Reviews and More

Last night’s new episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “The Best Burger in New York”, and it was — of all things — a filler ep! Right at the very beginning of the season! What was that all about? There was nothing about Barney and Robin, nothing about Ted and Stella, nothing new with Marshall and Lily… I know these fillers are standard fare in the grand scheme of the entire season, but to throw one out there as the second installment? Not a good play, IMO.

Ted/Barney/Robin/Lily/Marshall: There was just one storyline in the entire episode, and it involved the whole gang. Basically, Marshall has been losing his self-esteem because he can’t find a decent job. He lounges around the house in his underwear because he has no reason to put pants on, and eventually, his “underwear radius” starts extending to public places like diners.

The one thing that would get him back on track (besides a job) would be to find an obscure hole-in-the-wall burger joint where he had the best burger of his life the year he first moved to New York. He hasn’t been able to find the place since, but has been looking for it all this time. The rest of the gang realize that Marshall needs to have that burger experience again, so they go from place to place until they find it.

My Reaction: While there were a couple of funny parts in this episode (Robin licking the glue on the ATM deposit envelopes because she was so hungry), it mostly fell flat for me. Marshall-centric episodes rarely hit the right note, and this one was no different. The main storyline was kind of dumb (why hadn’t he ever put that much effort into finding the burger joint before that night?), and seemed like an unnecessarily elaborate way to let us know that Marshall is going to take a soul-sucking position at Barney’s bank. Yawn.

Also, while Robin’s extreme hunger did lead to a laugh with the envelope glue, I couldn’t help but wonder why no one ever offered her a bite of their burger since she was practically starving. Maybe she had a special order and that’s why it always took so long, but still… couldn’t they have offered her a fry? Give me a break.

This was probably one of my least favorite HIMYM episodes of all time. I’d like to just forget it ever happened, so next week’s ep can’t get here fast enough!

Desperate Housewives is one of my regular TV shows that is on the bubble with me this year. It hasn’t really been all that interesting since the beginning of Season 2, but I’ve been hanging on because a few episodes here and there have reminded me of how good the show can be when the scripts are right. Therefore, I decided to hang in for at least the first handful of episodes in Season 5 to see whether the 5-year time jump hurts the storylines or helps. If the premiere is any indication of what we can expect, it looks like we could be in for a good season!

Susan/Mike: Susan and Mike got into a fatal accident several years ago, which resulted in the death of a mother and her young child. The emotional fallout from that accident destroyed Susan and Mike’s marriage, so now they’re separated or divorced (that wasn’t made clear). Either way, Susan is sleeping with her house painter, but is reluctant to introduce him to her friends because that would mean she’s in a relationship and is moving on from Mike. Apparently she isn’t ready for that yet.

Bree/Orson: Bree and Katherine’s catering company has taken off, but Bree is getting most of the credit, which upsets Katherine to the point where she purposely embarrasses Bree while Bree is being filmed for a promotional segment of a new show. The thing is, Bree actually deserved what she got, because it seems like Katherine has been contributing a fair share to the business and should therefore get equal credit. But this new, not-so-nice Bree could be the result of losing Benjamin, whom Danielle took back a few years ago, straining Bree’s relationship with Orson in the process.

Lynette/Tom: They still run the pizza place, but the biggest problem in their lives right now seems to be the twins, who are somehow 16 already. The twins are typical teenage rebels who host poker games and serve drinks at the restaurant, stay out past curfew, and put dents in Lynette’s car. Trouble is, Tom thinks the boys are cool, and is reluctant to punish them. That causes tension between him and Lynette, but they eventually work things out — for now.

Gaby/Carlos: Carlos is still blind, and Gaby is just as frumpy as she was in the last season finale. Well, as frumpy as Eva Longoria can get, which is still pretty gorgeous. Apparently, the biggest problem in their lives — literally — is daughter Juanita, who at 4 years old, is routinely mistaken for a 7-year-old because of her size and weight. Carlos wants them to just let the child be herself, but Gaby is worried about the weight, especially since other moms are already saying that it’s her fault, not the child’s.

