movie who stumble upon the real thing, and it skewers everything from Method to Academy politics to agents to studios to Vietnam flicks.
The movie starts out on four great funny notes. First we get a fauz ad for Booty Sweat, an energy drink pimped by the rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). Next we get a preview for Scorcher VI, from fading action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller). Next we get a preview for The Fatties: Fart 2, starring Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) in a bunch of fat suits as all the roles. Next is a preview for Satan's Alley, about the forbidden love between two monks in medieval times, starring 5-time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) and MTV Movie Award winner Tobey Maguire.
And then the fun begins. Speedman's an actor seeking credibility, but coming off a widely-panned Oscar-bait movie where he plays a mentally handicapped man, he could use a hit. Portnoy's a heroin addict. Lazarus is the type of Method actor who refuses to break character when the cameras aren't rolling, and he's playing an African-American soldier with Fred Williamson's hair and sideburns. Alpa Chino, an actual African-American, keeps getting annoyed at Lazarus's constant 1970's ghetto-speak. The fifth soldier is the troop is Kevin Sudansky (Jay Baruchel), a young actor in his first real movie, the only one without a vainglorious ego, the only one who sent to boot camp before they started shooting, the only one who's actually read the whole script.
Not everything about the movie works, but each actor gets their moment, and not just the five, but Nolte, Coogan, McConaughey (as an ego-feeding agent), and Cruise (as a megalomaniacal studio head). In fact seeing Cruise do comedy made me hope the long-gestating Hardy Men project between him and Stiller happens.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
21 - DVD Review
21 (***) - Starring Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts and Josh Gad.
Directed by Robert Luketic.
There's something to be said for a cards movie, when blackjack is one of the most boring games to watch, and yet this is better than any poker movie that's come out the past few years. (Rounders was 1997; this is no Rounders). If only this movie about smart people had been smarter.
For instance, why do they keep going to the same casinos? You'd think with all the casinos in Vegas they'd hit a different one each week. Why do they not mix up their signals, make it harder for pit bosses to put 2 and 2 together? And why would certain characters fall for what they do in the third act?
No matter. It's a glossy ride, watching Jake (Across the Universe's Jim Sturgess) being pulled into the world of card-counting, where they're able to rake in six digits each weekend as they otherwise innocently live a normal MIT college life.
So if they'd been more creative with the third act, this could have been something special. As is, it's a decent entertainment. It made me want to read more into how much of it was true and how Vegas is countering card-counters.
Sidenote: This is the third movie that Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth have done together, the first two being Beyond the Sea and Superman Returns.
Directed by Robert Luketic.
There's something to be said for a cards movie, when blackjack is one of the most boring games to watch, and yet this is better than any poker movie that's come out the past few years. (Rounders was 1997; this is no Rounders). If only this movie about smart people had been smarter.
For instance, why do they keep going to the same casinos? You'd think with all the casinos in Vegas they'd hit a different one each week. Why do they not mix up their signals, make it harder for pit bosses to put 2 and 2 together? And why would certain characters fall for what they do in the third act?
No matter. It's a glossy ride, watching Jake (Across the Universe's Jim Sturgess) being pulled into the world of card-counting, where they're able to rake in six digits each weekend as they otherwise innocently live a normal MIT college life.
So if they'd been more creative with the third act, this could have been something special. As is, it's a decent entertainment. It made me want to read more into how much of it was true and how Vegas is countering card-counters.
Sidenote: This is the third movie that Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth have done together, the first two being Beyond the Sea and Superman Returns.
Big Brother 10 - A Comedy Classic
Tuesday night's episode featured probably the most painfully funny episode in the entire series' history. It would make Ricky Gervais proud.
For those not watching, the alliances have been made. You have Jesse, Memphis and Michelle, the Dwindling Team, as they've lost power two weeks in a row, they lost Angie last week, and this week they will lose either Jesse or Memphis. You have Power Team, made up of Keesha, Libra, April & Ollie, where April is Head of Household and was the one who put Jesse & Memphis up for eviction. Then you have the Floaters, Dan, Jerry & Renny.
This was the day of the Veto competition. Those competing were April, Libra, Jerry, Jesse, Memphis and Michelle. April and her team were discussing the competition, and April was dismissive of Libra, saying she felt like it was all on her. Libra left, offended, and Keesha went after her, and they vented about April. Jesse overheard and told April.
Big giant screaming match throughout the house.
Did I mention it's Keesha's birthday? They had a cake ready for her, and those not in the argument were just trying to gather everyone together to sing "Happy Birthday." Lots of walking back and forth and screaming with Libra, April, Keesha and Jesse. And then awkward silence. And then an unenthused house rendition of "Happy Birthday" that sounds like a broken accordion. More awkward silence, with Keesha giving a strained smile, clearly getting the sardonic nature of the moment. And then back to screaming.
Hilarious.
For those not watching, the alliances have been made. You have Jesse, Memphis and Michelle, the Dwindling Team, as they've lost power two weeks in a row, they lost Angie last week, and this week they will lose either Jesse or Memphis. You have Power Team, made up of Keesha, Libra, April & Ollie, where April is Head of Household and was the one who put Jesse & Memphis up for eviction. Then you have the Floaters, Dan, Jerry & Renny.
This was the day of the Veto competition. Those competing were April, Libra, Jerry, Jesse, Memphis and Michelle. April and her team were discussing the competition, and April was dismissive of Libra, saying she felt like it was all on her. Libra left, offended, and Keesha went after her, and they vented about April. Jesse overheard and told April.
Big giant screaming match throughout the house.
Did I mention it's Keesha's birthday? They had a cake ready for her, and those not in the argument were just trying to gather everyone together to sing "Happy Birthday." Lots of walking back and forth and screaming with Libra, April, Keesha and Jesse. And then awkward silence. And then an unenthused house rendition of "Happy Birthday" that sounds like a broken accordion. More awkward silence, with Keesha giving a strained smile, clearly getting the sardonic nature of the moment. And then back to screaming.
Hilarious.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Bonneville - DVD Review
BONNEVILLE (***) - Starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt, Christine Baranski, Victor Rasuk and Tom Wopat. Directed by Christopher Rowley.
The story's kinda boring on its own, but this is an example of casting breathing life into a movie. A widow has her two friends join her on a road trip from Idaho to California to deliver her late husband's ashes to her snooty stepdaughter. The three talented actresses get to shine in roles they don't often get (what has Joan Allen really been able to do lately besides chase Jason Bourne?) So if it had been three mid-level actresses, this would have been Lifetime Channel treacle. I believe these three ladies have nine nominations and two Academy Awards among them, which makes for a pleasant road trip.
The story's kinda boring on its own, but this is an example of casting breathing life into a movie. A widow has her two friends join her on a road trip from Idaho to California to deliver her late husband's ashes to her snooty stepdaughter. The three talented actresses get to shine in roles they don't often get (what has Joan Allen really been able to do lately besides chase Jason Bourne?) So if it had been three mid-level actresses, this would have been Lifetime Channel treacle. I believe these three ladies have nine nominations and two Academy Awards among them, which makes for a pleasant road trip.
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