Month: March 2008

“Lost” – hi, “Losties” (apparently the term of art for Lost fans) – admittedly, I’m not a Lost fan, but as a casual viewer, this season has been powerful stuff. I must say, the Desmond episode – wherein we get a lot of answers to various “Lost” questions and a lot of emotions running. Desmond needs a constant, or else he’s going to die from his mental temporal trips. His love Penny manages to stick around for him! Aww! This could have been quite the Christmas episode. Plus, being in the British army is really tough (well, apparently, no worse than it is being in any army), but was Desmond AWOL when he went off to Oxford to find Faraday? And, how terribly convenient that present-Faraday suddenly remembers that he was in Oxford in 1996, available to help 1996 Desmond, who’s not quite helping present Sayid on the boat. Anyway, Sayid turned out to be decent help (his own episode was something straight out of the J.J. Abram’s “Alias” mythos – jeez, Sayid – your future’s not looking too great). But, as expected, time twists are serious mind-bogglers.

This past week’s episode – wherein Juliet has to decide who’s side she’s on already (but still Jack that she can’t chose, lest she endangers him – but Jack’s willing to take the risk – Jack, you’re crazy!) — well, I still don’t trust Juliet. And, Ben – he’s quite the villain, isn’t he? It says a lot about the actor that a viewer can hate Ben, not trust him, but kind of understand why he thinks he’s right. Indeed, Ben reminds me a lot of Sloan, from “Alias” – he’s Evil, he thinks he’s doing the Right Thing, but it’s really about his pursuit of his own agenda. Sloan ended up in Limbo (or Living Hell, if that satisfies anyone to be trapped underground forever) in the pursuit for immortality – will Ben’s fate be no less pleasant?? Hell, if Rambaldi, the Da Vinci-like being that caused the quest in “Alias” ends up popping up in “Lost” – I won’t be surprised.

Time’s James Poniewozik has some great posts about the Desmond episode and on the recent episode about Juliet (and her unsurprising past with Ben) – particularly interesting is Poniewozik’s comparison of the Juliet and Ben thing with Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” I’m beginning to think that the “Lost” writers’ asking ABC for a time limit for the series has helped them think of their endgame for the series and it’s making things that much more interesting. It’s starting to feel like a real point is possible and I might be willing to continue watching, not just follow plots that make any sense.

As opposed to, say, “Prison Break,” where I gave up a long time ago.

Oh, so many priceless lines from this past week’s episode of “Lost” – the idea that the Others had a resident therapist (Jack: “You people had therapists?” Juliet: “It’s very stressful being an Other, Jack.”); Ben’s leading Locke to the safe and the tape of the Red Sox game – and Ben’s saying: “I taped over the game.” Hehe. Kind of went along with the earlier episode this season, where Jack was shocked that the Red Sox won the World Series (since their plane crashed just before the Red Sox finally won).

If J.J. Abrams has been powerful as the man behind “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost” and now the soon new “Star Trek” movie/re-boot, what about Greg Berlanti? He’s got “Everwood,” and now “Brothers and Sisters,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Eli Stone” under the belt. Talk about talent.

NY Times’ A.O. Scott ought to be given an award for the funniest, laugh-out-loud movie review in his review of “10,000 B.C.” – at least for using the word “snuffleupagus” outside the usual Sesame Street context:

“Only time can teach us what is truth and what is legend.” This bit of fake-folk wisdom commences the voice-over narration of “10,000 BC,” and the more you think about it, the more preposterous it seems. If anything, time confuses the issue. But it’s best not to think too hard about anything in this sublimely dunderheaded excursion into human prehistory, directed by Roland Emmerich from a script he wrote with Harald Kloser, who also helped compose, using his better ear, the musical score.

Mr. Emmerich has made something of a specialty in staging — with maximal bombast and minimal coherence — end-of-the-world scenarios. (See “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” though not on the same day if you can help it.) In the context of his oeuvre “10,000 BC” might be thought of as a kind of prequel, an attempt to imagine human civilization not on the brink of its end, but somewhere near its beginning.

Yet even as the story begins, the old ways seem to be dying out, as the Yagahl, a tribe of snuffleupagus hunters who favor extensions in their hair and eschew contractions in their speech, prepare for their last hunt. In fulfillment of an old prophecy, raiders on horseback (“four-legged demons”) arrive to sack the Yagahl encampment and take a bunch of the tribespeople as slaves. Among them is the blue-eyed Evolet (Camilla Belle), whose beloved, D’Leh (Steven Strait), sets out with his mentor, Tic’Tic (Cliff Curtis), to rescue her.

