Reviews and More

I never even heard of the movie Bobby when it was released on Thanksgiving weekend 2006, which is surprising given all the big-name stars attached to the project. In fact, the all-star cast was the only reason I decided to rent this DVD at all, since I figured that a film starring Anthony Hopkins, Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt, Laurence Fishburne, Harry Belafonte, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, Emilio Estevez, Heather Graham, Joshua Jackson, Shia LaBeouf, William H. Macy, Freddy Rodriguez, and Christian Slater would have to be decent.

Well, I quickly learned that even a roomful of powerhouse actors isn’t enough to make a movie great — especially if the screenplay is fundamentally flawed, as I think this one is. What a disappointment!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA on June 5, 1968. His assassination shocked a nation that was still reeling from the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination just two months before, as well as from President John F. Kennedy’s assassination five years earlier.

Instead of focusing on Bobby Kennedy’s politics or personal life, writer/director Emilio Estevez decided to base his film on the lives of a number of random, fictional people who were staying or working at the Ambassador Hotel on that fateful day. Interspersed with scenes of these people going about their regular daily routines, viewers also get newsreel footage of a few Bobby Kennedy speeches and interviews.

The film then culminates with RFK’s assassination, and ends without reflecting on the impact the event had for any of the people viewers had just spent two hours getting to know.

My Reaction: Bobby was one of the most disappointing films I’ve ever sat through! Going into my viewing, I had no idea what angle Estevez would be telling the story from, so I just had to scratch my head in puzzlement when I realized he was introducing all of these fictional characters. What was the point? Why bother forcing the audience to get to know these people when none of them played a role in the assassination or the aftermath? To make it worse, Estevez didn’t follow up on any of these lives, so we don’t know how these people changed as a result of the event they witnessed.

About halfway through the film, I started thinking that there had to be a twist somewhere, that Estevez wouldn’t simply meander through the whole thing without a big payoff. But no, nothing ever tied any of the characters together in ways that weren’t evident from the beginning. As a result, the most interesting part of Bobby was the archive footage of the real RFK talking. I probably would have been better off watching an A&E biography instead.

Overall, Bobby turned out to be an overlong, rambling, disjointed film that wasted the considerable talent of all the actors involved. It wasn’t powerful, moving, or thought-provoking; just boring and tiresome. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10.

The newest Pixar animated film WALL-E earned $62.5 million at the box office over the weekend en route to becoming the No. 1 movie in America. This latest Pixar effort continues the studio’s astounding success: all nine of their films have done well with critics and moviegoers alike.

Wanted, an action flick starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy as super assassins, performed remarkably well in its own right, earning a whopping $51.1 million. This far surpassed initial industry estimates of a $30 million take.

Last week’s box office champ, Get Smart, did $20 million worth of business to take the No. 3 spot, while Kung Fu Panda continued drawing in audiences to the tune of $11.7 million in ticket sales, pushing its overall total to $179 million.

Here’s the complete Top 10 for the weekend ending 6/29/08:

1. WALL-E, $62.5 million
2. Wanted, $51.1 million
3. Get Smart, $20 million
4. Kung Fu Panda, $11.7 million
5. The Incredible Hulk, $9.23 million
6. The Love Guru, $5.44 million
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $5.03 million
8. The Happening, $3.85 million
9. Sex and the City, $3.77 million
10. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, $3.2 million

Okay, so remember how I’ve tried four different times to get through my friend’s DVDs of The Office? I didn’t really like the show because of how much of a caricature Michael Scott (Steve Carell) was. He was annoying, and all his cringe-worthy moments made the show very difficult to watch.

But I kept plodding on, and finally got all the way through Season 3 on DVD. By that time, the show sort of grew on me. I wouldn’t call it a favorite, and never felt the need to rush on to the next ep, but it was tolerable.

Anyway, I was rewatching some eps from Season 4 on TiVo earlier today, including the one called “Dinner Party” (4×13). Though I hated what happened to the Jan character in Season 4 (turning her into a psycho was a mistake, IMO), I thought this ep was pretty funny. My favorite part had to be when Michael was showing off his tiny plasma television. It was only like 12 inches or something, but he had it on a tv mount on the wall and said he could “stand there” for hours watching it! I just about died laughing because I could totally see Michael doing that!

I’m going to keep watching The Office during Season 5, but only on TiVo. The only comedies I’ll watch live are 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother.

It’s hard to gauge how bad a movie will be before actually seeing it. I find that I often love films that professional critics hate, while despising films that they praise to the heavens (um, No Country for Old Men, anyone?). But there was one very telling sign that Annapolis, a 2006 film about the Naval Academy, was going to be a bust: the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense refused to support the production or give the filmmakers access to the campus.

In wartime. When recruitments and sign-ups are at an all-time low. When a rousing film about the Academy could spark interest the way Top Gun was said to do so back in the mid-1980s.

As soon as I read that the Navy distanced themselves from Annapolis, I knew I was going to be in for a looong couple of hours in front of my TV — and I was right.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): James Franco stars as Jake Huard, a working-class young man whose life has been spent gazing across the Severn River at the U.S. Naval Academy while welding together their ships and dreaming of one day being accepted as a student at that elite institution. Indeed, we soon learn that Jake promised his (now dead) mother that he would one day attend The Academy, so that’s clearly where his drive and motivation come from.

Sure enough, Jake receives his acceptance letter (after having been wait-listed) and gets ready to drop everything and attend school. His best friend AJ (played by Jim Parrack) supports him fully; his father Bill (Brian Goodman), barely says a word.

As soon as the setting changes to the Academy, the film becomes a blatant ripoff of An Officer and a Gentleman. Just like the Richard Gere character in Officer, Jake has no trouble keeping up with the rigorous physical tests that the Plebes must go through, and just like the earlier film, Jake even helps talk one of his weaker friends over a wall on the obstacle course. Just like the James Gossett, Jr. character in Officer, Tyrese Gibson’s character here, Cole, serves as the hard-ass commanding officer who loves to make life miserable for the cadets. And just like in the earlier film, these two main characters come to blows (in and out of the ring) before reaching a mutual understanding for and respect of each other.

My Reaction: Well, I can’t really say I was disappointed in Annapolis because I knew going in that it was going to be a terrible film. I guess the only thing I’m surprised about was the fact that there wasn’t a single fresh, original scene in the entire movie. It was utterly predictable from beginning to end, and didn’t offer anything worthwhile to me as a viewer.

Besides the obvious Officer and a Gentleman ripoffs that I mentioned above, there were several other things I didn’t like about Annapolis. For one, the whole boxing angle was a mystery to me. I’d never heard of the big tournament that was featured in the movie, and since its importance wasn’t explained, I simply couldn’t get excited about it.

Plus, we never got an idea of how Jake got into boxing in the first place, so that was another mystery. There was a boxing scene at the beginning of the movie and then no other mention of it until the sparring scene with Cole, but suddenly it was a big deal? Meh.

Also, I didn’t like the way this film implied that even at the Naval Academy, athletes get special treatment. Sure, that’s probably the norm at Ohio State, Florida, and USC, but the Naval Academy? I don’t think so! Yet that’s what this movie would have viewers believe. After all, Huard assaulted his commanding officer and was given probation and 95 demerits. Big deal; at least he was allowed to stay, right? Meanwhile, Twins failed the obstacle course test by a mere four seconds and was kicked out of the Academy? Whatever.

Overall, I felt that Annapolis was very deserving of all the bad reviews and ratings it has received. It’s not interesting or even entertaining, so I give it 3.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you stay far away — just like the Navy did.

I’m not much of a fan of movies based on comic book series since I don’t read comics at all and don’t know the backstories of any of the characters. But since I had such a good time at Iron Man a couple months ago, I decided to give The Incredible Hulk a try. After all, the film has received generally good reviews, and stars Edward Norton, an actor who usually comes through with a great performance.

As it turned out, I did enjoy The Incredible Hulk, but not nearly on the same level as Iron Man. I guess you can’t win them all!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): In a brief series of flashbacks, viewers are shown a bit of Dr. Bruce Banner’s (played by Edward Norton) history. We see that he was involved in an experimental project of some sort for the Army, that things went terrible wrong one day, and that he was accidentally exposed to high levels of gamma radiation. This exposure did something funky to his body, causing him to turn into a huge green monster (the Hulk) whenever he gets angry.

Banner is now on the run from the Army and General Ross (William Hurt), who want to continue using his body for experiments as they try to create the ultimate super soldier. As the film opens, Banner is hiding out in Brazil, where he works at a bottling factory and takes breathing lessons to help control his anger and prevent the Hulk from emerging. He’s also communicating with a “Mr. Blue” to try to work on a cure for his condition.

A freak accident reveals Banner’s location to General Ross, who then sends some troops to bring the fugitive in. During the chase, Banner turns into the Hulk and is able to evade Ross’s team, which includes mercenary Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), man who becomes envious of the Hulk’s powers. Banner then returns to the United States, looks up his ex-girlfriend Betty (Liv Tyler), and tries to meet with Mr. Blue in person to do more work on the cure.

This is the basic setup, and the rest of the film follows these storylines through to their ends. Along the way, we see Gen. Ross come close to getting Banner a couple more times, we see Banner turning into the Hulk a couple more times, and we see Blonsky turn into a rampaging creature called The Abomination after forcing Mr. Blue to inject him with Banner’s blood. Oh, and of course there’s a destructive battle between the two creatures at the very end — with the Hulk emerging as victor.

My Reaction: I thought The Incredible Hulk was a decent film, but as I said above, it doesn’t hold a candle to Iron Man. I liked Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, and thought he was convincing as the suffering scientist who just wants to be normal again. If there are going to be more Hulk movies in the future, I wouldn’t mind seeing Norton reprise the role.

Another thing I liked about this film was its pace. It clipped along at a good speed, and there weren’t too many detours to slow down the action. Sure, I could have done without a few of the Bruce-Betty scenes, but at least they didn’t completely derail the rest of the movie.

On the negative side, I thought the action sequences were a bit repetitive. The Army chases Banner, he gets angry, he turns into Hulk, he scares everyone away, etc. The filmmakers didn’t veer from this formula until the very end when Hulk faced off against The Abomination, by which point I was kind of tired of the CGI anyway.

Speaking of CGI, the Hulk in this film looked a lot better than the one in the 2003 Ang Lee version. It was still pretty cheesy and made me want to laugh whenever I saw it, but definitely a lot better than the last movie.

Overall, The Incredible Hulk was a solid action flick that’s perfect for summer viewing. It doesn’t demand too much in the way of brain cells in order to keep up with the story, and the finished product is more often entertaining than not. I give it 7.0 stars out of 10.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I chose The Ghost Whisperer as one of the shows I’m going to watch on DVD this summer. I’ve watched 10 episodes of the first season thus far, and think that the show is very uneven. Some of the eps have been good, while others are completely cheesy and almost unwatchable.

I’ve got to admit that I’m a bit surprised by the lack of quality in this series. I figured that since the show has been on the air for three years, there’s got to be something to it, right? It must resonate with viewers in some way, but I’m just not seeing it yet. Here are a few preliminary thoughts from episodes 1×01-1×10:

– Jennifer Love Hewitt doesn’t bother me as much as I thought she would. She has never been a great actress and won’t be getting an Emmy nod anytime soon, but her character is not as grating as it could be. I’m at least thankful for that.

– I do have to say, though, that I HATE all the scenes between Melinda (JLH) and Jim (David Conrad). They are constantly all over each other, kissing, hugging, flirting… and it’s just disgusting — not to mention highly unbelievable. Sure, they’re supposed to be newlyweds on the show and all, but give me a break. They act more like horny high school kids than the adults that they’re supposed to be. I fast forward through all of their scenes because the actors have zero chemistry together and just bug me to death.

– Another thing I don’t get about this show is how Melinda’s antiques store stays in business. Hardly anyone ever goes in there (except ghosts), and in the first 10 episodes I think they’ve shown one person buying a gold bangle or some other small trinket. Yet Melinda and Andrea (Aisha Tyler) are always purchasing more and more items to stock the place. How they stay afloat is beyond me!

– There have been a few episodes that I’ve liked, such as 1×02 (called “The Crossing”), featuring the little boy who was hit by a train. His spirit couldn’t rest until he got Melinda to assure his mom that what happened wasn’t her fault. I admit to tearing up a bit during that one — probably because my own son is about that age and I couldn’t help but identify with the mother.

– Another good ep was “Lost Boys”, which was about a fire in an orphanage. The police thought four boys died in the fire, but one actually escaped and became a rich and successful businessman who never forgot his childhood pals.

Even though I haven’t been overly impressed with The Ghost Whisperer thus far, I’m going to keep plodding on with the series. I know that Camryn Manheim joins the cast in Season 2, and since I loved her on The Practice, I can’t wait to see what she does with her role as Delia Banks.

Just judging from the official trailers and the short description on the back of the Things We Lost in the Fire DVD case, this didn’t seem to be a movie I’d ordinarily be interested in. It’s not an action film, but instead deals more with character growth and development as two people come to grips with the loss of a loved one. While I occasionally do watch movies of this type, I usually find them insufferably boring to sit through.

But Things We Lost in the Fire got such good reviews from critics and viewers that I decided to go against my better judgment and rent it. You’d think that after the hundreds and hundreds of films I’ve watched, I’d have learned by now to trust my instincts, but clearly that’s not the case at all. I found that out the hard way — yet again — as I ended up being just as bored by this film as I feared.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Brian (played by David Duchovny) and Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) have a terrific marriage and a wonderful home life. They’ve been together for 11 years, have a 10-year-old daughter named Harper (Alexis Llewellyn) and a six-year-old son named Dory (Micah Berry), and really couldn’t be happier. Indeed, the only bone of contention in Brian and Audrey’s marriage is his continued friendship with Jerry Sunborne (Benicio Del Toro), a down in the dumps heroin addict that Brian has known since childhood.

Audrey’s life changes forever one night when police officers show up at her front door to tell her that Brian has been shot and killed after trying to intervene in a domestic dispute that spilled out into the street. Audrey and the kids are obviously devastated by the news, but somehow must find a way to go on.

Audrey makes sure that Jerry gets invited to the funeral, probably because she knows in her heart that Brian would have wanted it that way. She then takes things a step further by inviting Jerry to move into as spare room off the garage, telling him he can turn his life around if he gets a fresh start like this.

Jerry agrees, and the rest of the film then deals with the way he and Audrey help each other come to terms with Brian’s death. They don’t do this by having long talks about Brian or by starting up a sexual relationship with each other; instead, they each seem to draw strength simply by having the other person around. Along the way, they deal with other issues as well, including stuff with the kids, a relapse on Jerry’s part, and Audrey’s intense loneliness.

My Reaction: As I said above, I found Things We Lost in the Fire to be incredibly boring for the most part. I think part of the problem was that I spent a lot of time just hoping that Jerry and Audrey wouldn’t hook up. That would have destroyed the movie completely, so it’s good that the screenwriter decided not to go down that road.

Even so, there were still several uncomfortable scenes when it looked like a hookup was imminent — like when Audrey begged Jerry to come to bed with her just so she could feel someone by her and get some sleep. The whole tugging the ear thing was creepy (and a little gross), which took me right out of the movie.

There wasn’t much of a plot beyond the basic premise of two people trying to move on. I could see why Audrey would be crushed by the loss of her husband, but Jerry’s reaction to Brian’s death was a bit harder to swallow. Sure, he lost a lifelong friend and all. But would a junkie really have bothered to make such sweeping changes after the funeral? I don’t know, it all seemed rather sudden and convenient that Jerry was so willing to start over with Audrey.

Overall, Things We Lost in the Fire just dragged too much for my tastes. A solid performance by Benicio Del Toro was not enough to save this film for me, so I give it only 4.5 stars out of 10.

With the summer finally here, my family plans to spend a lot of time out on our dirt bikes and ATVs. We love to go for trail rides in approved recreational zones, and often spend hours upon hours riding through the woods on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

Since it’s quite easy to get separated from the group or veer away from main trails, it’s important for us to have some way of communicating with each other in case we get lost or injured. Cell phone service is nonexistent in the woods, of course, so we have to carry walkie talkies instead.

We’ve had our current set for about 10 years now, and only have two units (when we need three), so it’s definitely time for an upgrade. That’s why I was thrilled to see this Bellsouth Two-Way Talk Radio as one of Buy.com’s Weekly Deals.

This Bellsouth Two-Way Talk Radio is a small, compact communication device that would be perfect for our needs. It features 22 channels, is voice activated, can operate in both GMRS & FRS frequencies, alerts users to calls, has a backlit LCD display, and boasts unparalleled sound clarity. Plus, it has a removable belt clip, so we can easily attach it to our riding gear or stow it in a tool pouch.

Right now, the Bellsouth Two-Way Talk Radio is on sale at Buy.com for just $10! That is an unbelievable price, and means we would be able to get three units (one for each of us) for less than we’d usually pay for a single walkie talkie from other stores! Toss in free shipping and it’s no surprise that this product is currently the #1 seller on Buy.com.

I better go on over and place my order before these things get sold out!

A few months ago, I listened to lectures from The Teaching Company for the first time ever. That course was called History of Science, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to give some more courses a try. I was pleased to find a nice selection of Teaching Company titles at one of the public libraries in my area, and ended up choosing a series called European History and European Lives: 1715-1914.

Taught by Jonathan Steinberg, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, the series provides profiles of 35 of the “most influential people who lived during the 200 most difficult years in the history of the West”. The subjects of the lectures include kings, queens, scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and artists, and endeavor to show how these people influenced the course of history — and the world — during their lifetime.

European History and European Lives: 1715-1914 consists of 36 lectures, each lasting for about 30 minutes. The first lecture is an introduction to the course, and provides an overview of what Dr. Steinberg intends to do in the next 35 lectures. Each subsequent lecture then deals with the life of one particular person, as Steinberg tries to show how and why that person was important in a historical sense.

All 35 biographical lectures more or less follow the same pattern. First, Steinberg spends about 15 minutes setting the stage for the person whose life he is about to discuss. If it’s a king, Steinberg tells about what’s happening at court or on the international scene at the time. If it’s a scientist, Steinberg tells what’s going on in the general scientific community at the time. Second, Steinberg spends about 10-13 minutes or so talking specifically about the subject’s life and what he or she did that made a lasting impact on the world. And third, Steinberg spends the final few minutes of the lecture providing some analysis of that person’s life. Why was he or she important? Was the situation in Europe better or worse after the person left office or died?

The lectures proceed in chronological order, beginning with those who were prominent in the early 18th century (Augustus the Strong, Robert Walpole, Samuel Johnson) and ending with those who were prominent in the early 20th century (Leo Tolstoy, Alfred Dreyfus, David Lloyd George). This is an effective approach that allows students to see how some of these lives intertwined and affected each other.

Some of my favorite lectures from the course were the ones about Bismarck, Prince Metternich, Napoleon, Robespierre, George Eliot, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Marie Antionette, and Samuel Johnson. I learned quite a few things about these people that I didn’t know, and even ended up reading some more biographical materials about them after listening to these lectures.

If I had to mention one negative, I’d say that 30 minutes simply wasn’t enough time to treat the subjects adequately. After each one, I was left wanting much more, which was kind of frustrating since I then had to go to a different source to find what I needed. I understand why Dr. Steinberg had to include so much background material before actually getting to the subjects’ lives, but I gladly would have sacrificed information about the setting in order to hear more about the people.

Even so, I still thought European History and European Lives: 1715-1914 was a fantastic course. All of the people featured in the lectures were interesting and certainly worthy of inclusion. Plus, I loved Dr. Steinberg’s delivery of the material. His voice was easy to listen to, he clearly knew his stuff, and he explained everything as thoroughly as possible given the time constraints. I highly recommend this series!

I’ve wanted to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull since it initially hit theaters on May 22, but didn’t have a chance to do so until last night. Of course, this gave me plenty of time to read different reviews and take in all the comments (both positive and negative), so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect before I settled into my seat. I basically heard that the storyline was good, but not great, and that the new film, while fun, simply wasn’t on par with previous installments — and that’s precisely how I felt as I walked out of the theater two hours later.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Harrison Ford reprises his role as Indiana Jones, a part-time field archaeologist, part-time college professor who has a propensity for attracting action and adventure. This time around, Indy is tracked down by a greaser (yeah, it’s 1957) named Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) who says his mother Mary has been kidnapped in Peru. Mutt wants to find her, but all he has is an indecipherable letter written by Professor Harold Oxley (John hurt), who was something of a surrogate father to Mutt. In it, Mutt was told that Indiana Jones could help.

Mutt meets with Indy and further explains that Oxley had found something called a crystal skull before his disappearance. Mutt doesn’t know the significance of the crystal skull, but Indy does. According to legend, the skull holds the key to a city of gold that has been sought after for thousands of years. Most people believe the city was just mythical, but if Oxley actually did find a crystal skull, then the city could be real.

Indy and Mutt take off for Peru, where they start tracking Oxley’s movements before his disappearance. They first go to a cell in a mental hospital, where they find more clues, and then head off to a graveyard where they find the elongated crystal skull for themselves. Why would Oxley put it back after going through all that trouble to find it? That’s just another part of the mystery that these two will have to try to figure out.

As soon as they exit the graveyard, they’re captured by Soviet soldiers, led by Col. Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), who is also after the Crystal Skull. They’re then taken back to the Soviet camp where they finally meet up with Ox and Mutt’s mother, who turns out to be Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) an old flame of Indy’s from his Raiders of the Lost Ark days.

From that point forward, the film deals with Indy, Mutt, Oxley, and Marion’s attempts to escape from the Soviets, make off with the crystal skull, and return the skull to the temple where it belongs. Along the way, there are plenty of long action sequences during which the skull changes possession numerous times.

My Reaction: I was a big fan of the first two Indiana Jones movies, so I really wanted to like this one — more for the sake of nostalgia than anything else. However, I simply couldn’t get into the story all that much. I mean, aliens? In an Indiana Jones flick? That was a major miscalculation on the filmmakers’ part if you ask me. Sure, we’re talking Spielberg and Lucas here, but they’re not infallible, are they?

That wasn’t the only problem I had with the script. Several of the action scenes went on far too long, weren’t very exciting, and didn’t evoke the fun of the first three movies. I was particularly bored during the tedious jeep chase through the jungle in Peru, especially when Mutt got into that sword fight with Spalko. Do I even have to mention how utterly ridiculous it was to see him swinging on vines with stupid CGI monkeys?? The overly long scene with the CGI ants also added to my boredom and didn’t add anything to the film at all.

While I’m talking about things I didn’t like, I have to mention Shia LeBeouf as Mutt. Though the actor didn’t annoy me as much as he usually does, I thought he had far too much screen time here. His character was just so bland and colorless that I started yawning whenever I saw him. Please don’t tell me that LeBeouf will take over the Indiana Jones franchise. There’s no way he could fill Harrison Ford’s shoes.

Despite all of these problems, this film was still watchable — mostly because of Harrison Ford. He didn’t have as many funny lines as he did in the other installments, nor did he seem quite as charming or confident in this one, but he’s still Indiana Jones. Ford definitely has screen presence, and more than made up for having LeBeouf around.

Overall, if you’re in the mood for a popcorn flick that’s light on plot but heavy on action sequences, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is for you. It’s not at all like the previous Indiana Jones movies, though, so don’t take high expectations into the theater with you. I give this movie 6.0 stars out of 10.

Steve Carrell’s new comedy Get Smart, based on the 1960’s television show of the same name, raked in $39.2 million at the box office this weekend to topple previous No. 1 The Incredible Hulk as the most popular movie in the country. Despite tepid reviews, audiences flocked to see Carrell (from television’s The Office) as agent Maxwell Smart, along with Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23.

The Incredible Hulk slipped two spots to No. 3 with $21.6 million in ticket sales. The Edward Norton-Liv Tyler adventure was edged out by Kung Fu Panda, an animated feature boasting the voice talents of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and Angelina Jolie among others. Kung Fu Panda earned $21.7 million, boosting its total revenues to a whopping $156 million.

The only other nationwide new release this week was The Love Guru, a comedy from Mike Meyers. The film took in a disappointing $14 million for fourth place.

Here’s the complete Top 10 for the weekend ending 6/22/08:

1. Get Smart, $39.2 million
2. Kung Fu Panda, $$21.7 million
3. The Incredible Hulk, $21.6 million
4. The Love Guru, $14 million
5. The Happening, $10 million
6. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $8.41 million
7. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, $7.2 million
8. Sex and the City, $6.46 million
9. Iron Man, $4 million
10. The Strangers, $1.95 million

I’ve never been a big fan of reality television shows, so the summers are pretty brutal for me as far as finding worthwhile TV programming goes. Last year, however, I hit the jackpot when I discovered a great new series on USA Network called Burn Notice.

Starring Michael Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless, Burn Notice follows the adventures of former CIA spy Michael Westen (Donovan), who was mysteriously “burned” (blacklisted) in the middle of a job. Michael was then dumped back in his home city of Miami, where he’s now using his extremely limited resources to try to find out who burned him — and why.

To make ends meet, Michael is forced to accept odd jobs helping people out of various jams that they don’t want to get the police involved in. Associates Sam Axe (Campbell) and Fiona Glenanne (Anwar) often help Michael with these cases.

Season One was awesome, as I really enjoyed the mix of action and humor in each episode. Plus, there was the added bonus of being able to stare at Jeffrey Donovan for an hour every week, and who wouldn’t enjoy that?!

Burn Notice turned out to be a big hit on USA Network, so it’s going to be back for a second season, which is scheduled to start on Thursday July 10 at 10/9C. I’m definitely going to be tuning in, and I’ll also be recapping each episode right here on ReviewsAndMore.net.

In the meantime, here’s a preview clip that should put you in the mood for more Michael, Sam, and Fi: