Amazing Race (CBS) Feb. 20
America’s Next Great Restaurant (NBC) March 16
America’s Next Top Model (CW) Feb. 23
American Idol (Fox) Jan. 19
American Idol (Fox) Jan. 20
Archer (FX) Jan. 27
Are We There Yet? (TBS) Jan. 5
Bachelor (ABC) Jan. 3
Being Human (Syfy) Jan. 17
Better With You (ABC) Jan. 5
Big Love (HBO) Jan. 16
Biggest Loser (NBC) Jan. 4
Blue Bloods (CBS) Jan. 7
Bob’s Burgers (Fox) Jan. 9
Body of Proof (ABC) March 25
Bones (Fox) Jan. 20
Brothers & Sisters (ABC) Jan. 2
Californication (Showtime) Jan. 9
Camelot (Starz) April 1
Cape (NBC) Jan. 9
Caprica (SyFy) Jan. 4
Castle (ABC) Jan. 3
Celebrity Apprentice (NBC) March 6
Chaos (CBS) April 1
Chuck (NBC) Jan. 17
Community (NBC) Jan. 20
Cougar Town (ABC) Jan. 5
Criminal Minds (CBS) Jan. 12
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (CBS) Feb. 16
Dancing With The Stars (ABC) March 21
Desperate Housewives (ABC) Jan. 2
Detroit 187 (ABC) Jan. 4
Eagleheart (CN) Feb. 3
Episodes (Showtime) Jan. 9
Event (NBC) Feb. 28
Family Guy (Fox) Jan. 9
Fringe (Fox) Jan. 21
Game of Thrones (HBO) March 2011
Gossip Girl (CW) Jan. 24
Greek (ABCF) Jan. 3
Happy Endings (ABC) April 13
Harry’s Law (NBC) Jan. 17
Hawaii 5-0 (CBS) Jan. 3
Hot In Cleveland (TVL) Jan. 19
House (Fox) Jan. 17
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) Jan. 3
Human Target (Fox) Jan. 5
Justified (FX) Feb. 9
Kitchen Nightmares (Fox) Jan. 21
Lights Out (FX) Jan. 11
Live To Dance (CBS) Jan. 4
Mad Love (CBS) Feb. 21
Man Vs. Wild (Disc) Feb. 17
Marriage Ref (NBC) March 6
Mike & Molly (CBS) Jan. 3
Modern Family (ABC) Jan. 5
Mr. Sunshine (ABC) Feb. 9
90210 (CW) Jan. 24
No Ordinary Family (ABC) Jan. 4
Off The Map (ABC) Jan. 12
Office, The (NBC) Jan. 20
Outsourced (NBC) Jan. 20
Parks and Recreation (NBC) Jan. 20
Parenthood (ABC) Jan. 5
Perfect Couples (NBC) Jan. 20
Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO) Jan. 14
Regular Show (CN) Jan. 3
Robot Chicken (CN) Jan. 9
Rules of Engagement (CBS) Jan. 3
Secret Millionaire (ABC) March 6
Shameless (Showtime) Jan. 9
Shedding For The Wedding (CW) Feb. 23
Simpsons, The (Fox) Jan. 9
Skins (MTV) Jan. 17
Smallville (CW) Jan. 28
Southland (TNT) Jan. 4
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (Starz) Jan. 21
Supernatural (CW) Jan. 28
Survivor (CBS) Feb. 16
30 Rock (NBC) Jan. 20
Two and a Half Men (CBS) Jan. 3
V (ABC) Jan. 4
Vampire Diaries (CW) Jan. 27
Who Do You Think You Are (NBC) Feb. 4
Wipeout (ABC) Jan. 6
Young Justice (CN) Jan. 7
Your OWN Show (OWN) Jan. 7
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Retro Review: Love Actually
Screenwriter Richard Curtis makes his directorial debut with the holiday comedy, “Love Actually”. Curtis has been a successful comedy writer since the early 1980s in England. Curtis had his hand in such great British comedy series as “The Black Adder”, “Mr. Bean” and a personal favorite “Spitting Image”.