Edie/Mr. Williams Edie is married now, and has moved back to Wisteria Lane. Her husband is some creeeepy looking guy named Mr. Williams (I forgot his first name), and why alarm bells didn’t start going off the moment Edie got within 10 feet of this guy, I’ll never know. Once glance at him is all it takes to know something’s not right. Indeed, at the end of the ep, we see that he was institutionalized for rage issues, and that he insisted on moving back to Wisteria Lane in order to get revenge on someone.

My Reaction: Well, as I said, I liked this episode for the most part, and am actually excited to see where a few of these storylines are going. Plus, a couple of the characters are distinctly different, which should also be a good thing. For instance, Susan wasn’t her usual ditzy, clumsy self tonight. She actually seemed somewhat normal (aside from not wanting to introduce her boyfriend to her friends), so hopefully that trend continues. This incarnation of Susan is far more likable than past seasons, that’s for sure.

I’m not really into the kid problems, and can’t imagine having to put up with an entire season of Tom and Lynette arguing about the twins or Gaby and Carlos arguing about Juanita’s weight. There’s got to be more to these couples than that, right? Oh, and did anyone else think that the fedora made the one twin look like Corey Haim? Just me? It was still distracting as hell!

Edie’s new husband creeps me out. I can’t believe that she would marry him, thinking that he’s perfectly normal. I wonder what his secret is. Hopefully something good.

I don’t like the new Bree. She’s far too bitchy, and her breaches of etiquette (stealing credit from another person) are way out of character. Plus, when did she and Andrew patch things up? Remember how he used to scheme about ruining her life? And now they’re that close? Something big must have happened in the intervening years.

Well, the writers did a good job planting the seeds for a bunch of decent plotlines this season. I’m crossing my fingers that we get some nice stories out of them!

As expected, the $100 million Shia LeBeouf/Michelle Monaghan thriller Eagle Eye was tops at the box office, opening with a weekend haul of $29.2 million. Despite generally negative reviews at its laughable, implausible plot, Eagle Eye beat out a slew of other new releases to claim the No. 1 spot.

Nights in Rodanthe, a romantic drama that reunites Richard Gere and Diane Lane, came in a distant second with a gross of $13.6 million, while last weekend’s champion, Lakeview Terrace, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, slipped to No. 3 after earning just $7 million.

A surprise entry into the top-10 was Fireproof, a very low-budget film starring Kirk Cameron (yes, that Kirk Cameronn!). Made for a reported $500,000, Fireproof earned an estimated $6.51 million while playing in just 800 theaters — thanks in large part to religious groups getting behind the effort.

The only other new release to crack the list was Spike Lee’s new effort, Miracle at St. Anna, which earned a somewhat disappointing $3.5 million to land at No. 9.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending 9/28/08:

1. Eagle Eye, $29.2 million
2. Nights in Rodanthe, $13.6 million
3. Lakeview Terrace, $7 million
4. Fireproof, $6.51 million
5. Burn After Reading, $6.11 million
6. Igor, $5.5 million
7. Righteous Kill, $3.8 million
8. My Best Friend’s Girl, $3.8 million
9. Miracle at St. Anna, $3.5 million
10. The Family That Preys, $3.16 million

I’ve been a film buff for a long time now, and one of the questions I’m most frequently asked is whether or not I collect movie memorabilia. You know, framed prints, photos, autographs, props, and costumes from my favorite flicks. In a word, the answer is no.

I used to dabble in memorabilia several years ago, but now everything is so expensive and there are so many fakes around that it’s practically impossible for casual collectors to find cool items without being ripped off. Sure, you can always find things like Star Wars action figures or replicas of the Little Miss Sunshine bus for sale at regular toy stores, but I hardly consider those products to be memorabilia in the strictest sense of the word.

At any rate, I just don’t have the time or money to devote to amassing a worthwhile collection of movie memorabilia. I wish I did, but it’s simply not in the cards right now.

I’ve wanted to go through Toni Morrison’s works for the longest time, but up until recently, had only read Beloved. I really enjoyed that novel, and was confident that I’d like Morrison’s other famous works, including The Bluest Eye, which has been on my “To Read” list for years. Well, I finally got around to reading that one, and it was indeed a thought-provoking story.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Bluest Eye takes readers through the events of a year in the life of young Pecola Breedlove, a 12-year-old girl whose home life is absolutely despicable. Her mother Pauline is impatient and both physically and verbally abusive towards Pecola, and her father Cholly is a shiftless drunk who doesn’t provide for the family. After Cholly and Pauline have a fight in which Cholly ends up trying to burn their house down, Pecola becomes a ward of the state and is sent to live with the MacTeers. Most of the novel’s events are told by Claudia MacTeer, a nine-year-old girl.

