http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:27:14 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/14/112714.php Tom the DogAh, my first police procedural of the year! It's Bones, and while the police procedural genre is not generally my cup of TV (I don't watch any of the CSIs, Law & Orders, or, now that I think about it, any crime shows at all outside of The Shield), I liked this first episode purely on the strength of the two main characters.The lead actors. David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, I couldn't help but notice, share a split-level title credit. You know, like Ted Danson and Shelley Long in Cheers, or Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams on Laverne & Shirley:DAVID BOREANAZ EMILY DESCHANEL You don't see that a lot. It's one of those things I notice. Another symptom of too much TV.Anyway, Boreanaz I liked just fine on Angel, and I like him just fine here, too. He's FBI agent Seeley (Seeley?) Booth, who finds that a case he's working requires the assistance of forensic anthropologist Temperance (Temperance??) Brennan, played by Deschanel. I don't recall ever seeing this Deschanel before, but I'm more than familiar with her sister, Zooey Deschanel, whom I love. Emily shares a similar beauty with Zooey, as well as her immediate easy charm. Her character is a bit of an oddball, focused on her work to the point of being completely inept at normal human interaction. Deschanel's performance still allows you to connect with her, making her personality flaws adorable and winning rather than off-putting and irritating, as they so easily could have been. I especially enjoyed her cluelessness when confronted with pop culture references. "We'll be Mulder and Scully," Boreanaz tells her, inviting her to be his partner. "I don't know what that means," she replies. The two of them make for a very cute screen team.Bones (the title, by the way, comes from Boreanaz's nickname for Deschanel) is, according to the Fox website, "inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and best-selling novelist Kathy Reichs." Which makes Temperance seem like Reichs' personal Mary Sue: she's not only a super anthropologist and a best-selling author, she's also a crime-solver for the FBI, an expert marksman with a pistol, and a formidable martial artist -- plus, she can really rock a tank top, if you know what I mean. (I mean she's got big ol' boobs, frequently and lovingly framed by the camera.) It's a little much for one character. Deschanel's charms save it, though, even if at times they have to emerge in spite of the script.Speaking of which: the writing is often heavy-handed and clunky (how many times does Temperance need to be told she has to open up more to people? Fifty? Sixty?), and just as often a little too vague -- I never felt any reason to care about the episode's victim, her family, or her possible murderers. Agent Booth cares about them, but he never makes us care. The show stays pretty well centered on Boreanaz and Deschanel (which isn't a bad thing); it's more concerned with the investigators and the mechanics of solving the crime than the crime itself.And the crime-solving part is often laughable. First of all, Temperance's anthropology/crime lab has the most ludicrous piece of equipment I've ever seen on a non-sci-fi show: a giant hologram machine, which can not only project the skeletal remains of victims in full-size 3-D, as well as recreate the exact image of the person before death -- it can even create a full motion cinematic interpretation of the person's murder. In hologram! Hell, every anthropologist should have one! It's so unbelievably ridiculous, I still can't believe they actually used it. It felt like I was watching Admiral Ackbar plan an assault on the Death Star.The way the criminal is captured is equally silly. First of all, the clue leading to the bad guy is as subtle as an anvil. One of the suspects dismissively says of another, "The only thing he cares about are his tropical fish." Hmm, what an odd thing to say, completely out of nowhere. You think those fish might just turn out to be significant? Then, Temperance decides to go after the guy on her own. After she's been drinking, naturally. When she gets to his house, and finds him about to destroy the evidence (the fish!), she smashes in his window, enters his home without a warrant, and then, when he threatens to burn the evidence, she whips out a gun and shoots him in the leg. She's a goddam anthropologist!! Number one, I find it pretty unlikely this case will hold up in court. Drunken anthropology consultant breaks and enters and shoots an unarmed suspect. Case dismissed! And secondly... you know, I took a couple anthro classes in college. And I'll tell you what: the anthropology department