Reviews and More

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): As a 17-year-old high school senior in 1989, Mike O’Donnell (played by Zac Efron) had it all. He was a star athlete, the captain of the basketball team, and had a full-ride college scholarship at his fingertips. He was also dating Scarlett (Allison Miller), the most beautiful girl in school. Then, a few minutes before the biggest game of Mike’s career, Scarlett tells him that she’s pregnant. Rather than play the game and get his scholarship, Mike walks off the court to be with his girlfriend. They end up marrying and keeping the kid.

Fast-forward 18 years. The now 35-year-old Mike (Matthew Perry) has lost his way. His life is a mess, as Scarlett (Leslie Mann) wants a divorce and his two kids Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight) barely even acknowledge his existence. To make matters worse, the promotion Mike was expecting at work, after 16 years of service, went to some airhead recent grad who’d been at the company for all of two months. And, he’s stuck living in the spare bedroom of his geeky friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), a millionaire who does nothing all day except play video games and live out every nerd’s fantasy surrounded by Star Wars memorabilia.

One day, Mike visits his old school and sees a picture of himself on the basketball team during senior year when the world was his for the taking. An old janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) comes by, asking if Mike would like to do it all again. Mike says yes, and later that night, something strange happens. When he wakes up the next morning, it’s as his 17-year-old self again — though it’s still the current year.

Mike brings Ned into his confidence and after the usual freakouts, they try to figure out what’s going on. It’s a “classic transformation story” according to Ned, which means the hero, Mike, has to right some wrong before things can go back to normal. Mike assumes this has to do with getting his basketball scholarship and going to college instead of quitting the team and marrying Maggie, so that’s what he sets out to do.

But along the way, Mike realizes that he has a chance to help his kids in a unique way. Alex needs his help to make the basketball team, to get the confidence to talk to a girl he likes, and to stop the school bully from picking on him. Maggie needs his help to realize that she’s so much better than her boyfriend (the same school bully) and that she shouldn’t give up her dreams of going to Georgetown for the loser. Most of all, Mike gets a chance to make things right with Scarlett again, after he’s reminded that she was indeed the best thing that ever could have happened to him.

My Reaction: I like Matthew Perry, so I was hoping 17 Again would be a decent film. And though there weren’t as many laughs as I had hoped for, the movie was at least tolerable and somewhat entertaining. More surprising, however, was the fact that pretty boy Zac Efron didn’t annoy me nearly as much as I thought he would. Maybe the guy can act a little bit after all!

There’s not a lot screenwriters can do to make these transformation stories different, but at least the 17 Again writers did try. I liked how the story became about helping Mike’s kids instead of himself. I thought the interactions between Mike and Alex were great, and wanted to see that friendship fleshed out even more. The stuff with potentially making out with his daughter Maggie was expected and therefore neither funny nor gross — just total eye-roll moments.

What I didn’t like at all were the scenes between 17-year-old Mike and 35-year-old Scarlett. Those were all kinds of inappropriate, and were not believable at all. The dancing scene was uncomfortable in itself, but the courtroom scene where Mike/Mark was supposedly reading a letter from 35-year-old Mike was horrific. Like the kid would be crying like that reading a letter from his uncle! Yes, I know it was really Mike and that the words were coming from the heart rather than a printed page, but still. As an observer, that just looked dumb.

Overall, I’d say that 17 Again is worth a rental. It’s not a movie that I need to have in my collection, but I’m sure all the Zac groupies will be all over it. To me, it was just average, so I’m giving it 5 stars out of 10.

HIMYM 5×02 — “Double Date”: After a pretty strong season premiere last week, I was rather disappointed in this episode. Ted’s storyline of the repeat first date was the most interesting, and considering how much I dislike the character now, that speaks volumes for how the rest of the episode went. I was completely put off by the Barney/Robin interaction and can’t believe the writers got it so wrong so soon. Just last week neither was willing to define their relationship until they were locked in a room together, but this week Robin gets all possessive and controlling about Barney going to a strip club? Really? And he suddenly doesn’t care about her feelings at all? Come on!

