This Week in Television - Mar. 25-30, 2012

Once Upon a Time
It was interesting that they gave a reason behind the Mad Hatter making all those hats, but like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland I don't think it's within the spirit of the original setting to apply logic to any of the characters or events from Carroll's work. I like that Emma is starting to believe in the fairy tales, because it takes the show in a new direction. Maybe that mysterious "writer" who came to town intended to make Emma believe so that she could break the curse and then, if he really is a writer, he intends to write the fairy tale book about Emma saving Storybrooke.

New Girl
While funny, I think this episode was somewhat forgettable, but the best part for me was Winston's reaction to Schmidt and Cece. Way to be funny again, Winston. Not really buying the chemistry between Jess and Russell as a romantic couple. Friends, maybe, but I think there is too much difference in both age and lifestyle for it not to be a little weird. But as I said last week, I support the prolonging of a Jess/Nick hookup.

Survivor: One World
Sometimes the players get rid of "threats" way too early, and sometimes they don't get rid of them at all even when there's a perfect opportunity. Why is everybody worrying about the jury when there isn't even a jury yet? If you're going to vote out a threat when there's 12 people left, you vote for someone who is good at challenges, not Jonas. But Tarzan trying to convince everyone that it was dirt in his underpants and not poop was funny.

Community
I can't put my finger on it, but something about the storylines in this episode didn't quite feel like Community. Maybe it was because there were three seperate sub-groups and not enough time with the whole cast together. I don't know. It felt off. But the Britta/Subway romance was funny, which also led to Pierce hilariously drinking a dangerously unhealthy amount of ink. I don't think I enjoyed the fort-building as much, because Troy and Abed are so great to watch as friends that I actually feel a sense of melancholic disharmony watching them fight. Maybe that's what nagged me about this one.

30 Rock
I love Jack's "shower principle." It's completely true: the mind creates good ideas to entertain itself when the body is busy with mundane activities. Or at least mine does. I like the idea that a journal can be a cheat sheet for a predictable, repetitive lifestyle, although it suggests that Liz's solutions are just temporary fixes and not preventative measures. While Liz drew comparisons between Hazel and Kenneth because they're both weird pages, Hazel actually acted more like Jenna in this episode: psychotically selfish.

Up All Night
Surprisingly, I found something funny in this episode, and that was Julian's sleaziness ("Is this the 'ladies I'd like to do it with' convention?"). I wish they would use him more, but he is a sparse tertiary character.

Awake
When they throw out these episodes that hint someone knows about Mike's double life, it makes the show more interesting than just a police procedural with a cool twist, so I'm all for it. If this Gemini knows about the dual worlds, then it's possible that either he is himself experiencing the same thing, or, because I believe the green world is a dream, he is the part of Mike's subconscious that secretly wants to know which world is real, the part that Mike has to fight if he wants things to remain the way they are. I kind of want Mike to go to Oregon just to see what that would be like.

Fringe
It's almost ingeniously lazy to reuse a case from a previous season but be able to tweak it because of the new rules of this season. I really liked the idea of Walter saving up gifts for Peter; it provided some nice moments. In fact, I think I enjoy Walter and Peter's father/son relationship more than the Peter/Olivia romance. Lincoln tasting the smoothie antidote was also a highlight due to how funny it was. Poor sap is into Olivia in every universe but he's stuck in the friend zone. It's his own fault for not liking peanut butter.

Hero of the Week: Walter from Fringe, for caring enough to get his dead son some beer and porn.

Douchebag of the Week: Vice Dean Laybourne from Community, for disturbing the Troy/Abed friendship. THEIR HANDSHAKE INVOLVES HEART PATTING!

Carnage

Impressions before seeing it
Never saw a single frame of preview footage. I was just excited about the cast, and the prospect of the concept, because good actors yelling at each other is fun.

How was it?
So these two couples have a meeting to smooth things over after their sons got in a fight at school. They start off friendly and polite, but eventually they begin to offend each other, then piss each other off, and the event escalates into unrelated anger tangents and everyone ganging up on each other in different combinations. I cannot imagine a better thing to do with four talented actors. This was even more fun than Attack the Block, and that's saying a lot.

