Reviews and More

After taking a couple months off from watching my Without A Trace DVDs, I’m going to get started on Season 4 very soon. Now that the regular TV season is finished, I have plenty of time to catch up on shows that I don’t follow religiously.

At any rate, Without a Trace is going to be quite a change from Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer, both of which I’ve also been watching. I mean, sure Without a Trace features FBI agents like Criminal Minds, but on WaT, they confine themselves to New York, whereas on CM, the agents traipse all over the country for their cases. Of course, since the BAU has its own jet, they never have to worry about looking for cheap flight deals or anything like that. Plus, on CM, the agents are looking for serial killers, while WaT focuses on missing persons, which is a huge difference.

I have to admit that I’ve kind of been missing Jack, Danny, Martin, and the rest of the WaT team, so I’m looking forward to getting started on these DVDs!

Last night was the two-hour season finale of Lost, which was actually a continuation of episode 4×11, titled “There’s No Place Like Home”. As longtime viewers have come to expect from a Lost finale, a couple of questions were answered, but many more surfaced in turn. There’s no way I’d be able to recap everything that happened in the two hours, so I’m just going to post a few thoughts here.

– Desmond and Penny were never a favorite couple of mine (this just doesn’t seem like a show where couples or relationships are even important), but it was still nice to see them reunite. I didn’t swoon or tear up or anything like that, but was glad that at least someone got a happy ending — at least for the time being.

– So it was Locke in the coffin from way back in last season’s finale! Most fans guessed it was either him or Ben, so the reveal wasn’t quite as shocking as it could have been. Since I’m not exactly a Locke fan, I didn’t care that he was in there. It did make me wonder, however, why he ended up leaving the island. I guess he had to move it again?

– Speaking of moving the island, I’m sorry, but that was just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen on network television. Ben goes down a shaft, turns a frozen wheel, and causes the whole island to get swallowed up in the ocean?? WTF? Dumb.

– Sun’s reaction to Jin’s death (if he actually did die in the explosion) was heart-wrenching. The actress did a tremendous job of conveying her utter helplessness in that scene on the helicopter. Poor Jin… now that was one character that I actually did like. It figures he would get written off!

– Hmm, it seems that Charlotte has a bit more of a backstory than it appeared at first. I’ve read some theories saying that she’s actually Annie, Ben’s long-lost childhood friend, the one who gave him a hand-carved doll for his birthday. I guess that would make sense, since the producers of the series have said that Annie will end up playing an important role.

– So is half of the action next season going to take place off the island while the other half takes place on? That’s going to be weird. And now it looks like Jack’s mission will be to try to convince the rest of the Oceanic 6 to go back. Oh, and don’t forget that he and Ben have to lug John’s dead body around. Sounds like fun.

That’s about all I remember from the two hours right now. I have to say that most of the finale was pretty boring, but the few answers that we did get made the whole thing worthwhile viewing. I can’t believe we’re going to have to wait until February for new episodes! That damn writers’ strike cost viewers at least 9-11 episodes this season!

I finished all of my work early yesterday, so I decided to take advantage of my free afternoon by going out to lunch and catching a matinée with a friend. Since I’m probably going to go see the new Indiana Jones flick with my husband sometime in the next few weeks, my friend and I opted for What Happens in Vegas… instead. This has been the No. 1 comedy in the country for the past month, so we figured we’d have a good time despite the generally poor reviews the film has received from critics. The movie turned out to be okay, but I would have preferred to see it on DVD rather than at the theater.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Jack Fuller (played by Ashton Kutcher) is a 20-something slacker who recently got fired from his father’s furniture making company in New York because he doesn’t show the commitment necessary to follow through on projects and get things done in a timely manner. He and his best friend, attorney Jeffrey “Hater” Lewis (Rob Corddry), decide that the only way to recover from this setback is to head out to Vegas for a few days.

Meanwhile, Wall Street stockbroker Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) has recently been dumped by her fiancé Mason (Jason Sudeikis) and is pretty distraught over the breakup. She and her best friend, bartender Tipper (Lake Bell), decide that they should go ahead and use the tickets to Vegas that Joy originally bought for Mason’s birthday. After all, Mason doesn’t deserve to go, and a few days in Sin City is just what Joy needs to help her get out of her funk.