– Though Ted’s date night was the best part of the ep, I still don’t like what it says about the story arc as a whole. Please stop with all the random women and get to the mother already! We’re five seasons in; how much longer can this show realistically expect to stay on the air? We need — and deserve — to see some progress with the mother.

– The doppelganger stuff was funny, all except for Lily’s stripper. Lesbian Robin and Mexican Marshall were good because the show just made a passing mention of them. But the Lily stripper bit dragged out far too long and led to some very unoriginal jokes regarding how often Barney visits the joint. Also, the part at the end where Lily tries to take the stripper’s place was just ridiculous — in an embarrassing, uncomfortable way, not in a funny way.

I really hope next week is better. I love Barney and Robin together, but this week they seemed completely off. Get it right, writers!

Desperate Housewives 6×01 — “Nice is Different Than Good”: Desperate Housewives is back for its sixth season, and though I tuned in last night, I’m only going to give the show a few episodes before deciding whether to keep watching or ditch it altogether. The premiere was actually decent, so I’m hopeful that something good will come out of this season. I like the new additions to Wisteria Lane — but so far that’s mostly just cuz I like the actors. Drea de Mateo was awesome in The Sopranos, and Jeffrey Nordling (the guy who plays her husband) was good on 24 last year. Hopefully they’ll have an interesting storyline (which, judging by the scars on Drea’s back, might be the case).

As for the regulars… well, I could have done without so damn much Susan, Mike, and Katherine. Hopefully we won’t have to go through this triangle thing anymore, because we already did that all last year when Mike first got together with Katherine after divorcing Susan. Please don’t go down that road again.

Julie came back just to get strangled by the new neighbors? Ouch, that’s harsh! I wonder if she’s dead, or if Susan is going to stumble upon her in the nick of time and rush her to the hospital. Either way, at least this will give Susan something to do all season.

BTW, don’t the residents of Wisteria Lane think its odd that there are so many strange deaths, murders, and general weirdness on their street? Come on, no single block is that happenin’!

Gaby is good with Anna. I’m actually looking forward to seeing how she deals with a teenager in the house full-time.

Karl and Bree had tons of chemistry last season, but didn’t seem to click at all last night. I wonder what happened over the summer? Maybe it’s just the old “unresolved sexual tension” thing rearing its head again. As long as the characters weren’t sleeping with each other (but wanted to), they were interesting. Now that they’ve finally gotten together, the story is boring.

Lynette and Tom — I’m so not interested in their latest crisis about Lynette not loving her three-month-old fetuses yet.

The family film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs had no problem fending off challengers to maintain its status as the No. 1 movie in America. Cloudy added another $24.6 million to the coffers, for a 10-day total of $60 million.

Second place went to Surrogates, a sci-fi thriller starring Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell. This film, which has received more positive than negative reviews, earned $15 million during its debut weekend. Fame, a remake of the ’80s cult classic, earned a disappointing $10 million, while Pandorum, another sci-fi entry starring Denns Quaid, earned just $4.41 million. No other new releases cracked the Top 10.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending 9/27/09:

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, $24.6 million
2. Surrogates, $15 million
3. Fame, $10 million
4. The Informant!, $6.92 million
5. I Can Do Bad All by Myself, $4.75 million
6. Pandorum, $4.41 million
7. Love Happens, $4.33 million
8. Jennifer’s Body, $3.5 million
9. 9, $2.83 million
10. Inglourious Basterds, $$2.72 million

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Final Destination franchise deals with the basic premise that you can’t cheat death. When your time is up, you’ll exit this earth one way or another.

