SuperSciFan | Bloggerspective on Superhero, Sci Fi & Fantasy Entertainment

REACTION: Jim Halpert, Dwight Schrute at the front of the line to resign from Dunder Mifflin with Michael Scott

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:29:00 +0000

L.A. Times writer Jon Caramanica sort of got what he wanted last night during the 18th, season five episode of "The Office."

NBC did not fire Steve Carell or dump his character Michael Scott from the sitcom, but the regional manager of the Scranton, Pa. branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company quit his job in "New Boss," and online buzz indicates that someone "major" from the office might be coming with him "Jerry Maguire" style.

Anyone caught up with more recent episodes would bet their money on Jim Halpert (John Krasinki), whose teasing of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) landed him in trouble with the company's new vice president, Charles Miner (Idris Elba). He might just preempt his possible termination by quitting as well.

If someone is going to leave with Michael Scott, investing time in setting up Jim Halpert's demise might just be a clever way to deviate attention from the more obvious suspect, the primarily loyal Dwight Schrute. It was only one episode prior that Michael Scott's No. 3 was willing to be terminated to cover up his boss' golden ticket idea that could have lost Dunder Mifflin a lot of money.

Someone else "major' on the Scranton office's payroll that might leave with Michael Scott is Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) because she has developed a painstakingly sympathetic brother-sister dynamic with her boss, not to mention that Jerry Maguire was joined in his own professional meltdown by a similar low-level office employee.

A fair assumption to make is that Michael Scott has seen the 1996 film and might very well try to act out the famous "Who's coming with me?" scene before saying goodbye.

No one else from the usual cast of characters has developed as close of a relationship with Michael Scott to risk losing a steady job during a shaky economic time that has been acknowledged as also occurring in this fictional world.

Something else to consider other than who might join the ranks of the unemployed with Michael Scott, if this comes to pass, is why the TV sitcom would bother to have him walk away from coworkers he values as a surrogate family. It might not simply be to spice things up during what might very well be the midpoint of the run of "The Office."

An important point to remember is that Charles Miner was initially set up as liking Michael Scott. Dunder Mifflin's new vice president genuinely seems to want to maintain a level of professionalism commensurate with performing the duties required of his job.

Easily forgotten is that David Wallace (Andy Buckley) is the bad guy in this situation because now that he no longer undervalues Michael Scott as a manager, he is trying to control someone whose effective leadership he cannot understand. Having Michael Scott gather information about the Prince Family Paper company alone speaks volumes about the chief financial officer's priorities.

Maybe Michael Scott quits until Elba's Charles Miner, who is set to appear in only six episodes, exposes the skeletons in David Wallace's corporate closet.

Whatever happens next week, "Two Weeks" is sure to make for entertainment riveting enough to include in the lineup for "Movie Mondays" in the Scranton, Pa. branch's conference room.

REACTION: L.A. Times writer nitpicks the comedic existence of Steve Carell's Michael Scott on NBC's 'The Office'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Imagine trying to enjoy "Seinfeld" without Jerry Seinfeld, "Frasier" without Kelsey Grammer's Frasier Krane, or even "I Love Lucy" without Lucille Ball.

This is what Los Angeles Times writer Jon Caramanica argues would breathe life into NBC's "The Office."

Caramanica not only suggests that Michael Scott should be fired from the sitcom, but that NBC should also hand Steve Carell, the actor who portrays the character, his walking papers maybe because it was a slow day in entertainment news.

One can only remember how such a creative shift worked wonders for "Spin City," "Stargate SG-1" and "Sliders" when these series' title characters were recast or replaced.

Driving this argument is the assertion that Michael Scott has become boring just because the sitcom's writers did something that increasingly fewer TV writers do nowadays, that is, they provided their tweaked creation with a sense of character development.

Maybe Caramanica is one of the fans of the British version of "The Office," which was unable to have its viewers love David Brent (Ricky Gervais), the character that inspired Michael Scott, because of its limited 14-episode run.

Carell's take on the character has evolved beyond the inappropriate managerial actions of his predecessor, and it only stands to reason that British viewers would have tired of David Brent if he somehow was able to appear on the BBC for 76 more episodes without learning that there is rhyme to his seemingly absurd reason.

Though it could be argued that some comedy depends on offending social norms, Michael Scott is not exactly the one-dimensional title character of "When The Whistle Blows." Naive arrogance demonstrated by Michael Scott and David Brent comes from some place deeper than a need to get TV viewers to have a laugh, after all.

Just because Michael Scott no longer overtly subverts his own bad behavior does not necessarily mean that he can no longer be wacky. It simply means that the manager of the Scranton, Pa. branch of Dunder Mifflin has cemented his role as the sitcom's protagonist, not its villain.

Do not forget that a lot of offensive things still come out of Michael Scott's mouth that serve to offset how sad the character can be at times. Not to mention his inability to accept the oftentimes loyal Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) as anything more than sycophantic coworker, that racism still exists, that fat people are not gross, or keep a girlfriend.

Remember that Michael Scott has a penchant for inappropriateness when it comes to dating. He used to pine for his then boss Jan Levinson-Gould (Melora Hardin) the same way he now pines for Holly Flax (Amy Ryan), who was the human resources representative for the Scranton office when they dated.

Yes, Michael Scott's shoulder's are more squared and his hair is fuller, but Steve Carell should not be fired because he now has more of an income with which to take better care of himself.

Less questionable about what Caramanica suggested is that Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Dwight be fired from their jobs for a few episodes because it would allow viewers to miss them and other supporting characters such as Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), Creed Bratton, or Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) to evolve.

But at the same time Jim Halpert is no longer simply a hapless bystander because he has necessarily become more integrated into the office's unprofessional dynamic. He and his coworkers have all naturally become more of a family after what will soon be five complete seasons.

Because without Jim Halpert's involvement in what are primarily Michael Scott's exploits, he would come off as someone who enjoys seeing or helping his sympathetic boss get what he deserves. That would not be the quintessential Jim Halpert, who more than makes up for his collusion with his boss by teasing Dwight Schrute as an older brother would do.

And Dwight Schrute is simply Dwight Schrute, a character whose strange sense of reality is only strengthened by confidently believing such things as the possibility of bear attacks in Pennsylvania or that superheroes walk the Earth.

What seems off is how "The Office" no longer utilizes the proven TV dynamic of following an on-again, off-again relationship between Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) the way "Cheers" did with Sam and Diane. Still, one cannot fault writers for trying something new.

Perhaps it is too early to judge the creative direction of a TV sitcom that might simply be suffering from being at a traditionally lackluster midpoint, especially if this is done just to have something about which to write. That is just unprofessional.

READ CARAMANICA'S STORY!

REVIEW: Jimmy Fallon's misfired 'Late Night' antics during his first week might yet get progressively better

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:07:00 +0000

Seven was the charm for Jimmy Fallon to find his "Late Night" hosting groove by making Emily Blunt comfortable enough to enjoy a pretzel and orienting formerly hard news monologue jokes toward booze and monkeys.

Maybe there really is Vodka in his mug? One can only hope that the young host can keep up this momentum by telling more bawdy jokes, desisting from interrupting his guests and breaking free from catering to the network's need to sell commerical products the way he did during the first six shows.

Fallon's first few monologues were rushed as he was clearly trying very hard to read the cue cards without messing up. His lackluster jokes came with obvious punch lines about the news of the day that were not in accordance with comedy's offensively risky function of chipping away at societal norms.

Airing beyond prime time is an opportunity for Fallon to really let loose a few jokes that would have a few objectionably uptight viewers writing letters to NBC's censors now that he is more comfortable in front of a studio audience and TV cameras.

A promising part of Fallon's first monologue was the sexually suggestive slow jam about the U.S. stimulus package that was hip and novel enough to make a news joke funny.

More often than not, late night talk show hosts become stuttering fools who try to comically digest news stories, the details of which they know very little, instead of just goofing on them the way Jon Stewart does in a humorously collegial manner. Just listen to Fallon mention anything about the U.S. troops in Iraq to see how these news items are too sensitive and intricate for comedians to exploit in order to get a rise out of an audience.

The new host of "Late Night" would do well to adopt something similar to Stewart's comedic formula, poke fun at more mainstream news items too absurd not to be funny such as The Octomom, or talk about tech and TV shows that his 20-something-year-old interns probably love.

Facebook's status function, "Internet Video of the Day" and allowing an audience member to sing one of Jon Bon Jovi's own songs in front of the musician made for fun segments simply because a lot of people are into social networking, surfing for random video-inspired laughs on the Web and rock music.

But why does Fallon have a laptop on his desk? It seems a bit overkill.

