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!