August 2008 Archives

Back in the day, Burt Reynolds was The Man. Deliverance, The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit and even Cannonball Run are some great movies. However, since the early to mid-eighties with the exception of his Academy Award nominated performance in 1997's Boogie Nights, Reynolds film career has been mostly forgettable. Unfortunately for Burt, 2008's Deal is yet another flop for the actor.

Reynolds plays Tommy Vinson, a washed-up poker champion who swore off gambling twenty years before after the activity drained his bank account and his wife (Maria Mason) threatened to divorce him. Tommy discovers Alex Stillman (Bret Harrison), a cocky young star on the poker circuit. Seeing Alex's potential, Tommy offers to train the kid, introducing him to the intricacies of the profession and the joys of Vegas. After a falling out, the two wind up on opposite sides of the table, just in time for the championship game.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those films that seems to get better with each viewing. You begin to see the subtle nuances in the story and really appreciate writer Tim Burton's ability to create such a captivating tale and director Henry Selick's ability to bring it to the screen. Intense emotion oozes from each shot and musical performance, while the picture itself has both a dark and lighthearted tone. As any Tim Burton fan knows, only Burton himself could combine such a dichotomy of emotions and create a motion picture as beloved as The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is a film that quite literally can be enjoyed by anyone, at any time of the year, regardless of whether it falls around Halloween or Christmas; I especially enjoy watching it sometime during the week before Christmas. Well produced, and different from anything with a holiday theme, The Night Before Christmas Collector's Edition deserves a place in every DVD collection.

For popular series based on a group of high school kids, things usually go downhill once graduation day approaches. The example I'll use is the popular '90's sitcom Beverly Hills, 90210. Producers dealt with that group's graduation by having them all attend the fictional California University. While that plot device did work, fans were forced to suspend a certain degree of believability. How likely is it that a group of friends will attend the same college? Further, all the actors looked like they were in their mid to late twenties as freshman, so watching their characters start college at eighteen (right!) was laughable.

The snappy animated credits over Doris Day's recording of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," suggests that Married Life might be a sophisticated comedy about love in the 1950's. The opening scene tells us that yes, Married Life is about love, but the situation is anything but snappy. It's Nov. 5, 1949, and in a stylish restaurant in what is presumably New York City, Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) tells his best friend Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan) that he's leaving his wife for someone who makes him truly happy.

Harry's the quintessential "nice guy," good at what he does, is pleasant to everyone and never has a hair out of place. A hopeless romantic, Harry finds his marriage to Pat (Patricia Clarkson) unfulfilling, lacking the hearts and flowers he always dreamed would be part of his greatest love affair. While most men would love a woman who prefers sex to intimacy, for Harry, sex with little intimacy leaves him cold.

Remakes of beloved classic films are often disasters. Undoubtedly the creative forces behind these endeavors start out with the best of intentions. The problem is that when you try to reformat something that so many fans already consider a masterpiece, you're behind the eight ball before you even shoot the first frame. When I first heard that Josh Friedman (who wrote the screenplay for 2006's The Black Dahlia), had developed a television series based on the events following Terminator 2: Judgment Day, I was highly skeptical. I couldn't imagine a Terminator project without Arnold Schwarzenegger or anyone but Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. However, after watching the first nine episodes of Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Blu-ray, I'm apt to check out the second season when it premieres September 8th on Fox at 8:00 p.m.

Transformers Animated - Season One is the latest in a long line of animated Transformers cartoon, following the disappointment that was Transformers Cybertron. Taking its cues from the Michael Bay movie (The AllSpark, Megatron crash-landed on Earth, big explosions, lots of noise) Transformers Animated has changed pretty much everything about the mythology of the series except for the bare essentials.

Transformers Animated takes place in near future Detroit. Optimus Prime (David Kaye), Ratchet (Corey Burton), Bumblebee (Bumper Robinson), Prowl (Jeff Bennett), and Bulkhead (Bill Fagerbakke) have taken refuge there with the AllSpark, awaiting reinforcements to help them keep AllSpark out of Decepticon hands. In the meantime, they're on their own in trying to accomplish the task. Unfortunately, they also have to deal with bounty hunters, rogue dinobots, and super-powered humans that are doing everything they can to obliterate the Autobots.

David Simon, an author and former police reporter, created one of the finest television series I've had the pleasure to watch in The Wire. Simon has said that he originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of his writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective. Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalized corporate crime at Enron and institutional dysfunction in the Catholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show."

It's truly amazing that South Park is currently in its twelfth season on Comedy Central. As a person who has watched countless hours of television and reviewed many of them here, I have written about long-running shows like Cheers and Frasier. However, South Park is in a class all its own. Brash, crass a patently offensive to some, South Park remains a cutting edge satirical look at pop culture and current events.