Carnage is based on a French play, which shows because the whole movie takes place on one set and is very dialogue driven, but the script and performances completely sold it. As you might imagine, it gets funny when these civilized adults, even while acknowledging themselves as such, get out of control and begin behaving childishly. It's fantastic. The ending felt somewhat abrupt, but it had to be in order for the final shot to put the parental meeting into perspective. I like that basically the entire message of the movie is summed up in those last frames. That's filmmaking efficiency.

Recommendation
This is one for the people who like watching actors act. In a film like this, that's all there is to rely on. Check it out; it's immensely entertaining.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Impressions before seeing it
It looked like an interesting intelligence thriller along the lines of Masterpiece Theatre's Page Eight, which I really enjoyed but didn't end up writing about on this blog. And Gary Oldman is always great.

How was it?
Unfortunately, I have to admit that I found this movie difficult to follow. I can save some face because I was at least 30% distracted by the food I was eating while watching it, but it's more than that. I would liken it to The Wire in that the cast is somewhat big and it doesn't do the best job of putting names to faces so that you know who the hell people are talking about. It was too complex, subtle, and smart for me to get into. I know I often complain when viewer intelligence is insulted, but this is at the other end of the spectrum, assuming the viewer is smart enough to catch everything and thus making me feel like a huge moron. Maybe I'm overreacting and I'll get it if I watch it again without distractions, but sometimes I'm just stupid. At least the acting was good.

Recommendation
It's not a bad movie, you probably just have to be smarter than I am to enjoy it. For a more accessible intelligence thriller, I'd recommend Page Eight instead.

Melancholia

Impressions before seeing it
Lars von Trier has made some unique (if morbid) films, and a wedding before doomsday sounded interesting. To me, pre-apocalyptic is a richer concept than post-apocalyptic, and the latter is done more often than the former.

How was it?
In some ways, I feel like Melancholia is the film that The Tree of Life should have been, or wanted to be. The indulgent artiness is kept to a much more tolerable minimum and is actually relevant, and all of the handheld footage documenting the characters' lives has more of a narrative to it. It's not trying to be poetic and elusive, it just lets us feel for these people as they struggle with whether or not they're about to come to a cataclysmic end.

And they most definitely are. That's not a spoiler, because we see it happening in the film's opening montage. There's a reason von Trier wanted us to know that at the beginning of the movie, but that reason actually is a spoiler so I won't go there except to say that I loved the implied reveal of it. I really enjoyed this movie in spite of it being anti-climactically climactic. What I mean is, unlike a film like Don McKellar's Last Night, which is more centered on people trying to prepare for the end by doing everything they've always wanted to do, Melancholia is mostly about sulking over the possibility that it will happen. There's not a whole lot of rushing around to cross off bucket lists, which is interesting in its own concept and that's why Last Night exists, but I think the inaction here represents the mediocrity of daily life and the laziness of human spirit, even in the face of oblivion. I'm not saying that's what everyone would do in that situation, and I don't think von Trier is either, but it may be a somewhat more grounded approach to the event than McKellar's film (which is not a bad movie, if I recall.) And for anyone who claims that Kirsten Dunst can't act, this movie should shut them up.

Recommendation
Personally I think this movie should have been nominated at the Oscars over The Tree of Life, but because of an unfortunate comment made by Lars von Trier in an interview, the media jumped all over a chance for negative press and the Academy shunned the entire movie. Not really fair to everyone else who worked on it. Anyway, I think it's a fascinating film, and if you find it too depressing then couple it with Last Night, the more positive version of this movie.

This Week in Television - Mar. 18-23, 2012

Once Upon a Time
I can buy that David remembered a fragment from the fairy tale world - I knew it would happen as soon as he stepped into the psychiatrist's office - but how would he not mention the part where Mary Margaret had long hair and was wearing medieval adventurer gear? If he wasn't supposed to have remembered what she looked like at the time, then they didn't do a good enough job illustrating how hazy the memory was. I also noticed that this episode was heavy with catchphrase-type lines (though Kitsis and Horowitz, the creators, did write TRON: Legacy, so it's not surprising), and seemed like it was attempting to fit in nearly all of the show's established characters. But they are finally building toward something, and for that I thought this was ultimately one of the series' stronger episodes.