We then learn a bit more about Pecola, including the way she used to pray fervently for God to give her blue eyes. She was jealous of the way blond-haired, blue-eyed white children were treated kindly by everyone from teachers to shopkeepers, and she felt that if she could have blue eyes, then people would think she was pretty and would be nice to her, too.

Once Pecola is situated in the MacTeers’ household, Cholly and Pauline’s personal histories are revealed in flashbacks. We’re shown how rough their childhoods were, and how they never had much of a chance to succeed in their adult lives. Nevertheless, these hardships certainly can’t excuse their abusive ways, nor can they come close to explaining why Cholly commits the ultimate in repulsive acts when he later rapes Pecola — twice.

Pecola becomes pregnant, but soon miscarries. After that, she goes mad, carrying on conversations with herself as she develops a split personality.

My Reaction: This was truly a dark, haunting novel, and even though Morrison herself says she didn’t quite achieve the effect she was going for with the way the work was structured, I thought it was brilliant. Pecola was such a tragic figure that it was impossible not to be moved by the horrific circumstances of her young life.

I know Morrison wanted to portray these characters and events in such a way as to show that Pecola’s descent into madness was the cumulative effect of a lot of different factors, but as a reader, it’s hard not to think that Cholly did the greatest damage. I’m not sure that insanity and a split personality would have been on the menu if Cholly had, say, taken off a couple years beforehand.

And of course no one can read The Bluest Eye without examining society’s ideas about beauty and goodness. Unfortunately, the answers today are just as depressing as they were when this novel was written in 1970.

Overall, The Bluest Eye is definitely worth reading. Pecola and her plight will remain etched in your memory long after you close the book and move on to other things.

I finally finished the third season of Boston Legal, and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the show now. While I still appreciate the witty, intelligent dialog, I’m getting a bit bored with other aspects. For instance, how is it possible that Alan Shore wins every single one of his cases? Scratch that, it’s not only Alan who wins; it’s the entire firm. These guys just don’t lose, which certainly takes away most of the suspense during the courtroom scenes. In fact, I barely even pay attention to the arguments anymore since I can guess the outcome anyway.

Another thing I don’t get about the show is why the Denny/Alan friendship has such blatant homosexual overtones in this season. They talk about kissing each other, having sex with each other, they danced with each other while Alan was in full drag (dressed as Shirley for the costume party), they have sleepovers, they talk about getting old together. I mean, their friendship used to be something that I really enjoyed, but found it going way overboard in this season. I would have nothing against a legitimate homosexual relationship on a primetime show, but the Alan/Denny thing is ridiculous. Maybe if they started taking Leptitrex and slimmed down considerably, I’d feel different. As they are though? No, thanks!

I like that Brad and Denise got married. I’m not much of a Brad Chase fan, but I do like Denise a lot and think that they make a tolerable couple. I know that both actors leave the show, though, so I’m kind of bummed about that. There was no mention of their departure at the end of S3, which leads me to believe that the explanation will have something to do with the marriage and/or baby. I guess that’s better than the generic exit strategy of having characters leave to join different firms.

Speaking of which: what the heck was up with Jeffrey Coho? What was the point of that character? I don’t read anything related to Boston Legal on gossip sites or in tabloids, so I don’t know what the producers’ plans for actor Craig Bierko were. I figured they wanted him for a long-term gig, because his name appeared in the opening credits right from the start. The fact that he left after just 14 eps makes me think that viewer reaction to him must have been really bad, or there were personal problems on the set that couldn’t be worked out. Either way, the departure felt abrupt and weird.

Despite these issues, I still like Boston Legal enough to continue watching the DVDs. However, I probably won’t be able to get to Season 4 until next summer, as I have too many other primetime series to watch right now!

