TNT's Franklin & Bash - TV Review

Remember the Jim Belushi-Jerry O'Connell series The Defenders? This is a younger, more obnoxious version of that show.

The two leads should be likeable enough. There's TV guy Mark-Paul Gosselar of Saved By the Bell / NYPD Blue fame. There's movie guy Breckin Meyer of Clueless / Rat Race fame. But these are two cool cats who don't play by the rules, who use and abuse the legal system to exploit people and companies, twist the laws around for a quick buck, who can kick back and play guitar while tossing around ideas....

.... BAAARRRFFFFFFF!

If these guys were real, I'd say, "Guys like these are what's ruining America." In fact I've noticed that about a lot of lawyer shows, especially the light-hearted ones. Delightful scamps like these are why we have 100,000 laws on the books, each to protect us from the dumb one that got exploited/twisted/abused before it.

The Other Woman - DVD Review

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Starring Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Lisa Kudrow, Charlie Tahan, Lauren Ambrose and Anthony Rapp. Directed by Don Roos.

I've seen it a million times. Rich man leaves his wife for younger woman. But I don't know if I've ever seen a movie from the younger woman's point of view, right after she's become Wife #2. In some ways this is a public service announcement warning women thinking of sleeping with married men - the aftermath ain't all sunshine and roses.

These are selfish, wounded people, bouncing against each other. Portman plays Emilia. She slept with her married boss Jack (Scott Cohen), and later married him and had a baby with him. That baby only lived a few days, and now Emilia is an emotional shell, dealing with a manipulative stepson (Charlie Tahan), a vindictive first wife (Lisa Kudrow), and an increasingly distant husband.

This soap opera features several opprtunities for the three adults to lash at each other, usually in front of the kid, surely scarring him to become a sociopathic shark when he grows up.

This movie is the perfect punishment to show adulterers. Sure, it features some good acting, but what have I done to deserve this?

Super 8 - Movie Review

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Starring Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ron Eldard, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Sasso, Noah Emmerich, Zach Mills and Glynn Turman.
Directed by JJ Abrams.

This movie is executively produced by Steven Spielberg, and it's like a loving tribute to his earlier work.

It's been a long time since we've had a summer special-effects movie center on kids coming of age, and have the relationships be believable, realistic, and the kids are natural actors. The movie does have an alien, but it's the B-story. The A-story is a group of kids in 1979 trying to make a zombie movie when they get interrupted by a giant train wreck.

I recognize the plot has several logistical problems, several points that don't quite make sense if you think about it long enough. I don't really care. I wanted to spend more time with Joe (Joel Courtney) and Alice (Elle Fanning), watch their puppy love develop.

And I should mention specifically that Fanning, Dakota's little sister, is tremendous here. There's a scene in this movie where I watched her and thought, "A star is born."

(One pet peeve: too many lens flares. We get streaks of blue-purple light from it and it was distracting.)

Weekend Box Office - 6/12/11

For the weekend of Jun 10-12.

1. Super 8 - $37 million - 1 wk (Par)
. . . 3379 screens / $10,950 per screen
2. X-Men: First Class - $25 ($98.89) - 2 wks (Fox) -54.6%
. . . 3692 / $6771
3. The Hangover Part II - $18.5 ($216.56) - 3 wks (WB) -41%
. . . 3675 / $5034
4. Kung Fu Panda 2 - $16.64 ($126.91) - 3 wks (DW) -30.4%
. . . 3929 / $4234
5. Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - $10.85 ($208.77) - 4 wks (BV) -39.6%
. . . 3433 / $3159
6. Bridesmaids - $10.15 ($123.9) - 5 wks (U) -15.7%
. . . 2922 / $3475
7. Judy Moody & the Not Bummer Summer - $6.27 - 1 wk (Rel)
. . . 2524 / $2483
8. Midnight in Paris - $6.15 ($14.23) - 4 wks (SPC) +121.9%
. . . 944 / $6511
9. Thor - $2.37 ($173.6) - 6 wks (Par) -44.2%
. . . 1782 / $1330
10. Fast Five - $1.71 ($205.08) - 7 wks (U) -45.9%
. . . 1329 / $1290
11. The Tree of Life - $.88 ($2.41) - 3 wks (FS) +41.5%
. . . 47 / $18,617

Super 8 did well, and with its $50 million budget, it'll be nicely profitable.

The Dilemma - DVD Review

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Starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum and Queen Latifah. Directed by Ron Howard.