It would be understandable if creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone began to lose their edge a little bit. After eleven years, I would think it could get tiring coming up with ideas and then having to turn those into an animated adventure. Apparently, the primitive animation style adopted by Parker and Stone, allows them a fairly quick turnaround and an ability to stay topical. As usual, season eleven finds the writers taking shots at a variety of people and things: Video game culture, Bono, lesbian bars and Cartman's homosexual tendencies, pop culture and Islamic fundamentalism. Appearances from political figures like Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson keep things topical while the constant barrage of toilet humor and profanity keeps them controversial and funny.

"Cassius Clay was born in Louisville," says Ferdie Pacheco, "Muhammad Ali was born in Miami." Produced by Gaspar Gonzalez and Alan Tomlinson, Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami examines the critical role the city of Miami played in the legendary boxer's life and career. This one hour PBS documentary allows viewers to get to know the young Cassius Clay before he became Muhammad Ali, one of the most beloved sports figures of the 20th century.

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami begins just as eighteen-year-old Cassius Clay has captured the Gold Medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. His amateur career over, Clay arrived in the Overtown district of Miami (then considered Harlem South), to begin working with trainer Angelo Dundee at the Fifth Street Gym on Miami Beach. Though Clay had won the Gold Medal as a light-heavyweight, Dundee and fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco would set out to mold Clay into a fierce competitor for the heavyweight title. Using vintage interviews and footage of the very young boxer, it's fascinating to see the man who would become Muhammad Ali--talented, but not completely sure of himself, still developing the personality that would become recognizable throughout the world.

I'm not going to beat around the bush; Justice League - Season One is a must have for any true superhero fan. Producer Bruce Timm followed Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond with Justice League. Previously, DC characters had made appearances on different series-- Batman met The Creeper, Superman joined forces with Dr. Fate on his series--What we hadn't seen before was a large group of superheroes together in an episodic format.

When he took on Justice League, Timm's goal was twofold: to pay tribute to the original line-up of the Justice League of America while also reflecting modern day racial and cultural diversity. The League members are as follows: Clark Kent / Superman (George Newbern), Bruce Wayne / Batman (Kevin Conroy), Diana / Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg), represent the big three. Joining them is the speedy Wally West / The Flash (Michael Rosenbaum), J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly) who has telepathic and shape changing abilities. As part of the effort to create diversity, Aquaman (Scott Rummell) was relegated to recurring character status, in favor of League member Shayera Hol / Hawkgirl (Maria Canals). A fiery police officer from the planet Thanagar, Maria Canals was cast as Hawk Girl because of her Hispanic accent, which the producers felt would make Hawkgirl appear more foreign and alien against her team mates. Rounding out the League was John Stewart / Green Lantern (Phil LaMarr).

As the loyal readers of ElasticPop have undoubtedly figured out, I'm crazy about films and television. As a child, I enjoyed going to showings of classic films put on by a film society near where I lived every Saturday morning. In the days before Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics, I saw High Noon, Rear Window, Old Yeller, Mary Poppins, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lawrence of Arabia among others, on the big screen before I was ten years old.

I didn't realize it then, but those matinées some twenty-five years ago, were the start of my lifelong love of film. I studied them in college, and now I get the opportunity to review all sorts of cool DVDs for ElasticPop.com. Occasionally, something lands in my inbox.

When you watch as many DVDs as I do, the bad ones are forgotten quickly and the good one tend to linger in your mind for awhile. I remember being in a movie theater sometime around May of this year (oddly, I can't recall the feature I saw that day), where I saw a preview of Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow. The film looked funny, sweet and intriguing. Unfortunately, the film never made it to any of the theaters in my area. I made a mental note to snap up a review copy of the DVD, when the opportunity came across my desk.

Oliver Stone has pretty much cornered the market on films covering the time during the Vietnam War. His resume is rather impressive: Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven and Earth (1993) are all part of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy while films including The Doors (1991), J.F.K. (1992) and Nixon (1995), all deal with people and events that shaped the world while the Vietnam War was raging. Suffice to say, Vietnam has played a big role in Oliver Stone's career.

Created by legendary funnyman Mel Brooks and fellow comedic actor Buck Henry, Get Smart debuted on September 18, 1965 on NBC. During the series five year run, the show won seven Emmy awards and was nominated for an additional fourteen, as well as two Golden Globe Awards. Oddly enough, Get Smart was never a huge hit in the Neilsen ratings. The series ended its first season ranked at number 12, its second season at number 23 and for the series last three seasons, the show stayed out of the top thirty. Regardless of the ratings, Get Smart still enjoys a huge cult following and is considered by many to be one of the funniest shows in television history.

Few would deny that 1968 was one of the most turbulent years in American history. Martin Luther King had been assassinated in April, Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed in June, an unpopular war in Vietnam had be a catalyst in President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision not to seek another term in office. It was under this cloud of uncertainty that the Democratic Party gathered at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, in August of 1968 to choose their nominee for the U.S. presidency.

