Kimputer's Weblog

Not to worry that Jerry Bruckheimer has a failed series over at the WB, as there’s another new one at NBC. One half is fast paced action, and the other half is top army decision making. Starring Dennis Hopper and Benjamin Bratt as a colonel and major in the Pentagon, it’s a mission based series, with only a very tiny bit of character development involved. For now, it seems there’s enough story material to keep the steam running for a few more episodes, but I already see a future danger looming where story and dialogue will repeat itself.

And another one goes down. Airing on the WB, this Jerry Bruckheimer production got the axe with one episode more under its belt than the similarly canceled Head Cases over at Fox. Also similar as in a strange pairing of two lawyers of different character. Pairing an aging (and expanding down under) Don Johnson with the geeky Jay Baruchel (Million Dollar Baby) is a risky choice, considering this falls out of the WB’s youngster target. Story-wise, it was an okay choice. Decent acting, decent stories, and a tiny bit of character development. You’d think that with the competition out of the way (only in a figuratively way, as it aired on another night), they’d give this lowly watched series a little bit more time to settle. Combine it with the fact the slot will be taken over by unregular scheduled programming, and you wonder what’s going on.

As the title suggest, this could be an outrageously funny movie, with lotsa opportunity for racy jokes and the likes. That, however, is not the case. It’s a very soft comedy with nothing really inventive going around. While Steve Carell is very fit for the starring role, the movie itself feels a bit flaccid. It’s not all that bad, but the 110+ minute running time is definitely too long. A 90 or even a 75 minute cut would’ve worked better.6½.

Another few years have passed again for a new studio album, and I couldn’t even tell you her previous hits. While she does have her own sound, it is an uninteresting sound nonetheless. This album too has the same problem. The mostly lightly digestive rock lullabies makes it a bit boring. On some songs (Good is Good) her conviction comes clearly through her technically weak voice (most apparent on live performances), but it’s still not enough. For a multiple platinum artist, she has always comes across as pretty mediocre.5+.

After Fox yanked The Inside from their summer schedule (which underperformed due to their own lack of pushing), they quickly replaced it with another procedural series, with almost the same outline.
This time the fancy name in question is Deviant Crime Unit, which basically uses the same CSI methods combined with basic profiling.
Cast has shrunk in size, with only 3 principal characters, but the depth seems to have shrunk with it. The lead star is one of the most stiff and unconvincing character currently on air, so that fact alone makes it unnecessary to have a killer instinct to kill off this show.

Jodie Foster is still flying high, as Flightplan spends another week at the top spot with $15 million. Planned or not, this does mean a pretty low income for the other movies.
At number two is Serenity, Joss Whedon’s first feature movie. A remake of his (well deservedly) failed TV series Firefly, the fan base is probably responsible for the $10.1 million.
Corpse Bride drops to number 3, a steep 50% decline is good for $9.8 million. Well reviewed A History of Violence, a thriller starring Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello, starts a wide release, and lands a fourth spot with $8.2 million.
Rounding out the top 5 is Into the Blue, but Jessica Alba in bikini’s and Paul Walker in shorts is only good for $7 million. Guess there was a reason for the delayed release (filmed right after Honey, before Sin City and Fantastic Four).

Clear cut subject makes a clear cut movie. Pretty straightforward story telling, that follows what the many documentaries out there already show. As a drama it works the basics, and that’s about it. Everything around it (for instance the fight scenes) isn’t really something to write home about. Not very enlightning, but not bad either.7.