A mix-up at the hotel desk causes the four New Yorkers to be put into the same room. After complaints to management, they get upgraded to a couple of penthouse suites, and all get VIP passes to a bunch of Vegas nightclubs and shows. Jack convinces Joy and Tipper to hand out with him and Hater for the night, which the women reluctantly do. Jack and Joy end up hitting it off, getting completely drunk, and getting married before the sun rises.

When they wake up, they realize what an embarrassing mistake they’ve made, so they both agree to get an annulment as soon as they return to New York. Just as they’re about to leave the casino, however, Jack plays a slot machine with Joy’s quarter — and ends up hitting a $3 million jackpot. Suddenly, there’s a lot more at stake in the marriage and a simple annulment will no longer suffice.

Back home in New York, a judge refuses to give them an annulment or a divorce, instead ordering them to give their marriage a six-month trial run while attending marriage counseling. If they refuse, the judge will tie up their money in legal proceedings and they’ll never see a cent. The rest of the film then focuses on how Jack and Joy each try to drive the other away so as to get the money all to him- or herself. During their six months together, they actually end up learning a lot about who they are, and come to a deeper understanding about their feelings for one another.

My Reaction: Once I got over the complete inanity of the premise (could a judge really force a couple married in Vegas to stay married?), What Happens in Vegas… turned out to be somewhat watchable. Granted, there weren’t as many funny parts as I’d expect from a comedy starring Kutcher and Diaz, but the film wasn’t a total loss, either.

Most of the scenes in this movie reminded me of other films, so there wasn’t a whole lot of originality to speak of. For example, when Jack and Joy first started living together and deliberately got on each other’s nerves, I couldn’t help but think fo the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston movie The Break-Up (which I’m sure was poached from previous works as well). And then the two best friends whose apparent hatred for each other belies their true feelings? Well, that has happened in too many other rom-coms to count.

The end was wholly predictable, so there weren’t any surprises there (or anywhere else, for that matter), but the journey wasn’t all that bad. What Happens in Vegas… is meant to be mindless escapist entertainment, and I guess it serves its purpose. I give it 5.0 stars out of 10.

I just have to say that the more I check out Buy.com, the more I fall in love with that site! I just can’t believe some of the amazing prices they’re able to offer on cool gadgets and home electronics products in their daily and weekly deals.

For instance, as I was browsing through Buy.com today, I saw a Norcent DCS-1050 10.0 mega pixel digital camera on sale for just $79.99. That’s a full $220 off the regular list price of $299, and is a tremendous bargain any way you slice it.

This Norcent digital camera comes packed with all the useful features I could ever want or need in a point-and-shoot model, including the following:

• 22 shooting modes
• 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom
• Custom white balance settings
• High-resolution images up to 3648 x 2736
• Large 3.0″ LTPS TFT LCD display window
• Anti-shake and face tracking capabilities
• Ultra-slim design

Even though I already have a digital camera, I’m seriously thinking about purchasing this Norcent DCS-1050 as a backup — or even as a full-time replacement for the Casio that I now use. I frequently have problems with my current camera, so it would be nice to have a spare around to ensure that I don’t miss anymore family photo ops. And really, at just $79.99 plus free shipping, it’s pretty hard to pass up a deal like this!

(Click image to enlarge.)

Eva Longoria has become one of my favorite television actresses over the past four years as I’ve watched her on Desperate Housewives. In fact, she’s probably the main reason that I still tune into the show these days, since I can barely stand any of the other characters anymore. So when I heard that she was starring in a new romantic comedy called Over Her Dead Body, I immediately decided that I wanted to see it — until the reviews rolled in.

The film was roundly trashed by critics when it was released in February, and didn’t fare very well at the box office, earning just $7.5 million during its theatrical run. Needless to say, I didn’t bother spending my money on tickets, opting to wait for the DVD instead — which I finally got to watch a couple of days ago. It actually wasn’t that bad!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Longoria stars as Kate, a strong-willed and somewhat overbearing bride-to-be who gets killed in a freak accident on her wedding day when an angel ice sculpture falls on her. Henry (played by Paul Rudd), the man Kate was about to marry, becomes heartbroken and can’t move on — not even after an entire year passes by.