And at its best — which may also be to say at its worst — “10,000 BC” feels like a throwback to an ancient, if not exactly prehistoric, style of filmmaking. The wooden acting, the bad dialogue, the extravagantly illogical special effects may well, in time, look pleasingly cheap and hokey, at which point the true entertainment value of the film will at last be realized.

Meanwhile back in the present, there is an awful lot of high-toned mumbo-jumbo to sit through. On his journey D’Leh (it’s pronounced “delay,” though most of the time he’s in a pretty big hurry) gathers a multicultural army to oppose the pyramid-building, slaveholding empire that has been bothering the more peaceful agrarian and hunter-gatherer tribes. These decadent priests seem like a curious hybrid of the Egyptians in “King of Egypt” and the Maya from “Apocalypto.” To reach them D’Leh travels overland from his home on the Siberian steppes through the jungles of Southeast Asia to the grasslands of Africa. But back then I guess it was all Gondwana, so the trip was easier. [….]

But the big, climactic fight, complete with an epic snuffleupagus rampage, is decent action-movie fun. And as a history lesson, “10,000 BC” has its value. It explains just how we came to be the tolerant, peace-loving farmers we are today, and why the pyramids were never finished.

Snuffleupagus!!! Snuffleupagus!!! 😀 Thank you, A.O. Scott! Thank you, very much!

Hmm, interesting article about this ex-lawyer, who went from corporate law to criminal defense (representing the criminally insane – good grief) and now owning a bar and penning a play with a title that I got to love – “Attorney for the Damned”! Aww, that’s a riot…

Jackie Chan honors his late parents in Australia, as they had spent several years there. Personally, I had no idea that Jackie Chan got his name “Jackie” from his time in Australia or that he spent a chunk of his life there (I’m so not up on the Asian celebrity beat). At the very least, I really didn’t think Chan has a connection to Australian politicians. Anyway, does all this make him an Australian-Chinese?

My brother got a copy of Jennifer 8. Lee’s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” – I’ll be reading it hopefully sometime in the next week or two (assuming life doesn’t get in the way). Anyway, so here’s the NY Times Book Review of the NY Times reporter’s book.

I so would like my hour back. It’s too early…

February went by fast. This first week of March is going by too. Can’t believe we’re losing an hour to Daylight Savings by this weekend. Has spring almost sprung now?

Coming soon to the tv nearest you: March Madness – NCAA. Or more like April Antics, considering how late it’ll be this year. Honestly, Cornell’s men’s team is already in? I’ll salute a fellow Ivy League team and wish them the best of luck (Alma Mater didn’t do so hot, but better than in the past this season). But, really, are you really going past Round 1?

Saturday night: Peking Park for APA alumni group’s lunar new year dinner. Didn’t think I’d make it, but I did. Food was better than last year, strangely enough, and it’s the same place as last year’s.

Creator of “Family Ties” (and many other shows, including “Brooklyn Bridge” – which I mention because I liked it – and “Spin City” – during which I enjoyed the Michael J. Fox years), Gary David Goldberg, on who he thinks Alex P. Keaton would vote for (if Alex were real, and face it, he isn’t). As noted previously on triscribe, Michael J. Fox did have his own theory on what happened to his former alter ego, and I noted what I thought too (see the previous link). Considering that Goldberg believes that Alex would have ended up doing pro bono work for the Children’s Defense Fund… well, that’s a nice thought. Hard to believe, but nice anyway. Alex as a lawyer? Hmm!

Watched “New Amsterdam,” since I’m a sucker for shows about detectives who don’t die. The NY Times’ Ginia Bellafante (surprised that Bellafante gave away plot twists) and Newsday’s Diane Werts haven’t been too negative – NY Post’s Linda Stasi got glowing, really (her crush on Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, as “John Amsterdam,” got too much). I agree with David Bianculli – New York City is the best character – as seen in the glimpses of the past of John Amsterdam, the 400 year old cop who’s been in NYC since it was New Amsterdam (the title of the show isn’t just his name or that he’s going to be a new man in finally finding the love of his life, but it’s really about how “Old New York was once New Amsterdam…” as They Might Be Giants sang in their song, “Constantinople”).

The actor Coster-Waldau was a bit wooden in the first episode. From what I could tell of the second episode (aired on Thursday), he’s a bit better. Plus, it’s a bit creepy that the 400 year old guy was fathering children for such a long period of time, and so he’s going to bump into his descendants a bit more than I would have thought, but that actually makes the show a little funny. The cop stuff and the mysteries don’t seem that intriguing (John Amsterdam was once a Dutch soldier of New Amsterdam, a carpenter famed for classic antique desks that sell like hotcakes at Sotheby’s, and once a lawyer named John York. Yeah, okay…). The woman shown to be the possible love interest didn’t seem all that interesting to me. Amsterdam’s cop partner, played by actress Zuleikah Robinson, needs a personality – probably no fault of the actress, more because of the weak writing of her character. Amsterdam’s bar-owning sidekick, Omar, has more chemistry with him.

Amsterdam also seems too casual about tossing references to his being alive way too long. Does the NYPD know they’ve this really old-but-young looking guy on the force, or do they think he’s just crazy because he watched the Yankees play before they were even called the Yankees and actually mentioned it to one of the guys in the precinct, while in a debate over who was the Yankees’ best pitcher?

My advice: umm, Amsterdam – you might want to keep your secrets a little more secretive unless you want to end up in Bellevue or something.

The show as a mystery series – well, needs to be a bit more gripping. Then again, I speak as someone who found the episodes on “Angel” where Angel thinks about his 300 year past as good stuff (well, Angel was once an irritating Irish lad named Liam (and those flashbacks didn’t do that well, because the actor David Boreanaz couldn’t maintain the Irish accent too long), but otherwise had to deal with the whole redemption thing for about 100 years of misery…) — But, “New Amsterdam” as a show on modern romance – a romantic in a city where romance is hard? That’s persuasive to me.

There’s also that bit of controversy because the plot of “New Amsterdam” is apparently similar to Pete Hamill’s book “Forever.” I haven’t read Hamill’s book; nonetheless, I think the tv series is more inspired by series like “Angel” or “Highlander.” It shouldn’t detract from Hamill’s book – if anything, I think I now want to get a copy and read it, in hopes that Hamill did a better writing job than the tv writers did. (they clearly mean to do better, and maybe they will, but it felt like the at-the-time’s looming writers’ strike didn’t help them).

So, do I like “New Amsterdam”? I don’t know. But, as my history of tv watching goes, I’m a sucker for weird cop/hero shows, and shows that I have a fondness for have a sad way of just not lasting. FOX may or may not renew it (it has renewed its lame sitcoms, and it has kept its crappy reality games on the air), but I hope FOX keeps it going to keep us mildly entertained in Broadcast Network TV land.

Missed a good chunk of “Law and Order” the other night. What I can say of what I did watch of the episode? — Moira Kelly as the defendant played crazy very well. She’s aging naturally, which is good, really (I can’t take the too-obvious Botox actresses), but I almost couldn’t recognize her (she barely looks like her “The Cutting Edge” or “West Wing” roles). Plus, if Detective Lupo does end up getting his J.D. from our Alma Mater Law School, his watching how Exec. ADA Cutter acts in action might convince Lupo not to enter the field of prosecution. He got a little disgusted with how Cutter treated a teenaged witness; Cutter got all “well, stick to your lovely law books, ’cause practicing law ain’t that pretty.” Jack McCoy got his own hands a little dirty too, in helping Cutter nail the defendant’s expert witness on cross (McCoy getting a little personally vindictive, because he didn’t like it that the shrink – who has helped the DA’s office in the past – wasn’t helping them this time). ADA Connie Rubirosa ended up saving the day.

And, last but not least: Jack Mathews, most recently a Daily News movie critic and previously a Newsday movie critic, is moving on from the industry to head west and enjoying a different view. Beginning his last column with an anecdote of his first movie critic job in Detroit (how kids touring the newsroom were amazed that he was paid to watch movies), and Mathews closes:

When I began reviewing and seeing everything, I was warned by a veteran critic that for every movie that would inspire me, nine would drain my soul. I thought, “He just doesn’t like movies as much as I do.”

Some 6,000 screenings later, I’d say he had the ratio about right. But those exceptions – that “Pulp Fiction,” that “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that “No Country for Old Men” – kept my glass half-full and the passion alive.

That passion has been with me since I was younger than those kids in Detroit, and I get as excited by movies now as then. But as I return to civilian filmgoing, I will be counting on other critics to do for me what I’ve tried to do for you: cut through the hype and publicity and tell me which films are actually worth seeing.

On your own dime, you have to be selective.

I remembered reading Mathews’ reviews back when I read NY Newsday (when there was a NY Newsday), and then was pleased to see him in the Daily News (’cause I was reading the hometown newspaper again). Things change, I guess, and we have to move with the times. Still – reading movie reviews just won’t be the same. Best wishes, Mr. Mathews!