If anything, Fallon shines when he appropriately directs his energy toward pleasing the youth demographic by singing with Justin Timberlake and dancing with Cameron Diaz, or he does just as well making light of such pop culture phenomenon such as "Gossip Girl" and Steve Wozniak's dance moves on "Dancing with The Stars."

Pandering to or knocking pop culture should help carry the show at least until Fallon grows into his late night groove and before he and his mid-30-something-year-old celebrity friends come off as sad old people trying to be cool.

Though, having audience members lick consumer products, settle the feud between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston by pretending to be them and a disruptive history buff in the audience geeking out about The Gadsen Purchase is too sophomoric or pointless to even inspire sympathy chuckles.

What Fallon should take more seriously than anything else is his too casual interviewing style that noticeably causes guests to wonder what to say after he spouts out continuous sentence fragments, struggling to sound somewhat coherently folksy. It is as though Fallon is hanging out with friends, but suddenly remembers he is on TV and freaks out. This is probably why he completely blew any chance of having a stimulating conversation with Robert DeNiro.

Only when Fallon is already well-acquainted with someone such as Tina Fey, Drew Barrymore and Timberlake do the interviews flow well, calling into question whether his staff even bothers conducting pre-interviews with guests with whom he has not already established a rapport.

Further detracting from the show are droll video segments involving blonde suburban moms, an outreach program for struggling corporate CEOs and a flashback competition that are only good for a few, if any, chuckles.

Any momentum Fallon does establishes is quickly diminished when he gets off on a tangent about anything mildly funny that gets a pop out of the audience, sizing up the quality of his own jokes with air bowling, or dwelling on some minor detail just to remind everyone that he is still there.

A possibly catastrophic consequence of Fallon's insistence on being a part of every laugh occurred when he debated a noticeably perturbed Amanda Peet about the proper pronunciation of her film "2010" and then did not seem to know anything about her past cinematic work.

Trivial, but sure to hurt Fallon in the long run is how closely he appears to suck on the network's metaphoric tit by orienting segments around marketing an 108-inch Sharp flat screen and carpet samples, not to mention making sure not to sing verbatim the copyrighted "Happy Birthday" song.

He should just run with whatever is hilarious and apologize thereafter for hurting anyone's feelings, obligating the network to create fake Web sites used in gags, or angering censors the way Conan O'Brien did.

It is not as though Fallon has not already used the self-deprecating humor the former host of "Late Night" often adopted to downplay bad monologue jokes.

If Fallon learns from his first-week blunders, still unconvinced critics might yet sing his praises seven more shows from now when he possibly becomes a Conan epigone, bearable enough for which to stay up late, or becomes his own man.

God speed Jimmy Fallon!

REVIEW: 'Watchmen' fails to justify why anyone should care enough to swoon over its amazing visual style

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:33:00 +0000

The following is a review of "Watchmen" the film, not an examination of the plot's congruity with its graphic novel source material by writer Alan Moore.

"Watchmen" is a visually stunning film that might easily leave fanboys drooling about the attractiveness of the needless violence and sex it features.

But they might not notice that these Watchmen are nothing more than flamboyantly dressed action stars who fail to justify why they should be riveting enough to watch.

"Watchmen" explores the promising premise of what would happen if superheroes not only lived among humans, but used their extraordinary abilities to win U.S.-waged foreign conflicts such as The Vietnam War and maintain civil order at home caused by people who protest against their interference. A team of retired costumed heroes known as The Watchmen deal with the consequences of such actions in this film.

When a former colleague known as The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is assassinated in 1985, a very paranoid inkblot-masked man named Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) informs fellow Watchmen that the perpetrator might very well do the same to all of the team. As Rorschach investigates, he and three other Watchmen caught in a love triangle continuously recall their past actions that have brought the world close to the brink of a nuclear exchange between The U.S. and The Soviet Union.

Anyone unfamiliar with "Watchmen" will as a result quickly catch on to what is going on in this visual treat that allows its super main characters little time in which to demonstrate the tragedy of how they allowed the opportunity to make the world safer overshadow ethical values that are alluded to, but never throughly explored.

To be fair, The Watchmen spend a lot of time belaboring, but failing to illustrate that they are characters morally ambiguous enough to care about.

Meaningful character exploration is replaced by needless dry exposition that revels in Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) showing off his blue penis and causing people to implode, The Comedian amassing a large body count that includes a pregnant Vietnamese woman and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) engaging in soft core sex with Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson).

Instead of focusing on scenes that feature attractive exposition, gratuitous violence and sex for two hours and 42 minutes, "Watchmen" would have benefitted substantially if more time were devoted to explaining who The Comedian was before no one cares that he eventually tears up about his past sadistic actions, showing Dr. Manhattan as someone more than just a guy who throws a fit when his girlfriend ends their relationship, Silk Spectre as a character that does not only need to shack up with anyone who will take her in and at least somewhat explored Ozymandias in order for his one-dimensionally ridiculous plan to be of any interest.

Perhaps this would have helped to make Dr. Manhattan as a metaphor for God's harmful effect on mankind not seem so unexpected and hackneyed.

Most of the acting cast as a consequence does not have much to do other than look menacing or fashionable in their superhero attire. Haley is the only actor whose character Rorschach is allowed an opportunity to show how he became such a grumpily violent stalwart for justice, but this as well is reduced to one short, bloody flashback about his run-in with two bullies as a child.

The Comedian's assertion that "Life is a joke" is proven true in "Watchmen" because the film is about super powerful beings whose lack of character depth begs the question as to why they exist at all other than to exploit the success of Alan Moore's graphic novel. Fanboys who were too thrilled by Dr. Manhattan leaving blood and guts in his wake and Akerman showing flashes of her character's naked body against a moonlit background might disagree.

Popcorn rating:

(3 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

REACTION: New 'Terminator Salvation' trailer exhilaratingly rallies interest in the fight for humanity's survival

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Although not entirely new, the latest "Terminator Salvation" trailer has plenty of fresh footage, riveting action sequences, cool tag lines and appropriate background rock music to make anyone excited about its May 21 release.

Most revealing about the trailer is footage that shows that Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright's body is not only made up of replicated human tissue over metal endoskeleton, but that he - it would be more accurate to say "it" - for some reason believes himself to be human and the only hope for the human resistance.

Could Marcus Wright be an all-too-human reconnaissance cyborg that the resistance can turn against SkyNet? If the machine proves himself to be as loyal as Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) believes him to be, perhaps he is the one that provides the know-how of how to reprogram Terminators to serve the human resistance.

New cuts of footage also show John Connor (Christian Bale) attempting to contact via a radio the members of the human resistance presumably from the Crystal Peak military complex moviegoers last saw him in toward the end of 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

John Connor likely has his own battalion, but is looking for new recruits or to join forces with Michael Ironside's General Ashdown's unit. One has to wonder if John Connor saying "If we stay the course, we are all dead!" refers to a difference in the battle strategies of both leaders.

More of Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard) is shown in her role as a veterinarian-turned-battle-physician, discovering that Marcus Wright is more than just a run-of-the-mill human and something she and John have never before seen.

This indicates that his cyborg physiology is either entirely different from known T-600 and T-800 models or something else entirely.

A bulk of the trailer's footage reveals nothing new so much as it shows new footage of what has already been seen such as a Moto Terminator motorcycle performing an awesome evasive maneuver, T-600 Terminator models being worked on by someone in some unknown production line and one on the floor with his head having been blown open, a clearer look at The Harvester, more shots of HK-aerial planes and hydrobots, many humans standing around in cattle-like enclosures.

Not to mention the human resistance combating a combination of SkyNet's metal cronies on a bridge that apparently survived Judgement Day in tact, but might not be left standing by the end of this 130-minute-long film.

Has humanity begun rebuilding society or does the war take place somewhere outside of the immediate blast radius of the nuclear war?

WATCH THE TRAILER IN HD!

REVIEW: 'Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li' trains, then knocks out its own potentially viable premise

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Many people did not expect anything great to come from "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," which was seen as another frivolous video game adaptation with no reason to exist other than to appease gamers.

And the film appears to deliberately try to fail to meet even this meager expectation.

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" would otherwise be a decent action flick if the initially promising story had not eventually become very frivolous, if one of the main supporting actors had taken his character seriously and if references to the video games had been limited to keeping the names of primary characters involved.

Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk), whose wealthy and seemingly altruistic father is kidnapped when she is a child, as an adult comes under the tutelage of a martial arts mystical master named Gen (Robin Shou), who like her father was once an agent of the shadowy Bangkok-based Shadoloo corporation later headed by the evil M. Bison (Neal McDonough). Gen trains his student to look beyond her own pain in order to oppose Bison, who plans to bulldoze the city's slums once he muscles his way toward ownership, and helps its people save their homes.

