Kimputer's Weblog

Another movie from producer Judd Apatow (but not directing), andd featuring Seth Rogen (starring in and producer on 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up), but now tries to pen the script too. Riding on their previous box office success, the script and dialogue style is very much alike Knocked Up, but then on a smaller scale and using no real big stars. The result is still another box office hit, and it means the fun is about the same level. Maybe a bit juvenile fun, with the story not really moving ahead, but dialogue does have enough pace, even though it’s mostly gibberish and quite predictable.7+.

While technically not a costume drama (1940’s though, close enough), it does have the same feeling to it. Usually, that genre doesn’t fare well with me, but this movie did a decent job not to repel me from the get go. That doesn’t mean it sits totally comfortably though, mostly pacing and not enough story (for the current two full hours running time, that is) are the downsides for this movie. Also, a lot of this true love feeling you’ll have to take for granted, never revealing any backstory on Keira Knightley and James McAvoy characters, and why they belong together.
Taking it for granted might have something to do with the narrative though, which has some nice twists too it, but as a whole movie, it fails to live up to its rave critic and user reviews.7-.

A quote from Shakespeare I think, but the basic idea behind it is that a dark hour is upon us. The Writers Guild of America is going to strike, immediately. At stake is a slightly higher portion of DVD (from 4 cents per disc to 8 cents) and new (online) media sales. A total amount of under $100 million a year (divided over some 12.000 writers), that the industry is not willing to budge on (earning $24.4 billion last year alone on domestic DVD sales, so we’re talking about a total of less than %1).
Last time this happened was in 1988 (a 22 week duration), and it left me scarred. For instance, Star Trek: The Next Generation has a 2 month season premiere delay, and produced The Child (a recycled script from ST: Phase II) and the most horrible episode ever in Star Trek history, flashback clip show Shades of Gray. So deservingly, the industry lost an estimated $500 million income (less advertisement sold, 10% declined viewership). And I wasn’t a savvy TV watcher back then anyway.
But now that I am, the direct impact will be:
– Immediately, no more late night shows. Colbert, Jay, Conan, they’ll be off the air, as late night shows depend the most on writers.
– Soon, no more sitcoms, as they rely a lot on on-set rewrites.
– No nicely finished TV seasons. Most shows have some 5 episodes in the post production pipeline, and maybe a few scripts ready to shoot. But come Jan/Feb 2008, it’s bye bye scripted television, hello news, game and reality shows.
– Canceled new running shows. Good shows with low ratings will never get a chance to grow into surprise hit shows.
– Canceled new upcoming shows. Heroes: Origin seems to be a victim already, put on indefinite hold before scripts have been written (but promised to advertisers a few months ago, to lure in advertisement money for a mid 2008 launch)
– If the strike takes long enough, say goodbye to pilot season. Next year will run on current shows, including the horrible ones that should’ve been axed.

Are you as scared as I am ?

Update: It was unclear what multitalented actors/writers/producers/directors would do during the strike (since their added SGA/DGA allegiance), but big names like J.J. Abrams, James L. Brooks and Tina Fey joined the picket lines, while stars like Jay Leno and Julia Louis-Dreyfus showed up for support.

Update2: Next victim: 24. No 7th season for this TV season (about 1/3 filmed though). Fox bets on safe and moves it to the next TV season.

A strange breed of trying to merge real life documentary with reality show, but with the obvious fantasy elements it just can’t fuse together. Also on the drama side, they’re trying the same trick (drama inside the drama), and again it doesn’t work. The narrative isn’t something new either, so that leaves just the story. But using only plain logic, the plot is easy to figure out, and the tension doesn’t hold, even though you could call the subject controversial (or maybe just inside this movie ?).
If you go to watch Eva Mendes, she’s a bit over the top, and not really fun to watch. It’s actually the whole movie doing that, and might be funny to watch if it was a comedy, but for a drama, it just doesn’t do the trick.6½.

Also known as the US title War, it pitches Jet Li against Jason Statham, in a pretty ordinary action flick. If you expect nothing from it (as in martial arts extravaganza a la Jet Li), it’s pretty okay. That’s mainly because the martial arts section wasn’t in an overly innovative mood for this movie. And even then, video clip director Philip G. Atwell would have ruined those anyway with faster cut sequences I’ve ever seen. I’m actually thinking he cut away 75% of those scenes, literally flashing our eyes with epilepsy inducing cuts, thereby effectively reducing eye candy to nigh zero.
We can skip the acting part, nothing to say there. That leaves the story, being pretty basic, but having still a twist at the end I found enjoyable.6½.

I had to crack down their last year’s album, after liking the two previous before that. But the trend is going in the worst direction possible… downwards. While I couldn’t call their last album really listenable, this one is absolutely dreadful. It’s a mix of their signature mellow to uptempo guitar play combined with his emo voice, but this time, it’s laden throughout with irritating, cloudy and depressive lead melodies, while some are more suitable for children songs. And that even includes the lyrics, “Fever dreams, can only hunt you, till the fever breaks. It can only hunt you till the fever breaks (repeat zillion times)”, sung in a very lullaby fashion. These songs are not just bad, they’re despicable.3.