is not full of a bunch of Indiana Joneses (nor, for that matter, is the archeology department). I understand they want to present Temperance as a formidable character, but having her busting into places and shooting bad guys -- it's lame, just lame.All that said, I still think I'll be catching at least another episode or two of this show. Maybe more. Again, it's all due to the strong leads. Deschanel and Boreanaz are very likeable, and together they have strong chemistry. They're a lot of fun (as is Michaela Conlin as Temperance's high-spirited assistant Angela), which is immediately enough to make Bones stand out from most other crime shows on TV. It's flawed, but I'm not ready to dismiss it just yet. Ed: JH Video36155@blogcritics.org Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:27:14 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/10/144455.php Tom the DogSahara is right up there in the dubious company of National Treasure and the Tomb Raider movies: solid, well-crafted, reasonably enjoyable action adventures that are almost entirely, and instantly, forgettable.The most entertaining element of Sahara is the easy interplay between Matthew McConaughey, as treasure hunter Dirk Pitt (Buck Plankchest! Brick Hardmeat!), and Steve Zahn, as partner/sidekick Al Giordino. McConaughey is now probably better known for naked bonging than acting, but he does have movie star charisma, and is extremely charming and likeable as Pitt. And Zahn is, as he so often is, the single best thing in the film. You know who he should make a movie with? Paul Rudd -- another guy who is often the best thing in any movie he appears in. I think they'd be an excellent screen pairing. (Oh, wait, they already appeared in a movie together, and it sucked.)Rainn Wilson (probably best known for taking the "Gareth" role in the American version of The Office) is also funny as the secondary sidekick, and William H. Macy appears to have a lot of fun (while collecting a fat paycheck) as Admiral Sandecker, Dirk and Al's boss. And Penelope Cruz -- as Eva Rojas, the World Health Organization's hottest doctor -- is perfectly fine as the love interest. Though strangely, the romantic subplot is almost non-existent -- I mean, even more non-existent than it usually is in an action film. Cruz and McConaughey have flirty chemistry, but there's never really any romantic pursuit. The movie just kind of assumes that these two pretty people deserve to be together, and therefore why waste any time showing the process? It's just a given: they're a couple, now here's some stuff blowing up. They don't even kiss until the final scene, after all the action is done. Maybe it's just me, but that seemed weird.Obviously, it's the action that matters in this film, and I have to say, the action works pretty well. It's generally ridiculously over-the-top and as tongue-in-cheek as it is exciting, but that's an intentional choice of the movie, and it worked for me. The best sequences are in vehicles, primarily performed without CGI assistance. There's a great battle between boats on a river, and there's a very nice chase scene involving a car and a helicopter. There's even a bit involving camels running after a train that's fairly impressive. And I liked that Zahn, even though he's the sidekick, didn't sit on the sidelines during fight scenes. It's made clear his character is just as formidable as McConaughey's, so Zahn is right in the middle of things, throwing punches and firing guns.There's a little too much plot getting in the way of the action, as there often is in these Raiders-type treasure hunt movies. This one involves a plague, warring rebel forces, the CIA, a solar energy power plant, and a U.S. Civil War battleship that somehow got beached in an African desert. And there's very little reason to care about any of it. It's not difficult to follow; it's just a bit too ambitious.Although if there's something this film's got in spades, it's ambition. A ton of money was spent on Sahara, and it's all on-screen, from the vast armies of extras to the giant sets to the explosive stunt work. It's obvious the studio wanted a franchise. The film's poor showing at the box office doesn't shout "sequel" to me, though. All in all, I got enough light entertainment that I'd see another one of these films with the same cast -- maybe even in the theater this time -- but I'm not exactly going to be heartbroken if that next film never materializes. Video35901@blogcritics.org Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:44:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/01/134430.php Tom the DogPart 1.More looking ahead at the worst of the new TV season, according to nothing more than the shows' websites and my mean-spirited nature.Part 2: The NetletsFOX-I love how Kitchen Confidential is "based on renowned chef Anthony Bourdain's best-selling autobiography," yet the main character's name has been changed to Jack Bourdain. What the? What is the point of that? TV is weird. And check out Nicholas Brendon in the cast picture. Now, I don't want to go making snap judgments on a show I haven't even seen yet,* but if his character isn't gay, I will give each one of you a shiny new nickel.