Dexter is a Drama series based on the 2004 Jeff Lindsay novel, Dexter Darkly Dreaming. The novel was adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the pilot episode. Set in Miami, the series centers the series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst. Dexter is able to justify his killings because he only goes after murderers and the dregs of society.

Season one of Dexter spent a lot of time informing viewers of the circumstances that made Dexter the way he is. Orphaned at three and hiding a terrible secret, Dexter was adopted by a Miami police officer named Harry Morgan (James Remar), who recognized his sociopathic tendencies and taught him to channel his gruesome passion for killing and dissecting in a "constructive" way: by only killing people who "deserve it."

Gossip Girl is based on the popular novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series revolves around a group of wealthy young adults growing up on New York City's Upper East Side who attend elite high schools while dealing with sex, drugs, jealousy, and other teenage issues. Creator, executive producer and writer Josh Schwartz has said he wasn't sure he wanted to get involved with another teen series so soon after finishing up The O.C., but decided to move ahead after reading the original Gossip Girl novels. Also joining Schwartz is Stephanie Savage, a fellow scribe on The O.C.

Although Clear and Present Danger made $207,500,000 worldwide upon its release in 1994, Paramount apparently made the decision to shut down the franchise for awhile. In 2002, the studio attempted to revive the franchise with a much younger Ben Affleck, stepping into the role of Jack Ryan. I'm sure the powers-that-be at the studio felt that replacing the aging Harrison Ford with a then more bankable star was the best way to ensure that Jack Ryan movies would become a sure-fire cash cow for the studio. However, as everyone knows, things don't always go as planned. The screenplay by Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne strayed far from Tom Clancy's original novel, and Ben Affleck's star would go on the decline after a series of disastrous films, including Jersey Girl and Gigli.

Harrison Ford, James Earl Jones, Anne Archer, and director Phillip Noyce must have enjoyed making Patriot Games so much that they all decided to return for this third film in the Jack Ryan series. Author Tom Clancy, whose novel was adapted for the screen by Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian, and John Milius, has shifted the emphasis from the Cold War to the war on drugs and the abuse of executive power justified by the President of the United States for 1994's Clear and Present Danger.

Jack Ryan (Ford) is now the acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA after his friend and mentor Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer and dies. His first major assignment is quite a doozy: after a friend of the Presidents (Donald Moffat) is killed, Ryan has to look into Columbian Cartels. Ryan is able to get the money from Congress to keep the CIA's Columbian operations going only after promising that no covert operations or military actions will occur on Columbian soil. Unbeknownst to Ryan, President Bennett has asked his National Security Advisor James Cutter (Harris Yulin), to ask CIA Director of Operations Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny) to assemble a team to operate in Columbia and destroy the cartels.

Beowulf is the oldest surviving poem in the English language. The epic work was written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. In the poem, Beowulf battles three rivals: Grendel who is attacking the Danish mead hall known as Heorot and its citizenry; Grendel's mother; and later in life after returning to Geatland and being crowned a king, a dragon. I think I had to read the book for the first sometime in junior high and later as a college student. Though the goal of reading it was different each time, I remember being suitably unimpressed.

When Robert Zemeckis, whose directing credits include The Polar Express and Back to the Future, decided to bring Beowulf to the big screen, the prospect intrigued me; maybe a big budget film version would give me some love for the story. Zemeckis certainly surrounded himself with an all star cast for this adventure into the world of ancient England. Sir Anthony Hopkins plays King Hrothgar, he is joined by John Malkovich as Unferth, Ray Winstone as Beowulf, Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealthow, Crispin Glover as Grendel, Brendan Gleeson as Wiglaf, and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's nasty mother.

Having seen Wonder Boys, The Squid and the Whale and Sideways, I've noticed that actors looking to reinvigorate sagging careers or working actors looking to gain some notoriety seem to jump at the chance to play overwrought academics and frustrated male writers. Michael Douglas wasn't exactly box office gold when he took the role of Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys, an English Professor with a serious case of writers block. The film garnered positive reviews, and Douglas' performance earned him several prestigious awards. Paul Giamatti had been working pretty steadily for about a decade, when his portrayal of Miles, a frustrated writer getting by as an English teacher in Sideways, earned him an Oscar nomination.

As a Rolling Stones fan, I have to admit, I had some my doubts when I heard Martin Scorsese was making a documentary about them After all, the Stones have been around for well over forty-five years now, longer than most folks have been alive. There have been countless documentaries, 1970's Gimme Shelter and Robert Frank's never officially released Cocksucker Blues, among them. Along the way, there have been thousands of interviews with band members on television and in print and a a slew of books. What remains to be said?