New Girl
The storyline with Winston and his lady friend worked better with Schmidt added in, and I think I much prefer it when Schmidt is a more self-aware douchebag, voluntarily stuffing cash into the douchebag jar even when no one is around. That is a funnier, more likable (and tolerable) version of the character. Nick is becoming more and more a pathetic bum with every episode, but again I think it's a funny direction to take the character, so no complaints. I'm proud of this show's progress, as I recall in the pilot when Jess was the only character I found funny, and now we have a more well-rounded cast. I am wary of the show's hints that Jess will end up with Nick (this week her description of the guys she dates sounded like him), because I think romances on comedies work better with guest stars than between castmembers. So it's good that this cool rich guy showed up, at least for now.

Survivor: One World
Evil Colton gets taken out by karma! Awesome. Now if only the same thing would happen to Alicia. She and Colton were just being unnecessarily mean to Kristina. They're not good people. And Jeff seems to be catching the fever, as he has now taken his biased commentary one step further to outright insulting poor challenge performers. To be fair, he was mostly insulting Alicia, who deserves no sympathy due to her behaviour, but knowing Probst I'm sure it had less to do with who she is and more to do with her performance in the challenge, so he's still a dick.

Community
With all of the crazy impersonators running around in addition to the unusual amount of graphics and special effects, this episode was weird, but in a good way. It was still funny - Dean Pelton's reaction to Jeff in aviator glasses was priceless - but it also went to some serious character places, such as Troy and Abed having to confront the problem of excessive escapism, and Jeff struggling with his ego. If they continue those quirky peeks into Jeff's internal organs, we might one day get a Jeff Winger Operation game that includes a slot machine heart and ego apple.

30 Rock
For the record, I know who Krang is and would love to see a sketch about him. But I would settle for characters just repeatedly using "Krang" in sentences. I was surprised that they would pull Kenneth out of his new job so soon after spending the last few episodes lining it up so the character had something fresh to do. Maybe the writers just said "it would be funny if Kenneth was a janitor, but he would never quit his page job and we already fired him, so how do we get him there?" and the promotion story was born. But it does leave room for potential parallels to when Jack worked his way back to the top from the bottom.

30 Rock
Like the last time they aired double 30 Rocks, one of the episodes was clearly more awesome, and that was this one. Billy Baldwin playing an actor playing Jack Donaghy in a TV movie? Nice touch. (I imagine Billy is the brother Alec is closest to, but I don't know why I imagine that.) Weird Al Yankovic parodying Jenna's song, and then reverse-parodying her when she tries to outsmart him by writing one that's already silly? Genius. Kenneth's admission that he lies to himself every day and is close to breaking point, in what is the most depressing Kenneth moment in the entire series? ...Disturbing. In Canada they cut off the ending tag where Weird Al sings the theme song, but thanks to Youtube I was able to enjoy the extra meta joke about 30 Rock's ratings and fans.

Up All Night
It was kind of obvious Chris was going to do all the things Reagan told him not to do when he got on air, and then they just went to the old "working with spouse = bad" storyline. This show just doesn't have much imagination comedically - or often even dramatically - and with the way the writing has been, it probably would have worked better as a laughtrack sitcom. And when I say "better", I still mean lame, but the live format is more appropriate for unimaginative humour.

Awake
Apparently this episode was aired out of order, which shows because Rex is still distant and angry when he was supposed to have grown closer to his dad last week. But it was interesting that they used the dual realities this week to explore someone's life going in two opposite directions, even if one of them isn't real.

Fringe
The love potion thing was an interesting concept, but they didn't explain what happened to that dude's face. I know the deformity was likely his motivation for wanting to create a love potion, but seeing as this is Fringe, I was expecting some kind of horror story behind it. But I can't say I was moved by Peter and Olivia's reunion; they've been apart so long now, I can't even remember if I ever "shipped" them.

Hero of the Week: Weird Al Yankovic on 30 Rock. I may have mostly outgrown his music, but he's still Weird Al.

Douchebag of the Week: Alicia from Survivor, because it horrifies me that she is actually a special ed teacher. What does she teach them, gym?