This movie is so uneven that it really needed a director skilled in dark comedy to navigate its waters. I think Barry Levinson or Danny DeVito would have been good. But the thing is, I would have thought beforehand that the director of Night Shift and The Paper could have done it. By the time it was done, though, my thoughts were on the director. What was he thinking?

The casting of the men would indicate light-hearted farce. Jennifer Connelly, though, means weepy drama. Winona Ryder can go either way and I'm just glad to see her get work.

The premise isn't some Three's Company escalation of misunderstandings. Vince Vaughn sees his best friend's wife is cheating on him, and it's not a mistake. No she's really cheating. But as layers get pulled back on the characters, we see there's more going on. There's pain and disappointment and hurt. But even through most of that, the tone tries to stay fluffy. "Hey, we got Vince Vaughn! It's a comedy!"

Another Vaughn-Com, The Break-Up, had similar problems. As their relationship soured, the movie grew less funny and more sad. I didn't like that movie either.

But I'll say this: I've never enjoyed Channing Tatum more. He showed genuine comic energy and timing.

It just hit me. This was as though Ron Howard was trying to make a Woody Allen movie.

Drive Angry - DVD Review

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Starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David Morse, Charlotte Ross and Tom Atkins. Directed by Patrick Lussier.

This is the slightly more attractive cousin of Ghost Rider. It embraces its absurdity better. It's by no means good; it's gleefully executed grindhouse drive-in junk food.

Nicolas Cage is Milton (get it?), a father who has escaped hell and now drives a fast car shooting up bad guys, and hot on his trail is a demon known only as The Accountant (William Fichtner). Milton's daughter was killed by a satanic cult and they plan to sacrifice his granddaughter. The plot's there as an excuse to set up several fellers to line up and get killed at interesting angles, preferrably so that blood and /or body parts can fly toward the screen (in 3-D!)

Cage's crazy performance matches his bleached hairpiece. Fichtner is the most fun to watch, an all-powerful guy who can maim with a finger. He has the cockiness of someone who, well, knows he's immortal standing in front of this here green-screen. Billy Burke is the cult leader, doing the pure-evil thing as a break from playing dear-old-dad in the Twilight movies. I should also point out David Morse shows up as an old friend named Webster. Could practically feel the screenwriter elbowing me in the ribs when his name's revealed.

Tons of bullets fly in this film, and they made ghastly splooshing sounds when they hit their targets and rip through flesh. The special-effects are hit-and-miss, some of it likely due to the 3D-ness. And now Cage has Ghost Rider 2 coming. What a world. But if crazy Cage sounds like your cup of tea, why the heck are drinking such tea? Try orange juice.

X-Men: First Class - Movie Review

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Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Oliver Platt, Jason Flemyng, Zoe Kravitz and Matt Craven. Directed by Matthew Vaughn.

This is the fifth X-Men movie, and the best. I've held X2 as my favorite til now, but I think this one passes it.

This has a quick pace and jumps through many plot points, but it never feels rushed and it never feels like any of the many characters that matter are getting cheated. We're back in the 1960's, when Charles and Erik first meet, where Charles (James McAvoy) is a cocky but kind-hearted genetics genius, and Erik (Michael Fassbender) is a Count of Monte Cristo, hunting down the Nazis that killed his parents, culminating with Schmidt (Kevin Bacon) the man who point-blank shot his mother.

Schmidt is now Shaw, and his plans for world chaos are as ambitious as any Bond villain. Shaw also has some mutants working for him, so the future Professor X and Magneto are going to need help.

This is an origin film that in many ways doesn't feel like an origin film. There is some continuity issues with some of the X-Men movies, but then so what, let's call it a reboot.

I should also mention that McAvoy and Fassbender have great chemistry together. It's kinda nice to have an X-Men movie without Wolverine. I'm about as excited as where this plans to go as the Star Trek reboot.

P.S. Plenty of familiar faces pop up in small parts. I'm pretty sure I'm one of only dozens in the world who geeks out when Michael Ironside suddenly shows up.

Gulliver's Travels - DVD Review

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Starring Jack Black, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Chris O'Dowd, TJ Miller and Catherine Tate. Directed by Rob Letterman.

Jack Black... what can I say. I loved School of Rock, but lately it seems like he's picking projects where he does the same thing in different scenarios and it's just not funny anymore. Year One was an odious example, and this big-screen high-concept low-ambitioned comedy isn't much better.

