Motion Picture Meanderings

I've again fallen behind on my cinematic reviews. But to recap my late summer viewings, I enjoyed "Captain America" and "Cowboys and Aliens" more than I expected, more than what others should've anticipated. I joined the growing chorus of individuals who see "Captain America" as the best comic book film adaptation this year, not some gaudy, action-bloated romp. Plus it provides a fun link (along with the end credits trailer) to next year's release of "The Avengers." "Cowboys and Aliens," meanwhile was a thrilling adaptation of the graphic novel -- a risky hybrid that understandably could turn off a variety of Western fans and sci-fi geeks. But the movie somehow works. It's disappointing yet not shocking it didn't get bigger box office returns.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes," too, was better than I had hoped but it also stopped short of epic. It nearly wiped out the nasty taste in everyone's mouths left by Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" remake, and ROTPOTA also gives well-intentioned nods to the classic flicks. If you can get past the wooden lead acting performances, you find a compelling albeit unoriginal story of man's attempt to overcome and even control nature. Yet, the movie's climactic action piece feels rush and incomplete, even with the reveal through the end credits of how mankind finally gives way to simian rule on Earth.

As for "Contagion," I'm relieved to report it isn't a loose remake of "Outbreak." It's a quality thriller for our times, reflecting fears of how an infectious virus could easily become a global plague. Director Steven Soderbergh seamlessly weaves points of view of various characters, portrayed by an all-star case, together into a not-so-sentimental story of human survival. It's neither brilliant nor tremendously provocative, but serves as passable entertainment.

I can't say enough about "Horrible Bosses." Very fun, entertaining and hilarious. Jennifer Aniston is so much better and funnier when she's NOT in a contrived romantic comedy. All of it was so wrong yet so right.

Late summer television-watching has been topsy-turvy. The fourth season of "True Blood," coming to an end, has been a wild, wacky ride, one that makes me guess what kind of fabled supernatural "villain" could next become the focus of a whole new season of episodes. Vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, fairies, and now, witches and mediums. Whatever dangerous charms of vampirism from the first 2 seasons have faded into the background, used more now as plot devices. Hopefully the fifth season will feature a bit more focused story development.

Oh, how I really wanted to love "Torchwood: Miracle Day." (Spoiler alert!) From the get-go, it was a difficult task to top the previous "series" of "Torchwood." "Children of Earth" was so immensely badass. The minute it was reported that Americans and the Starz Channel would anchor a new season of "Torchwood," I'm sure many of us fans had our doubts. Indeed, whatever beautiful "Britishness" the show has died a slow death. It was a contrived mess, all told, with some troubling performances (I'm looking at you, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose) and weirder guest star casting (Mare Winningham? Wayne Knight? Frances Fisher?)

Away from BBC's supervision, the Americanized "Torchwood" went with some uninspired subplots, lame attempts at humor and, shockingly, full-on sex scenes. And we're talking man on man action. We knew about Captain Jack Harkness' preferences and have seen tiny bits of his flirtatious demonstrations, but never did I imagine seeing him go at it with a guy. Not once but twice. Whoa, nelly.

It's too bad. "Miracle Day" held a philosophically intriguing premise -- what if everyone on Earth simply, inexplicably, stopped dying one day? People "dying" would have to be categorized, quarantined in some way and even "dealt with eventually." A new layer of bureaucracy had to be developed. There'd be no more murder or suicide. As the population grew, there'd be a run on basic resources across the world, from food and water to medicine. Religions would have to rethink their concept of death and the beyond.

While Jack and Gwen Cooper got to kick some ass, they got sucked into American machismo realized by CIA agents. They also got sucked into this narrative storyline reflecting modern-day concerns about government and capitalism run amok. As one Twitterer commented: "Imagine you want to make a sci-fi show, yeah! Imagine nobody dies anymore, yeah! Imagine a mysterious, malevolent corporation being responsible for it all, yeah!"

And alas, thanks to roughly 15-20 minutes of deux es machina in the final episode, all was explained and it wasn't a mere mysterious, malevolent corporation behind "Miracle Day." But it wasn't an extraterrestrial nor supernatural thing responsible for it, neither. In fact, nobody -- not even the writers -- could explain or destroy it. The nefarious subplots featured in the earlier episodes made more non-sense in the end. I'm still a "Torchwood" fan, but unless BBC takes it back totally under its control, I fear for its future. (OK, end spoiler alert.)