4-Way Feature: The Descendants, The Adventures of Tintin, Immortals, and Attack the Block

Trying to cross things off my "want to see" list from last year so that I can break out a Top 10 of 2011 list, so here's another time-saving 4-way post with four of those films. More coming soon.

The Descendants
I love that the Dean from Community won an Oscar for co-writing this, although I wouldn't even come close to calling it a comedy in spite of it being advertised as such. It's not that it failed to be funny, it's that it rarely tried, and where it did it was incredibly dry humour, which isn't really my taste anyway. But never mind that, because I really liked it as a family drama. My favourite scenes were the ones involving Matt (Clooney) and his oldest daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, who is a talented up-and-comer if this performance is any indication of future work from her) investigating the man with whom their wife/mother was having an affair. They played those scenes with just the right amount of curiosity, nervousness, smugness, and anger, and had great chemistry together. I was less interested in the Hawaiian land subplot, but they managed to tie it back in to the family, and it ultimately ended up working as a demonstration of character growth.

The Adventures of Tintin
While watching Tintin, I thought two things: 1) This might be the best looking animated movie I've ever seen, and 2) This is like if Wallace and Gromit starred in Indiana Jones. Truly, the action and adventure are nearly non-stop, and like Gromit, Snowy is potentially smarter than his master except for the fact that he can't speak. It's fun to watch, but I think the one thing holding the movie back is that Tintin as a character isn't that interesting. He doesn't have much of a personality, he's just there to drive the action along and, I suppose, make everyone else in the movie seem cooler by comparison. I was only vaguely aware of the existence of Tintin growing up, so I never got into it and therefore can't say how accurate anything is, but my guess is that Tintin's dog was always more fascinating than he is. But yes, not a bad little adventure flick at all.

Immortals
I'm a fan of the director's other films The Fall and The Cell, so I was looking forward to Immortals. The Greek mythology isn't very accurate, or so I'm told, but if it's all fiction anyway then part of me thinks it doesn't matter. They probably would have been better off inventing new characters, though, instead of using the names from mythology and changing everything else. Anyway, this one's probably closer to 300 than the two films I mentioned above, although it does look fantastic because Tarsem is a director who knows how to construct beautiful visuals. But if it can be possible, I think Immortals is entertaining without being engrossing. I mean the action and story are adequate, but during the climactic scenes I wasn't on the edge of my seat dying to see what happened next. It didn't have the...charisma to pull me in, but I didn't dislike it.

Attack the Block
When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked kind of cool, but at the same time I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. It turned out to be loads and loads of fun. It may seem like a comedy because Nick Frost is in it, but it's more of an action/horror/sci-fi with a few throw-away one-liners, which I didn't particularly find hilarious but it didn't get in the way of my enjoyment. Attack the Block can be likened to a more adult version of The Goonies or Super 8, as it follows a gang of teens and kids who stumble onto something bigger than they can handle, leading to one wild night of action and adventure. But there is an interesting aspect of redemption thrown in, too; when the movie opens, they're assaulting and robbing a woman, but then aliens attack, and the gang members become the heroes by saving that same woman's life, and suddenly we find ourselves liking these guys. They may be thugs, but they still know we're all part of the human race.

This Week in Television - Mar. 11-16, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Interesting twist. I wasn't expecting that Ruby would be Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, but mostly because this show, while altering the original fairy tales, hasn't been huge on reversal plot twists. Not really that interested in what happened to David's wife, though.

New Girl
There was a lot of focus on Schmidt playing bongos, and it wasn't a funny gag, but I like that they at least used this episode to establish him as the one who keeps the place clean. It was understandable that Jess might try to change him, but if the state of the apartment is that horrible without him, then they need Schmidt to be the way he is. The stuff with Nick owing Winston money was funnier, but kind of made Nick look like a douche.

Survivor: One World
The promo spoiled the twist again, so I was nowhere near as shocked as Survivor wanted me to be because I knew a tribe switch was coming. Tribal council was funny, with Tarzan having trouble with names and Leif complimenting Monica, they made it look like Colton's vote was going to be screwed. I would've loved it if that happened. But I'm hoping that Kim and Chelsea can use their new idol to mess up Colton and/or his idol, once the merge happens.