Another successful horror weekend, as Saw IV slashes the biggest slice of box office for itself. Third sequel tortures some $32.1 million together, only a few points weaker than last years Saw III.
Landing at number 2 is a Steve Carrell starring comedy Dan in Real Life, snickering in only $12.1 million. Dropping two spots at 3 is 30 Days of Night, as the dark days only gather $6.7 million (and a steep 58% drop). At 4, The Game Plan holds on for a fifth week, with $6.3 million and a favorable $77 million cume. Rounding out the top 5 is Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? with $5.7 million in its third week.

Your typical low budget vengeance thriller, with Pierce Brosnan as the bad guy, while Gerard Butler and Maria Bello play the oppressed couple. What should’ve been a tense thriller (as the trailer made it out to be), somehow lacks immediate or intense threat in the atmosphere.
For its budget, it’s quite okay though (strangely, only had a TV premiere in the States), and seeing it once isn’t that bad, even though I guessed all the plot twists in advance.7-.

Remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, now in a contemporary setting, but seemingly less scary. It’s basically your average predictable thriller, lacking depth of character or psychological impact. Even the scares aren’t that well executed. As a failed product in its first run, rewrites and reshoots didn’t really help it either. Creative editing seems to work, but overuse of it actually disturbs the flow. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig do their best, and Jackson Bond proves himself as a cute talent on his first outing on the silver screen, but that alone can’t make this movie surpass the ordinary.7-.

The trailer certainly sounded suspenseful. Using the titular character’s name (played by George Clooney) as the movie title means they’re not gonna play the modesty card, and heightens the expectations.
But, it’s all a bit overblown. Drama has to be found in the subtleties, usually some subtext in the dialogue, were you have to figure out the meaning and background history yourself. And even then, there’s no follow up, nothing really fleshes out characters. Suspense dies down due to slow pacing, and not so many story twist (at least, not the ones you haven’t predicted yourself). Also, many misplaced musical cues (always too early) cause the false feeling of suspense.
Still, Clooney does his dark moody character routine (yes, the same one he’s been doing for more than a decade), and figuring out his character is at least one way to spend the two long hours.6½.

The fall TV season is already in full swing and there haven’t been many surprises on the horizon. Lotsa standard shows going around, offering nothing too special. So, _if_ you churn out something special, you’ll get noticed.
This year it’s Bryan Fuller again (Star Trek: Voyager, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me), leaving a comfortable producer spot on hit show Heroes to go out and explore, instead of playing it safe and earning a big buck. A little bit of trust from Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Wild Wild West, Get Shorty) who exec. produces, and ABC, goes a long way, and a new show is born.
The synopsis is short and rules bound, which I won’t give away just yet. It creates storylines enough to make a series stand, but along with that, you’ll get great and funny story telling, and a bit of character development and relationship evolving finished it off. Watching this brightly colored world filled with exaggerated primary simple shapes gives you an other-wordly experience, while the content is still very much earth-bound. If you want to truly experience something new on your TV set, this is the show to go for this year.

It’s been twelve years already, and while keeping a pretty low profile overall (no world fame with screaming fans running behind them), they have managed to score the most #1 hits in the adult contemporary hit lists of all times at the home front. And it’s not strange, there hasn’t been one band who has churned out album after album so different from each other, while still having that same instantly grabbing wow-factor kinda quality.
Now this is mostly a greatest hits album, but out of the 6 new songs, 4 already deserve that diamond encrusted life long monster hit – plaque, that one I only give to the most special songs. That’s because, once again, they go a new direction (this time a rocking uptempo big band style), but still make it their own. Amazing production value means musically it’s sound, and vocally is also a non-brainer. Their uniquely sharp and vividly imaginative lyrics suck you in to listen to songs over and over again (for instance “You’re bad mood just ties my hands, Turns my cartwheels into head stands”).
Grading only the new songs, with 66% hit rate (while good albums rarely go above 30%) means it’s definitely a 4 thumbs up.8½. (Full album. 10-)

Peter Berg has come a long way, since his sympathetic doctor character in Chicago Hope, where he also picked up the camera in his spare time. Now fully acclimated in Hollywood, and a few action flicks under his belt (and some more writing and producing credits), he’s ready to pair up with quality producer Michael Mann.
Result is a hard-hitting gritty action/drama with a current thematic war atmosphere that uses mostly simplistic plot devices, but is effective all the way. It lacks the character depth usually synonimous with Mann, but somehow, this movie is in a different category and doesn’t really need it. It’s entertaining all the way and suspense is pumped through the roof. A marvelous introspective end scene is just the topping on the icecream.8-.

The Pringles R&D division is really burning their overdrive, churning out more and more series or Pringles. Latest is their Gourmet line-up. I’ve tasted several (see picture, 2 kinda import, one regular already in stores).

The reason why I can review them all in one go is because they’re all some kinda exotic far reaching flavor, that just doesn’t titilate the tastebuds like the regular flavors do. Some flavors are too sharp, some too soft, and some others just don’t have a full body. For the occasional hunger, it’s okay, but it’s definitely not like the ones in the addictive range of the regular series.6.

Thriller directed by James Wan, who churned out something deadly already this year (Dead Silence). Along with his previous cult hit, Saw, that was pure horror. Now comes a drama-like thriller actioner, starring Kevin Bacon. The first half is pretty solid, seems to have story and depth, but the second half is really over the top. Losing sight of the characters’ depth and just bloody gore. Direction style keeps it fresh though, with camera angles and movement keeping the thrill going on.
If you don’t take this movie too seriously (I even chuckled near the ending), this movie is just fine.7+.