A not-too-bad premise drive this story in which Chun-Li voluntarily leaves behind her wealthy estate in Hong Kong to live in Bankok's slums in order to understand the plight of its poor population, who are either hardworking or thieves, much as a young Bruce Wayne does in 2005's "Batman Begins.

But this attempt to make Chun-Li earn her "street cred" falls short in that there is no real reason why she would do so other than to meet Gen on a whim to find out the origin of a suspicious scroll.

Perhaps Chun Li's commitment to the Bangkok destitute would have been more convincing if she had made a more intimate connection with one of them instead of simply establishing a reputation for wiping the floor with a few criminals who terrorize the area. Instead, moviegoers are expected to accept that some mystical collection binds Chun-Li to her newfound destitute friends.

Another friend who Chun-Li fails to get to know, but somehow is on the same page with is Chris Kline's Charlie Nash, a Bangkok police detective with past experience in dealing with Shadaloo.

Kline seems to try hard to not sell the frivolous dialogue meant to portray Nash as a slick cop with a penchant for living on the edge and flirting with his new partner for no other reason than to sell himself as a bad boy.

But the 96-minute-long film does not need to establish a meaningful connection between its title character and the people who populate her surroundings because her mission again eventually becomes a self-interested bid for revenge once Bison, whose portrayal by McDonough is as seductively charming as it could be considering the abstractness of his character, does away with one of her loved ones.

Kreuk is as a consequence relegated to spouting out lines meant to make her seem cool before or after helicopter-kicking an opponent into submission.

Somewhere in-between her fighting is a mystical subplot explaining why Bison is so heartless that is a strange attempt to tie the villain's relationship with his daughter to that which Chun-Li shares with her own. Conjuring fireballs to enhance already gravity-defying martial arts moves is also something that could have been left out.

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" sets up its own promising premise simply to disappointedly knock it down in a film that is specifically targeted for nostalgic fans of the video game franchise who are sure to dish out $10 to watch it. More disappointing than anything else is that the film could have delivered much more.

Popcorn rating:

(2 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: 'Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep' and miss Sarah Connor uniquely endure what is required of her mission

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 07:20:00 +0000

"Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep" is a cleverly deceptive episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" that forces Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) to tragically face something viewers thought she already did.

Most compelling about the episode are Sarah's nightmares, which feature her talking to the security guard she shot toward the end of "Earthlings Welcome Here." This is because of how its practicality calls into question whether the conversation between Sarah and someone who has since been presumed dead is occurring.

Further adding to this deliberately unclear storytelling formula is the guard's judgmental tone toward Sarah as though her own guilty conscious is manifesting nightmares and a later scene in which fatal gunfire appears to make Judgment Day all but inevitable

Driving home this point for less observant viewers is passing dialogue that suggests nightmares develop when the person having them is avoiding facing something. In other words, do not expect to be able to distinguish reality from nightmarish fantasy from the get-go.

What makes this episode more than just filler is how it forces Sarah to deal with the consequences of her actions even more than she sparingly did in "Desert Cantos." Through the story, viewers learn indirectly that even though Sarah is single-minded in her mission to protect John (Thomas Dekker) and stop Judgement Day, she had not before killed anyone. One would have expected someone so seemingly emotionally absent to have killed many people by now, but this is not the case.

And again, the series exploits Sarah's seeming guilt-ridden conversation with someone she wronged to show how the character looks forward to dying presumably because it is easier than keeping up the fight against SkyNet.

When woven together, the aforementioned story elements serve to reveal in the end that Sarah is forced to live by different ethical standards than most normal people that guide certain actions sure to slowly kill her on the inside over time. Especially hurtful to Sarah is that she inadvertently involves John, the only reason she chooses to keep living, in her misdeeds.

Not working is how Sarah checks herself into a sleep clinic that just happens to be responsible for the red mark she beforehand found on her body. No explanation as to how the clinic's workers managed to sneak into Sarah's house to make the red mark or why it is significant makes this an even more frustrating aspect of the episode that could perhaps be elaborated on later.

A nice, minor touch is how Jesse's previously mentioned mission to keep John away from "her" is complicated when noticeable female tension develops between Sarah, who cannot play overprotective mommy while she is out of commission, and Cameron (Summer Glau), who has seemingly stepped up to be the woman of the house.

Machines apparently have no sense of shame when it comes to how they dress and can cook a decent plate of pancakes.

Though vague and not as exciting as more action-packed episodes, "Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep" is a unique and necessary setup for what is sure to make Sarah an even more interestingly complex character to explore in the future.

WATCH ON HULU!

WATCH "OURSELVES ALONE" PROMO!

Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

REMINDER: Sarah Connor's insomnia to bare fruit in a creepy sleep clinic in 'Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:21:00 +0000

Even though she avoids exposing herself to hospitals, Lena Headey's Sarah Connor checks herself into a sleep clinic in the "Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep," tonight's episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Sarah must really be on the brink of desperation to do something so risky considering that she is a fugitive and generally does not like being kept in clinics as demonstrated in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day."

Overviews of the episode on the series' official Web site and TV.com indicate that Sarah goes to the sleep clinic after not napping for two weeks and begins to experience nightmares there that the video promo shows involves being abducted and severely choked by the security guard she seemingly kills at the end of "Earthlings Welcome Here."

It is implied in the video that John (Thomas Dekker) suspects that his mother is making up the nightmares given her vision of the three dots, her obsession with which lead to the discovery of a similar-looking aircraft. This should provide Sarah with enough credibility for her son to go along with what she is saying.

While being studied like a lab rat, Sarah thinks about how her nightmares might be tied to whatever SkyNet is cooking up next, but suspect events conveniently start to take place there, the video promo and the overviews show.

Clips from the video promo and a photo still imply that the attendants at the sleep clinic are up to something tied to a new red scar on Sarah's body.

A sneak peek of "Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep" shows that the presumed dead security guard is alive and true to the nightmares ends up kidnapping her.

Also included in the episode is John possibly discovering some kind of massive supercomputer, as shown in one photo still, and explaining to Cameron (Summer Glau) how humans perceive dreams, as shown in the sneak peek below. WATCH THE PROMO!

REVIEW: 'Slumdog Millionaire' nothing more than needlessly violent, riveting fluff in a unique setting

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:20:00 +0000

Anyone who did not know halfway through "Slumdog Millionaire" that the third musketeer's name would be the final inquiry posed to the title character on "Who Want's to be Millionaire?" might love the film.

But everyone else who noted how shallowly formulaic it is might know that "Slumdog Millionarie" itself is a third fellow cinematic musketeer right after "Forrest Gump" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" except that it takes place in Indian slums and utilizes a game show as a storytelling vehicle. This is what makes it a novelly entertaining, but not great film that somehow ended up winning The Academy Award for Best Picture during a year of far superior hits.

As in "Forrest Gump" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the title character Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) automatically falls in love with the heroine Latika (Freida Pinto), and moviegoers are expected to want them to be together when adversity, which limits their ability to get to know one another, keeps them apart. Destiny in this instance is meant to serve as an abstract explanation as to why Jamal and Latika are in love.

Perhaps more lines of dialogue would have gone a long way to have given Malik and Pinto something more substantial with which to sell their characters' fated romantic relationship. Not to mention Pinto's Latika being allowed to have the story portray her as shacking up with anyone who has enough money to support her instead of a character with great personal qualities who is worth pursuing.

Another aspect of the story that fails to win over more critical moviegoers is that, as in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Jamal experiences great adversity, but does not exhibit that he learned anything noble enough for him to be worthy of his protagonist status except a few trivia facts that he utilizes to gain the attention of a girl he barely knows on Indian TV.

Although it is established that Jamal is honest and willing to do anything for love, these are characteristics that he exhibits toward the beginning of the film before fully experiencing the tragic life of a slumdog. This bares the question as to why the presumably heart-of-gold character is worth of exploring at all.

There is nothing wrong with rooting for the underdog, but what is lost in these kind of stories is that moviegoers are expected to become enamored with title characters simply because they suffer a lot, not because they do something honorable. At least "Slum Millionaire" somehow tries to make Jamal seem like a good person when compared to his more licentious brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), but this pales in comparison to Forrest Gump running back into a bombing zone to save his friend Bubba Gump.

Salim himself is a more developed character in that there is a clear reason why he starts wielding a gun to solve most of his problems, but inexplicably does something that will help his brother achieve happiness in an artistically absurd manner toward the film's end. Further detracting from the character is that he is at one point portrayed as a child wielding a gun in order to commit murder, which was a major nitpick about 1990's "Robocop 2" that Hollywood seems to have allowed to slide with this film.