Curtis made his motion picture screenplay debut with the unknown gem 1989’s “The Tall Guy” which starred Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson. In recent years, Curtis has been creator of such great romantic comedies as 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, 1999’s “Notting Hill” and 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary”.
In the latest gem from Curtis, we are exposed to the lives of six main sets of people as Christmas grows near.
In the first set, we find Britain’s new Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) having a crush on a co-worker (Martine McCutcheon). In the second, a stepdad (Liam Neeson) tries to connect with his 11-yr old stepson (Thomas Sangster) when the child finds he has fallen in love.
The third is about a writer (Colin Firth) and his connection with his Portuguese housekeeper (Lucia Moniz). The fourth finds a shy but extremely busy woman (Laura Linney) falling for her ideal man.
The fifth deals with a couple (Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman) as they try to raise a family and the husband’s wandering eye. And finally the sixth, deals with a fading rockstar (Bill Nighy) who is trying for one last number one song.
There are so many amazing performances in this nearly flawless film but it is the power of the script that is the power of this movie. The film does a brilliant job of blending all aspect of when a heart goes a flutter. There are outrageous romantic times, awkward sexual times, heart-breaks, infatuations and a lot to love. It is the type of film that every couple should see for the holidays.
This script is purely amazing and so deserves a nomination if not a win for best original screenplay. The way it handles each delicate moment with such tenderness and feeling. These characters feel real even if they are in a comedy. There are so many treasure able moments.
I was also so impressed with the how the casting of the film dealt with the amazing ensemble cast. Each performance was perfect for the part. There is so much to be heralded here. This is the best comedy of the year.
(4.5 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer
The Beauty of Pixar – There is really no other!
TRAILER TO END ALL TRAILERS: THE WAY BACK
Could this be the best movie of 2010? It sure looks like it to me!
Retro Review: Loser
Written: July 22, 2000
Amy Heckerling, writer/director of “Clueless” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, tells another story through the eyes of teen. This time she focuses on Paul Tannek, played by Jason Biggs of “American Pie”.
Paul is leaving his small town roots and moving to New York when he gets a scholarship.
When Paul really doesn’t fit in and is branded a “loser”, he is forced to live off campus. While struggling with his off campus life and trying to maintain his GPA for his scholarship, Paul falls for a gothic chick named Dora (Mena Suvari also from “American Pie”).
But Paul’s luck just seems to get worse when Dora is madly in love with their English professor (Greg Kinnear).
Loser is like a lot of other teen romantic comedies that have arrived in the last couple months. You know the ones where the film has the same premise and very little laughs. An example of that was “Boys and Girls” starring Freddie Prinze Jr. Loser has a smart cast and like a lot of Heckerling films, a great soundtrack but I fear the subject matter here just isn’t funny.
I really believe that this film should have traveled down the “screw-ball” comedy lane and developed a lot more pranks, revenge strategies and romantic tension.
This routine worked for a lot of college screwball classics including “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Up the Creek”. These films developed their “losers” as victims of their environment and we really wanted to see them survive. What Heckerling does with “Loser” is brings us a sweet melancholy that makes us choke.
The film is way to tender to even arrive at any of the laughs. Sure I felt sorry for Dora and Paul but I was never near the cheering stage in wanting them to survive.
If I had to pick a favorite member of the cast it would be Greg Kinnear who once more shines in a dreary comedy. Anyone remember “Dear God”? In this film, Kinnear is a great jerks who loves to ravish college coeds. Within Kinnear’s portrayal you can see the little boy forced into being a man. He is immature and quite to jerk. It’s a great performance.
Don’t blame the cast here blame the writing.
(2 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Retro Review: Bait
Warner Bros. sends out the hook. Will you take the bait?