**-I find it telling that in the show description for The Loop, we learn that main characters Sam's "roommate, PIPER, is a medical student, Sam's college pal and - unbeknownst to her - his longtime crush." Yet, in the cast photo: no Piper. You know what that means? The actress who played Piper in the pilot episode: canned. Sacked. Shown the door. Escorted by security from the premises. Ouch. Also: surely Philip Baker Hall can do better than this.-Killer Instinct (previously known as The Gate), which will surely be the finest crime drama set in San Francisco since Nash Bridges, centers on Detective Graham Hale of "the S.F.P.D.'s Deviant Crime Unit." I'll see you a Special Victims Unit, Law & Order, and I'll raise you a Deviant Crime Unit! Coming in 2006: Minneapolis Blue: Fucked-Up Pervo Freakazoid Shitfit Unit***.WB-Just Legal has to be a temporary title. It has to be. Are they seriously thinking of airing a show whose title is strongly reminiscent of almost-underage porn? Oh, wait, it's the WB. Maybe they are. As for the show itself: sounds like Doogie Howser, Esq.-Supernatural follows Carlos Santana as he teams up with a different musical guest star each week to create a Latin-flavored pop song. Wait -- wrong Supernatural. This Supernatural was pitched as Route 66 meets The X-Files, I imagine. It stars Rory's doormat boyfriend from Gilmore Girls and Lana's tool boyfriend from Smallville. Let me show you exactly where this show lost me.This fall, The WB will usher in a new generation of storytelling set in the dark world of the unexplained.No, not yet, although that is obnoxiously cheesy.Filmmakers McGThere you go! Say no more! McG is involved? I'm out! Get thee behind me, McG!-Twins, sadly, is not the WB's adaptation of the Schwarzenegger/DeVito comedy. Instead, it's about two sisters, one of whom is pretty and one of whom is smart! Sara Gilbert must be so flattered she got cast as the smart one. Also, we get to see what has become of Mark Linn-Baker since Perfect Strangers went off the air. Judging from the cast photo: unflattering aging.UPN-Sex, Love & Secrets (formerly Sex, Lies & Secrets -- you think Steven Soderbergh objected to the name?) stars 34-year-olds Denise Richards and Tamara Taylor in this "fresh, edgy new drama" about "twenty-somethings". I guess it is fresh and edgy for the "something" in "twenty-something" to mean "fourteen".-Love, Inc. originally cast Shannen Doherty as a matchmaker who can't find herself a man, which raised two questions: who looked at Miss Match and decided, "That show would've worked perfectly if only it had starred Shannen Doherty instead of Alicia Silverstone"? And: who in their right mind would hire Shannen Doherty? Well, UPN has answered those questions by firing her ass. Damn, Shannen, can't even wait to get on the air before making everybody hate you, huh? Now, Busy Phillips has taken her place. Which raises the question: who the hell is Busy Phillips? *That's a lie. **Also a lie. ***Starring Crispin Glover and Anne Heche! Video35251@blogcritics.org Thu, 1 Sep 2005 13:44:30 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/31/143748.php Tom the DogHere's a jaded look ahead at the worst the Fall 2005 TV season has to offer. Based on absolutely nothing other than the shows' titles, their network-created webpages, and my boundless cynicism.Part 1: The Big ThreeABC-ABC has made the bold move of immediately following Jake in Progress, a thirty minute show about a ladies' man whose friends have all settled down and who now finds himself ready for commitment for the first time in his life, with What About Brian, a show about a ladies' man whose friends have all settled down and who now finds himself ready for commitment for the first time in his life. But -- here's the kicker -- it's a sixty minute show! Don't tell me ABC doesn't have fresh ideas!!-Tom's reasons why not to watch Emily's Reasons Why Not: 1) It stars Heather Graham, who is such an incredibly bad actress, it's almost anti-acting. 2) There's no need for a second reason.CBS-I love Paula Marshall. I think she's beautiful and funny and wonderful in every show she's ever been in. Unfortunately, she has killed nearly every show she's ever been in. Stone cold dead. Like Ted McGinley, she's a serial show-killer. (Sports Night never had a chance -- it guest-starred both of them!) The upshot of which is: don't get hooked on Out of Practice (even if it does also feature Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler). Hey, this will be her first kill on CBS! Way to go, Paula!