Violence is also utilized against children for no other end than to have moviegoers access their Mean World Syndrome long enough to care what happens to young Jamal, Salim and Latika.

Most distasteful of all is the perpetuation of the stereotype that Indians work as technicians for customer service phone lines.

Somewhere in all the 120-minute-long fantastical love and unnecessary violence, the film cleverly leads one to suspect that Jamal cheats when Prem Kumar (Anil Kappor) provides him with one answer to a difficult question, but then abruptly has the game show host become a bitter almost mafia-like figure when off camera.

"Slumdog Millionaire," though a uniquely interesting take on the fictional bipoic genre, is one of those meaningless films that people for whatever reason need to love at any given time simply because it serves as a contemporary fairy tale about the downtrodden hero overcoming many obstacles in order to get the girl.

Why the hero loves the heroine and what he learns on the journey to save her is the only thing that apparently is not written.

Popcorn rating:

(31/2 out of 5 pieces)

REMINDER: Starbuck drinks redrum, Boomer lassos a moon in 'Someone to Watch Over Me'?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Ghostly visions and alternate realities in space appear to be the focus of the 17th, season four "Battlestar Galactica" episode, "Someone to Watch Over Me," promotional multimedia indicates.

No was watching over Captain Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) when he appears to be waking up from a coma at the end of "Deadlock," and he is not featured in any of the promos for the next episode that airs tonight. But there is enough to explore even if the character is left with no one to attend to his medical care other than Doc Cottle.

Overviews for "Deadlock" from The Sci Fi Channel, TV Guide and TV.com Web sites indicate that Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katie Sackhoff) will see ghostly visions while at the same time talking to a "charismatic" man playing on the new piano she took note of in "Deadlock" in a premise very reminiscent to the famed bar from hell scene from "The Shining."

By the episode's end, Starbuck "may" come to terms with something "shattering" as to why she found a skull wearing her military tags on the nuked remains of Earth, one of the overviews shows.

Rebel Cylons meanwhile want to get revenge on Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park) by charging her with treason even though she established her loyalty by helping to rescue Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon), who is one of the elder Final Five Cylons, from being dissected by John Cavil (Dean Stockwell), the overviews show.

Promotional photo stills allude to the possibility that this causes either Boomer or Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), who were once lovers, to experience having lived a domestic life together somewhere that is not space.

Adding to the drama are Tyrol's efforts to ask for intervention in the matter from President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnel), who might be understandably beholden to The Cylons' desire for vengeance in exchange for their assistance in helping the fleet to move forward to gods know where. Boomer's only saving grace, Ellen, might not be so willing to help The Cylon that helped liberate her from Cavil out of some sense of toaster justice. Both points are established in the sneak peek below or watch the official promo.

REMINDER: Is 'Smallville' set to reveal Clark Kent's identity to the world in 'Infamous,' or is this a story hoax?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:25:00 +0000

Republished from Feb. 19, 2009 to reflect update below original post.

"Smallville" is either gearing up to go out with a bang or has a route-better-left-untraveled story in mind that will leave everything as it usually is toward the end of the 17th, season eight "Infamous" episode.

The CW's new "Infamous" promo and TV.com's overview of the March 12 episode confirm that Clark Kent (Tom Welling) will as a preemptive measure reveal his identity as Metropolis' Red Blue Blur to Lois Lane (Erica Durance), who he will ask to write the Daily Planet news story that reveals it to the world.

Usually promotional media for a "Smallville" episode is no big deal, but it is considering that the 18th episode of season eight utilizes a "body-switch" theme that would be necessary for Clark to survive "Infamous" with his secret identity in tact. Two "road-best-left-untraveled" episodes in a row seems unlikely unless the writers simply do not care about the series anymore.

"Hex," the episode in question, has Chloe wish on her birthday to be normal just like Lois, which is a questionable assertion given her affinity for seeking out trouble.

Zatanna (Serinda Swann), an all-too-real magician from the pages of DC Comics, grants Chole's wish, as well as one for Clark.

Could the wish Zatanna grants Clark be that she reverse everything that occurred in "Infamous"?

Having Clark reveal his identity to the world and kill Linda Lake (Tori Spelling), especially when it can all be erased, would certainly take the character to a level of exploration he has never before reached. It would certainly allow him to experience how easy it is to suddenly become a man like Lex Luthor.

Another possibility is that Clark ends up being infamous for being the hack who tried to claim credit for The Red Blue Blur's exploits, but is shown to have no extraordinary powers. A piece of green kryptonite in Clark's pocket would do the trick to assure than no one ever suspects he is anything more than a Kansas farm boy.

Any of these story prospects would be preferable to the beginning of the series' cancellation, which can only be confirmed or put off until May by The CW.

Anything can happen on "Smallville" at this point. That at least is worth tuning in to figure out what it ends up being.

WATCH "INFAMOUS" PROMO!

Update: TV Guide Magazine drops major 'Infamous' spoiler

"Infamous," the 17th, season eight episode of "Smallville," has Clark Kent (Tom Welling) reveal his identity as The Red Blue Blur to the world, but everything goes back to normal before it is over.

TV Guide Magazine's recent edition features an exclusive first look at Serinda Swan's Zatanna, who will appear in the series 18th, season eight episode "Hex," which premieres on March 26.

How this relates to "Infamous" is that the magazine mentions that Zatanna in "Hex" will use her magic to "allow Clark to experience a life less encumbered with hiding his identity as the Red Blue Blur." In other words, Clark's secret identity will not be so infamous by the time this episode hits The CW.

REVIEW: Humans and The Final Five Cylons reach a painstakingly faint mutual accord in 'Deadlock'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Meant to convey a deliberately vague sense of camaraderie, "Deadlock," the 16th, season four episode of "Battlestar Galactica," tells a poignant story about how war complicates the identities of both sides that it engages.

Kate Vernon's Ellen Tigh's character is able to point out something that toaster-hating fans of the series might not immediately realize, that is, that The Cylons have been withered down to a few survivors since the destruction of the resurrection ship as opposed to thousands of human survivors. That one remark really drives home the point that The Cylons have also suffered as a result of this war, albeit in a different manner.

Less often suffering is Gaius Baltar (James Callis), who appears to be turning a new leaf, but does not to the writers' credit make a dramatic leap from a weasel to a saint. He returns to his flock of female followers, allowing them to believe that the one true god for which the former fleet president claims to speak abandoned them and that his own absence was meant to test their ability to survive. But not all Baltar's myrmidons instantly swoon past his faulty explanation.

Even how and why Baltar chooses to cement his position as their leader by providing the civilian members of the fleet with food is dubious because it is uncertain if his actions are motivated by a need to show up Paula Schaffer (Lara Gilchrist) or to impress an attractive woman.

Making the character even more ingeniously complex is that he nonetheless seems to enjoy helping others before gaining more influence by the episode's end.

Ellen herself is shown to be more than just a vindictive temptress in backing off once she has done something horrible.

Questionable about the episode is how quick the suddenly loyal again Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) and Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) are to jump on the band wagon of abandoning the fleet so as to preserve the 13th tribe in its purest form given that they were once mesmerized to even learn that they were Cylons. Maybe this is meant to show their innate duplicity or tendency to view living among their enemies as unacceptable?

What finally comes into perspective in "Deadlock" is the reality that comes with any kind of warfare in the long run. Soldiers crossing borders mate with enemy women, learn one another's cultures and incidentally become one whole microcosm, subtly shown in Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Tricia Helfer's Caprica's Six's baby, the presence of many of her doubles throughout the Galactica battleship and the Cylon goop holding it all together.

Perhaps this is why it is necessary for there to have been in a death in the episode so that both sides could share a common pain, and the last scene really provides this notion with a sense of heart.

"Deadlock" is a surprisingly well-structured transitional episode that is sure to make whatever it is setting up all the more meaningful.

WATCH ON HULU SOON!

LISTEN TO "DEADLOCK" POCAST!

WATCH "SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME" PROMO!

Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: Exploiting Trudy's death so that Monk can needlessly abuse a pregnant woman in season eight's finale

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:18:00 +0000

There are not a lot of great things about "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" because its feature homicide case is uninspired, impractical, ghoulishly handled and reveals nothing worthy of a series' penultimate season finale.

If anything, the 16th, season eight episode is misleading in that one official overview and promo indicated that something new was sure to develop about Trudy's murder when Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) investigates the disappearance of a city council member (Tamlyn Tomita) key to preserving the site where his wife died. But nothing new comes about from the homicide case once it is solved. It is at best just another run-of-the-mill murder.

