Easy Virtue - DVD Review

**1/2

Starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Barnes, Kris Marshall, Kimberley Nixon and Pip Torrens.
Directed by Stephan Hopkins.

Jessica Biel is supposed to be a sore-thumb, but she still never quite worked for me as an American girl marrying into a well-to-do British family in the 1920's. The one that captured my attention was Colin Firth, the cynical yet easy-going patriarch of this dysfunctional clan. This comedy-of-manners still works better as a play.

(500) Days of Summer - Movie Review

****

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
Directed by Mark Webb.

I'm glad going into it I knew that they don't wind up together at the end. I was geared for it. It's had me reflect on a few things. For one thing it reminded me how good filmmaking can be. There were many good details here, as though Woody Allen was reborn as a non-pervy Angelino. It also made me think about my relationships.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Tom, our hero. He meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel), our heroine. But he likes her more than she likes him. We go back and forth within those 500 days, seeing the peaks and valleys. She eventually dumps him and screws him up, and I remember what it was like to be that guy. I felt that way for about a month after this girl dumped me, and even as I started dating other women, (She) would be in the back of my head. And then I met the One, the One who's been my wife for over 13 years and counting.

My wife was that girl too. She was dating a guy who liked her more than she liked him. She dumped him, and who knows what happened to him, but she knew she wouldn't be happy with him. And then she met Me. Her One.

Tom and Summer are likeable people, where even as it falls apart, we want both of them to be happy. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are charismatic enough actors that we root for them. But we ebb and flow with the characters, I couldn't help but think this is what more "romantic comedies" should be like. Director Mark Webb throws in great details here. I love that one of the walls in Tom's bedroom is a chalkboard. I loved the musical number thrown in to demonstrate how a guy feels the morning after, when the sun is just a little more shiney.

I have the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past DVD sitting on my desk, not yet watched. I didn't have much faith in it being good before, but somehow now after see (500), I think it's going to be that much more sucky.

NBC's Heroes . . . meh

As cool as Robert Knepper's Samuel and his carnivals of freaks are, it made me wish they were actually showing up to rival Michael J. Anderson's Samson and company in a third season of HBO's Carnivale. Season 3 of Heroes so messed around with the continuity of the characters that I find I don't really care about any of them anymore. When it looked like Bennett was going to be drowned by Tracy in his own car, I was okay with it, and 'Company Man', with him as the focus, is the best episode in the series' history. He lived, though. Maybe most of the originals will be killed off or move away and the show can focus on new people showing up.

Mon-Tue TV Ratings

Monday

8/7
ABC - Dancing with the Stars hr 1 - 17.43 million viewers
CBS - How I Met Your Mother - 9.22
:30 --- Accidentally on Purpose - 8.99
NBC - Heroes hr 1 - 6.27
FOX - House hr 1 - 15.76
TheCW - One Tree Hill - 2.48

9/8
ABC - Dancing with the Stars hr 2 - 17.64
CBS - Two and a Half Men - 13.59
:30 --- The Big Bang Theory - 12.83
NBC - Heroes hr 2 - 5.77
FOX - House hr 2 - 17.25
TheCW - Gossip Girl - 2.09

10/9
ABC - Castle - 9.43
CBS - CSI: Miami - 13.73
NBC - The Jay Leno Show - 5.67

House won the night in the coveted 18-49 demographic category, but Dancing with the Stars had the most overall viewers. DWTS's premiere is down from last season.

Castle had poor audience retention from DWTS and scored only a 2.3 in the 18-49. To compare, the second hour of Heroes had a 2.7. Unless the show has a major spike in quality, I see this as its last season.

The Jay Leno Show meanwhile had its lowest ratings yet, and is probably now in the ratings realm it can expect.

Tuesday

8/7
ABC - Dancing with the Stars hr 1 - 14.14 million viewers
CBS - NCIS - 20.00
NBC - The Biggest Loser hr 1 - 6.94
FOX - Hell's Kitchen hr 1 - 6.65
TheCW - 90210 - 2.17

9/8
ABC - Dancing with the Stars hr 2 - 16.22
CBS - NCIS: Los Angeles - 18.32
NBC - The Biggest Loser hr 2 - 8.02
FOX - Hell's Kitchen hr 2 - 6.96
TheCW - Melrose Place - 1.45

10/9
ABC - The Forgotten - 9.53
CBS - The Good Wife - 13.72
NBC - The Jay Leno Show - 6.77

CBS rules again. NCIS had the ratings of the week so far, and NCIS: LA had decent viewer retention. The Good Wife held its own.