-This is the kind of show that makes me want to smack someone. First of all, that title: Ghost Whisperer. Are they serious with that crap? Horse Whisperer was a lame enough name; good job on giving it that extra little twist to make it even lamer. Second, it claims to be "inspired by the cases of famed psychic James Van Praagh." Which infuriates me. For the last time, America: "psychics" are bullshit. They are con artists, nothing more. Basing a TV show on the chicanery of such a charlatan is tantamount to endorsement of his "powers"; it aids and abets the deception and exploitation of the gullible and bereft. I feel the same anger about the inexplicably popular Medium. Which of course brings us to number three: this could not be a more blatant rip-off of Medium. Hot babe with psychic powers solves crimes. Come on! Can't you at least pretend you're trying to be original? And finally, we have the star: Jennifer Love Hewitt. Really? In a crime drama? I'm out!! I don't have the most discerning of TV viewing habits; I will watch practically anything. I'll tell you what: I will never watch this.NBC-The homepage of Surface (previously known as Fathom) asks the provocative (by which I mean "stupid") question, "Ever wonder what life would be like if a new form of sea life began to appear in locales all over the Earth?" If you don't mind, I'm going to answer for each and every one of you: NO. No, we have not. Don't be an idiot. You know what other question we never asked? "Can we see that one hot chick from Boston Legal in a dopey, aquatic-based sci-fi show that will fold after six episodes? No, the other hot chick. No, the other one."-You can tell E-Ring is doomed just because of its stupid title. Sounds like an internet phone service. Before seeing the commercials, would you ever have guessed it's really about the Pentagon -- and it stars Dennis Hopper? Frank Booth -- in the frickin' Pentagon? That's it! World's over.Now posted -- Part 2: The Netlets. Video35185@blogcritics.org Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:37:48 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/31/113141.php Tom the DogThe first new show of the broadcast networks' Fall season premiered Monday, and the most praise I can muster is, it could've been worse. Prison Break is just ridiculous. It's just mind-jarringly, staggeringly ridiculous. But if you can kind of squint and pretend you don't see all the malarkey, it's not that bad.Lincoln Burrows has been sentenced to death for killing the Vice President's brother. Linc's half-brother, Michael Scofield, believes he's innocent, so he robs a bank and gets thrown in prison. The same prison as Linc! (Because he gets to choose which prison he goes to!) So he can bust them both out! Because it just so happens he helped design the prison! And he's got the blueprints hidden in tattoos on his body!! And he smuggled in a helicopter up his ass!!!Okay, not that last bit, but he might as well have. He planned everything else out, helped in no small part by extreme coincidence. Everyone Michael meets figures into his plans in some way, whether it's the prison doctor, who happens to be the governor's daughter, or the incarcerated Mob boss, who can hide them once they escape, or fellow inmate D.B. freakin' Cooper, who has money stashed on the outside they can use. Or then there's the warden (a surprisingly low-key Stacy Keach), who, in the most eye-rolling of coinky-dinks, just happens to be building a scale model of the Taj Mahal for his wife's anniversary present -- which structural engineer Michael just happens to be able to help him with, in exchange for favors.It's silly, and it's going to get even sillier, it looks like. Lincoln is scheduled for execution in one month, according to Monday's back-to-back premiere episodes, yet according to the coming attractions, it's already been pushed back to 60 days. How will Lincoln keep getting a stay of execution long enough for Michael to carry out his plan? (Via very silly means, I have to assume.) And what if the show's a success? How tedious will it become, as week after week Lincoln somehow avoids execution, and Michael keeps failing to actually break them out of prison? "Well, you've been here two years now, dude. How's that brilliant escape plan of yours going?" "Shut up!!" And if they do escape, what happens to the "prison" part of the show? I guess they can always change the name to Prison Already Broken.And still. I was able to disengage from the plot holes and implausibilities, and enjoy the show (not a lot, but enough). I liked it for its actors (even the hammy ones), its style, and its mystery: who really killed the V.P.'s brother, and why frame Lincoln? And Michael's escape plan, though absurd, also intrigues me in spite of myself. Frankly, I'd rather see more of his plan in action, and less of the characters outside the prison. If we never see Lincoln's rotten little snot of a son again, it'll be too soon.This show benefits greatly from its timeslot, and its early debut. Monday competition is fairly weak for the near future; in fact, it's basically non-existent for another two weeks. That's exactly how long Prison Break has to convince me to keep watching. Video35172@blogcritics.org Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:31:41 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/29/174240.php Tom the DogBloody and sexy and undeniably epic, Rome is another win for HBO. It's not Deadwood or The Sopranos, but it's a tremendous achievement nonetheless. "Not the best HBO has to offer" still means "better than almost anything on television."The first episode is a little hard to follow, what with the vast cast of characters and all their sinuous political motivations to establish. The pace is just slow enough for you to catch all the details you need, while still sweeping you up in what will apparently be the central story of the series, the clash between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus. Caesar has been away from Rome for eight years, conquering Gaul ("Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres," don't you know), and has won the hearts of the lower classes with his frequent shipments of war spoils back to the city. Magnus, the Senate leader, is himself of the lower classes, but despite his frequent defenses of his long-time friend Caesar to the Senate, secretly he resents Caesar's popularity with the masses, and plots against him, should he ever return.Their battle promises to be huge and devastating, but for now it's all intrigue at a distance. I liked the deliberate pace of the episode in setting things in motion, though other reviewers (who have had a chance to see more episodes than I have) complain that the momentum never increases, making the pacing feel ponderous instead. (Though I have to question the attention span of the Slate critic in particular, when she makes such a simple factual error as claiming that in the first episode "a topless woman bathes in bull's blood during a ritual sacrifice." If I must nitpick, I must; the fact is the woman is wearing a gown -- a flimsy one, but still: not topless. Perhaps it was an honest mistake on the critic's part, but it's a mistake that coincidentally reinforces her stance that the series contains more blood and nudity than she prefers.)Magnus and Caesar's story is epic in nature, but so far the two of them (especially Caesar) have yet to become real, humanized characters. Of more initial interest is the developing friendship between Centurion Lucius Vorenus and Legionnaire Titus Pullo. At the beginning of the episode, Vorenus has had Pullo flogged and imprisoned, awaiting death, for breaking rank during battle (the hot-headed Pullo went all Braveheart and jumped into the thick of battle rather than remaining in his place in the shield wall). When they are enlisted to retrieve Caesar's personal standard, which has been stolen, they have to come to terms with each other, and their relationship is very interesting, with soldier's duty and loyalty scarcely restraining what begins as disdain (on Vorenus' part) and fierce resentment (on Pullo's).Also of interest is Caesar's niece, Atia, who is plying her considerable political wiles on Caesar's behalf in Rome. Plying her considerable sexual wiles, as well, of the copious amount of nudity in the debut episode, most of it is Atia's. She even uses her young son, Octavian, as a political pawn, sending him to deliver in person a gift horse (don't look it in the mouth!) to Caesar in honor of his final defeat of the Gauls. My favorite scene in the episode is when Octavian encounters Vorenus and Pullo, and the child shrewdly and sneeringly lays out for them the exact political motivations for both Caesar and Magnus, regarding the stolen standard -- motivations which, as simple soldiers, they had never suspected, nor even considered. It's an incredibly sharp scene, laying the difference between soldier and politician into stark contrast, while defining the political drama for the audience at the same time.The scale of the series is impressively grand, with vast sets and multitudes of costumed extras filling the backgrounds. But the characters and conflicts keep things on a relatable scale -- especially when involving Atia, or the two soldiers. HBO has got another bona fide winner. Which is almost a shame, considering the multitude of new series I'll be trying to catch in the weeks