The Season 5 premiere of Grey’s Anatomy aired last night. It was an hour-long episode called “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, which I guess refers to A) Meredith’s dream that Derek died in a car accident; B) Cristina’s dream of her and Meredith as old ladies; and C) Izzie’s dream of Denny. Yeah, that’s right. Denny Du-freakin-quette.

I was actually looking forward to the premiere to see what changes (if any) had been made during the hiatus. It’s no secret that fans were not at all happy with the general quality of the show last season, which was reflected in lower ratings. Unfortunately, though there were a few bright spots in the premiere, I was bored most of the time. I think two hours is just waaay too much Grey’s to take in at once.

I’m kind of in a hurry this morning, so I’m just going to write out a few thoughts about the show rather than do a full recap. Two-hour episodes are brutal in terms of recaps!

Liked:

– The new Army doctor was awesome! There is finally a strong male character on the show! All the other guys are either whiny (George), arrogant (Sloan), complacent (Derek), or a jerk (Alex), but this dude (I wish I knew his name) was kicking ass from the moment he appeared on screen until the very end. Plus, he and Cristina had great chemistry together. Can he please stay?

– The fact that Mer/Der screen time was very limited. Yes, they were on screen a lot in their various surgery and doctoring scenes, but their together time was limited, which was a relief.

– Izzie was actually tolerable. Don’t get me wrong, I have liked this character since S1, but even I had to admit that the past two years she became practically insufferable. However, she didn’t bug me at all last night, not even with her patient interactions. I really hope this signals a new direction for the character.

– The Chief seemed different. His speech at the end shows that he’s ready to start acting like a chief. I wonder if a regular is going to get fired? If so, let it be Hahn. She can go at anytime now. Any. Time.

Disliked:

– Denny. For god’s sake, why even bring the character back at all? That few seconds just served to remind me how much I hated the guy when he was on the show regularly. It’s time to let go!

– Anytime Meredith and Derek were on screen together. Just on principle.

– Alex instantly becoming a jerk again after he thought that Izzie told Meredith too much. Come on, we get it already. He’s afraid of opening up to people and getting hurt. But where’s the character development? Isn’t this guy going to grow up at all? This is something that S1 Alex would have done. What happened to S3 Alex that had all those hot scenes with Addison? Now that was progress!

– The patients of the week. I just couldn’t get into ANY of their stories at all. And Kathy Baker? Still creeps me out from her performance in Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her, so yeah, I didn’t really need to see her on my TV that much.

– Lexie and George coupling up would be wrong on SO many levels. Please nip that in the bud pronto!

– Hahn and Callie gross me out as well. It’s not that I have anything against lesbian couples, it’s just that I think Hahn is so incredibly unattractive that imagining her in a relationship or having to see her kiss on TV makes me want to gag. Hell, I’d feel the same way if she was hooking up with, say, Sloan, so hold off on the GLADD hate mail, mkay?

Well, honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can stand Grey’s. If changes are indeed in the works, then I’m game. I’ll give this season 8 episodes to convince me to stay, otherwise it loses its place on my TiVo schedule and becomes summer DVD fodder.

Now that the new season of several of my regular televisions shows have started, I can revive my Weekly TV Roundup posts. In these posts, I’ll post a few short comments for shows that I don’t do full recaps for. So you won’t find anything about How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, or Desperate Housewives in here, but will find my thoughts on Entourage, House, and Bones (and Private Practice and 30 Rock once those shows start).

Why do I write full recaps for those three particular shows but not the others? Just because of popularity reasons. I always get tons of hits for HIMYM, Grey’s, and DH, while the others don’t generate as much interest.

Anyway, this first Weekly Roundup post will cover a couple of episodes because I’m starting up late.

Bones 4×01, 4×02, 4×03, 4×04, and 4×05: Yikes, five Bones episodes in here! This show started at the beginning of September, with a two-hour premiere, so that’s why there are so many. Eps 4×01 and 4×02 were called “Yanks in the U.K.”, and involved Booth and Brennan visiting England for various lectures and getting involved in a murder investigation. It was fun to see the different location, but many of the jokes felt forced, and the ep had such a different tone than the series usually has. Also, Angela and Hodges broke up, and Bones will have a rotating assistant of the week. Meh on both fronts.