Community
It's so nice to finally have Community back. That hiatus was, in a way, worse than a summer break, because during a hiatus it's off the air when it doesn't need to be. I think it was smart of them to use "Season One Pierce", i.e. the more lovable, senile old goofball, because as fans we want to be happy to see the characters back, and it would be a little grating if they slapped us in the face with "Bully Pierce". And of course a lot of great gags, including the racist camera, the callback to Jim Belushi's mediocrity, Troy and Abed trying to act normal, and the contents of Jeff's slot machine heart (I think I saw Alicia Witt in there). While I love the more creative episodes, like the multiple timeline one earlier this season, this was the perfect one to return with, because it was just some warm, joyous time spent with the characters we love being themselves - even Troy and Abed, because their peculiar attempts to be different people were still indicative of who they are.

30 Rock
I enjoy watching characters play games, so seeing Jack Donaghy get stomped at a roleplaying tabletop game and then figure out how to get back on top was awesome. It's also funny every time Dennis tries to win Liz back, but luckily Liz has learned not to get sucked into his vortex of destructive failure. Also, there were Hulk hands.

The Office
As much as I liked Andy and Erin together in the past, I wasn't feeling their chemistry in this episode. And I'm not really enjoying the character of Nellie, and not because she seems to have stolen Andy's job. More because her comedy seems forced, as if the writers think that the more Catherine Tate keeps talking, the funnier she'll get. Unfortunately, there is news that James Spader's leaving, which means Tate's probably sticking around. Robert California wasn't as awesome this season as he was in his job interview in last season's finale, but he was at least interesting. I don't know how many guest star bosses they intend to have, or when the series will finally wrap up, but here's my idea for an ending: Ricky Gervais finally gets the manager position, makes a "that's what she said" joke in his first five minutes on the job, and then cut to a talking head of Jim, who says, "Aaaaaand we're back where we started."

Up All Night
I don't like this new boss dude at all, and his presence in the episode somehow made it feel like a Canadian sitcom (meaning very dry). But I didn't see it coming when Ava's "little sister" back-stabbed her to get in with the cool girls, so I appreciated the surprise. Ava's attempts to insult them were clearly lame, but I thought the girls would just walk away unaffected and Ava would shout some more unfunny insults at them or something. Bonus: Will Arnett said "I've made a huge mistake" in this episode.

Awake
It seems to me that the red world (where his wife survived) is the real one, and the green world is the dream, because in this episode and last week's he used the red world to gain information for the green world. Information that it would have been very unlikely for him to know subconsciously. It's more reasonable that he would seek out knowledge in real life and then use it in the dream, because the other way around implies that he basically has psychic abilities, and I don't think this is that kind of show. But it's only episode three, so who knows.

Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, for turning a barren desert into a field of glass.

Douchebag of the Week: Nellie from The Office. I'd rather she went away.

This Week in Television - Mar. 4-9, 2012

Once Upon a Time
It felt a little like a rehashing of the tremendous Beauty and the Beast episode, only not as good but still better than most episodes. I have to say it wasn't easy to take that actor seriously as a dwarf in love when I remember him as the angry guy who tried to steal George's parking space on Seinfeld. I don't think his infatuation was subtle enough. Having Emilie de Ravin show up again made it slightly better, but when I saw her name in the beginning credits I was hoping we'd see the locked up Storybrook version of her.

New Girl
Another enjoyable episode, except for the part with the singing and rapping, and the fact that Winston not wanting to let go of his crappy van felt way more like a Nick story. Maybe it actually was written originally for Nick, but Nick already had something to do and Winston didn't, so they threw it in. Speaking of Nick, "I can taste my spine" was one of those brilliantly simple lines that worked better than any other joke in that scene. I didn't think it was possible for Zooey Deschanel to be even more adorable, but then she did the Daffy Duck lisp. Well played, Zooey.

Survivor: One World
That was just insulting at the reward challenge when they made the tiles glow so we could see how they lined up when it was already the most obvious thing in the world. I know reality shows regularly insult viewer intelligence, but wow, that was even worse than Americans putting a blue dot on the puck during televised hockey games. And the tribal council was so stupid. Colton is a spoiled, self-centered prick and none of his reasons for hating Bill were even valid, but for some reason Bill is so unbearable that it warrants giving up immunity just to get him out as soon as possible? No. Everything Bill said was reasonable and sensible. The only person who requires that kind of emergency boot is Colton himself. Between that and Probst unnecessarily rubbing in the womens' immunity loss both during and after the challenge, I'm not sure which one of them should win Douchebag of the Week. ...Okay, yes I am.

