Wednesday, November 07, 2007 Rant Archive
Every now and again I like to do a little cheerleading for movies I feel are not on your radar like they should be. Today I have two fantastic-looking movies that (unless they were at Cannes this year) still have people going “huh?” when mentioned. A quick rant about them:
The first film is the latest offering from the Cohen Brothers (BIG LEBOWSKI, RAISING ARIZONA) entitled NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. It’s a thriller about a man (Josh Brolin) who discovers $2 million amidst some dead drug dealers and tries to run with the money, only to be pursued by a psychopathic killer. Actor Javier Bardem (BEFORE NIGHT FALLS) is already generating Oscar buzz for his portrayal of said psychopath.
Check out the trailers for both films inside.
Seems as though there is no easy end in sight for the Writers Guild of America strike, which launched its opening salvos yesterday as hundreds of TV and cinema writers headed for the picket line. As a result, some TV shows are already feeling the burn, forced to go into re-runs (a.k.a. “dark”) sooner than anticipated.
So far the sets of CBS’ THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE and RULES OF ENGAGEMENT have been shut down. Fox’s ‘TIL DEATH and BACK TO YOU, (which was due to return from hiatus yesterday,) have also gone dark—the latter expected to remain dark for as long as the strike continues. In the greatest tragedy of all time, it production on NBC’s THE OFFICE is quickly coming to a halt -- not surprising, since several cast members (B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling) are also writers and producers for the show.
And the pain doesn’t end there. Late night comedy shows like NBC’s THE ABC’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES had to shut down production Tuesday, when a group of protesters showed up on set. HOUSEWIVES is expected to shoot its last available script this week. Other casualties of either stalled productions or staff lay offs include Fox drama ‘24’ (layoffs), HBO talk show REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (stalled), and UGLY BETTY (facing a production stall).
By Brandon Nolta
Ever wonder where the hell Booger from REVENGE OF THE NERDS has been all these years? Well, besides making the occasional film appearance—he played Ahmet Ertegun in RAY—and becoming a recognized expert on the work of Harry Nilsson (and if you don’t know who that is, shame on you), he shows up for work at the Work Bench. Yes, Curtis Armstrong makes a guest appearance on REAPER this week, and he’s quite funny in that pathetic lonely way that he’s more or less patented.
Sam (Bret Harrison), Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez) made quite an impression at the bar as the episode begins; they’ve entertained a bachelorette party quite well, to the point where one hot blonde hands Sam her number. He’s reluctant to do anything with it because he’s still pining for Andi (Missy Peregrym), but the Devil (Ray Wise) is right there egging him on, pushing for lust to take the day. Meanwhile, there’s a pair of souls running around, stealing muscle cars and crashing them in wild ways for fun and more fun. For help, the boys turn to Russ, a co-worker who is trapped in the glory days of 30 years past and hopelessly clueless about his social skills. Guess who plays him.
Anyway, Sam and the boys manage to capture one of the souls with a trap they set using Russ’ cherry 1970 Mustang, but the girl, a psycho named Holly (Mercedes McNab, finally growing into that weirdly attractive face she’s been sporting since BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), is on the loose, and she’s the more dangerous of the two. Using the vessel, Sam figures out where to find Holly, but she gets there first, and she’s much handier with a blowtorch than the boys are with anything else. It’s not so much a question of will they catch her as how much damage will get done along the way. Eventually, one of the boys will get seriously hurt or killed doing these foolhardy jobs, but it ain’t happened yet.
Give the Devil his due; Wise isn’t in much of the episode, but his scenes all count, especially the poignant last shot where it becomes apparent that the Devil has experienced love once or twice in his life, no matter what he professes. Harrison continues to make Sam likable, and the character of Hell’s bounty hunter is definitely showing signs of maturing under the Devil’s tutelage, although how much of that tutelage is because of or in spite of Old Scratch’s guidance is still ambiguous. Just the way I like it, personally, but your mileage may vary. Peregrym, who was quite the evil hottie on HEROES last season, turns it around and becomes the sweet hottie next door for this show. While it’s easy to be frustrated with Sam’s continual inability to be honest and open with her, it’s just as easy to see why she might fluster the hell out of him. There probably won’t be too many Emmys in REAPER’s future, but it remains consistently entertaining, and if you’re home on Tuesday nights, spending an hour with these Hellish minions is a fine way to go.
No fun costumes this week, it’s back to regular work clothes for the squints on this week’s episode of BONES. What is a bit out of the ordinary, though, is that the murder-of-the-week happens within the walls of the Jeffersonian. If the title didn’t help you out any, a Jeffersonian intern is discovered in the building’s incinerator.
In a very weird moment, Angela (Michaela Conlin) comes in to start the reconstruction, and when she looks at the skull, she immediately knows who it is. I call this weird not because Angela identified the skull so easily, but because the post-production team over at BONES obviously has some new toys. We were treated to an odd morphing effect on the skull that creeped me out more than looking at the singed skull itself. Note to the effects department: use that one sparingly please.
After identifying the victim, it's thought that she might have been killed because she was working on an artifact in the Widow's Son case (now cleverly nicknamed Gormogan), but then things become more complicated when romantic ties between her and another employee surface.
Cam (Tamara Taylor) and Booth (David Boreanaz) are sure the case has nothing to do with Gormogan, but the rest of the team is certain they have a serial killer in their midst.