to come. Damn you, HBO, for taking another 12 hours out of my life! Video35027@blogcritics.org Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:42:40 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/23/014222.php Tom the DogMan, was that a kick in the teeth. Of course, that's not as bad as what else happens to teeth in this movie.Oldboy, the 2004 Cannes Grand Jury Prize-winner just released on DVD, is a brutally nerve-wracking thriller from South Korean director Park Chan-wook. It begins with Korean businessman Oh Dae-Su, who is kidnapped and imprisoned while on his way home for his daughter's birthday. He has no clue who his captors are, nor why they have taken him, nor how long they're going to keep him. After nearly a year in his cell (which resembles a small hotel room), he learns from the TV news that his wife has been murdered, and he's been framed for the killing. All he can do is plan his escape and plot his revenge.After fifteen years, he is released, as suddenly and inexplicably as he was captured. And he begins his quest for the truth -- and for vengeance. He has no one to turn to; his wife is dead, his daughter is living with a foster family in Europe, and he is believed to be a murderer. And, as he soon discovers, he has a deadline -- five days.This was a real gut-punch of a film. It's tremendously violent -- in one of the film's most horrifying scenes, Dae-Su performs impromptu dental surgery with the claw end of a hammer -- but the psychological torture is even more severe. The closer Dae-Su gets to his goal, the more anguish he endures, until it's nearly unbearable, both for him and the audience.Oldboy is absolutely riveting. The Kafkaesque opening scenario is fascinating, and it actually develops into a real conclusion -- we're not left hanging, as I feared at the beginning. And Choi Min-sik's performance as Oh Dae-Su is intense and disturbing. He suffers through the deepest depths of despair, hysteria, insanity, all the while fearing the monster he suspects he is -- for both whatever crimes may have led to his imprisonment, and for the things he does after his release.The visual style of the movie is incredible. It's dream-like at times, as hallucinatory images of the past and present collide. And the action scenes are uniquely and creatively staged, with a real standout being a full-scale brawl in a narrow hallway between a dozen men and Dae-Su, who is armed only with his trusty hammer. No MTV-style quick cuts here; it's one long, chaotic, seemingly half-improvised scene unfolding across the full screen.This is a tough movie to take at times, but it's well worth the experience. The story and style are amazing, truly audacious in their creativity and depravity. Oldboy is a signal of great things to come from director Park Chan-wook, both in his future work and in his catalog of films yet to be released in America. Video34633@blogcritics.org Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:42:22 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/19/071218.php Tom the DogI once said that I would be the last comics-type blogger in the world to read Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. Well, last week I read it. Do I win?I didn't think I'd like it, which I why I waited so long to check it out. I'd paged through it briefly at the store and thought: hmm, not for me. But then the second volume, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, came out, and I paged through the first few pages of it, and found that I really liked what I saw. It was clever and funny and different, and I liked the rough and cartoony, but still very well drawn and effective, artwork, and I was intrigued by the characters, and I thought: hmm, maybe this is for me, after all. So I picked up Vol. 1, and I was completely captivated by it. I've reread it twice already, and all I can say is: you were right, comic weblogosphereiverse, and I was wrong. Scott Pilgrim is great, great fun.The story is targeted at an age group about a dozen years younger than me (or more -- I did turn 35 last week, damn you all), which is probably also why I resisted it in the first place. But it's not aggressively, exclusionarily (if that's a word) youth-oriented, with a bunch of lingo and references that an old feller like me can't get hep to. Its characters and experiences are immediately familiar and relatable, and for all I've heard of its video game influences, they don't get any more difficult to decipher than a visual homage to Street Fighter, and name-checks of Drum Mania and Super Mario 2.Yes, everything's familiar and relatable -- until it isn't. After a first chapter of straightforward, winning character humor, I was surprised by the sudden turn into the fantastic, meaning the way Ramona Flowers is able to enter