Not only does the homicide case in question offer no new clues, but by the 41-minute-long episode's end Monk still does not agree with the prospect of the demolition of the parking garage where Trudy was killed, making it a pointless story to tell given the unfounded behavior he exhibits. He stops the development of a children's playground, only takes on a missing person's case out of self-interest and mistreats an admittedly annoying, but pregnant secretary (Kali Rocha).

Usually Monk's misbehavior is funny when adversity forces him to grow as a human being by doing something inconvenient other than preserving a decrepit crime scene he himself admits has no further investigate value and that his phobia of germs would otherwise cause him to dislike.

With that having been established, why does the defective detective spend all his time at Trudy's murder site and not at her grave?

A possible answer is that it is key to a premise that allows Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to make inappropriate remarks about two dead German tourists who die on a site that conveniently becomes important later on, Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) accept a hot dog bribe and Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley) to extoll the strangest theory as to who might be behind his former colleague's ill fate.

Funny about the premise is that it has Monk interact with Harold at city hall over the former's new therapist, but only so long so as to provide time for several misfired jokes. Monk flirting, dirty hot dogs, Traylor Howard's Natalie Teeger's aversion to certain sex toys and the obnoxious secretary, who lands the job because of the most absurd circumstances, only make for a few light-hearted chuckles.

One has to wonder why the series' writers came up with this episode other than that they are saving the best for the last season, having nothing creative left to bring to the table, or simply decided to entirely phone it in for a change.

"Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" is the definition a filler episode if ever there was one that is not necessary to watch if it can be helped. Just know that the season eight finale features a small trinket of "Monk" trivia and move on.

WATCH SOON ON HULU?

Popcorn rating:

(2 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: Mournful events of 'Desert Cantos' emphatically weigh in on Sarah Connor's conscience

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:53:00 +0000

"Desert Cantos" is a cleverly formulaic way to have the title character of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" smell the roses of tragedy that might transform her from a victim to the cause of suffering.

Also notable about the 15th, season two episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is that it provides promising opportunities for the development of its lesser utilized main characters.

Instead of moving on with some other episode, "Desert Cantos" features Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) confronting her actions from tracking down the source of the three dots in her dreams. With John Connor (Thomas Dekker), Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) and Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau), she visits the town of Charm Acres to track down anyone who knows anything about what was being built at the blown-up factory.

While there, Sarah meets the wife of the security officer who she killed when he attacked her at the end of "Earthlings Welcome Here." Perhaps what works most about this episode's premise is that the title character is not allowed to live by some convenient code of TV morality and allow viewers to assume her homicide was justified. Forcing Sarah to confront her past demons in this instance also provides a setting of grieving suitable for the victims' families to extol a lot of exposition.

A member of one of these families, Zoe McCarthy (Alanna Masterson), noticeably does not grieve so much as she does not seems to care that her father was apparently killed in the explosion.

Serving the episode well, Zoe provides a sense of uncertainty as to whether she is handling her distress in some frivolously adolescent manner or has reason not to fly off the deep end of depression. As difficult as it to find the character compelling, her annoyingly erratic presence does serve a purpose.

Zoe, and Diana Winston (Cyd Strittmatter), the dead security guard's wife, represent a possible foreshadowing of how anybody seemingly normal can suddenly become a rogue. Who in the main cast this is meant to allude to might be Sarah, who remarks, "Decent people get caught up in things."

Off, but also relevant to the episode is a line suddenly said by Cameron out of nowhere about Native Americans' belief that photos steal people's souls. Her comment alludes to something that has been implied in past episodes about Sarah having died as a person when her picture was taken at the end of 1984's "The Terminator." She thereafter became a soldier solely dedicated to protecting her son John Connor from termination.

One parallel to this aspect of Sarah Connor is the mentioning of the death of Lachlan Weaver, who was a great guy, a genius and funny man along with his wife while alive.

Attributing this pathetic fallacy to Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) is a subtle allusion to how Sarah is becoming very much like the machines against which she is fighting.

Another parallel is Sarah and Derek commenting to each other that they should let go of the memory of the late Kyle Reese, hinted as being an important element in the story when Cameron asks Derek whether he would always look at a picture of his brother if he had one.

Cameron's comment about Zoe's feelings about her father, and toward Henry, in this regard cleverly utilizes the character for a change as a dispassionate observer among people who have lost sight of their own priorities in tragedy's wake.

Strange about Sarah and Derek's interaction is this uneasy tension between the two that hopefully is only there because the two characters have become paranoid of trusting anyone. Having them hook up would be very difficult to justify in terms of being suitable for the overall story being told. While they are both battle-hardened, having Sarah and Derek struggle with their ability to dismiss Kyle as a war casualty makes them more than just action stars.

Not too serious of an episode, Derek of all characters in the supporting cast is allowed to do more than just act intense. He is allowed to crack a few subtle jokes at the expense of Cameron and the absurdity of spending time at a funeral chasing what is hitherto considered to be nothing more than Sarah's bad dream.

Though frustrating, only a bit more is known about the three-dot spacecraft by the end of the episode because presumably the series is building toward something worth the wait. Hopefully, patience may pay off in a shocking revelation that any other TV series would diminish in importance via needlessly expositional dialogue.

Only four, season two episodes remain to see if the deeply methodical "Desert Cantos" lays down further the foundations of worthwhile character and overall story development.

WATCH ON HULU!

WATCH "SOME MUST WATCH, WHILE SOME MUST SLEEP" PROMO!

Popcorn rating:

(4 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: 'Wonder Woman' film an attractive animated slugfest that deflects meaningful character depth

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Primarily an action-packed visual treat, "Wonder Woman" is a coming-of-age love story based on Greek mythology that gets bogged down by wooden voice acting before it becomes anything more than an interesting premise.

Immediately impressive is an opening scene in which Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) rides her horse into battle, but gets scooped up by one of Ares' winged minions, only to be dropped to her seemingly imminent death. Instead of waiting for the fatal impact, Hippolyta lassos the legs of the demonic servant, which pulls her up the side of a wall until her crown cuts his head off.

Continuing up the side of the wall with the Amazon queen in tow, her opponent's body inevitably lands on the summit. Although impossible for the body to keep flying upward without its head, the sequence is still incredible.

Equally powerful about this sequence is that the rape of Hippolyta by Ares (Alfred Molina) is implied, her bastard son's head is sliced off and an appropriately limited amount of gore tell the graphic story about how The Amazons as a race of women pushed themselves as warriors to escape being slaves to the god of war and his adherents.

Everything that needs to be said about the origin of their way of life and the birth of Wonder Woman (Keri Russell) is done so by the stylistic wielding of bloody swords in the first 10 minutes.

Superb property damage-causing animated violence is one of several great aspects of the 75-minute-long film, most likely because the title character, who is tougher than most mortals, primarily combats supernatural forces.

Clearly more adult than past Warner Bros. Animation-made movies, "Wonder Woman" features moderate curse words, slang and naked Amazons bathing near a waterfall that serve a purpose in humorously showing the differences between the uncouth, violent world of man embodied in the Col. Steve Trevor character (Nathan Fillion) and this paradise populated by eloquent, but painstakingly warrior-like women represented by Diana. These otherwise tasteless elements are not included simply to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Diana's interplay with Trevor reveals the not-so-feminist argument he makes that not all men want to control women as she was reared to believe, providing the story with a message that is rarely touched on in other films, let alone those that are presented in an animated format. It could have gone entirely the other way.

Ensuring that Diana is not simply portrayed as a femme fatale, she is shown confronting a Manhattan woman who unlike her uses femininity to attract a man of which the Amazon princess seems somewhat possessive, instead of choosing to rely on her own inner strength. Diana also dislikes empty flattery.

As much as the dialogue between Diana and Trevor takes a socially progressive tone, much of it comes off as though not a lot of effort was made by the voice actors to do anything in terms of improvisation to create a convincing sense of romantic chemistry between the two characters other than reading from their scripts.

Overall character dialogue comes off as too dispassionately expositional for viewers to care enough about what happens to the main characters.

Off about the story is the lack of concern Hippolyta shows when Diana, her gift from the gods, turns out to be the one who will be The Amazon's emissary to the outside world when the queen is earlier against allowing her daughter to compete in the qualifying games. Hyppolyta's battle-hardened spirit and respect for the way of the warrior might be enough to excuse her apathy in this instance, but it is very noticeable how her lack of emotion takes away from this sequence.

Even if anyone chooses to accept this explanation, the seriousness of the fatal games in which Diana engages against her mother's wishes is underscored by The Amazons suddenly showing up to aide her in the closing battle against Ares and his myrmidons. Why did they not all leave Themayscira to stop the warring god?