“Bait” stars Jamie Foxx as a petty criminal who gets mixed up in a government framing scheme. Foxx accidentally shares his holding cell with a man (Robert Pastorelli) busted for stealing 40 million in gold. Through pure coincidence, the man dies while being interrogated by a vicious Treasury Agent (David Morse). This leaves Foxx as the only man who can find the gold and the dead man’s psychotic accomplice (The Green Mile’s Doug Hutchison). The catch is that Foxx is a complete idiot and has no idea if his previous cellmate did tell him about the gold or not. Can Foxx lead Morse to the gold or not?
Eighteen months later, Foxx is in prison and is stabbed in the cheek by a fellow inmate. Unbeknownst to Foxx, the whole thing is a setup by Morse so he can implant an experimental tracking device into Foxx’s jaw. Morse’s theory is that if he lets word out on the Internet that Foxx knows where the gold is then that may lead him to the psychotic accomplice.
If you can believe the ludicrous mind-numbing plot then you may fair better than I did during this film. “Bait” is an obvious attempt at trying to cash in on a hot stars likeability. Foxx tested huge when last year’s “Any Given Sunday” debuted and now the studio wants him to become a new film franchise star. Because of this angle I found it very hard to take the whole movie seriously.
Jamie Foxx does his best in this film to make us smile but at times becomes a Will Smith clone. As for his cast mate David Morse, he is such a mean and vicious jerk that he makes Tommy Lee Jones’ character in the “Fugitive” look like Peter Cottontail.
Another obvious bad performance was the film’s main villain played by Doug Hutchison. Hutchison did such an obvious impersonation of John Malkovich that you think maybe he was one of the people who got permanently stuck in John Malkovich’s head. It was damn eerie because he nailed Malkovich’s walk, accent, and grizzled face ready explode persona.
Other problems I had with the film were the other obvious comparisons to “Enemy of the State”. The tracking screens, the bluish exteriors, the reluctant hero, the surveillance team, and finally the music. This does beg the question was this film’s director (Antoine Fuqua) actually auditioning to be a Jerry Bruckheimer director.
Because of these flaws I couldn’t really find an original aspect of the film except the whole tracking device in the jaw. It is such a ridiculous concept especially when the script started to play with it malfunctioning. Bait is bad, real bad!
(1 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Retro Review: Anything Else
Jerry (Jason Biggs) is a guy afraid of being alone. He just wants the perfect girl and the perfect writing gig. But as all writers know happily ever after only exists in fairy tales.
Jerry’s latest girlfriend Amanda (Christina Ricci) is a beautiful actress who has her fair share of hang ups and ambiguous emotions.
Jerry loves her so much that he can’t believe in “anything else” but living happily ever after with Amanda. Jerry is one very naïve cookie.
Jerry’s friend and fellow writer Dobel (Woody Allen) believes that Jerry needs to help himself. Dobel gives Jerry all sorts of advice about Amanda, his agent (Danny DeVito), his career and personal security. Is the strange but surprisingly intelligent Dobel right about Jerry’s life?
“Anything Else” made the weakest connection to me of all the Woody Allen films I have seen. This is in part to three very important things in the film.
The first is the performance by Christina Ricci which is so believable and misleading that she will drive even the sanest person nuts. Ricci is outstanding and brilliant at how to push the exact buttons that would set people off. She is insane and highly unreasonable but also in a narcissistic way, engaging. Because she is so annoying and utterly brilliant it is hard to watch the film without feeling like you want to punch the screen.
The second is that Biggs and Allen play almost clones of one and another. Biggs has the same mannerisms and neurotic habits as Allen’s Dobel. Allen’s neurotic tendencies and brilliant dialogue has been a staple of his movie longevity.
His neurosis is great and classic but when you times that by two you become overwhelmed. Allen shouldn’t have played Dobel. But instead maybe the Danny DeVito character. Too much Allen isn’t a good thing.
The third and final thing is the subplot involving Dobel’s fascination with self protection and survival. I was a little disturbed by that subplot and the introduction of the whole rifle thing.