Scott's dreams (a shortcut runs right through them). It's silly and odd, but it doesn't derail the story; the step beyond reality actually helps raise the stakes Scott's playing for. Now to win Ramona's heart, he doesn't have to merely divest himself of his current girlfriend, Knives Chau; he also has to defeat all of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends in battle -- grand, explosive, ridiculously over-the-top, wire fu-and-magic style battle. It gets crazy, but it manages always to be grounded by the cast and their relationships. It's an absurd cartoon, but it's got a sweet, quiet romance at its heart.I really enjoyed watching the story unfold. The details and the dialogue are solid. When 17-year-old Knives first tells 23-year-old Scott about her daily school life and its little soap operas, Scott's interest and enthusiasm for the tales are genuine and infectious. After meeting Ramona, whose age and experiences are more on a level with Scott's, Scott sees Knives' stories as the banal, petty things they are. His change in attitude is subtle, well portrayed, and rings very true.And the little jokes and interplay between the characters are very funny. Most characters take a light, teasing tone with their friends, which feels real. When Scott introduces Knives to his band, he insists that she be good, though clearly she's never been anything but. "No, really. Please be good." "I'll be good!" "You promise to be good?" Cowed: "Yes. I'll be so good." Until bandmate Stephen Stills interrupts them. "He made me promise to be good!" she says. "He may have been kidding," Stephen advises her. "Are you normally bad?" Later, Knives asks Scott if he always calls Stephen by his full name. "Who, Stephen Stills? Yes." When Knives likes Wallace, Scott's roommate, a little too much, taking attention away from him, Scott immediately dismisses him: "Wallace, you go now. You leave. Begone." When Stephen gets the band a gig, he tells them how it came about: "This guy at work was like, 'Steve, do you know anyone in a band?' And I was like --" "Great story, man," Scott finishes for him. And who is the gig with? "Crash and the Boys." Scott: "Awww, man? That one band with Crash? And those Boys? I hate them!" Most of the humor is on that same low-key level, but it's ever-present, and it builds into a constant, almost giddy pleasure.Sometimes the story is a little too sitcom-y; Scott's inability to break things off with Knives once he starts dating Ramona is like something straight out of Three's Company. And sometimes Scott's dialogue is a little too stylized for supposed comedic effect. "I... but... it's... not... it's totally... it's... y... you're not the boss of... me?" It's funny that Scott's flustered at this moment, but the dialogue as written undermines the comedy.But the missteps are few and far between. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I regret not having given it a chance when it first came out. But one good thing has resulted: I don't have to wait for the next book to be published -- I can buy it this weekend. Pub:NB Books34427@blogcritics.org Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:12:18 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/17/063002.php Tom the DogAfter the Thin Man, the first of five sequels to The Thin Man, delivers every bit as much entertainment as the first film, once again anchored by the intoxicating (and intoxicated) romantic comic interplay between William Powell and Myrna Loy.The case is as needlessly complicated as that in the first film, but it serves the purpose of setting Powell, as hard-drinking, reluctant detective Nick Charles, and Loy, as his equally hard-drinking, adventure-seeking wife Nora, into action. Comedic highlights include Nick's interactions with Nora's blueblood family -- they feel he's beneath their station, and Powell delights in antagonizing them further; a surprise party thrown for Nick & Nora's return home, populated by a bunch of freeloaders who don't recognize the Charleses when they see them; a New Year's Eve celebration at a Chinese restaurant, at which Nora gets to meet all of Nick's lowlife friends; and Nick's drunken unconcern as an all-out brawl rages around him. And my favorite line: "Come on, dear, let's get something to eat. I'm thirsty."The film starts off almost exactly where the previous film ended, on the train taking Nick and Nora from New York back home to San Francisco. They don't get any time to rest, though, as they're almost immediately thrown into a mystery involving Nora's stuffy relations. The truly curious thing about this film is how much happens in such a compact amount of time. The film lasts almost two hours, which is fairly unusual for a 1930's comedy, and yet the action spans only two days, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. (And since the story is advanced at times by the classic headline-on-a-spinning-newspaper gimmick, you begin to think San Francisco must have a dozen papers, with new editions released hourly.) The extended running time must have been the studio's response to the unexpected popularity of the original. They made sure to deliver an "A" picture this time out, which meant a couple of time-wasting musical numbers, as well as an inordinate amount of uninteresting screentime spent with Asta, the dog, whom I can only assume tested well with audiences of the era.The plot, as I mentioned above, was as unduly complex as in the first film. (And the culprit just as easy to pinpoint. In my review of the first film, I said, "in these early detective movies, it's almost always the nicest, least suspectable of the suspects" who is guilty. Jimmy Stewart appears in this film. You may draw your own conclusions.) It's not the plot that matters, really, it's the way Powell and Loy interact with the plot elements, and especially with each other, that makes this film so much fun. They're a superlative screen pairing, quick and witty and charmingly infatuated with each other. The promise of a baby to come in the next installment, Another Thin Man, does not hold much appeal for me -- why meddle with a winning team? But I'll still be renting it soon, for more of the magic between Powell and Loy. Pub:NB Video34276@blogcritics.org Wed, 17 Aug 2005 06:30:02 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/16/184936.php Tom the DogThe recent DVD release of the Thin Man box set has given me the opportunity to begin filling in a sorely lacking area of my movie knowledge. I'd never seen a Thin Man movie before, and I was happy to see that my local video store had the entire set available for rental. I've only watched the original film so far, 1934's The Thin Man, but I can already tell that I'll be enjoying the entire series (there are five more to go!).First, a nerdy observation: the phrase "the Thin Man" doesn't actually refer to the main character, Nick Charles, does it? In this first film, it's clearly a phrase applied to the character Clyde Wynant, who goes missing early on. (In fact, the IMDb page names the character "Clyde Wynant, the thin man".) So why name all the sequels after a non-recurring character? I could ask the same of the later Pink Panther sequels, I guess, which are named after a diamond that doesn't appear in them, and probably get the same answer: who cares? Hey, no need to get defensive! Just making an observation.Not only is this the first Thin Man film I've seen, I think it's the first time I've ever seen either William Powell (as Nick Charles) or his partner, Myrna Loy (as Nora Charles). (No, wait, I've seen Powell in Mister Roberts.) Powell is very funny and charming as the wise-cracking, reluctant detective, and Loy matches him quip for quip (and drink for drink), plus: my goodness, she's lovely, isn't she? They have ridiculously easy, believable, well-developed chemistry, and play off one another perfectly; it's no wonder audiences were charmed enough with the pair to demand five sequels.The mystery itself isn't very interesting. I figured out whodunnit almost instantly (in these early detective movies, it's almost always the nicest, least suspectable of the suspects); but it's not the destination, it's the journey. The entertainment comes from the way Nick and Nora Charles approach the case and life: with carefree abandonment, always light-hearted, always inebriated (these two drink more than Hemingway and Bukowski put together), always with a one-liner at the ready. My favorite bit, and probably the most quoted line in the movie, comes the night after Nick has been grazed by a bullet. He and Nora read the papers, and he says, "I'm a hero, I was shot two times in the Tribune." "I saw where you were shot five times in the tabloids," Nora observes. "It's not true," Nick replies with a sly grin, "he never came near my tabloids."There's maybe a little too much plot getting in the way of the action (as Joe Bob would say); the mystery is convoluted, and I was puzzled by one character, Nunheim, whom the other characters seem to be aware of before they let the audience in on it. But that doesn't diminish the fun of seeing Nick demonstrate how a martini should be shaken to a fox-trot beat, or watching Nora, catching Nick in the middle of a bender, ordering five martinis at once to catch up, or seeing the cute faces the two make at one another throughout. Powell and Loy are an electric screen couple, and I can't wait to watch the first sequel, 1936's After the Thin Man. Bonus: Jimmy Stewart co-stars in that one! Video34244@blogcritics.org Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:49:36 EDT