Therein lies the problem that makes "Wonder Woman" an aesthetically stunning cartoon too prone to engage its main characters in battle than have their voice actors explain why anyone should care that they prevail against their enemies.

In the end, it is a battle not worth fighting or watching with too much anticipation to see what happens next.

"Wonder Woman" hits stores in DVD and Blu-Ray format on Tuesday, March 3.

Popcorn rating:

(3 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: 'The Family Man' fails to learn the moral lessons that might have made it a wonderful life on film

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:32:00 +0000

"The Family Man," which is now playing on Hulu, is a novel, promising take on the premise of "It's a Wonderful Life" on paper.

But it ends up being a shallow film that somehow neuters it title character into valuing domesticity more than anything else while in the process choking the range of performances by its supporting cast.

Immediately distasteful about the film is a scene in a grocery store across the street from the building where Jack Campbell works. A cashier with a heavy Chinese accent and a flamboyantly urban customer (Don Cheadle) claiming to have won the lottery get into an argument about the validity of his ticket that ends with the brandishing of gun.

As possible as it is to walk into a convenience store with these kind of characters, Hollywood in this instance overcompensates for its lack of real-life perspective, designing a scene that could have worked without the perpetuation of racial stereotypes used to introduce Cheadle's character and show that Jack might be a driven businessman, but honorable when it counts the most.

Then toward the end of the film is a similar scene that for some reason attempts to point out the triviality of racism, which is a noble message, but awkwardly placed in a story that has sparing to do with social progression.

Even more stereotypical is the noticeably messy suburban home, minivan, wife dancing naked in the shower to a song included in the film's soundtrack, two kids, dog and football-loving friends Jack wakes up had he not left indefinitely for London 13 years ago and stayed behind with his college girlfriend Kate (Tea Leoni) to play house. It, of course, takes Jack 50 minutes into the film to realize this is why he is no longer a wealthy Wall Street magnate.

Either the responsible screenwriter of the film has no connection with the real world at all or the studio created a very ideal American setting that would appeal to moviegoers in the U.S. and abroad.

Perhaps the too formulaic premise of the film is what ultimately makes it a disappointing film when compared to "It's a Wonderful Life," which is about an all around good man who doubts his own personal worth in the world. Most of the classic film is spent showing George Bailey come of age and get into the predicament that causes the character to consider suicide, convincing the audience that he is OK enough not to want him to jump off that bridge.

Naturally the reversed premise of "The Family Man" is about an all around flawed, ruthless businessman who takes too much pride in his professional success, going so far as provoking a quasi angel to show him anything lacking from his life. But instead of showing Jack as a man worth saving, he is portrayed in a large part of the film as very selfish, ambitious and only moderately content with the life with Kate the character could have had.

While flawed characters are more interesting than highly moral ones to explore in a story, Jack does not go through anything particularly enlightening to convince him that the road most traveled is the one better-suited for him. It just kind of happens in one scene in which Jack plays with his daughter during a picturesque snowfall.

So that the moral of the story is not that life is worth living, but rather that suburbia is a more altruistically pleasant way to live as opposed to being one of the many unhappy, cut throat Wall Street movers and shakers. And that is a gross Hollywood oversimplification if ever there was one.

Cage is well-suited for the role of Jack Campbell in that he is able to complement it with his characteristic freak-outs at how everything is suddenly different, but delivers only an adequate performance when it becomes necessary for the character to win back the life with which he presumably falls in love.

As for Leoni, she is left with nothing to do with her character but act as Jack's always sympathetically tolerant punching bag.

Cheadle, who is usually a great actor, portrays an even more limited character, who is partly a narrator and later the enforcer of the absurdly strict rules of the magic realism, of all things, that make the story possible.

Not as magical as it is meant to be, "The Family Man" is simply an interesting, but meaningless sequence of events that needlessly takes more than two hours to present on the silver screen. It is recommended for anyone who has a lot of time to kill and access to a high speed Internet connection.

WATCH ON HULU!

Popcorn rating:

(3 out of 5 pieces)

REACTION REVIEW: Bryan Singer unleashes his trite serenade 'Superman Returns' to someone else's vision of the character

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:33:00 +0000

"Superman Returns," which recent news indicates might receive The Hulk reboot treatment, does not suffer from a lack of riveting action despite what disgruntled moviegoers say.

Truly detrimental to this chapter of the Superman legend on the silver screen is that it tries, but fails miserably in trying to break free from a tired premise over which it cannot help but inevitably swoon.

Weak performances by the leading cast only complements the deadliness of the film's creative Kryptonite.

Opening "Superman Returns" is a scene that explains how Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is suddenly upgraded from a real estate huckster to a millionaire. Though overall unremarkable, it hints at the story developing him into a more complex character than in past Superman films given what is said about his personal history.

A small speech Luthor makes early on further indicates that his ambitions have evolved from wanting land to all-out power in the form of advanced technology.

Once again, a large meteor-like object in which Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) is traveling manages to survive reentry into the atmosphere, landing in the American Midwest without any astronomers or military units being the wiser. They probably just assume that Superman has come back to Earth as the only alien in the universe instead of taking an interest in their jobs.

Astronomers at least earn their paychecks by spending their time looking for remnants of Krypton, which causes Superman to leave Earth long enough for his absence to provide the film with a relevant premise as to what happened since he inexplicably left to find apparently non-fatal highly radioactive rocks.

Refusing to stop flogging a dead horse, the film continues with the prospect that Kryptonian crystals can be utilized to expand to form land masses, which needlessly reconnects Luthor to his real estate scheme roots. Yet despite the Kryptonians' ability to create limitless land and interstellar baby space pods, they did not somehow repair their doomed planet or leave for greener pastures elsewhere in the universe.

Luthor's plan is mentioned to point out how "Superman Returns" attempts to retell the story established in 1978's "Superman" in a manner different enough for no one to notice.

An aerial accident forcing Big Blue to expose himself to the world, his shorter romantic flight with Lois, the Addis Ababa meteor rock and Luthor's scheme to own beach-front property are nostalgic allusions that eat up too much time in this more than two-and-a-half-hour film.

Even more frivolous are bank robbers who find it more prudent to set up a large gun turret on a rooftop with which to shoot at the police than hightail it out Metropolis in their nearby helicopter.

But as much as there is hesitancy to change Superman movie fundamentals, story innovations such as Superman fathering a child and Lois getting hitched are more acceptable.

So what is meant to be an homage to the first two Richard Donner Superman films is for some unknown reason intermixed with the super powerful title character making no qualms about being willing to break up a seemingly happy home despite how it is later justified with a hitherto unknown conception of a child. Not to mention the absurd comparison of Superman with Jesus Christ as a savior.

Only clever about the story is the explanation as to why Luthor is walking the streets as a free man instead of serving hard time in prison.

An adequate amount of of action that disappointedly does not include super powerful fist fights serves to veil the faulty premise, though little effort is made to make what Superman does amazing in the eyes of those around him so that dodging bullets and catching plummeting airplanes comes off as nothing more than overblown, meaningless special effects.

Add to that gloomy visuals of Metropolis constantly portrayed as though the sun is about to set, a sea storm, the dark red cape and a creepy piano duet between one of Luthor's goons and Lois' son, the gratuitous beat-down of Superman that make this seem more like a nightmare than a brightly inspiring Superman film.

A good thing about the action sequences is that they allow Routh to limit his dialogue as Clark Kent to polite banter with the rest of the cast, whom have considerably more lines, and no more than few non sequitur remarks as Superman. He simply looks like Christopher Reeves, but without the actor's powerful presence when wearing the signature blue body suit.

Also too noticeably green is Bosworth's portrayal of her character, who comes off as more of an upset, whiney ex-girlfriend than someone conflicted by her feelings for two important men in her life.

Parker Posey gets stuck playing a more erratic version of Miss Eve Tessmacher.

Kal Penn, though not known for powerful performances, is relegated to the status of an extra thats says close to nothing.

Memorable character portrayals are limited to those of Spacey's Luthor, who is as menacing as his evil scheme is ridiculous, and Frank Langella's lovably stern Daily Planet Editor in Chief Perry White.

Not soon to be memorable is this uninspired attempt to recreate the magic of 1978's "Superman" by radically moving around its story elements to make the film seem different enough to be novel. "Superman Returns" simply has no other reason to exist other than to indulge in cinematic nostalgia, and that is anything but super.

One shudders to consider that Warner Bros. and Legendary pictures studios might unleash a sequel because a lack of action is presumably what they perceive as the only thing that is wrong with this film.