I felt like introducing that into such a sour atmosphere that was the Jerry/Amanda relationship was overboard. I was a little paranoid to how a gun may finish off the on-going problems. It really caught me off guard.
It was hard to look past these things to see some of the humor. There are a couple priceless lines I did like in the film and a brilliant performance for Ricci. “Anything Else” isn’t for everyone.
(2.5 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Retro Review: Agent Cody Banks
James Bond Jr., uh, I mean Cody Banks to the rescue.
TV-phenom Frankie Muniz takes to the silver screen once more as he steps into the pseudo-world of a secret agent. Muniz plays Cody Banks, teenager who was recruited by the CIA at a summer camp where he was trained with the elite abilities of a secret agent. After ten million dollars of training, the CIA just happens to forget to teach Cody how to talk to cute girls. So when a covert operation comes along that finds that Cody has to get close to popular girl Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff), it could be Cody’s most difficult mission yet.
At the film’s core, Agent Cody Banks is a saccharine packet waiting to explode. It’s chalked full of cutesy preteen and young teen moments but seems to shine better when it sticks to the spy gadgets and mission.
I really do like Frankie Muniz as a rising star. He has the charisma of a Michael J. Fox, circa Family Ties and Back to the Future. I really think this kid is full of talent. He can say so much with a wrinkled forehead and a smirk.
I however wasn’t impressed much with the performance of other TV personality, Hilary Duff, who plays Lizzie McGuire on the Disney Channel. She didn’t come off as natural in her scenes. I have seen a lot of other actresses her age play the exact same role and really emerge, but Duff seems awfully stiff. I don’t mean to be cruel, but as the apple of Cody’s affections she didn’t seem very special.
I also had a hard time liking Angie Harmon in her “Emma Peel” kind of persona as CIA handler, Veronica Miles. I am not sure if it was the wacky hairstyles or the make-up that made me doubt it was even Angie Harmon. Why cover up such a lovely actress with so much exterior?
A lot of older Bond fans will get some of the production design jokes and love Cody’s version of Q, played to great hilarity by Saturday Night Live regular, Darrell Hammond.
I found that when the film stuck to the film’s main plot, it could have rivaled Spy Kids for the “junior-spy” Oscar. It was the really dull, heavily forced humor and the daft fight scenes that made Cody Banks just a B-version of the Spy Kids franchise.
There are a couple scenes that make me not want to recommend this film to kids younger than 13. But if you are between 13 and 16 or a big Frankie Muniz fan, you should enjoy the movie. If you are anybody else, you may want to think twice.
(3 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Retro Review: Auto Focus
What goes through the mind of your average TV star? Well Bob Crane, star of the successful 1960s TV series “Hogan’s Heroes”, wasn’t quite your average guy.
Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) was thrust into the public eye with the help of his successful comedy series. One day after work, Bob meets an audio video salesman named John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) who has sold units to Bob’s co-star Richard Dawson and other well known stars like Dick Smothers and even Elvis.
Once Crane sees the new video equipment he seems to salivate at the mouth with admiration. Before long he is hanging out with Carpenter and becoming even more curious. Crane maintains his public image and keeps his marriage intact until Carpenter unleashes the seedier side of video.
Carpenter introduces Crane to videotaping sexual encounters. Before long the uptight and reserved Crane is having sex with multiple partners and diving deeper and deeper into pornography.
Carpenter relishes in the emergence of his new friend’s addiction and becomes his official videographer.
The two friends begin to videotape and photograph hundreds of women.
Eventually Crane loses two wives, children and worst of all, himself. It’s a downfall that leads to Crane’s murder in a Scottsdale, Arizona motel room.
Greg Kinnear does a wonderful job as not only the innocent straight-laced Crane but also as the perverted and eventually disturbed Crane. I have always liked Kinnear as an actor and this film really allows him to flourish as an actor. Kinnear has definitely come along way from being a talk show host.