The subsequent episodes, “The Man in the Outhouse”, “The Finger in the Nest”, and “The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond” were also less than thrilling. Bones has long been on the bubble for me. The mysteries are always dumb, so I don’t expect much on that front, but the characters used to be a lot of fun. Now the writers are just shoving the Booth/Brennan flirtation down our throats in every single episode (instead of giving us a few precious moments like in S1), and it’s getting tiresome. Oh, and Zach made an appearance in 4×05, but he was such a downer that he almost ruined the ep for me.

House 5×01 and 5×02: The season premiere was called “Dying Changes Everything” and dealt with the aftermath of Amber’s death several months later. The big event in this one was that Wilson resigned from Princeton-Plainsboro and told House that they can’t be friends anymore. Other than that, there was WAY too much 13, which was highly annoying.

The second episode was much better, since House decided to hire a private investigator to check out patients’ histories — and Wilson, too. The P.I. (his name escapes me now) was actually very funny, and even made House smile a couple of times, which hardly ever happens on the show. I like him and hope he sticks around. Other than that, not much new going on at PPTH. Cameron and Chase were barely around, Cuddy just had a couple of cursory appearances, and the new underlings were boring.

Entourage 5×01, 5×02, and 5×03: These episodes, called “Fantasy Island”, “Unlike a Virgin”, and “The All Out Fall Out”, respectively, mostly showed how Vincent Chase is coping with his new-found status as a box office bomb. I like how he’s now willing to play the Hollywood game (schmoozing and pandering the to right people in order to get a gig) instead of sticking with his whole “I don’t care” attitude. This new Vinnie seems much more realistic, so I hope the writers continue developing him this way for a while.

I still don’t like E, but he has been far less smug and therefore a bit more tolerable thus far in the season. I don’t quite buy the fact that he’s supposed to be this great script evaluator, but whatever. I hope to see him make several more mistakes this season because I love it when he’s wrong. At least he’s starting to listen to Ari too, especially about Vince’s next project needing to be a studio movie instead of an indie. That totally makes sense, so I want to see that play out the right way for once.

Ari is still the best character on the show, but in all honesty, I’m getting tired of Piven’s take on him. I mean, he just won another Emmy, which blows my mind. I guess all it takes to get one of those statues is screaming every other line….

While I usually find precocious young actors to be supremely annoying, I think Abigail Breslin is a refreshing exception to that trend — which is actually a bit odd, since she almost always plays a too-smart-for-her-age character. The reason I’m so accepting of her probably has to do with the fact that she looks like a regular kid instead of a typical child star, and the fact that she actually has some acting skills instead of getting by on cuteness alone.

As a result, I’m usually open to checking out Breslin’s projects regardless of how they’re received by critics or how they do at the box office. I somehow missed the 2008 film Definitely, Maybe when it was in theaters, but recently had a chance to check it out on DVD. And despite a relatively flimsy premise, I thought the film was pretty decent!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Will Hayes (played by Ryan Reynolds) is a 30-something advertising executive whose life hasn’t exactly worked out the way he had hoped. His job is unsatisfying, and we soon learn that his wife is beginning divorce proceedings. The only good thing in Will’s life, the only thing he looks forward to, is spending time with young daughter Maya (Breslin).

One day after having her first sex ed class at school, Maya asks Will about how she came into being, about how he and her mother got married. At first Will doesn’t want to talk about the subject, but at Maya’s insistence, he turns it into a bedtime story. But instead of just telling Maya about how he met her mother, he decides to tell her about the three great loves of his life, changing names and certain details about jobs and locations so that Maya can try to guess which woman in the story ends up being her mom.

The rest of the film then features flashbacks of Ryan’s life as a political operative fresh out of college in the 1990s. We see how he meets, dates, and breaks up with his three loves at different times during the decade, and we learn which one he ended up with and why.

My Reaction: As I said above, I liked Definitely, Maybe despite the flimsy setup. I mean, it seems kind of silly and contrived that a father not named Ted Mosby would be all mysterious about how he met his kid’s mother, but whatever. Once I got past the blatant ripoff of the TV show, I was able to settle in and enjoy the film (for the most part).