Popcorn rating:

(2 out of 5 pieces)

REMINDER: Sarah Connor and the gang set to play detectives while visiting Creepsville in 'Desert Cantos'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Anyone who has seen the promo for the 15th, season two "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" knows that the main cast acts like shameless creeps and hits people up for information at a funeral.

The official "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Web site and TV.com provide overviews for "Desert Cantos," elaborating that Sarah (Lena Headey) and John Connor (Thomas Dekker), Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) and Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) go to a "company town" nearby the warehouse that Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) blew to pieces in "The Good Wound." The funeral is for the workers she killed T-1000-style before lighting the fuse.

Weaver decides to leave behind no loose ends, sending a minion to make sure no one survived, one of the overviews for the Feb. 20 episode shows.

Although it might sound like a run-of-the-mill story, "Desert Cantos" is worth watching to find out what is going in what is shown in the promo to be a creepy town of people who cannot say anything about the warehouse because they are under surveillance by secret cameras.

What the workers were building in that warehouse when they were alive, as well as the spacecraft-like object Sarah saw at the end of "Earthlings Welcome Here," likely plays a role in the answer.

Whoever is watching the townspeople might very well have been also keeping tabs on Eileen (Dinah Lenney), the transvestite UFO aficionado who was suddenly killed by an unknown person who knew exactly where to find her two episodes ago.

Remember that time travel can be a factor in the episode's premise, so that does not rule out SkyNet or its metallic lackeys as the culprits.

Or it might just end up being Weaver who is watching from the other end of the surveillance cameras. No sense in sending too many Terminators back in time, after all.

A time traveler herself, Leven Ramblin's Riley character is listed as being in the episode maybe to explain to John why she took off from the hospital or possibly to expose herself as complicit in everything that is going on. Her mission to keep John away from "her" is still not entirely clear.

Not clear either is what TV.com's overview and official promotional photos stills for the next episode say about what happens in "Desert Cantos." If anything, they indicate that SkyNet might be behind whatever was being built at the warehouse or that Sarah's vision of the three dots is something for which she seeks out psychiatric treatment.

REMINDER: 'Monk' season seven finale might finally address concrete details about Trudy's murder

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Tony Shalhoub's Adrian Monk's strange nostalgia for the parking garage where his wife Trudy was killed might lead him to details about her murder.

Overviews from the official "Monk" Web site and TV.com for "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall," the Feb. 20 season seven finale, indicate that in the episode Monk chains himself up to stop its scheduled demolition.

But a case develops for Monk to solve that disrupts everything when a city official sympathetic to his cause goes missing, and finding out what happened might very well lead him to a clue with which to deduce who ordered Trudy's murder, the overviews hint at as well.

One sneak peek shows that Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley), who is apparently on the city council, votes to prevent postponing the site's demolition seemingly out of his long-standing hatred for Monk, and that he might only vote in favor of it if the defective detective reveals the name of his therapist, Dr. Neven Bell (Hector Elizondo).

Maybe Harold just misses their verbal sparing in Dr. Kroger's waiting room.

A compelling reason to watch the episode is that it will likely not lead viewers down another dead-end concerning Trudy's homicide in that the series will conclude next season, and sparing information has thus far been revealed about her bombing.

If anything, this episode might very well serve as a sort of story launching point for some episodes, if not all, in season eight.

Longtime fans might get a piece of what they have been very patient to see for the last seven seasons of few great murder cases for Monk to solve intertwined with many frivolous themes.

Monk confronting his fear of confinement means "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" is more than just a run-of-the-mill episode. Another sneak peek that can be watched below indicates it is enough to get Monk to care about something other than what he does best, that is, solving murders.

REMINDER: Ellen Tigh rocks the vote, Caprica Six gets feisty, Baltar returns to his stooges in 'Deadlock'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) is alive. She escaped from John Cavil (Dean Stockwell). And she has a plan.

Her plan is not to leave with The Final Five Cylons to start a new life, but the Sci Fi Channel trailer for "Deadlock" indicates her vote would clinch the decision. TV.com's overview for the Feb. 19 episode further confirms that Ellen will have to make a "momentous choice" regarding her four fellow skin job toasters aboard The Galactica.

Could Cavil and his forces show up and rush Ellen's decision, or limit her options?

Teasers from the promo indicate that viewers will know "the truth" once "Deadlock" concludes, though it is not as though the episode has to live up to this claim. If anything is revealed, it will presumably be about The 13th Tribe.

Or will any of The Fine Five Cylons kick their amnesia and remember something key from their pasts? Will the 13th Cylon Daniel surface in any capacity?

Sure to be included in the episode is Ellen dealing with Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), who will apologize for killing her on New Caprica, though this is should not be anything new given that she forgave him in "No Exit."

Saul might also have to explain why he knocked up Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer), maybe even having to choose between the two cyborg female fatales.

Speaking of relationships with women, the former lothario Gauis Baltar (James Callis) will return to his loyal flock of followers who believe he speaks for the one true god and Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) will continue his repairs of Adama's old girl, the decrepit Galactica battleship.

What is certain is that Caprica Six is going to use her trademark long legs to kick some bigot colonial tail, the following sneak peek shows. Or WATCH THE PROMO!

REVIEW: Insightful judgement day arrives for Sarah Connor's parenting skills in 'The Good Wound'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:13:00 +0000

"The Good Wound," the 14th, season two episode of "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," manages to remind its title character of her priorities while at the same time telling an incidental love story before Valentine's Day.

Lena Headey's Sarah Connor exemplifies the tremendous extent of her sacrifice to keep her son alive until Judgement Day when the Kyle Reese hallucination (Jonathan Jackson) says to her, "I die for John Connor." She responds, "I die for my son."

Contrasting how Kyle dies for a man who stands for a cause with how Sarah suffers for someone she loves, the latter implies that she has given up her own identity for this one sole mission. Protecting John is all that defines Sarah, and the Kyle hallucination's photo is a reminder of when she discarded her old identity.

Kyle's hallucination continuously stifles her soldier's instinct to hide her identity and trust no one, reminding her in a way that it is her mission to survive. Fighting the war against Skynet is not necessarily her responsibility, after all.

Here "The Good Wound" introduces a few difficult questions to answer, which are whether Sarah as a soldier is being too hard on John, if she is trying too hard out of a mother's instinct to fight a war that fate dictates belongs to him, or both.

All are likely relevant to ponder about because of how Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) openly questions why John, his future commanding officer, unnecessarily exposes himself to the authorities in choosing to look after a hospitalized Riley.

Either John is too emotionally erratic, understands something about human compassion that the battle-hardened Derek does not, or both.

A comment made by Summer Glau's Cameron that the future John would have more important things to worry about than the health of one person drives this point home.

Very apropos to introduce this complexity in the development of characters who are less important in the future than John, it implies that he must as a leader learn to think about the bigger picture when it comes to caring for the people in his life, even if that means making sacrifices. Sarah might yet allow her son to learn this lesson through experience.

Two different approaches for the ethical development of the infant-like John Henry by James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) and Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) are meant to represent a parallel to the parental roles Sarah and Derek play in John Connor's life.

Slightly confusing about the episode is the scene between Sarah and the Kyle hallucination near the scorched apple tree.

A good guess is that the apple Weaver eats earlier represents the machines destroying the paradise God gave the human race and how the survivors make do with what little they have left. The burned apple tree Kyle and Derek use as a meeting place where they keep their prized possessions indicates that love, Sarah's photo, is buried underneath the collateral damage of the war against the SkyNet.

At least it is reassuring to know that the series' writers are taking a few creative risks.

"The Good Wound" is a complex examination of its title character that might not necessarily make sense to casual viewers looking for a few explosive Terminator moments. While there is a literal explosion in the episode, the story alone provides very combustible plot devices with which to keep "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" burning this season.

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Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

REACTION: Storm's cameo in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' lands on the cutting room floor

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:42:00 +0000

Nitpicking promotional multimedia at times pays off because some fan apparently spotted a young Storm in the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" trailer, and WIDESCREEN VISION has found out that it is merely a future DVD extra.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner on Feb. 10 confirmed that Storm was in the film in a village that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and his Weapon X team visit, but that this scene will no longer be included in the May 1 theatrical release. She also said the scene will be featured on the DVD as one of a few others that were cut.

Another future member of the X-Men has also long since been confirmed to appear in the film as a Weapon X captive, a young Cyclops (Tim Pocock). He might be in one of those cages Wolverine nicks with his claws in the trailer.

Maybe the young Storm scene was cut to keep fans from pointing out the major age disparity between she and the actor who portrays Cyclops. They appear to be close in age in 2000's "X-Men."