Henry’s sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) decides to take matters into her own hands. She convinces Henry to go see a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) in order to make contact with Kate. Chloe’s plan is to have Henry believe that Kate wants him to go on with his life. Of course, Henry doesn’t believe in Ashley’s psychic abilities, so Chloe helps out by giving Ashley Kate’s diary so she can give Henry solid tidbits of information.

Henry ends up liking Ashley, and begins spending time with her. Seeing this, Kate becomes extremely jealous and resolves to drive the two of them apart. Kate makes herself known to Ashley (who really can communicate with the dead after all), then tells her flat out that she doesn’t want Ashley and Henry to date. Ashley bristles at being told what to do by a ghost, and resolves to continue seeing Henry no matter what.

The rest of the film then deals with the various means Kate uses to drive Ashley and Henry apart. This being a romantic comedy, you know that things will eventually turn our well in the end, with everyone coming out of the situation happier than when they went in.

My Reaction: I didn’t think Over Her Dead Body was as bad as the critics have been saying. No, it’s not going to win any awards, but it clearly wasn’t meant to be that type of film. It was intended to be a fun, light popcorn flick, and it delivers in that respect. Despite a few problems in the screenplay, I found myself laughing out loud at several of the lines and was happy to see the action move along at a quick pace, thereby making the experience pretty entertaining.

I have to say that the biggest surprise in this film was Lake Bell. I only knew her from Boston Legal before, and didn’t think she was all that great on the show. But she showed some terrific comedic timing in Over Her Dead Body and ended up being quite likable. I think she was one of the reasons that the film was tolerable; I can definitely see a different outcome had the role been played by someone annoying.

Eva Longoria was decent as well, though there were times when it seemed like she was simply channeling Gabby Solis instead of portraying a different character, but that didn’t bother me too much.

Overall, I thought Over Her Dead Body was much more watchable than it’s been given credit for being. I give it 5.5 stars out of 10.

I just got done reading an article about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s latest purchase: a $70 million estate in the south of France. The place is called Chateau Miraval, and features a 35-room mansion, a 3-mile long driveway, a forest, a moat, and a private lake — all nestled on 1,000 acres of land.

As if that weren’t lavish enough, the article pointed out that Pitt and Jolie own several other properties around the world, including a $3.75 million home in New Orleans, a $9 million oceanfront property in Malibu, another home in Santa Barbara, a multi-million dollar home in Berlin, and a $4 million “converted farmhouse” in Buckinghamshire, England.

Now come on, how many homes do these two really need? I can understand having a couple in the U.S. and maybe another getaway spot in Europe, but six multi-million dollar spreads? That just seems so wasteful to me. I mean, obviously they’ve earned their money and are free to spend it any way they please, but still… this seems a bit overboard, doesn’t it?

You know how they say you should always carry good term insurance so your family can pay off the mortgage in the event of the main breadwinner’s untimely death? Well, I can’t even imagine what kind of insurance it would take to make sure the property taxes on these estates get paid regularly!

John C. Reilly is one of those guys who always seems to be cast in a supporting role. He played second fiddle to Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights, to Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights, to Richard Gere in Chicago, and has had bit roles in lots of other projects.

So how would he do as the lead? Did he have enough of a screen presence to carry an entire film on his own? Reilly sought to answer that question in 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a send-up of all the musician biopics that have hit the market in recent years, with the most obvious ones being Walk the Line and Ray.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with Dewey Cox (Reilly) about to take the stage for one final performance before accepting a lifetime achievement award. Before going out there, however, he takes a moment to reflect on his experiences up to that point, which sends us into flashback mode starting with his childhood in Alabama.

As a boy, Dewey spent lots of time with older brother Nate (played by Chip Hormess), a virtuoso on the piano who was surely destined for great things. One day as the boys were playing with machetes in the barn, Dewey accidentally cuts Nate in half, killing him. This traumatic event caused a rift between Dewey and his father (Raymond J. Barry), who from that point forward would proclaim that “the wrong kid died” every chance he got. But it also got Dewey started on his own path to music, as he started playing the guitar and exhibited some skills with that instrument.

A few years later, Dewey plays at his high school talent show, and wows the crowd with his songs. He hooks up with Edith (Kristen Wiig), whom he soon marries, and leaves Alabama to try to become a star.

The rest of the film then follows Dewey’s career, as he rises to the top of the music world, sinks down to rock bottom under the weight of personal and drug problems, and makes another comeback before dying on stage. As this movie was intended to be a spoof of similar biopics, there are lots of scenes that mimic stuff from Walk the Line (ripping the sink out of the wall, for instance) or Ray (a band mate saying “you don’t want to get involved in this” — meaning drugs). Someone more familiar with those other films could probably pick out more parallels, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

My Reaction: I thought Walk Hard was an average film. I laughed out loud several times during the course of the movie, but felt that some of the running gags were just dumb. For instance, the whole thing about cutting his brother in half might have been ok if the screenwriters didn’t keep bringing it up every 10 minutes. Of course, I thought it was incredibly dumb that the brother kept right on talking after he was chopped in half, but I guess I can see how some people might find that funny.

My favorite parts of the movie were all of the “You don’t want any part of this” drug scenes, especially when the Tim Meadows character was talking about marijuana and couldn’t really find anything negative to say about it. That running gag worked fairly well, but the other one did not.

This film did a great job of showing how the lives of so many famous musicians are eerily similar. They rise from humble beginnings; put out a hit song; get into drugs, alcohol, and women; spiral out of control; hit bottom; and then climb back up to the top. Hell, I bet I could write a biopic screenplay of my own with this template, and then just insert a current star’s name in there. In fact, we’re watching it unfold in real time with Britney Spears right now. How long will it be before her biopic is released?

Would Walk Hard have been a better or more successful picture with a bigger star than John C. Reilly in the lead? It’s impossible to say for sure. I thought he was decent in this role, but not great, and I’ve never found the actor to be particularly charismatic in any performance I’ve seen him in. In other words, he gets the job done, but doesn’t bring anything extra to the table.

Overall, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was a decent comedy with some funny parts and many jokes that simply fell flat. I give it 5.5 stars out of 10.

Most of the time, I don’t even think twice about watching a movie that’s based on a novel because screenwriters generally do a decent job of capturing the gist of the story in their scripts. Yes, I know that it’s exceedingly difficult to get an adaptation “just right”, and that people will forever quibble about what the screenwriter chose to include or leave out, but for the most part, you don’t have to be familiar with the book in order to enjoy the film.

However, I think the opposite may be true for The Golden Compass. I know that a lot of Philip Pullman fans were looking forward to this release, and many people felt that The Golden Compass would rival The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in terms of broad appeal and popularity. But domestic audiences didn’t exactly flock to The Golden Compass, and I think part of the problem might have been the incomprehensibility of the story to someone unfamiliar with Pullman’s work.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The entire story takes place in a parallel universe where humans’ souls exist externally in the form of animals. The main character is Lyra Belacqua (played by Dakota Blue Richards) is a young orphan being raised by her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) at Jordan College in Oxford. Lord Asriel is a controversial figure because of his beliefs about dust, a kind of dark matter that the ruling Magesterium denies even exists. After narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, Lord Asriel takes off on an expedition to the North in order to study dust more closely, thereby exiting for the rest of the film.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a benefactor of the college, comes for a visit and instantly takes a liking to Lyra. In fact, she says that Lyra would be perfect as her assistant, so she offers to take Lyra away with her. Lyra willingly agrees, but before she goes, the master of the college gives her a magical Golden Compass that can answer any question asked of it — as long as the questioner knows how to decipher the answer.

While Lyra is living with Mrs. Coulter, she learns that the woman is actually the head of an organization called the General Oblation Board, or “Gobblers” for short. The Gobblers are suspected of having kidnapped a number of Oxford children in order to experiment on them, so Lyra realizes that she’s in imminent danger. She therefore runs away from Mrs. Coulter, and joins forces with an aeronaut named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott) and a polar bear warrior named Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellen) in order to find and rescue the endangered children.

The rest of the film then deals with Lyra, Lee, and Iorek’s adventures as they set off to find the missing kids. They get into a number of dangerous situations, fight an epic battle, and eventually emerge victorious as they save the children from harm.

My Reaction: As I said, I’ve never read the Pullman book, so I didn’t come into this viewing with an additional background information on the characters or the story in general. Because of this, I had a hard time understanding the significance of everything that happened in the film. For instance, I didn’t understand the whole point of having the action take place in a parallel universe. Was that just so there could be talking animal characters as well as humans? And what was the purpose of the Golden Compass? Did it actually tell Lyra any great truths that she couldn’t have otherwise figured out for herself?

Admittedly, I wasn’t paying as much attention as I could/should have while watching this film, so I might have missed the answers to these questions. Even so, the fact that I wasn’t compelled to pay attention means the story was less than interesting to me, which points to other shortcomings as well.

I was disappointed that Daniel Craig had such as small role in this film. I think his total screentime was probably about 5-10 minutes, which sucked. I like the actor, and would have preferred to see more of him than, say, Nicole Kidman or Dakota Blue Richards, who were both extremely grating and annoying after a while.

Overall, I just couldn’t get into The Golden Compass enough to bother trying to figure out what was going on. The story was boring and the entire effort just seemed a bit… lackluster. I give this movie just 5.0 stars out of 10.

Was there ever a doubt that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would debut as the No. 1 movie in America when it opened on last Friday? The only question everyone in the industry had was how much would the much-anticipated fourth movie of the series rake in. The answer turned out to be $101 million domestically and worldwide cumulative total of $126 million.

Crystal Skull has received somewhat lukewarm reviews from critics and audiences alike, as many feel that while the movie is entertaining enough, it’s not quite on par with previous installments in the series.

Last week’s box office champ, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, dropped to No. 2 with $23 million in tickets sold, while viewership for Iron Man remained strong as well. That film earned $20 million in its fourth week of wide release.

No other new films cracked the top 10 — not surprising, given the competition!

Here’s the complete Top 10 for Memorial Day weekend 2008:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $101 million
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $23 million
3. Iron Man, $20.1 million
4. What Happens in Vegas, $9 million
5. Speed Racer, $4 million
6. Made of Honor, $3.4 million
7. Baby Mama, $3.3 million
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, $1.6 million
9. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, $915k
10. The Visitor, $781k

I’ve been racing through Season 3 of Criminal Minds on DVR for the past week or so, and have now made it all the way through episode 3×17, which was called “In Heat”. That means I only have three episodes left before I’m caught up with the show and can start watching it as it airs next season. Not bad, considering I just started watching it a few months ago!

Anyway, here are some random thoughts and observations from the middle part of Season 3. This is not meant to be comprehensive at all, so please don’t take it that way.

– I don’t mind the Rossi character (Gideon’s replacement). From reading a few fan forums, I know he’s not the most popular member of the team, but he doesn’t bother me at all. Gideon really bugged, so part of my reaction to Rossi could be that he’s so different from Gideon — in a good way, as far as I’m concerned.

– So the Reid drug drama isn’t finished after all. I guess it’s good that the writers are more or less keeping the story in the background. I can handle an interrupted NA meeting every once in a while; an all-out addiction and recovery story, on the other hand, would annoy.

– Cody Kasch, the young man who played Zach on Desperate Housewives, played another psycho in “Elephant’s Memory”. Can that kid bring the crazy, or what? I didn’t like Reid’s whole “woe-is-me” take on the high school bullying stuff or the fact that he seemed to want to excuse what Owen (Zach) was doing. Other than that, the ep was pretty good.

– Why are the writers trying to make such a big thing out of Hotch’s divorce? They never really highlighted the marriage at all, so why be so intrusive about the divorce?

– I liked the whole reveal about JJ and Will’s relationship. I said before that I thought those two were great together, so I’m glad to learn that they’ve been in a relationship for more than a year. It was hilarious when they started kissing at the station and the other profilers were just like, “Oh, it’s about time!” because they’d known about the affair all along!

– I’m not sure how I feel about Morgan. Sometimes he’s just presented as a straightforward, uncomplicated guy who likes to bust down doors and knock heads. Other times, he’s presented as having a bit more depth, like when he said he has four residential and commercial real estate properties because he enjoys “knocking down walls” or whatever. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, since knocking down walls is destructive. Wouldn’t it have been better to say that he liked raising walls instead??

– I thought the resolution to Rossi’s 20-year-old case was pretty lame. It seems like he could have put all the pieces together himself had he interviewed the kids a little earlier. I mean, the whole thing was solved after they mentioned that they’d been getting gifts, right? You’d think that at some point over the course of the 20 years that Rossi had been calling them, they’d have said a random thank you or something, which would have led to the discovery that the killer was leaving the gifts.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to wrapping up the third season in the next couple of days. Of course, that just means I’ll have to find yet another show to watch over the summer…. What should it be?