I also really enjoyed Willem Dafoe in perhaps a scarier performance than he played in the mega-blockbuster “Spiderman”. This performance is subtler but you can see the character’s hidden love for Crane and his pain about to burst forth. Dafoe uses just the right amount of restraint to make his performance a showcase of the film.
What happened to Bob Crane is tragic and his sexual addiction disturbing.
But if you look at it from a sickness side, you can see what it truly is. It is just that a sickness. The most common comparison might be to the likes of alcoholism or drug addiction. Crane let his addiction control him. What’s beautiful about the film is that Kinnear’s performance follows that path. He slowly allows himself to be addicted.
Sexual addiction has never been given this much exposure on film. The sad thing about the film is that we don’t know how sick Bob actually became because the filmmakers always photographed the pornography from the TV’s perspective as we would see Crane react. I know that due to ratings and everything we couldn’t see the material but how does one know the beast if one can’t see it.
I do know that this film does a good job in trying to pave the foundation in understanding the mystery of Bob Crane but it doesn’t uncover all the secrets. It does deliver a theory on who killed him. The debate might be what was more a tragedy Bob’s life or his death. “Auto Focus” is a fascinating train-wreck of a movie.
(3.5 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Retro Review: The Family Stone
Okay, when was the last time that we had a holiday movie that didn’t involve Tim Allen, Santa Claus, an elf or something nostalgic.
Well I am happy to report that the new holiday film, The Family Stone, is probably the best holiday film I have seen in years.
The Stone family reunites during the holidays to get to know the latest addition to their family, Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker). Meredith is soon to be engaged to the Stone’s oldest son, Everett (Dermot Mulroney). But his family isn’t going to make it easy for him.
Everett’s mother (Diane Keaton) doesn’t want to give up a family heirloom to her son for his wedding and she is also keeping a deep secret from her son. Everett’s sister (Rachel McAdams) can’t stand Meredith and her quirky ways. Everett’s brother (Luke Wilson) would just rather that everyone just mellowed out and was happy.
“The Family Stone” reawakens the biggest treasure of all during the holidays. It isn’t the turkey, the cooking, the presents, or some demented white-bearded fat white guy in a red suit who keeps insisting he can fit down a chimney or even a complex-ridden reindeer who we all know is probably gay.
The biggest treasure of all during the holidays is reawakening what family means to all of us. And to quote another white-bearded fat white guy, who happens to be from Jurassic Park, “We spare no expense”. When it comes to the holidays we really don’t spare any expense when it comes to reawakening those family values. We hold so dear.
There really isn’t one distinguishing performance in this brilliant ensemble comedy that stands out. If I had to choose favorites they would be hands down, Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams.
Is there any reason not to scream for any performance from Ms. Keaton? The woman is brilliant in everything she does. In this film you can feel her anguish, love and desire. Her emotions and interactions with the entire cast is brilliant. It is amazing how an actress can be good for such a very long time.
The reason I singled out McAdams was that I usually don’t praise her and I am not a big fan. Here she plays a character she wouldn’t typically play and does it without flinching. I loved her “bumming around the house look” as the “pain in the ass” sister who hates everyone. She’s funny, unforgiving and definitely memorable.
Another thing I liked about the film was how intense it can be at one moment and hilarious the next. Probably my favorite scene in the whole piece is a rather intense dinner scene where Meredith asks an inappropriate question to Everett’s gay and deaf brother. The scene is unbelievably brilliant.
I am spending the holidays alone this year due to some rather insidious scheduling conflicts but I needed a film like “The Family Stone” to remind me of all the joyous and blissful times I have had at this time of year throughout my life. This truly is a film that you need to share with your loved ones during this time of year.
For all the others out there spending the holidays away from loved ones, I drop a shot of Bailey’s in my coffee and salute you. Sorry, this review got mushy but it was that kind of film if you know what I mean. I also want to take this opportunity to wish you and all those you hold dear, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.
(4.5 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer
