Media Summary: April 2011

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Movies= 13

Anything For Her - The Next Three Days: I watched both the original and the remake back-to-back. (Would have watched the former sooner but it was hell getting decent subtitles, and by the time I did the latter was already available online.)  Acting-wise Elisabeth Banks does not hold a candle to Diane Kruger.  While both films are thriller-based, once again the European version places emphasis on drama and the American version uses suspense (and a distracting cameo by Liam Neeson).  And maybe it's due to my ignorance on French security but the escape by Julien and Lisa in Anything for Her seemed more believable.  With The Next Three Days John and Lara had to deal w/ a paranoid (but inept) Dept. of Homeland Security and an overzealous TSA, but only justified his success by his use of instructional videos found on YouTube.

Carlos:  I watched the 165-minute UK theatrical release version, as I'm not that much of a film purist to demand seeing the full 330-minute version.  And I suspect the 50% of the film I didn't see would just show more of the same: that most of Carlos "The Jackal's" reputation as being a feared terrorist was unfounded.  His sense of initiative was seen as insuborination and incompetence by his superiors.  He big plans never got off the ground.  Hell, he wasn't even referred to as "The Jackal" in the film.  Those movies about him starring Bruce Willis and Aidan Quinn now seem farcical.

Djinns:  I got this along w/ another film that featured mythical creature --Troll Hunter--, but I ended up deleting the latter and waited for a better copy to come along.  Thinking back I probably should've have deleted Djinns instead.  It didn't feature malelovent genies FUBAR-ing soldiers, but just desert sprits guilting soldiers to death. Not guillotine.  GUILT.



Get Low: Another disappointment.  As much as I love seeing Bill Murry do dramatic roles, Wes Anderson seems to be the only one that's able to get the most out of him to make the film enojoyable to watch.  This sleeper drama seemed to place more emphasis on the "sleep" part.  See, Robert Duvall is a recluse who wanted to attend his own funeral so he hires Bill Murray's charcter to hellwithit, skip to the next film.

Inside Job: There are documentaries that touch you and those that make you laugh.  This one (or at least the subject matter) just ticks me off.  I am ticked off by how the people responsible for the global financial crisis are still working in government and not in jail.  I'm pissed that the cycle of greed is still going on and the "bad guys" are winning.  It's movies like this and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room that make glad that I'm not a greedy-@$ American.

  

Mesrine: Killer Instinct & Mesrine: Public Enemy: When I first saw Vincent Cassel in Ocean's Twelve my first thought was "typical scrawny Frenchman."  That is far from the case in the Mesrine films, where he plays Jacques Mesrine, a bad-ass master criminal (and successful restaurant manager!) that, unlike Carlos the Jackoff, lived up to his reputation.  If you're wondering why the second poster looks like he's doubling for Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ, it's because that supposedly how the French police left his bullet ridden body for the press after a Dillinger-style execution and JFK-style turkey shoot. (It was a lot of bullets.)

The Cell: I had first seen Tarsem Singh's follow-up movie The Fall before The Cell, so I was curious to see if it also had the lush, colorful look on a high-def screen.  It was definitely more style than substance, but justifiably so.  Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn seem miscast here, but not Vincent D'onofrio.  If someone told you Singh directed nothing but commercials and music videos before this you'd believe it.



The King's Speech: I think this is the only Academy Award-winning picture I have on this list. Anyway, from the trailer alone you know "Oscar" was the one word Colin Firth won't screw up in saying.  It's also great how his role in portraying King George IV and telling this untold part in history wasn't overshadowed by what was talked about during the time: King Edward VIII's affair w/ American Wallis Simpson and his abdication from the throne.

Time Of Eve: This movie sold the idea of artificial intelligence to me better than Steven Spielberg's' A.I..  It also had bit of Cherry 2000 and Surrogates, but like the latter it's hard to tell the humans and androids apart if the androids don't turn on their "status rings." Think of it as an extended metaphor on the idea of falling in love w/ someone online, i.e. what they present may not be who they really are. 

Tron: Legacy: Ultimately disappointing, and I wasn't sure what the big deal was w/ the soundtrack by Daft Punk (who turns out to 2 French musicians and not a techno DJ).  I wonder if Jeff Bridges' CGI clone CLU was what Hollywood had in mind in how to keep their stars staying young forever onscreen: w/ realistic skin but dead, soulless eyes.

Waiting for Superman: Investigative reporter John Stossel once talked about the problem of powerful teachers' unions, and how some tenured teachers just laze about w/o fear of being fired but do get paid while doing nothing.  And that's just the tip of this problematic academic iceberg.  American students thinking they did well in their studies w/o actually doing so. (Americans usually rank No. 1 in the confidence quotient, w/c explains all those Jack@$$-type stunts they perpetuate on Youtube.) Quality education so prized that it has to be raffled off.

TV= 31 Shows, 91 Episodes

America's Most Hated Family in Crisis: It was from Louis Theroux's first feature about them that I learned of the existence of the Westboro Baptist Church.  If nothing else these weirdos are consistent, waving their GOD HATES FAGS protest signs at anything that offends them.  In this follow-up report Louis finds that at least one of their flock has joined the rest of the Sane community and left them.

Chaos: The misfits of the CIA?  The underdogs, perhaps?  Actually, I couldn't care less.  The pilot episode was confusing I don't even remember finishing it.

Game of Thrones: The fantasy series that got some of my friends into some heavy reading.  Initially I thought the first episode was dragging, but after we see the Lannister siblings boinking and the kid pushed out the window I went, "Finally!  Something interesting."  It took another 3 episodes before the characters' names started to stick.  And we were introduced to a new word: Sexposition; or the act of talking out some plot points during sex acts. Ten episodes of blood, sex, gore, armor, arrows, barbarians and eventually... dragons.

Happy Endings: Initially gave it a pass because I felt it was trying too hard to be like 30 Rock or even 1 cast member off from being another Friends clone.  But it's back for a second season and so far the new crop of sitcoms aren't that great, so back to dloading Season 1.

Martina Cole's The Runaway: Never heard of Martina Cole.  The title was confusing.  Wanted to give another British show a shot.  Saw it, felt it was a too melodramatic.  Passed.

 

Shameless (US): The British version of Shameless has been going on for 8 years now.  Lord knows I don't have time to catch up on that many episodes, so luckily Showtime made their own version, and w/ decidedly more attractive actors to play social deviants.  Bless.

Thailand: Tourism and the Truth- Stacey Dooley Investigates:  Stacy Dooley's perky cute looks almost makes it seem naive if not egotistic her efforts of wanting fair labor practices or --god forbid-- humane treatment for the locals who work in Thailand's 5-star resorts that cater to the hedonistic whims of rich Caucasians who seek beer, booze and babes for cheap.  It's doubtful she'd change the ways of Thai Tourism in an hour's time.  Even the Tulfo Brothers know to dole out social justice in small doses, and those guys look like a-holes.

Talking Funny: This was Ricky Gervais exercising his comedy clout to basically gather comedy friends and peers to what is essentially a night of chatting in his apartment in New York... if that apartment was a studio and the evening's chat only went on for an hour.  It's still entertaining as hell as you get insights as to how Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louie CK view What Is Funny.

The Borgias: I stopped watching this 16th-Century Catholic Church's answer to The Sopranos, but should probably get back to it at some point.  It's actually paced faster than most HBO dramas.  Religion as a tool for corruption? You don't say...

The Kennedys: Speaking of crooked families, I let myself believe the media hype surrounding claims by the Kennedy estate that the series in heavily fictionalized, so I stopped watching after the pilot.  Then I thought perhaps that was just their heavy-handed way of not wanting their dirty laundry aired.  But then again the ruthlessness of Joe Kennedy is already well documented, and John Kennedy's womanizing isn't exactly a well-kept secret. And of course dramatic license is taken. Why bother getting Katie Holmes if you won't make her exaggerate some things?

The Killing: Based on the Danish (not Dutch, yeah yeah) series Forbrydelsen (or "The Crime"), each episode follows one day during the course of the investigation into the murder of a teenage girl.

Twenty Twelve: As much as I wanted to finish the series about the team tasked to prepare London for the 2012 Olympics, the role of David Tennant as the narrator was starting to feel redundant, as he kept repeating information about the characters and scenes, almost as if the writers think the audience has Alzheimer's.  Too much telling to go w/ the showing, so to speak.  And nothing ruins a joke like explaining it after dragging it out for too long.

United States of Tara: After 3 seasons of glamorizing dissociative identity disorder I could not believe Showtime cancelled this show but kept the unfunny "comedy" Nurse Jackie going. (I lost count of the number of circles Toni Colette can act around Edie Falco.)  This is one of those few dramedies that feature a family whose kids are actually interesting and not annoying to watch (hint, hint, The Good Wife).  That said, Shirley Mason, aka  the original DID (aka Multiple Personality Disorder) lady Sybil admitted it was all fake, w/c sadly makes me question the foundation the mental condition this show was standing on.

X-Men Anime: aka エックスメン or "Ekkusu Men," follows the Astonishing X-Men team to Japan.  I gave up on the Iron Man (アイアンマン "Aian Man") Wolverine (ウルヴァリン "Uruvarin") and Blade (ブレイド "Bureido") animes but stuck to this one because I read the story concept was cooked up by Warren Ellis.  Long story short: Season 1 brought Emma Frost into the fold, and Dark Phoenix is back.

10 O'Clock Live * 30 Rock * Archer * Batman: The Brave and The Bold * Bob's Burgers * Breakout Kings * Come Fly w/ Me * Community * Fringe * How TV Ruined Your Life * Justified * Modern Family * Parks & Recreation * SNL * The Chicago Code * The Good Wife * The Ricky Gervais Show