The extent of interaction between Wolverine and Cyclops remains unclear given that they do not remember each another in "X-Men." Yet, this might not be relevant inasmuch as he does not remember anything about the Weapon X project at this point.

In case anyone missed it, William Stryker's son Jason is also featured in the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" trailer frozen in a block of ice. This is probably because his father knows no other way to handle his mind-controlling mutant son.

But does this photo still take place before or after Stryker consults Charles Xavier in order to find a cure for Jason's mutation?

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REVIEW: Mr. Monk and the nerdy neighbor whom the series' writers make disappear for no practical reason

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:46:00 +0000

"Monk" is known for having its share of theme episodes, but "Mr. Monk and the Magician" is one creative rabbit that was needlessly pulled from wherever the idea for the 15th, season seven episode originated.

Too much is required to accept in order to enjoy the mediocre story.

Essential is the first scene in which a magician known as The Great Torini (Steve Valentine) makes a deal with heroine dealers because it establishes a strong homicide motive and that he likes to play around with danger. It could have done without the continuous magic puns that are probably left in to serve as winks to families watching that the episode is more frivolous than serious, though.

Particularly entertaining about this more than 40-minute-long episode is the clumsily neurotic Kevin Dorfman (Jarrad Paul), Tony Shalhoub's Monk's recurring friend who hilariously tries his hand at magic until he metaphorically dies on stage and then literally in a backstage dressing room. His horrible act only serves to make Torini's later magic tricks all the more amazingly bedeviling.

Any charlatan can pull a rabbit out of a hat, after all, and even the slightly compassionate nature of Torini's female assistant Tanya (Peyton List) is developed to make him seem more licentious.

What is less engaging is how callously the writers have begun taking creative liberties with the series' hallmarks for no apparent reason other than that "Monk" will soon be over and no longer need the Kevin Dorfman character.

This is really a needless death that they would be hard-pressed to justify making into another random case for Monk to solve.

At least Kevin, who was always portrayed as a lonely person without many friends, is shown to have made many while alive with his sweet, albeit eccentric, personality at the wake. In the end, this painstakingly charming attribute is the cleverly ironic reason why he is murdered.

Torini, who was never truly Kevin's friend, is a great villain for Monk on paper, but ends up being no more formidable than his ability to misdirect viewers from the more simple circumstances of the homicide he commits. He is simply a convenient storytelling tool with which to keep anyone from guessing how the magician did it before Monk solves the case.

Therein lies one of the magic-themed episode's saving graces in that nothing is at first as it appears, particularly the custodian in the hallway.

Then again, it diminishes the importance of Kevin's death in that more time is not invested in developing the Torini character for viewers to care that he is meant to be one of Monk's greatest adversaries.

Monk, who seemingly disliked Kevin before his untimely death, shows his true colors in confronting claustrophobia to learn how Torini was able to murder his friend from 300 miles away. But even this exploration of the character comes about in a breezy manner.

Not helping the episode's fast pace is the questionable and not so obvious reason why Monk does not want kiss the noticeably attractive Tanya when she tries to help him escape from Torini's clutches. One can only assume it is out his loyalty to Trudy, some phobia, or his utter dislike for her as a human being.

Investing too much into what could have been a great case, "Mr. Monk and the Magician" is at best worth watching because it features an entertaining magical theme that astounds the eyes, but ultimately falls short to amaze viewers' sense of a worthwhile story.

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Popcorn rating:

(3 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: 'No Exit' episode of 'Battlestar Galactica' resurrects prominent Cylons as verbose narrators

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:03:00 +0000

"No Exit" is an appropriate title for the 15th, season four "Battlestar Galactica," which offers minimal relief from the considerable amount of story exposition its feature characters extoll for more than 40 minutes.

More than 40 minutes become more than 80 minutes for the non-hardcore viewers who will likely have to watch the episode again to understand the canon that two no longer needlessly dead characters, Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) and Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon), provide about The Cylon's past before the nuclear holocaust on Caprica.

Both excitement and concern sets in while watching because there is a seemingly practical reason why the more often restrained storytellers behind "BSG" reveal so much interesting background information such as who programmed The Cylons, who it is that is responsible for their skin jobs, what The Centurions hold most sacred, and so forth. Either there are a lot of adrenaline-fueled moments coming, not enough time left, or both.

Beyond this, Vernon's often ambiguously amorous character is wisely given logical rhyme to her hitherto erratic reason by being upgraded to a more prominent toaster status as one of The Final Five Cylons. She becomes an almost too loving god-like character when pitted against the more callous John Cavil (Dean Stockwell), whose hatred for humans is ironically fueled by his own physical and clearly emotional limitations as an artificial version of one.

Stockwell's suddenly more Devil-like character would otherwise be a zealous atheist if he did not know for a fact that his creator is real enough to punish for creating such a flawed being in her own image.

After catching up with the bulk of mile-a-minute dialogue between Ellen and John, humans are portrayed as overall superior to The Cylons in that the latter have no apparent reason to exist other than to improve their ability to resort to the basest sentient act, murder. Further exemplifying this point is the antipathy Galen, Saul and Tory show when they are more interested in hearing what Sam, whose development is hopefully not cut short, has to say than allowing him to undergo critical surgery.

Not to mention the grimly humorous comments made by John Hodgman's character that introduces a questionable balance to the highly charged emotions going on in the scene.

Galen's later motiveless concern for Galactica's precarious structural integrity adds even more moral complexity to The Cylons as a species.

Even though the aforementioned parallels with what Ellen says about The Cylons' actions work, Saul talking with the others as though he is a college student sitting in a dormitory discussing philosophy is outside of the realm of the battle-hardened character. Analyzed from another perspective, perhaps he was dragged into this scene as an incidental admission by the "BSG" writing staff about what they were doing when they wrote the explicatory episode.

More effectively utilized is the Galactica battleship as a pathetic fallacy of how the war against The Cylons has taken its toll on the battleship just as it has on the human race's ability to move on as a species without the help of their hated enemies.

Moving on from "No Exit" is comparably easier given that the writers crafted a fun, albeit long Cylon history lesson that laid the foundations of many existential conversations for "BSG" fanboys. Any other science fiction series would simply slap together a bunch of special effects-fueled action and empty dialogue.

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Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

REVIEW: Moment of reckoning arrives for Gaeta, Baltar, random crewman in well-crafted 14th, season four 'Battlestar Galactica'

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Robert Antolin) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:58:00 +0000

More of a conclusion to "The Oath" and a setup for the remaining "Battlestar Galactica" episodes, "Blood on the Scales" nevertheless stands on its own in developing several formerly lackadaisical characters.

Formulaic about the episode is how the writers quickly establish that Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) and Alessandro Juliani's Felix Gaeta are involved in nothing more than a violent grab for power so that there is no question for whom viewers should ultimately root once the episode ends. A kangaroo court and the elimination of the fleet's system of government serve this purpose well.

Instead of marring Gaeta as a heartless rogue, the writers have the morally conflicted character become an interim admiral and experience what it is like to hold the sacred trust of leading the fleet while at the same time doing so on the basis of a lie that his more licentious partner in crime creates.

In other words, viewers are told through Gaeta's experience that it is OK for Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) to make comprises such as forming an alliance with The Cylons so long as it is for the more noble cause of ensuring the human race survives.

But as well as the writers provide a more prominent role for Gaeta, whose right leg they cut off for this reason last year, killing off Michael Trucco's Samuel Anders serves no other purpose but to elevate this second half of a two-parter as violent enough to have been a significant episode milestone. One hopes they have merely planted a creative seed that will bear fruit for the character before the series ends.

In contrast to a supporting character such as Gaeta being elevated in "Blood on the Scales," Crewman Specialist Gage (Mike Dopud), who is easily forgotten in the background of most other episodes, ironically helps turn the tide of the attempted coup after he gives up his personal hatred and apparent lust for Cylons.

Per chance the moral of this aspect of the story arc is that anyone can be a coward and revolt against the inconvenient status quo, but it takes a courageous man to ultimately do what is right in an atmosphere of strong discontent.

Novel as well about this episode is that for the first time James Callis' Gaius Balar comes out of his long selfish coma of pleasure and shows concern for Adama, Gaeta and the followers of his religion. He might just yet live up to the adulation of The Cylons and his human adherents.

While it is better late than never, its makes sense that Baltar be a sleaze before he tires of it and starts caring about someone other than himself.

Whether or not the rest of the crew, if they are not shot for treason, has a similar transformation and again trusts Adama as their admiral is another matter entirely.

It will be interesting to see how "Battlestar Galactica" writers address, if at all, the strong emotions that run wild in "Blood on the Scales."

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Popcorn rating:

(4 1/2 out of 5 pieces)