30 Rock
Jack always seems to underestimate his nemeses and get easily duped by them. It was obvious Kaylie was lying even before Liz suggested it to Jack, because she did it in her previous appearance, and similar things have been done with Devon Banks. But you can't be disappointed with a preface like "Jack vs. Kaylie Round 2: No Subtitle Necessary." Or a silly Mrs. Doubtfire style ending tag with Liz trying to keep up the male persona she invented when comforting Kenneth in the bathroom.

Parks and Recreation
I was actually thinking about Andy's Women's Studies class not too long ago and wondering if they would ever get back to that. Glad to see that they did. I like that April is becoming like this quiet little guardian angel who secretly likes cheering people up. Her explanation about Chris leaving her alone if he gets a girlfriend may have been in part what motivated her, but I think the other half is that she knows how much it sucks to be in that heartbroken position because she went through it with Andy. It was perhaps a step in the right direction that Tom was so focused on not breaking up with Ann again, and it was nice to see them not fighting for a bit even if they felt more like friends than anything more, but then it was two steps back when he presented her with flavoured condoms. Oh, Tom, you lovable douche.

The Office
This felt like one of those transition episodes where nothing is really great about it because it's too busy setting up for a (hopefully) more promising follow-up episode. There were only a couple of little gems this week, like Dwight's treasure trap at the beginning and Kevin thinking that Toby bangs hot supermodels (and Toby subsequently letting him by neither confirming nor denying it). I think Toby's glasses, which I don't recall having seen him wear before, added to his dweeby loser look and thus enhanced any jokes directed at him. I have always found Toby's bored, dissatisfied facial expressions funny but the glasses somehow made him even more hilariously pitiful. Actually, a season or two ago they also had Ryan suddenly wearing similar glasses out of the blue, but because it's Ryan I immediately understood that he was doing it as part of nerd chic. Toby either actually needs them or is jumping on the bandwagon too late because he's Toby. An interesting subtlety if it's the latter.

Up All Night
Comedically unsatisfying, but I enjoyed watching Chris and Reagan with their new friends, accepting the double-edged sword that is spending time with someone who is exactly like you, and then falling out over parenting conflicts. But they were completely right. Way too many parents have no clue how to properly discipline their children, yet think they do. The stuff with Ava and the new boss was boring, though. I'm not sure if her quips during the poker game were supposed to be funny-funny or ironic-funny, but for me they were neither.

Awake
Interesting. In some ways, this was like the reverse of the pilot: last week, Mike solved his cases by using clues from opposite universes; this week, he was able to slightly improve his family life by using that technique at home, but only one case got solved at work. There's no way of knowing why someone would have wanted to destroy his family and not just him, but I've realized that if Mike only seems to switch over when he goes to sleep, meaning he spends a day at a time in each universe rather than the same day both times, and no one ever says "Why were you missing for a whole day?", then that could quite possibly prove that one of them actually is a dream. Hmm...

Hero of the Week: April from Parks and Recreation, for secretly caring.

Douchebag of the Week: Colton from Survivor. He's not a Russell Hantz or a Johnny Fairplay. He's just a horrible human being.

The Book of Eli

Impressions before seeing it
I didn't know much about it, except that it's post-apocalyptic, which to me has an equal chance of being either interesting or boring.

How was it?
For most of the film, it nagged on me slightly that Eli (Washington) was too God-like. In every action scene where he fought someone, he swiftly and totally obliterated them without receiving a scratch. Then it turned out he actually was receiving divine assistance, and I became disappointed that this was a religious movie - although, on the other hand, I would rather see religion in fiction where it belongs than in real life. But it is interesting that this movie recognizes the implication that Christianity can be used for evil, to manipulate people, while also acknowledging its empowerment of good. This story may take place in the future, but what it fails to touch on is that Christianity already manipulates those involved. Understandable, though, as it's clearly not an anti-Christian movie. It's more like a message to bad Christians to start using their religion properly rather than abusing it. I suppose I can dig that.