After The Hunt for Red October earned $200,512,643 worldwide, Paramount saw the makings of a franchise, so the studio decided to make some changes. Most notably, Harrison Ford replaced Alec Baldwin as Dr. Jack Ryan. For Ryan's wife, Anne Archer as Dr. Catherine Ryan replaced Star Trek Next Generation's Gates McFadden as Caroline Ryan. This wasn't as noticeable, because Ryan's wife only appeared in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-scene in The Hunt for Red October. At the time there were a lot of rumors as to why Alec Baldwin was replaced, but no real definitive answer-- Baldwin was asking for too much money; Paramount contended that it was a scheduling conflict and Baldwin did indeed star as Stanley Kowalski in a Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire during Patriot Games' principal photography--Whatever the reason, the very bankable Harrison Ford took over the role of Jack Ryan.

As a fan of Tom Clancy and the Jack Ryan films, I was thrilled when I heard that Paramount was releasing 1990's The Hunt for Red October, 1992's Patriot Games, 1994's Clear and Present Danger and 2002's The Sum of All Fears as separate blu-ray titles on July 29, 2008. As an avid reader, I always found Clancy's books completely riveting. Few would deny that Clancy is a master of the military techno-thriller. Steeped in remarkable detail-- a product of Clancy's immersion in espionage and military research--each novel designed to draw the reader deeply into the story.

Created by Dan Povenmire (The Family Guy) and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Phineas and Ferb is about two step-brothers and their incredible adventures in the family's backyard during their summer vacation. The two step-brothers, Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella) and Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Sangster), live with their older sister Candace Flynn (Ashley Tisdale), and their parents Linda Flynn (Caroline Rhea), and Lawrence Fletcher (Richard O'Brien), in Danville, Illinois. The two brothers find themselves bored with the status quo, so they decide to pull off unbelievable and often outlandish stunts (i.e. building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing the Eiffel tower, discovering something that doesn't exist, giving a monkey a shower, constructing a giant roller-coaster, just to name a few), in order to make their summer more exciting and fun. Unfortunately for the boys, their sister Candace is aware of their activities, and does everything she can to put an end to their fun.

Despite the fact that renowned film critic Roger Ebert called director Alex Proyas' (The Crow) Dark City his favorite film of 1998, the movie received a lukewarm reception at the box office, and many critics felt the story put forth in Dark City was weak, but some still couldn't help but admire the film. Peter Stack of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "The plot is weak, and the self- conscious script tries too hard to be knowing and sexually suggestive. Judging from the dialogue alone, ``Dark City'' is a clumsy melodrama. But the film's twisting of reality and its daring look -- layered and off-kilter grays, greens and blacks -- make it click." Perhaps that's what accounts for the small but dedicated following that has grown around Dark City in the decade since the films initial release.

"I feel the need...the need for speed!"
--Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards, Top Gun

I was thirteen when Top Gun came blazing on to the big screen in 1986. I absolutely loved the film and saw it three or four times during its original theatrical run. Tom Cruise was buff, the planes were cool and the soundtrack rocked; in my newly minted teenage mind Top Gun had all the ingredients that made up the perfect film.

As I sat down to watch Top Gun again, I realized how much a person's tastes in films can change as they grow older. Of course, since I worshiped Top Gun all those years ago, I've learned that truly great films are built on a good script, strong plot and fleshed out characters; none of which play a pivotal role in Top Gun. When you get right down to it, Top Gun is little more than a high flying music video, with some lukewarm love scenes to show off then twenty-four-year-old Tom Cruise's undeniable hunky good looks.

Benjamin Shaw (Joshua Jackson), has just married Jane (Rachael Taylor). Right after the wedding, the couple moves from Brooklyn to Japan for his job as a high end fashion photographer. He is returning there after a two year absence, and looking forward to meeting up with two friends: Bruno (David Denman), and Adam (John Hensley); before moving into to their loft in Tokyo, the happy couple head off to a cabin near Mt. Fuji for a short honeymoon. Jane is behind the wheel when a young, underdressed Japanese girl suddenly appears in front of them. Jane slams on the brakes but it's too late and the car runs over the girl before swerving into a tree. When Jane and Ben regain consciousness, there is no sign of the girl or a body.

Philip Baker Hall is just one of the Hollywood character actors who has done memorable work in film and television for nearly forty years without becoming a bonafide star, but consistently turning in memorable performances. His portrayal of Lt. Bookman, the library cop, in a 1991 episode of Seinfeld earned him a place in the pantheon of great comedic performances in television history.

Hall has also had an impressive career in films. In 1996, he starred in Paul Thomas Anderson's Sydney (a.k.a. Hard Eight), in the title role, a strange and generous hitman living in Las Vegas. As the film reaches its violent end, we learn that Sydney killed John's father, and the revelation deepens his motives into something warped and strange, offering us the first real insight into what kind of person Sydney really is.