Now that "True Blood" and "Torchwood" are concluding for another year, I look forward to new episodes of "Boardwalk Empire," "Squidbillies," "South Park," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Superjail," "Archer," and the usual Sunday night Fox fare. I'm waiting for "Doctor Who" to really ramp things up during its remaining few episodes in 2011, and I applaud "Futurama," "Wilfred" and "Death Valley," The latter two shows, particularly, are so overwhelmingly "wrong" yet hilarious in their execution.

Regarding new shows on the broadcast networks, I may give "Terra Nova" and "Persons of Interest" a try, but I've been burned the last couple of years by "FastForward" and the "V" reboot, so I may just have to lean only on "Fringe" for broadcast network non-cartoon TV entertainment this fall/winter. Additionally, I'm steering clear on the broadcast network's efforts to rip of "Mad Men," namely "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club." If you need "Mad Men," just wait for its return in a few months after AMC rolls out a new season of "The Walking Dead." Be patient. A new season of soul-deadening Don Draper will be here before you know it.

Clues, Claims and Things Left Unspoken

So this is what it feels like to be 21.

Ok fine. Barely 30.

Alright, alright. 37. A few weeks into this age...now wholly into a markedly different age bracket... you must be curious as to whether I am that much closer to perennially cranky. Whether I'm wearing nothing but jumpsuits and sneakers 6 days a week. Whether I'm shouting for kids to "get off my lawn!” even when I don't have a lawn.

But never fear. I strive to maintain a careful balance between maturity, "acting my age" (whatever that really means), and preserving some semblance of a youthful, playful outlook on life. Sure, I'm still snarky. But I'm that way out of love. That's how my sense of humor rolls. I'm also learning to be a husband and step dad. I'm learning to better embrace my career. I'm learning to better envision an even brighter version of my future and that of my family. But I also strongly retain my inner geek, one that joyously holds dear a vibrant sense of nostalgia, and a continuing desire to envision an exciting array of life's possibilities.

Except for the part where two weeks ago, thanks to Craigslist, I sold off a gigantic chunk of sports cards -- 20,000 of them --- which I had accumulated mainly in my middle and high school years. I also recently sold off my remaining old-school Atari-era games. How old school? We're talking not just classic Missile Command, Pac-Man, Space Invaders or Pitfall, but Yars Revenge, Combat, Barnstorming, Haunted House and, inexplicably, two copies of Megaforce, based on one of the genuinely terrifically bad - no, horrendous - action flicks of the early '80s of the same name. Oh how I fondly remember going with my mom and aunt to Sears to get cartridges for my Atari 2600 system in the early '80s. Oh how I cried endlessly after selling off my sports cards and video games.

Funny that Mindy, one night out a few weeks ago, couldn't exactly recall how long she and I have known each other. Come this September, it will be five years. Five of the greatest years of my life - so far, of course =) It wasn't long before I Mindy that I experienced several personal "jolts," including the death of my mother and almost losing my long-time cat Topaz to a sudden illness. Being with Mindy -- this first marriage and instantly becoming a stepfather -- is a grand life-affirming event. I guess you could say the fun is just beginning. My bucket list is expanding by volumes.

Speaking of my inner geek being alive and well, I'm doing my best to keep track of Hollywood popcorn cinema. I'll spear you detailed, meandering individual reviews of films you've already seen for yourselves (in some cases, weeks or months ago) or even reviewed to marvelous ultra-snarky effect. So, here are my bullet-point reviews.

High scores for "X-Men: First Class," "Thor” and "Super 8." Director Matthew Vaughn's previous films "Layer Cake" and "Kick-Ass" were superb, so in that vein and by comparison, "First Class" was a vast improvement over "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." After all, we're kinda pretending those last two movies didn't happen. Like, you know, Superman 3 and 4. Comics-to-cinema-continuity be damned! However it was fun to see Kevin Bacon chewing up scenery as Sebastian Shaw, Michael Fassbender and James MacAvoy submit entertaining turns as young Eric Lensherr and Charles Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence making feel tingly as Raven Darkholme, and January Jones basically channeling Betty Draper in her performance as Emma Frost.

"Thor," ultimately was a fun popcorn comic adaptation. Not one of the greatest ever, but definitely not polarizing like the “Hulk” or “Fantastic Four” franchises or “Daredevil” or “Ghost Rider.” Definitely not on par with the likes of “Jonah Hex” nor “Elektra” or “Catwoman.” It's a nice set-up for next year's "The Avengers" and is serviceable as a standalone, big-screen introduction for audiences not so familiar with the source material. I'm a bit biased, being a Kenneth Branagh fan (sans the "Wild Wild West" misadventure), but he brought his epic Shakespearean touch to bear upon the specific set pieces exhibiting Thor's arrogance, Loki's scheming and a gamble to make Thor powerless in his descent to Earth. It works for the most part. It's entertaining for the most part. The acting is good as can be expected from such grandiose mainstream comic adaptations nowadays, although Tom Hiddleston was a solid winner as Loki, and doesn't Jeremy Renner's shadowy preview of Hawkeye send a few shivers up your spine? It had better. And it all makes up for the lack of chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman.