ABC saw DWTS decline from Monday's ratings, and The Forgotten was not as successful in retaining viewers. Looks like Christian Slater may have another series on his hands that won't last the year. (Although marketing-wise ABC never seemed to believe in this show.)

FOX's Hell Kitchen's had the edge over NBC's Biggest Loser in the 18-49 demographic, but Loser had more total viewers. In fact, Kitchen had a higher 18-49 demo than The Good Wife.

TheCW's 90210 is holding on okay (for CW) but the Melrose Place reboot is a bust.

30 Rock wins Best Comedy

I can't help but think 30 Rock keeps winning because Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are big-time Democrats. I mean, 30 Rock is Night Court. Funny, yes, but The Office, Big Bang Theory and Better Off Ted are funnier. Night Court was funny in its day too but it still appropriately lost to shows like The Cosby Show and Cheers.

Cloudy gets $30 million

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Weekend Box Office
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1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - $30.1 million - 1 wk (Sony)
3119 screens / $9651 per screen
2. The Informant! - $10.55 - 1 wk (WB)
2505 / $4210
3. I Can Do Bad All By Myself - $10.06 ($37.93) - 2 wks (LG) -57.1%
2255 / $4461
4. Love Happens - $8.46 - 1 wk (U)
1898 / $4455
5. Jennifer's Body - $6.8 - 1 wk (Fox)
2702 / $2517
6. 9 - $5.46 ($22.79) - 2 wks (Foc) -49.2%
2060 / $2650
7. Inglourious Basterds - $3.6 ($109.9) - 5 wks (Wein) -41.3%
2519 / $1430
8. All About Steve - $3.4 ($26.68) - 3 wks (Fox) -39.7%
2159 / $1575
9. Sorority Row - $2.49 ($8.87) - 2 wks (Sum) -50.8%
2591 / $961
10. The Final Destination - $2.38 ($62.39) - 4 wks (NL) -57%
1805 / $1316
11. Whiteout - $2.06 ($8.48) - 2 wks (WB) - 2 wks (WB) -58.1%
2745 / $750

Sony Animation (Ice Age) has another hit with Meatballs, so while Disney/Pixar puts out the critical cream of the crop each year, DreamWorks Animation and Sony Animation have found ways to be players.

I think Megan Fox's already overexposed. In her first star vehicle (Jennifer's Body), audiences met her with apathy. But I think that it was also hurt by being another gory movie opening in the wake of Final Destination 4, Halloween II, Sorority Row, and Whiteout.

Inglourious Basterds is now the highest grossing movie in Quentin Tarantino's career.

Dance Flick - DVD Review

**

Starring Damon Wayans Jr., Shoshana Bush, Essence Atkins, Chris Elliott, Amy Sedaris, Affion Crockett, David Alan Grier and Keenan Ivory Wayans.
Directed by Damien Dante Wayans.

Parody movies have been done to death, and done so poorly by Seltzer-Friedberg (Date Movie, Meet the Spartans, etc.) that I question if the genre can ever be funny again. This movie made me a lugh a couple times, but for this style of comedy I need more than one of out twenty jokes to be funny to actually recommend it.

I liked that it had a story structure to it. Its main inspiration is Save the Last Dance, but it gets in shots at Stomp the Yard, Step Up, and many other youth-dance dramas. I laughed at the "Fame" number, which is a coming-out song ("Flame! I'm gonna be gay forever...") It had some good one-liners ("Why do porn stars pray? You know God just has his fingers in his ears going 'Lalalalala'!")

But when it can go for crude it will, and it pushes the boundaries of PG-13. But hey, if I had to watch one more Seltzer-Friedberg spoof or three more Wayans spoofs, I'd take the Wayans.

Fall TV Comparisons

Fall 2008

22 new shows on the Big Five.

Only 4 of them have made it to a second season. CBS's The Mentalist and Gary Unmarried. FOX's Fringe. The CW's 90210.

Fall 2006

25 new shows on the Big Five. 11 of them got second seasons. 7 of them are still around. NBC's Sunday Night Football, 30 Rock, Heroes, and Friday Night Lights (now on DirecTV). ABC's Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters. Fox's Til Death.

Fall 2002

32 new shows on the Big Six (when The WB and UPN hadn't merged into The CW yet.) 12 of them got second season. Only one, CBS's CSI: Miami, is still around.

So...

Fall 2009

There are 22 new shows, though one of them is NBC's The Jay Leno Show which gets five hours of primetime. So anywhere from 20% to 40% of the new shows may make it to a second season. Pretending that eight will get a second season and the other fourteen will be cancelled, what would be my guess?

NBC's Jay Leno Show
FOX's The Cleveland Show
CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles
NBC's Community
ABC's Modern Family
ABC's FlashForward
The CW's The Vampire Diaries
FOX's Glee

Which would leave:
ABC's V
CBS's The Good Wife
The CW's Melrose Place
CBS's Three Rivers
NBC's Trauma
ABC's Hank
ABC's Cougar Town
ABC's The Middle
CBS's Accidentally on Purpose
NBC's Mercy
ABC's The Forgotten
ABC's Eastwick
The CW's The Beautiful Life
FOX's Brothers

The Vampire Diaries / The Beautiful Life - TV reviews

The CW has a couple new shows, both aimed to about the same age group. One I think will succeed and one won't.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES - They are in what is maybe the toughest time-slot of the week. Thursdays at 8/7. It'll need to take on ABC's FlashForward, CBS's Survivor, FOX's Bones, and NBC's comedy line-up. But with The CW, anything above 3 million viewers is a hit show.

It's very much like Twilight: The Series. The acting and directing started to bug me before the end of the first episode. The actors all have that pose-acting thing going, almost soap-opera style. The camera always has to be close up on whoever has the line, and the cast had very mannered delivery. It feels particularly cutesy after watching True Blood, and while it has its detractors, Twilight has a more compelling lead actress.

For my wife it was the soundtrack. The song always swelled to be louder than the dialogue right before every commercial break.

THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE - Having seen the ratings, this thing's going to disappear in a few episodes. Maybe if they'd called it a remake of Models, Inc., to correspond with their sequel/reboots of 90210 and Melrose Place, it would have worked for them. As is, it's a shallow drama about the modeling world, with Sara Paxton as the stand-in wholesome girl keeping her principles in a competitive industry. I think having this follow America's Next Top Model hurts it, because the reality-show drama can be more entertaining than the scripted one right after it.

Wizards of Waverly Place

Not too long ago, I pulled into a JiffyLube because the sign out front said "Open bay." Once I was in, I saw the sign was a lie, but I was already there, so I figured, "I do need an oil change; it'll just take a little longer than I wanted."

There was a kid in the waiting room and on the TV, she was watching Wizards of Waverly Place. My 11-year-old loves those shows. Wizards, Suite Life, Hannah Montana, etc., etc.

After over an hour, my car wasn't done, and Kid's parents car wasn't done. After 2 1/2 episodes of Wizards I was ready to smash something. I can only take so much banality peppered with an insincere laugh track.

My brother blogged about the tweencoms that Disney and Nick churn out. They're like Laffy Taffys. They're not funny, but kids think they might be.

The Jay Leno Show - TV Review

So did Jay change some of his shtick now that he's moved to primetime? No.

It's the Tonight Show earlier. Slightly different set, two chairs instead of a desk, but that's pretty much it. It's the Tonight Show. Now he had quite the "get" by being Kanye West's first interview, who choked up when apologizing once again for his rude rant stealing Taylor Swift's spotlight.

I see NBC settling into averaging 6 million viewers a night, which will keep them in fourth place, but an ffordable fourth place, and I see Conan continue to lose his audience to David Letterman and Nightline.

But for its debut night, it was big.

For the 10/9 timeslot:

NBC - The Jay Leno Show - 17.66 million viewers
CBS - How I Met Your Mother (r) / Big Bang Theory (r) - 6.83 / 5.23
ABC - Dreamgirls - 4.31

DVD Reviews (Surveillance, Duplicity, Delgo)

SURVEILLANCE (**1/2) - Starring Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James, French Stewart, Michael Ironside, Kent Harper, Mac Miller, Ryan Simpkins and Cheri Oteri.
Directed by Jennifer Lynch.

It's been a long journey to her second film, but David's daughter makes a pretty decent, grimy little thriller that's better than it probably deserves to be.

Two FBI agents come to a small town to investigate some brutal murders. We know that two cops, a boyfriend-girlfriend team, and a family of four (mom, dad, son, daughter) were involved, and in the aftermath, we know that only one cop, the girlfriend, and the daughter are still alive. As the three relate what happened in three separate rooms, the truth slowly unfolds.

Lynch gets effective performances from unexpected sources. French Stewart, best known as the squinty-eyed one from 3rd Rock from the Sun, plays a chilling cop. He and his partner get off on shooting out tires of strangers driving through these parts, then terrorizing them with the good cop / bad cop routine. SNL vet Cheri Oteri plays exactly the kind of loving mother that Wes Craven would kill off halfway through. And for what he's supposed to do, Bill Pullman gets the quirks of his agent into Twin Peaks territory.

The ending's a little easier to guess than I would have liked.

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DUPLICITY (**) - Starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, and Paul Giamatti.
Directed by Tony Gilroy.

Ocean's 2.

This con-game featuring two ex-spies should have been better. The pedigree's there, the dialogue's there. What's missing? I never felt engaged with what the characters were doing nor did I care about their fate. I was more interested when Tom Wilkinson or Paul Giamatti was on-screen as either of the two unscrupulous CEO's, which is Problem #1. Problem #2 is that there are so many twists and turns and cons within cons that I stopped caring what the truth actually was.

It also doesn't help that the story's told out of order. Sometimes the lack of narrative order makes the movie better (Pulp Fiction, Memento, Once Upon A Time in the West, etc.) Not here.

Now Julia Roberts and Clive Owen can both hold the screen, and I noticed I did enjoy their scenes when they're just talking about side matters, but when it got back to the story, I didn't care. Because one or both of them could be lying and we won't know until the end what the case is.

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DELGO (*1/2) - Starring the voices of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan, Anne Bancroft, Val Kilmer, Malcolm MacDowell, Eric Idle, Michael Clarke Duncan, Louis Gossett Jr., and Kelly Ripa.

I had no intention of ever seing this, but after the Avatar preview, I had to.

On one hand, it's a fairly generic war-story. Two different races live near each other. One evil instigator frames both sides for things to make them go to war so she can then assume the throne of one of the sides. But a boy from Team A (named Delgo) and a girl from Team B meet in secret and fall in love, and together they set out to expose her.

Its main problem is that its one attempt at humor is through Delgo's best friend voiced by Chris Kattan. It's a twitchy annoying Jar Jar type character.

As it's animated, both races are not human. One side looks like gelfings from The Dark Crystal, the other side look like the lizard race from Enemy Mine. One side has wings, the other side can use the Force with red rocks. Or something like that. The sides fight, it's all bloodless to keep a PG, but neither my 6-year-old nor 11-year-old liked it.

Must've been on the shelf for a while too. Didn't Anne Bancroft die about three years ago?

Come to think of it, the final big battle reminded me a lot of Attack of the Clones. So there's just three ways it reminded me of Star Wars to its detriment.

9 - Movie Review

***

Starring the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover and Martin Landau.
Directed by Shane Acker.

If you've ever wondered what a movie would be like that combined The Longest Day, The Matrix, Pink Floyd The Wall, and Elmo in Grouchland, what glue are you sniffing?

Moving right along, this post-apocalyptic visual wonderfest is a grown-up ethereal exploration of teamwork and the humanity of inhuman objects blessed with partial human souls. This was a world I wanted expanded and played in longer. Alas, the plot is too thin to go beyond 80 minutes, but I enjoyed my time regardless.

Elijah Wood voices 9, the ninth burlap-puppet thing that awakens to find the human race has been annihilated. He explores this world alone until he finds 2, a fellow whatever-they-are, but 2 is quickly captured by a red-eyed dog-skulled beast-machine. On his own again, he sets out to find others. After all, what about 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8?

I found it fitting that Frodo voices 9, as his journey takes him to a distant factory with a tower and a glowing red eye overseeing it.

State of Play - DVD Review

***

Starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis and Harry Lennix.
Directed by Kevin MacDonald.

This love-letter to the newspaper industry is a dying breed of its own - an intelligent adult thriller.

Crowe's the hard-nosed, shaggy-haired reporter. Affleck's his former college roommate, and also happens to be a U.S. Senator. When the good senator's mistress winds up dead, the two try to figure out who would have killed her and why. I enjoyed the thrill of the discovery, of actual investigation. It reminded me of All the President's Men in that respect.

The last five minutes were a bit of a letdown for me.

Ellen DeGeneres as 4th Idol judge

Ellen's a good name and all, but Simon Cowell is a music producer. Randy Jackson is a former musician and music producer. Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi are singer/songwriters. Ellen's been a sitcom actress, stand-up comic, talk-show hostess, but... why is she the fourth judge?

Our yearlong Ben Lyons nightmare is over. Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott have restored credibility to At the Movies. Scott's 30-second intro to his review of The Burning Plain was more interesting than anything said on that show in a year. Glad to see these guys in the seats.

SNL hires 2, fires 2 female cast members

I'm disappointed. There's a guy or two int he cast I'd like to see go before getting rid of either of these women.

Fall TV Schedule - Saturday

Dateline, Cops, America's Most Wanted, 48 Hours Mystery, college football, reruns... no one really watches TV on Saturdays. if they do, they're catching up on DVR what they recorded earlier in the week.