The only other thing I’ve seen Ryan Reynolds in was Waiting…, and I thought he was obnoxious and annoying in that movie. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see him make Will Hayes a charming, down-to-earth, doting dad here. He’s good-looking enough that it’s easy to believe he was a player in the flashback parts of the film, and yet he did a wonderful job of selling himself as a more mature, responsible guy in the present-day parts with Maya. The only problem I had with Reynolds in this role was that he looked WAY too young to be Maya’s father, but again, that was just a minor quibble.

Personally, I think Will ended up revealing far too much information to Maya during the telling of his story. Are there parents out there who really speak so frankly about their sex lives with their 10-year-old children? Am I just being prudish here?? That part of the film struck me as a bit out there, but whatever.

I didn’t like the ending much, since the entire film leading up to that part was presented in such a way to make the viewer believe that Will would fall in love with the mom all over again in the telling of their story. We, like Maya, were supposed to think that Will and the mother would patch things up and get back together, so when the writers suddenly pulled the old switcheroo, it felt like a cheap ploy to get one final “twist” into the plot before the film ended. I know it would have been a total cliché to have Will and his ex-wife get back together, but the ending they went with didn’t work either. The writers kind of painted themselves into a corner there; it probably would have been best to have Will end up alone for a bit.

Despite a few problems with the story, I thought Definitely, Maybe was an entertaining film, thanks in large part to the charisma and likability of Reynolds and Breslin. They were great together, which is why I’m giving this film 7.0 stars out of 10.

Last night was the Season 4 premiere of How I Met Your Mother, a show that used to be my favorite comedy, but that has since given way to 30 Rock. I was thoroughly bored with the Ted/Stella relationship, as though characters seem to have very little chemistry between them. I decided to tune back in this year mostly to see how the writers handle the Barney/Robin hookup. So far so good, as the season premiere, called “Do I Know You?” spent an equal amount of time on both couples.

Ted/Stella: The cliffhanger from last season was Ted’s proposal, with the finale ending before Stella gave her answer. Well, she says “yes”, but after some questioning from Marshall, Ted realizes that he doesn’t know Stella at all. He doesn’t know her hobbies, favorite color, or even the color of her eyes. This freaks him out a bit, so he starts quizzing her about her past to get at least a few answers. Ted also uses Star Wars as a litmus test for compatibility, saying that there’s no way he can spend the rest of his life with a woman who doesn’t like that movie. Stella watches it (for the first time) and hates it, but lies to Ted and says she likes it — with the idea being that she would make that sacrifice for him.

Barney/Robin: Barney confesses his true feelings about Robin to Lily, and engages her help in trying to get Robin to see him in a new way. Lily sets up a dinner for the whole group, but then bails out at the last minute, leaving Barney and Robin on their own. Barney tries being sensitive and “normal”, but that just serves to freak Robin out. He tells her that he has a nice side, which he exhibits the whole night. Robin is so impressed that she acts as Barney’s wing woman to hook him up with a hot waitress — right before Barney has a chance to tell her that he’s in love with her.

My Reaction: Barney and Robin are infinitely more interesting than Ted and Stella, and this episode confirms it. Whenever they cut to Ted and Stella, I kind of rolled my eyes and waited impatiently for the story to get to the good stuff again. Obviously, I would love to see Barney and Robin become a couple, but this is dangerous territory, as the writers could end up destroying both characters along the way. It will take a great deal of careful planning to make this storyline good and have it so that no matter what happens, they all remain friends afterward.

I forgot to mention in my summary the part about Robin mentioning a high-profile cable news job. I don’t read spoilers or anything, but I have a feeling that the job is going to be in another city. That’s the way these things always work out on shows. She’s going to apply, she and Barney will start their relationship, and then she’ll drop the bomb that she got the job — but it’s in Chicago or something. Then there will be the whole will-she-or-won’t-she move question, the whole will-he-or-won’t-he follow her question, etc. etc. All very cliché and tiresome, so I’m definitely apprehensive about where this storyline will go.

Overall, I thought this was a solid start to the season. I can’t wait to see what happens with Barney and Robin next week! As for Ted and Stella? Meh….