As an action blockbuster, The Book of Eli is entertaining in the sense that I wanted to see where it was going, the fight scenes were fun in spite of Eli always winning so one-sidedly, and Gary Oldman was the villain, which is never in any circumstances a bad thing. The wasteland setting didn't interest me that much, but little things did here and there. The most controversial thing in terms of integrity is the final plot twist, which I'm not going to spoil, but it's one of those things that requires a second viewing to check and make sure it all makes sense. I don't know if it does, but it seemed a little far-fetched unless it was meant to be all chalked up to the divine assistance thing.

Recommendation
Overall I enjoyed it, but it might help if you're not anti-religious. It can still be viewed as an action-packed post-apocalypse movie and be mostly a fun movie. I mean, it does have Gary Oldman.

The Rum Diary

Impressions before seeing it
I actually wasn't too big on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp's other Hunter S. Thompson film, but this one wasn't marketing itself as a weird drug trip so I thought it might be fun.

How was it?
The difference between this movie and Fear and Loathing is that this one's not about Hunter S. Thompson, it's just based on one of his books. There is one drug trip scene, but encapsulated in a more coherent movie such as this one, it's not maddeningly insane. It actually turned out to be an anti-capitalism morality tale, but honestly it didn't quite feel like the film cared as much about its own message as its characters were supposed to, and as a result I didn't either. But it's okay, because I actually had a lot of fun watching Depp and his sidekick (Michael Rispoli) bumble around beautiful Puerto Rico; Giovanni Ribisi's performance reminded me of the kind of cartoon character who is always involved in explosions and coming out of it with a blackened face; and Amber Heard was ridiculously gorgeous. There were scenes that had me laughing, and I was never bored in the entire two hours, and that makes The Rum Diary a success. Maybe not a complete one, because it feels like it's not sure whether it wants to be taken seriously or not (and that may be what is responsible for the weakening of its theme), but a success nonetheless.

Recommendation
As a piece of entertainment, it's a fun watch - especially if you enjoy a nice tropical setting and some light comedy. I can see why it didn't get a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching.

This Week in Television - Feb. 27-Mar. 2, 2012

Smash
Okay, I'm dropping this show. The characters are just too insufferably full of themselves. I mean most shows might have one character like that, but an entire cast? On top of that, the writing and directing was so heavy-handed this episode, with all of the lingering glances, and Karen being physically pushed and bumped by Ivy, and the uninspired attempts at humourous lines that were clearly not written by anyone who knows anything about comedy. It's surprising that I have to say this, but as frustrating as Glee is, it at least has a very small amount of merit, and rather than be annoyed by the New Directions kids I'm just indifferent to them. I suppose it's an accurate depiction of show business if everyone involved is egocentric, it just doesn't make for a good collection of characters that I would want to care about. I might not mind so much if Karen was the center of the show, and they didn't go off into these B and C stories where they try to pretend these other snobs are likable or interesting, but this is not a show about Karen, it's about a cheesy Broadway play, and so I quit.

Survivor: One World
They usually do a memory challenge later in the season, after everyone's mental prowess has deteriorated. I almost feel like the producers condescendingly said "The women are too weak to win at a physical challenge, let's throw them a memory thing." Very glad to see Matt go, as he seemed like the biggest douche on the tribe.

30 Rock
I think the best part of this episode was Tracy and Jenna playing detective (loved Jenna's terrible cop show parody with poor attempts at character development in her blatant referencing of a dead husband), but it put Jack into an interesting perspective when he was so preoccupied with getting ahead at work that he couldn't even recognize a friendship as a friendship. A lot of people complain about Kenneth these days, and 30 Rock seems to be listening because they've actually given him a multi-episode arc so he'll have something to do for a while. Don't know if he'll get high enough to succeed Jack's job, but it might make for an epic season finale if they're forced to go head to head.

Parks and Recreation
I didn't believe that Bobby Newport's vacation canoodling was actually some international deal; Leslie shouldn't have fallen for it. It was obvious in the newspaper photos that it was purely for leisure, and after meeting Bobby in a previous episode, it was clear that he wasn't going to be working hard in favour of the city. Also, ramps are still better than electric lifts because if the lift breaks down, you're screwed. Why would nobody bring that up? The water fountain and water fight stuff were fun, though when they solved the problem I almost expected Andy to just put his mouth on the spout hole.

The Office
The whole B-plot with Andy being beaten up by kids was mostly unfunny. It's already been done many times elsewhere. But it was mildly amusing for the idea of Toby conducting a martial arts seminar and plugging his mystery novel, and for Creed's demonstration of "strike, scream, run". I enjoyed the Sabre store more, and all of the dishonesty that went into its opening and promotion as the employees played characters and created false scenarios. Lying is a business, too, folks.

Up All Night
A couple of chuckles this week, and it was nice to see Will Forte back, but Up All Night is still the most average comedy of the week for me. I never hate it, but it's never amazing, either.

Awake
I've been excited to see this show ever since the trailer showed up last summer. The only problem is that the trailer spoiled at least 40% of the episode, but otherwise it was highly engaging thanks to a cool concept and strong performances from the actors. I just hope the big twist isn't that the accident put Mike into a coma and he's imagining both worlds, because that would feel unoriginal. Side note: it's kind of funny that the actor who played Jack's "son" on Lost is once again playing a possibly non-existent son.

Hero of the Week: Mike from Awake, for having no intention of ever making progress.

Douchebag of the Week: Jennifer Barkley from Parks and Recreation, for being too good a campaign manager to Bobby Newport when neither her nor her client really care about it.

Hugo

Impressions before seeing it
There are a lot of jokes to be made when you first hear that Martin Scorsese made a family movie, because it seems like such an odd match. However, it's also a brilliant selling point because you want to see what that would be like. Or at least I did. And with all of the glowing sparkliness present in the trailers and posters, I thought it might be a fantasy but it was somewhat unclear on that.

How was it?
What Hugo actually is, is a disguised advertisement for, and tribute to, the silent film era. More specifically, Georges Méliès, the world's first fantasy filmmaker. Having studied it in school, I already knew most of what was presented here about Méliès and silent film, but I appreciated that this movie is a reminder that those films exist (or an introduction to them, in the case of younger viewers). Scorsese is clearly a lover of movies, and it wasn't until after watching Hugo and seeing its purpose that I knew why he made the unusual choice to direct a family movie. He loves Méliès, Lloyd, Chaplin, and Keaton as much as the next film buff, and in our modernist society it would be a crime to forget about them. That's why we needed a recent film to re-expose us to them. The silent film footage is presented in such a loving and nostalgic way that one can't help but be endeared by it. We needed Hugo.

The movie does play somewhat like a children's fantasy/adventure/mystery in the style of Lemony Snicket, but it's a fairly serious family film. Sacha Baron Cohen is the only comic relief as a train station guard with a leg brace, but it's okay not to be funny in a family film if you have magic. I don't think this movie would be appealing to really young kids, but it is a visual feast with its gadgets and lavish sets. It's just likely not enough to hold a kid's attention for the entire two hour run time. However, when they get a little older it could be a great educational tool as an entry point into silent cinema.

Recommendation
I would recommend this more to adults and teens than to children, because it works on those two levels: nostalgia if you're already familiar with silent movies, or discovery if you're too young to be aware of them. I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly break down a few of the silent film directors and what their work is like, for anyone who might want to seek them out.

Charlie Chaplin: Obviously the most famous one, his work was usually laced with social or political commentary, but came with cuteness and heart.

Buster Keaton: Keaton, on the other hand, rarely even smiled in his movies because they were all about the jokes and stunts. No sentimentality, but some impressive (not to mention highly dangerous) stunts that he performed by himself and usually without safety equipment.

Harold Lloyd: Lloyd was like a combination of Chaplin and Keaton. In other words, you get both stunts and warmth, although Keaton and Chaplin mostly did better in those respective areas.

D.W. Griffith: At the time, he was making propaganda-like dramas that effectively used filmmaking techniques to manipulate emotion. Important to study if you're actually interested in filmmaking.

Georges Méliès: As I said above, he was the first fantasy filmmaker, and pretty much the only one in the silent era. His work is important because you get to see what special effects were like 100 years ago, and all in hand-painted colour!