Amazing some of reviewer comments out there about "Super 8" -- that it was unoriginal. That it was overly melodramatic. Maybe a little whiny. You got the memo, right? It's a homage! It's a J.J. Abrams' tribute to Spielbergian films (and similar family sci-fi fantasy) of the late 70s and early-mid 80s, perhaps a mini-golden era for us Gen X geeks. Don't deny having gotten warm fuzzies when E.T. bid farewell to Elliott. Or when Richard Dreyfuss boarded the mother ship. Or when Steve and Diane Freiling went into the light, fought noisy ghosts and yanked their Carol Anne from lost, bitter souls. You thought it was actually awesome when The Goonies, despite all their arguing and inanity, actually did all that crazy, heroic stuff. You thought it was cool when Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix and the other kid soared above suburbia to another part of the galaxy in an instant in their homemade spaceship. Queue the inspirational, sentimental John Williams scores. All of them.

Some people love Abrams. Some hate him. (Ok, the guy tripped me up a few times with "Mission: Impossible III" and several episodes of "Lost.") Having said all that, you can't help but be mostly and positively nostalgic with "Super 8." Sure, it has flaws. What films don't nowadays? All things considered, the acting is pretty on par (particularly Joel Courtney and Dakota Fanning's sister Elle), the special effects are sound, the geek and era references are fun to point out (i.e. Dick Smith's monster makeup handbook, zombies via the Romero corporation, the Space Shuttle interior poster, overnight photo development), and -- oh my -- lens flares. Glorious lens flares!

"The Hangover, Part 2” -- I'm still on the fence about this. As hard as it was to envision how such a sequel could ever hope to top its predecessor, there’s the desire to actually like or even love it. I liked “Hangover Part 2.” Didn’t love it. Of course, it’s exactly the same format as the original flick. We knew that going in. But expectations went up. Like they did when filming for “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” kicked off. And there’s the curiosity factor, to see what hugely over-the-top antics these man-boys could find themselves in. Questions arise in your mind. Would such antics be as funny if not funnier? Would such antics garner the coveted title of “oh so wrong yet oh so irresistibly hilarious”? Would such antics be as polarizing as those in the first movie, if not more? After one viewing of the sequel, I could safely say it’s equally funny and entertaining, but not as satisfying. I’ll wait for the DVD extras and make up my mind then.

My mid-level rating for “Bridesmaids” is rising as time goes along. I’m a fan of Kristen Wiig. Her “Saturday Night Live” work aside, Kristen’s turn in “Knocked Up” was among the top 10 funniest things in that movie, and I took a liking to her characters in “Whip It” and “Extract.” And who wouldn’t be a fan of Maya Rudolph? Responding to comments by other reviewers…yes, “Bridesmaids” is cliched, but it wasn’t meant to be strictly a “The Hangover” for women. It’s how you deal with such cliched characters and elements, and Wiig, as the script writer, did well. With help from producer Judd Apatow, “Bridesmaids” turned out to be a full-on adult comedy with a heart, occasionally bordering on the raunchy but never explicitly crossing the line.

“Green Lantern,” to me, is harder to accept than Thor. It’s not dreadful nor is it great. It’s just there. It is difficult to adapt more than 50 years of comics into a two-hour mainstream origin flick. You’re torn between fanboys who desire pure translation, and an audience that is either mostly unfamiliar with the source material or has little patience for the most fantastical elements of the comic books. This movie is, essentially, a very loose adaptation of the Green Lantern: Secret Origin series. Ryan Reynolds looks the part of Hal Jordan (probably just as much as Kyle Rayner, but that’s another story). Mark Strong very much looks and sounds the part of Sinestro, perhaps the film’s strongest adapted character. The planet Oa looks just as CGI-astonishing as Asgard does in “Thor.” But Blake Lively adds little to the proceedings as Carol Ferris, and Peter Saargard’s Hector Hammond, just like in the comics, is a wasted quasi-villain. And suddenly it hits me how the Guardians of Oa and the film version of Parallax look like the titular character from “Megamind.” (Haw haw.) Don’t get me wrong. At times, “Green Lantern” looks like a truly comic bookish adaptation – colorful, swift with shreds of cheese thrown in for good measure.” But even as an introductory comic book movie, it leaves me neither overwhelmed nor excited.