Black plays mail-room slacker Lemuel Gulliver, a guy going nowhere aspiring to nothing. One day he plagarizes some articles to impress a hot editor in his building, and she immediately sends him on a writing assignment to the Bermuda triangle. Naturally he gets caught in a whirlpool out there (with some inept green-screening, I might add) and land in Lilliput, an island where little people can instantly build contraptions to trap giants, as though one washes up on shore every year.

The likable-enough cast is trapped in this Blackian world of easy punchlines. The finale where everyone dances with Black as he sings "War" made me want to hide my face.

There is no aspiration here to make it a memorable movie. There's no ambition beyond lowbrow humor and making as many elementary kid as possible giggle when Gulliver pees to put out a palace fire.

P.S. Emily Blunt tried to get out of making this so she could be Black Cat in Iron Man 2. Poor thing.

OWN's Sons of Perdition

Directed by Tyler Measom & Jennilyn Mertin.

This documentary was in a film festival or two last year and had brief releases in theaters. It aired on OWN this week and I was able to record it and watch it.

It's the story of teenage boys who have escaped Colorado City, aka the "Crick", the compound run by fundamentalist Warren Jeffs. You can't help but feel for these boys as they unwind in the real world and try to figure out how to move forward without their families.

We get melancholy shots of polygamists working on their lands, and you can just feel the isolation and oppression of that environment. It's worth seeking out.

One thing I learned from Warren Jeffs: the Care Bears are evil.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

Continuing to catch up on old Woody Allen titles.

This 1982 trifle from Woody is okay. It's about three couples spending the evening together and even if it had a benign title, we know that because it's Woody, not all the couples will remain faithful by the time the night is over. I was amused by setting it in the 1900's, where Woody's a Wright-brother-esque inventor, and I enjoyed Jose Ferrer as the pompous professor.

TV Season Finales - 30 Rock, Cougar Town, Chuck, etc.

30 ROCK - I tend to enjoy it while I watch it, but if it got cancelled, it wouldn't affect me. In fact, the series really seems to only have one more season in it.

AMERICAN IDOL - I quit watching around the top nine. Just didn't care. And as I'd read each week about who got voted off, it affirmed to me my apathy was justified. When is the last time the actual winner made a splash in the music world? Runner-ups (Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert) tend to have just as much success as winners. (Did Kris Allen ever do anything?) I do still have the finale on my DVR but don't know if I'll actually watch it.

SURVIVOR - Boston Rob played a masterful game, but the viewers suffered for it. When you know who's going to win and there are still twelve people playing, it's just painful. Rob lucked out by getting the younger useful-idiot tribe. Felt bad for the four or five players that didn't get any screentime in the live finale. Did enjoy Julie's speech to Rob about making sure he raises his daughter to never let a man take advantage of her the way he did with Natalie.

THE AMAZING RACE - I can't say my favorite team won. In fact of the final three teams, the sisters were who I wanted third. But that's what's great about this show. You never know when a bad taxi driver's going to cost you a million bucks.

THE GOOD WIFE - I figured Alicia and Peter were going to break up; after all, they keep emphasizing how Alicia and Will still have feeling for each other, and Will (Josh Charles) is in the opening credits, and Peter (Chris Noth) is always "special guest star." But I like that Cary (Matt Czuchry) is now going to be working for Peter, still on the opposite side of Lockhart/Gardner. It's a sign of a good season finale when I look forward to how the characters' decision will reverberate in the fall.

COUGAR TOWN - The cul-de-sac crew are best when things are kept light, and the bromance between Andy and Bobby is the best since Scrubs' JD & Turk. Also loved the Danny Pudi-Dan Byrd cross-cameos on each other's shows (especially since they're all different networks). But it's consistent for Grayson to want a kid, and does 42-year-old Jules really want another kid when her only son is in college? It means either Grayson and Jules have to split, or Jules gets pregnant.

CHUCK - I've enjoyed this show, but I'm glad it's only getting 13 more episodes to wrap it up. I feel like it's pretty much run its course. They've hinted at one giant conspiracy behind Fulcrum, Volkoff, the Intersect, EVERYTHING, and so we'll get this fall to learn what that is. After that, give it a good series finale and call it a day. But they need to find a way to get Jewel Staite a guest spot.

Red Dwarf Closing Credits

Just one of my favorite TV theme songs ever.

The Mechanic - DVD Review

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Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn and Christa Campbell. Directed by Simon West.

Never saw the 1972 Charles Bronson original, but it feel more like a remake of a 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson film. Jason Statham is one of a handful of credible action heroes out there, but he's no hero here.

He's Arthur Bishop, a "mechanic", another name for assassin, and one day his assignment is to kill his mentor (Donald Sutherland). Rather than say no and try to bring down his employer who'd dare make such an order, he follows through. He kills him. Ugh.

This is in the first 15 minutes. Then he meets his mentor's ne'er-do-well son (Ben Foster) and for some reason, the son wants to become an assassin. Bishop decides to mentor him, train him to become an assassin too. Not much hesitation either. "Sure, I'll train you to kill people."

We know where this movie must eventually go. Statham can only do so much to distract the audience. We can take the mildest of comforts that everyone they're killing is worse, but it's just another amoral disposable action movie, with nothing unique or creative enough to warrant it being sought out over any number of other choices.

Bridesmaids - Movie Review

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Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Hamm, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Jill Clayburgh, Matt Lucas and Annie Mumolo. Directed by Paul Feig.

Kristen Wiig is in pretty much every sketch on Saturday Night Live, and she also finds time to take supporting roles in films like MacGruber and Paul. But now she gets to take center stage in a full-length movie, and she shows serious acting chops. She is more than a sum of sketches. It helps that she co-wrote the movie.

This has been called The Hangover for Women, but that oversimplifies. It's very funny, but there's a dark undercurrent to it, a layer of sadness as Annie (Wiig) has her life unravel while trying to be a good maid of honor for her best friend Lillian (SNL alum Rudolph).

The central conflict is with Helen, played by Rose Byrne (Insidious), a younger, richer, prettier friend Lillian's recently acquired, and Helen is also quite competitive. Annie and Helen has to keep the plastic smiles on for Lillian as they try to one-up each other, all while pretending that's not what they're doing.

Judd Apatow helped produce it, and it does feature some of the trademark gross-out humor. It could've easily trimmed ten minutes from its running time without losing anything, but I predict now that Wiig will get a Golden Globe nomination for her work here.

Four Lions - DVD Review

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Starring Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Directed by Chris Morris.

This British satire gives Islamic extremists the appropriate kick in the teeth. Four friends have decided to engage in jihad, but they can't decide what to blow up, or why, exactly. It goes down some dark roads, but I admired its head-on approach to its subject matter, and it hits its target more than once.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

In honor of Midnight in Paris being the best-reviewed Woody Allen movie in years, I've been trying to catch his older titles that are supposed to be good that I haven't seen, and I managed to catch this one this week. It's a light-hearted fantasy, one of the last comedies where Woody's touch felt uncynical. It gave me a whole new appreciation for Jeff Daniels, playing not only the character who walks off screen, but the actor who created the character. I also really enjoyed the characters stuck on the screen, Brigadoon's Van Johnson and Lost Boys' Edward Herrmann among them.

Random Movie Stuff - 5/27/11

- Snow White & the Huntsman (starring Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron) had its release date moved up to June 1, 2012. In response, Relativity moved its Snow White movie (starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins) to March 16, 2012. The Relativity one is said tob e more family-friendly, while Snow White & the Huntsman is going to be more for the PG-13 Twilight crowd.

- Jessica Biel and Bill Nighy are joining Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bryan Cranston in the Total Recall remake, scheduled to open August 3, 2012.

- Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) and Rashida Jones (Parks & Recreation) will star in Celeste & Jesse Forever, about a divorcing couple who try to remain friends. Elijah Wood and Emma Roberts co-star.

- Zach Braff (Scrubs) has joined the cast of Oz: The Great & Powerful, a prequel starring James Franco (The Wizard), Michelle Williams (Glinda), Rachel Weisz (Witch of the East) and Mila Kunis (Witch of the West). It's scheduled to open March 8, 2013.

- Jeff Conaway has died after being taken off life support, which he's been on since a drug overdose on May 11. He was the star of movies (Grease, Pete's Dragon) and television (Taxi, Babylon 5) and appeared on VH1's Celebrity Rehab in 2008. He was 60.

HBO's Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 6

Since I read the book recently I know pretty much everything that's coming, but it's still so enjoyable to see it all dramatized on screen. Episode 6 was the best yet in this solid series, with Ned Stark (Sean Bean) making some bold decisions as Hand of the King while the King (Mark Addy) is off hunting. We're getting more from the wily Tyrion (Peter Dinklage, living up to high expectations), and the selfish, power-mad Viserys finally got his come-uppance.