Monday, September 24, 2007 Rant Archive
Are the men and women we send to war ever the same ones that come back to us? This is the central question poised again and again throughout In The Valley of Elah, the latest film by Academy Award-winning writer/director Paul Haggis. The title is a reference to the supposed valley where David slew Goliath with his slingshot—a thinly veiled (and questionable) metaphor for the courage young soldiers must summon while at war.
Interestingly enough the film does not show a single second of combat. The central plotline actually unfolds stateside, when retired Sgt. Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) receives a phone call that his son, Mike, has gone missing from his base. Unaware that his son had even returned from his tour in Iraq, Hank departs for the base, to see if he can’t track his son down before the boy gets listed as AWOL.
If you haven’t seen the trailers, it’s no spoiler to tell you that Mike soon turns of dead, having been stabbed repeatedly, his body hacked to pieces and burnt to crisp. Of course the military, always preferring to clean its own house, usurps the jurisdiction of the local police, launching their own “investigation” of the crime. This is not enough for Hank (a former Military-Police detective,) who smells a cover-up brewing. For outside assistance he cajoles put-upon Det. Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) of the local P.D. to help get the answers Hank so desperately needs as a grieving father. The pair investigates the crime and the truth is eventually uncovered—though in the end, the answers prove more unsettling than the mystery.
If there’s one thing we’ve established through five seasons of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, it’s that Larry David is a jackass. A real jackass. In every sense of the word. But sometimes it’s just not his fault, and Sunday was a case in point.
First he deals with a woman who can’t make up her mind at the ice cream store, causing great delay (and, of course, a slew of sarcastic remarks) for poor LD. Then he has to deal with taking a stinky 50-dollar bill from the recently orphaned Marty Funkhouser. (Can a middle-aged man become an orphan? Funkhouser claims he can, after his mother just died. We’ll let it slide … I guess.)
So, you can’t blame Larry for shorting the painter (because he wouldn’t take the dirty fifty) or stealing flowers (twice) from Ida Funkhouser’s roadside memorial (because the flower shop wouldn’t take the fifty) or stealing perfume from the late Mama Funkhouser’s in-house memorial (OK, that one was probably his fault, but hey, he was just trying to get some lovin’ from Cheryl. And really, how many memorials can one woman have?).
It seems of late that we as a nation have been force fed the Second World War. There was, for example, Tom Brokaw’s book and TV special, THE GREATEST GENERATION. There were the films SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. And leave us not forget the HBO series BAND OF BROTHERS, based on the Stephen Ambrose book.
I think we have to ask ourselves two questions. Why this interest in a 60-year-old war? And do we need another documentary about it?
The answer to the first is complicated. Part of the reason for the explosion in WW II related media, I think, is that we’ve gone through a series of 60th anniversaries lately and that has no doubt sparked interest in the subject. But also the veterans of that conflict, our fathers and grandfathers are dying off. So there has been a rush to collect their memories and tell their stories. Finally (and this is purely conjecture on my part) there is a yearning in this country for a time when America was America, when we sacrificed together as a nation and fought for ideals, not oil. Nostalgia? Sure. But I think it’s something more, too.
HEROES:ORIGINS is shaping up to be the show to watch, during the blank space left by the newly introduced fall finales. The fall finale started last year, and it left TV viewers with idle time on their hands, leaving us with no new programming to watch. But, those ingenious and innovative creators of last season’s smash hit, HEROES, have figured out a way to ease our television withdrawals. HEROES:ORIGINS will replace HEROES during their fall hiatus, and will give us a deeper look into the lives and abilities of the people who have these amazing powers. I know I for one can’t wait to find out more about that adorable little scamp, Hiro (Masi Oka). The new show has already garnered the likes of Kevin Smith – writer/director of the cult classics CLERKS and CHASING AMY – and now there are two more heavyweights jumping onboard.
I just got the news from zap2it.com who
says, “HOSTEL director Eli Roth and Michael Dougherty, who co-wrote SUPERMAN RETURNS, will each pen and direct an episode.” This couldn’t be better news, especially after the diss the show got from writer/director, Quentin Tarantino, last week. Apparently, the KILL BILL director has never heard of either show. No matter, millions of other people have, and we couldn’t be any happier at how this new one is shaping up.
In last season’s finally, a demented stalker took the cold case squad hostage, and we were left to wonder all summer long whether or not Det. Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris) would survive the gunshot wound that sent her into surgery. Thankfully for all us COLD CASE fans she did, and as the fifth season begins she heads back to work ready to wipe the dust off yet another long forgotten case file. Of course it takes some doing, since everybody believes she may have returned a little too soon. But our girl, Lilly, is one determined woman and she has set her sights on a case from 1994.
In what can be seen as very topical, this old case centers on – what Lilly suspects – is the wrongful conviction and incarceration of a couple of teens. In 1994 three 10-year-old children were beaten to death, and the outcry to catch who did it may have moved the investigation in the wrong direction. No worries, this group of detectives – who are determined to bring as many cases as possible to a just and correct conclusion – are on the job, and I’ve yet to see an episode where they don’t crack the case. I think that’s why so many people love cop shows, because we see horrific crimes come to a justified end. That’s so rare to see nowadays that it gives us a little bit of satisfaction to see it on TV. Yes, we all know it isn’t real, but one of the best things about TV is the ability to escape the crap we deal with in real life. A show like COLD CASE gives many of us the resolution we so desperately seek in everyday life.
The folks at HBO expected TELL ME YOU LOVE ME to become a water cooler show. By that I mean a show everyone talks about the next morning around the water cooler. And who can blame them? The show has attractive actors displaying parts of their bodies that are usually reserved for NC-17 movies – and yes I’m talking penis here. Who wouldn’t expect people to be talking?
Well either I’ve been hanging around the wrong water cooler, the people who watch the show are drinking bottled water or they’re just not thirsty. And episode three is as good an example of why as any. There’s very little movement. And what there is seems to be backwards.
Consider couple number one. Jamie (Michelle Borth), a chef, has broken her engagement to Hugo (Luke Farrell Kirby). After she heard him say – at her engagement party, no less – that he doubted he could remain faithful, she broke up with him. Jamie is in her 20s and is a 21st Century woman. Right?
It seems the public can’t get enough of evil flesh-eating zombies. USATODAY.com
reports that “RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION has broken its own record, which was $23 million for the debut of the second edition, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALPSE, by raking in $24 million for the third installment.” Could this mean that there will be a fourth one? It looks likely, even though EXTINCTION has been billed as the finale. In fact, Rory Bruer, Sony’s head of distribution said, “a fourth installment absolutely would not surprise me considering the success of the franchise.”
This is great news for anybody who loves watching sexy, badass women kick some zombie butt. And by the looks of things, that’s a lot of people. However, this does give me some cause for concern. I mean I’m all for keeping a good story alive – I’m a huge HARRY POTTER fan myself – but there are so many movies out there that are just rehashing old material. I don’t mind a sequel or two, even a prequel now and again is ok, but I look to Hollywood to fulfill my entertainment fantasies. Call me crazy, but isn’t Hollywood supposed to be known for creativity and innovation? Ok, we are still getting that, but knowing that money is always the bottom line, I just get a little nervous when I start to see nothing but continuing storylines covering my movie landscape.
THE SIMPSONS: Apparently, they won’t wait another 20 years to make another movie, as Bart writes on the board. Springfield is still being rebuilt as the pre-credit sequence rolls, and Homer’s got a silo of pig dung strapped to his car, but everybody’s favorite weirdly yellow family is still cruising at warp factor Homer.
As things fire up, Mr. Burns falls into a water fountain trying to retrieve a penny, but Homer rescues him, and as a reward, Mr. Burns flies him to Chicago for dinner. Being Homer, he falls in love with the whole experience of flying on a private plane, and becomes despondent at the thought of never getting to repeat his flight. Marge hires life coach Colby Krause (Stephen Colbert) to help Homer get through his depression, and thanks to his coaching skills and Homer’s magic bowling shoes, Homer fails to get a new job at a company with their own private plane. Having quit work at the plant, Homer’s despondence returns, and getting caught out by Bart at the Krusty Burger when he’s supposed to be working doesn’t help.