Regardless, all of these summer flicks – in addition to catching up with the terrific the maybe-it’s-not-totally-a street art documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and the adequately fun popcorn flicks “The Losers,” “Red” and “The A-Team” – have given me the strength to get past the gaudiness and excess that apparently pervade “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” What, no “Pirates 4” review? Nope. I survived the previous three movies with half-interest, waiting to see two of them on DVD/pay-per-view. I can wait a little longer to see “On Stranger Tides.” Amazing how producer Jerry Bruckheimer managed to enthrall movie-goers with a cinematic mythology based on a Disney amusement park ride. But outside of Johnny Depp’s performances, I couldn’t fully embrace this franchise. What, no recap for “Cars 2”? Nah. The first movie didn’t do anything for me. But call me if Disney and Pixar commit to a sequel (or even prequel) to “The Incredibles.”

As far as television geekdom goes, I’m settling in for another off-the-walls season of “True Blood” and trying to give “Falling Skies” a serious chance. Can’t wait for the Doctor Who fall season premiere, teased in the spring season finale with the glorious title “Let’s Kill Hitler!” And I grow more cautious with Starz’s Americanized version of “Torchwood.” While I’m anxious to take my step kids Cody and Emily to see “Transformers” and “Captain America” on the big screen after their return to S.A. this coming weekend, I’m looking equally forward to viewing “Horrible Bosses” and “The Change-Up” on the side. The “Fright Night” remake? Ehh, ummm, someone may need to hit me from behind with a blunt object and drag me there. I don’t have a problem with the basic idea of David Tennant being a great vampire hunter, but he’s miles and miles from Roddy McDowell’s epic performance in the original. Not that I need to get into it here with this “need” to further ruin our collective childhoods with remakes/reboots of 1980s flicks. That’s another blog altogether.

Speaking of which, apologies for the infrequent blog updates. I shall endeavor to conjure up mid-to-late summer cinema reviews. Otherwise, my next full-blown blog update won’t come out until the winter solstice, at this rate. So whether it is catching The Spazmatics in a Rackspace concert (pictured above) or celebrating my dog Dixie’s 18th (you read right) birthday (pictured above), it’s been a milestone yet fast-paced spring and early summer. Can’t wait to see what the rest of this summer has in store. Only at that time would it be prudent to expedite preparations for the end of the Mayan calendar.

A blog without a name

The end of March and this is, what, only my third blog of 2009? How disappointed all your faithful readers must be. All three of you. So much to say, yet not enough time or energy to elaborate. So here's a scattering of thoughts...

* Mindy and I enjoyed our quick New Orleans trip. The town is slowly but surely getting back to that same ol' Crescent City I've come to know, love and hazily recall through alcohol-fueled weekends.

* My NCAA tournament bracket went kablooey. Pitt, Memphis, Louisville -- anytime you all really wanna play hard enough to reach the Final 4, let me know. I am now counting on a Villanova-UConn showdown. Oh well, I guess otherwise I'll look forward now to the Frozen Four, the new baseball season and someone knocking off the Lakers.

* It's a year my inner geek looks forward to so many cool, titillating flicks -- a year that has begun with Watchmen, Monsters v. Aliens and I Love You, Man. A year that will include a reenvisioned Star Trek prequel/sequel, X-Men, Transformers, G.I. Joe, something about 2012, Year One, Inglorious Basterds, Terminator, Seth Rogen needing a chill pill and...holy crap, someone is suggesting Naked Gun 4! My inner geek runs giddy with joy.

* Farewell, Battlestar Galactica. The finale was incredible. Not totally satisfying, but an awesome attempt nonetheless. Hey, someone (a Star Trek: Next Generation alum, no less) was bold enough to create a not-so-cheesy sci-fi show that boasted plenty of grit, bleak action and philosophy. It was a cool homage to a TV childhood favorite of mine and game-changer for current fare. So say we all. (Caprica -- eh I'm not so sure of yet.)

* I'm thinking it won't be too long before we see the finale of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and where the hell is my final Pushing Daisies episodes, ya bastards?!

* Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck, sit down, shut the hell up and chill the f#$@ out.

* Newt Gingrich. New Catholic. Muhahaha! Yes, our church really welcomes a guy who had an extramarital affair AND who told a hospitalized wife not once BUT TWICE she was dumping her.