Turns out Cam and Booth are right, and the intern’s death by impalement is all part of a not-so-elaborate cover up. The murder “weapon” ends up being an ancient artifact smuggled from Iraq to be sold on the black market. That’s a new one.
House (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps) have their first full episode together since last season and what do they do? Split up. Not like they broke up but rather Foreman stayed with the prospective team to handle the care of a seizing, fainting dragster driver and House jaunted off to cure a CIA agent.
Usually when a TV drama invokes the “CIA” plot line, they are sending up the white flag of “We’ve run out of ideas”-surrender. But this is HOUSE and we give extra leeway. The whole CIA thing just works to get House away from his team and give face time to Foreman so he can establish his hierarchy in the pack. When House leaves he says to Foreman, “You’re in charge.” Foreman replies, “I know.” This specifically male measuring contest will only go on so long. It will work as underlying tension but cannot sustain itself as the continual mode of communication.
House brazenly gets diagnosis after diagnosis wrong while he flirts with the “Company” in-house doctor. The patient is wasting away with blood cancer or radiation poisoning or some other nasty thing but House remains able to chew the scenery and brag about his assignment to Cuddy, Wilson and his team, “I’m on a top secret mission for the CIA.” And everyone rolls their eyes.
Things are much different with Foreman. He has trouble managing the team. They are too caught up in trying to impress House that they overlook the patient. Rats in a cage is how Foreman sees them. However, Foreman is having his own problems diagnosing the racecar driver and he seems to have slipped when it comes to the bedside manner. He assures the driver and her father that it is one wrong thing after another. This serves the parallel action of the plot but raises the question of how he was able to sell House’s ever changing treatments to patients but not his own. That wasn’t explored at all.
Secrets galore were revealed this week on CANE.
Frank’s feelings of resentment for Alex vanished when he learned that the Samuels family had murdered his younger sister, and that it was Alex who had the man responsible killed. Alex learned that the Samuels had been buying up Cuban land through shell companies, as a way to get a head start in securing the U.S. Ethanol subsidy. It offered a key opportunity to rat the Samuels out to the U.S. Attorney General.
Alex also learned that Pancho had been less than pleased with his performance as CEO of Duque industries. Pancho felt Alex needed to focus more on both day-to-day business and his family, and forgoe the vendetta against the Samuels before it destroyed him. With Alex it was in one ear and out the other; ethanol was the future, and the Samuels were getting buried under it.
Denny Crane (William Shatner) wouldn’t be Denny Crane if he wasn’t insulting somebody and pushing the envelope of acceptability. Well, tonight is no exception when he fires an employee of Crane, Poole and Schmidt for being too fat. It’s such typical Denny behavior that I’m not even offended by it. Of course, it turns into all kinds of trouble for the lothario lawyer, and of course he sees nothing wrong with what he’s done, even if it is illegal. That being said, I don’t know how much longer Shirley (Candice Bergen) can deal with having to defend him to the rest of the partners, especially his arch nemesis, Carl Sack (John Larroquette). Meanwhile, Alan (James Spader) is busy trying to defend a woman from murder by pushing a temporary-insanity defense.
You remember this lady; she’s the one who walked into Alan’s office last week asking for advice on how to get away with murder. Being the upstanding lawyer that he is, ok not that upstanding, but too ethical to help murder somebody, Alan refused to give her that advice. However, he did agree to defend her, when she actually went ahead with that aforementioned murder. You really can’t blame her, considering the guy she killed brutally murdered her daughter and got away with it himself after being acquitted by reason of temporary-insanity. I guess she was looking for some ironic justice, which with Alan on her side, she may just get.
SPOILER ALERT: This review reveals some major plot twists.
This week’s episode of THE UNIT was not for the faint heart. Speaking of ‘faint of heart,’ Grey was feeling that way after being struck down during a mission to extract an American reporter taken prisoner in Lebanon. With their position compromised, one man critically injured and their extraction plan scrubbed, The Unit members had no choice but to take a Lebanese family hostage in their apartment, while Hector performed emergency surgery on Grey.
Back home Tiffy’s rough patch got even rougher, when her car was illegally towed from the go-go bar where she danced. Fearing a conspiracy, the other Unit wives rallied in support of Tiffy and headed off for the tow truck depot. Turned out the conspiracy was real: the tow truck guy was a perv who illegally towed dancer’s cars as a way to coerce them into sex.
The Teams get shuffled, yet AGAIN. Thanks to Neil screwing around with the water gorging a couple of weeks ago, the producers are desperate to let the scales determine the winner and not the underhanded game play. It’s understandable; you want to root for these people who are rebuilding their lives through rebuilding their bodies. I’m already looking forward to the day Neil gets booted. His shenanigans sent Jez home early and kept less motivated players like Nicole and Ryan. It’s silly too, all this reshuffling, as the contestants train with the same people anyway.
Since it is “Green Week” on NBC, Looney Trainer Jillian got to lecture her team on the importance of buying and eating organic foods. You’ll be happy to know her nostrils flare with the same dragon like passion when it comes to organic produce as it does when she talks of “kicking ass”. So with the spirit of reality TV saving the planet, THE BIGGEST LOSER did its part and turned off the electricity to the treadmills. As if these people don’t have it tough enough, now they had to run…outside! It was a lot like ROCKY IV, where the Russian is pumped full of chemicals and trains on stainless steel equipment and Balboa goes to Siberia and carries logs around. Eye of the flabby tiger, baby!