In this particular film, Death has his eyes set on a group of kids from McKinley High School. The fateful events begin during Grad Nite festivities at a local amusement park, where senior Wendy Christensen (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) suddenly has a vision while she’s standing in line with her friends at one of the roller coasters. She sees a series of events that lead to the roller coaster crashing and everyone on board dying. Wendy then freaks out and demands to be let off the ride. A handful of her classmates join her in getting off, but the rest stay aboard. Not surprisingly, things play out exactly as Wendy had envisioned.

Wendy and the survivors think that they have cheated death, but then strange things start happening to them as well. First one, and then another of the passengers who got off the roller coaster end up dying in freak accidents soon after the initial incident. Instead of buying some quick life insurance online, Wendy and Kevin (Ryan Merriman) try to warn the other passengers who got off at the last minute, but no one believes them.

After the first string of deaths, things calm down for about five months. But then Wendy has one more terrifying vision. This time she’s on a train, and sees another series of events that lead to horrific deaths — including her own. Just as she realizes what’s going to happen, she tries to pull on the emergency brakes, but they don’t work. The movie ends there, with the viewer left to determine whether or not Wendy and her friends finally succumb to their fate.

My Reaction: Well, there’s not a whole lot to say about a film like Final Destination 3. This is one of those films where you can’t very well expect originality or freshness, nor are you going to be surprised by anything that unfolds on screen. The most you can hope for is to be entertained, and I thought Final Destination 3 did a decent job in that respect.

Viewers already know that the escapees are going to meet with gruesome deaths, so the filmmakers’ job here is to keep us guessing as to the specifics. Towards that end, there were a couple of good fake-outs along the way, and a couple of memorable scenes. For example, who can forget when the blond bimbos got burned to death when they couldn’t escape the tanning beds? Or when the one girl got a bunch of nails pounded through her skull thanks to an out of control nail gun? Gruesome indeed.

Overall, Final Destination 3 is your run-of-the-mill teen horror flick. There are a few entertaining moments in the mostly predictable movie, and I give it 4.5 stars out of 10.

House 6×01 — “Broken”: Hmm, I did not like this episode very much at all. I’ve read some message boards and realize that I’m in the minority among House fans, but the mental institution just didn’t do anything for me. It was way too Cuckoo’s Nest for my tastes and House didn’t even make any progress at all. What, just because he admitted that he didn’t know what to do about the married German lady leaving him, that means he’s grown? Whatever.

Admittedly, there were some good moments during the ep. The Freedom Master seemed like a sad, interesting case, and I was positively shocked when he jumped off the parking garage. I also liked some of House’s connections with his roommate Alvie, though I could have done without the talent show rapping.

I’d read some spoilers saying that the first 6 eps of the season would take place with House in the mental institution, so I guess I should be glad that it’s over with already. I can’t wait to get back to the standard medical mysteries — and with Chase and Cameron back on the team, too!

Castle 2×01 — “Deep in Death”: I thought this was a fairly strong season opener. I enjoy the chemistry between Castle and Beckett so much that this is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows. Granted, the mysteries aren’t all that interesting and are getting solved rather easily, but like with Bones, the cases aren’t meant to be the focal point here.

I’m glad Castle apologized to Beckett in a straightforward manner without relying on his charm (or smarm) to get through to her. And I’m also glad Beckett accepted his apology (even if it seemed to easy). I’m sure that’s not the last we’ll see or hear of the mother’s case, and I’m equally sure that Castle will be instrumental in eventually solving it.

Bones 5×02 — “The Bond in the Boot”: I actually enjoyed this episode of Bones, which is saying quite a bit. The case was interesting for once, and I didn’t mind the subplots either. The Booth/Bones flirting was left for the end, which is where it should be, and it was actually kind of sweet seeing them spend time together like that.

I was happy to see the assistant CIA director shut Bones out of the meeting due to her lack of clearance. That doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should with her. Nice of the writers to throw just a tiny bit of reality at us once in a while!

So what was the deal with Wendell’s scholarship? Did the fact that the fund ended up with enough for three scholarships mean that Cam, Hodgins, and Brennan donated money? Or was it just Brennan who donated a boatload? And since when does everyone know that Jack’s family has that foundation? I thought that was supposed to be a huge secret.

Grey’s Anatomy 6×01-6×02 — “Good Mourning”/”Goodbye”: I did not like that at all. At first, I was excited to see Grey’s again, but as the show slogged on through both hours, I realized that I just didn’t care about these characters anymore. I wasn’t sad that George died, I wasn’t thrilled to see Alex and Izzie together, I didn’t care that Derek and Meredith are happy… I guess what this means is that I’m officially done with Grey’s Anatomy. I hated most of last season, so this decision shouldn’t be all that surprising….

Episode 3×05 of Burn Notice was called “Signals and Codes”, and featured a good balance between the job of the week and Michael trying to get his old position with the government back. Plus, there was finally some dialogue about why Michael wants to go back to the organization that just burned him. It’s about patriotism, duty, and protection, in case you’re wondering.

Odd Job of the Week: While out at a shooting range for target practice, Michael was fingered as a spy by a mathematician named Spencer, who claims he was able to figure out Michael’s identity from the number of recent bombings in the area, as well as the increase in arrests and the statistical probability that the do-gooder would attend this particular shooting range. Though Mike tries to deny it, Spencer is a bit touched in the head, and starts yelling odd things at Michael. Not wanting to draw attention to the scene, Michael agrees to hear Spencer out.

Spencer thinks that Shannon Park, the vice president of Stone Kittredge, the defense contractor he works for, is putting hits out on various employees — who are really spies. Michael doesn’t believe Spencer, mostly because he also talks about alien beings and so forth, but Sam and Fiona think there might be some merit to what he’s saying. So the team moves in to investigate. They eventually do find enough evidence to bear Spencer out, and end up nabbing Park in the end.

Burn notice progress: Mike and Sam stake out the airport to figure out which planes are being used for black flights. Basically, they write down the tail numbers and try to confirm that those planes’ flights actually make it onto paper records. If not, they’ve found a craft used for spy ops.

Michael successfully finds one such plane, and visits the hangar where he meets Diego Garza, a spy in charge of ground operations. Diego knows who Michael is, and after some maneuvering, agrees to talk to his people on Michael’s behalf. Though nobody wants Michael back just yet, at least communication channels are now open and Diego will remain Mike’s contact.

My Reaction: While I wasn’t all that interested in the OJotW this time around, I still enjoyed this episode because of forward movement in the burn notice arc. I know that this is one of those things that can never fully be resolved because that would likely signify the end of the show, but it’s nice to see the problem getting some attention. Just a few more episodes left until the mid-season finale. I’m probably going to spend all weekend with my TiVo so I can catch up!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Tom Hanson (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a wannabe architect who inexplicably works at a greeting card company. One day, his boss gets a new assistant, a woman named Summer (Zooey Deschanel). Tom is instantly captivated by Zooey, saying that she’s the kind of girl that makes everyone do double-takes as she walks by and that instantly brightens up every room. But Tom being the quiet, unassuming guy he is, doesn’t think that he has a shot with Summer, so he just admires her from afar.

But we the audience already know that he and Summer get together because the story is told in nonlinear fashion. Prior to each scene, a number flashes on the screen to show us where Tom and Summer are in their relationship. For instance, we might see Day 15 — where the two are experiencing the sheer joy and emotional high that new love brings — in one scene before jumping to Day 156 — where things have clearly deteriorated and the two barely talk anymore — in the next, and then drifting back to day 72 in the scene after that.

As the story unfolds, viewers are able to piece together what happens to Tom and Summer in their relationship. Basically, Tom is a good guy while Summer is a bitch most of the time. She refuses to commit to the “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” label, and slowly pushes Tom away just as he’s looking to get closer. Eventually, they break up, which sends Tom spiraling into a depression. Things look even bleaker when Tom learns that Summer is engaged just a few months later.

But Tom eventually comes to terms with what happened and is ready to take his life in a new direction. He quits the greeting card company, applies to architecture firms, and even meets a new girl at one of the interviews. Her name? Autumn (Minka Kelly), whom viewers hope will indeed be the complete opposite of Summer.

My Reaction: (500) Days of Summer received an incredible amount of buzz for an indie flick, and did rather well at the box office, grossing $30 million domestically against a $7.5 million budget. Therefore, I was excited to see it and just hoped it would live up to its billing. Though I didn’t think it quite justified all the hype, I enjoyed the experience well enough.

One of the main purposes of the script was to get viewers to like and sympathize with Tom, while despising Summer for treating him so badly. On this front, I think the writers accomplished what they set out to do. I’d never heard of Gordon-Levitt before, but he had an earnest, endearing air about him that made me root for him right from the start. And Zooey Deschanel was able to pull off being a bitch — though she wasn’t quite beautiful enough to make me believe all those superlatives that the narrator laid out about the double-takes, etc.

The time jumps were a bit gimmicky, as it wasn’t strictly necessary to tell the story that way. But I found that they added to the charm of the film — though I’m not sure I’d feel the same way after multiple viewings.

Overall, (500) Days of Summer was a pretty good film. The story itself wasn’t all that original (nothing unusual happens), but the writing and execution were above average, which makes me give the movie an above average rating of 7.0 stars out of 10.

HIMYM 5×01 — “Definitions”: It’s been a long summer, but my regular television shows are finally starting to come back on. I’ve been looking forward to HIMYM in particular because I really want to see what will happen with Barney and Robin. I love these characters and am excited about seeing them become a couple. I know some fans think this storyline is a big mistake, but not me.

Anyway, I thought Barney and Robin were great tonight! I loved how they pretended to be seeing other people all summer long but were really just with each other, how they put off The Talk as long as possible, and how they decided to “lie” about being boyfriend and girlfriend, even though everyone could see that they really meant what they were saying.

– Ted as a professor has a lot of potential for funny situations. That seems like the perfect job for this character, as he definitely has a pretentious side that can shine forth from the lecture hall podium. He got off some good lines as he struggled to decide whether he was going to be an authoritative professor or a “cool guy”.

– Marshall and Lily were pretty much just Marshall and Lily. I hope they get a real storyline this year instead of just contributing bits and pieces to other characters’ plots.

Entourage 6×10 — “Berried Alive”: Last night’s episode of Entourage was decent for a change. The Lloyd/Ari storyline actually picked up a lot of steam and is turning out to be the most interesting of the season so far. I was sort of hoping that Ari would miss Lloyd, but then I realized that would be totally out of character for him. Of course he doesn’t have a soft side. He looks at everything from a business perspective, right? And Lloyd was awesome with the way he went and got Johnny Drama back as a client. I didn’t think he had it in him — and I’m sure Ari didn’t either. Still, I have a feeling Ari thinks Lloyd will be out of the business soon and will end up selling health insurance leads or something instead. We’ll see!

– Eric and Ashley: god, can they just be over with already?! Ashley acts like such an insecure high school kid that I can’t believe Eric keeps wavering about whether or not he wants to be with her. She demanded to read his emails — and he let her??? Wow, maybe he has issues too.

– Turtle is having visions of other young coeds even though things with Jamie-Lynn were going strong? I guess most guys would think that’s normal, but from a woman’s perspective I just think it’s all kinds of wrong. Oh, well. Now I wonder what’s going to happen if Jamie-Lynn goes to New Zealand to film that new TV show. Let me guess: They’ll try the long-distance thing for a while, but Turtle will have the coeds right in front of him and won’t be able to resist. He’ll cheat, be racked with guilt, confess, and they’ll break up.

– Vince was once again little more than a by-stander. Since he has had absolutely nothing to do this season, why not just send him off to a film location or something? Or is this supposed to be a dose of reality, like showing us what movie stars do (or don’t do) between films.

– William Fichtner. Is he going to become a regular? I like the actor, so this could be interesting….