I long ago decided that I would automatically go see anything that Robert Downey, Jr. decided to appear in, so there was no question that I’d eventually get to Tropic Thunder. I’d heard raves about Downey’s performance ever since the film opened, and I really couldn’t wait to see whether or not he lived up to the hype. The short answer? Of course he did!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Problems abound on the set of Tropic Thunder, a Vietnam-era war film based on the memoirs of vet Four Leaf Tayback (played by Nick Nolte). Production delays and gaffes have put the movie a month behind schedule after just four days of shooting, which leads to studio head Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) tearing director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) a new one. Cockburn better get his group of prima donna actors under control, Grossman warns, or he’ll be off the project.

Four Leaf advises Cockburn to dump the actors — action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), drug addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and character actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) — in the middle of the jungle, after having first rigged up hidden cameras, microphones, and fake explosions to capture everything on film. This will give the film the sense of realism it needs and get the production back on track.

The problem is, Cockburn unwittingly drops the actors off in the middle of the Golden Triangle, which of course is protected by heavily armed guerrillas intent on protecting their heroin trade. Cockburn steps on an old landmine and is blown to bits, but the actors naturally assume it was some sort of sophisticated special effects stunt. They then start going through the various scenes in the film, fighting guerrillas along the way since their belief that it’s part of the filming process giving them a sense of fearlessness.

Most of the actors soon realize that the dangers they’re facing are real. The only exception is Speedman, who remains clueless even after being taken hostage. He’s then brainwashed and made to perform scenes from his past film Simple Jack over and over again while the rest of the guys try to rescue him. The remainder of the film follows this course, with everything working out perfectly in the end.

My Reaction: I thought Tropic Thunder was a lot of fun to watch — despite all the controversy surrounding its jokes about “retards” and the fact that Robert Downey, Jr. plays a black man. In fact, Robert Downey, Jr., as he does so often, absolutely stole the show and was responsible for many of the funniest lines in the film. I can’t imagine anyone else playing the Kirk Lazarus role quite as well.

As with many of today’s comedies, the basic premise of Tropic Thunder is just so ludicrous that it’s not worth pointing out all of the logical flaws in the setup. Instead, viewers will simply have to accept the characters’ situation as it is and move on from there. This is another reason the casting choices were so important in this movie, so whoever was responsible for getting RDJ attached to the project deserves major kudos for that.

A lot of people who saw this film are talking about Tom Cruise’s appearance as Les Grossman. I thought Cruise was hilarious the first couple times he came on screen — especially when he went into his “scorched earth” rant while on the phone with the terrorists. But his extended final dancing scene didn’t work for me, mostly because it was too long and had already been done. The dancing was funny only because the audience knows that it’s Tom Cruise dancing. Put any other actor in there, it doesn’t work. And by the time that final scene rolled around, the audience was already used to the idea of Cruise being in the film, so the novelty had worn off.

Overall, however, I thought Tropic Thunder was an enjoyable film. The main cast was terrific, the plot moved along at a nice clip, there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and, with the exception of the Les Grossman dance, not a lot of repeated jokes that wore out their welcome as time went on. I can’t really ask much more out of a comedy! I give it 7.0 stars out of 10.

It was another slow weekend at the box office, as studios continue to dump off films that don’t fit into the summer blockbuster mold and aren’t Oscar material. Topping the charts was Lakeview Terrace, a drama/thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson as an LAPD officer who terrorizes his neighbors when he’s off duty. Personally, I think the premise of this film sounds utterly ridiculous, but I guess the movie-going public still likes Sam because they spent $15.6 million on tickets.

Last weekend’s champion, the Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading, slipped to the No. 2 spot with $11.3 million in earnings.

Three other new releases made their way to the Top 10 this weekend, including comedy My Best Friend’s Girl ($8.3 million), animated family movie Igor ($8.01 million), and romantic comedy Ghost Town ($5.17 million). I don’t know anything about any of these movies, except that both My Best Friend’s Girl and Igor received generally negative reviews across the board.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending 9/21/08:

1. Lakeview Terrace, $15.6 million
2. Burn After Reading, $11.3 milliion
3. My Best Friend’s Girl, $8.3 million
4. Igor, $8.01 million
5. Righteous Kill, $7.7 million
6. The Family That Preys, $7.5 million
7. The Women, $5.31 million
8. Ghost Town, $5.17 million
9. The Dark Knight, $2.95 million
10. The Bunny House, $2.8 million