Reviewing Movies

Paradise

2011-11-09T07:19:00.000-05:00

The death of a child often leads to marriage breakdown and such is the case with Ben and Lily Reid played here by former husband and wife Don Johnson and Melanie Griffiths. Therapy comes in many forms and in their case in the person of a pint-sized Elijah Wood who looks remarkably like the Frodo he played in later life. Brought to stay with Lily and Ben for the summer while his Mother has her baby Willard in all innocence opens all the old wounds, exposes all the hidden hurts, and reignites the love that had been so deeply repressed.

As the tomboy Billy, Thora Birch is priceless as the lonely girl next door thrilled to have a summer companion. Paradise may not live up to its name but it’s a place I’d like to visit, even vicariously through this movie.

Love! Valour! Compassion!

2011-11-07T08:31:00.000-05:00

Note the ‘u’ in valour. Originating as a stage play set in a Beachfront Home in New York State this is a Canadian production filmed in Quebec. Eight longtime gay friends meet for summer weekends at the home of Gregory, a dance choreographer—hence the attic dance studio. Bringing along his latest fling, a randy Latino dancer, is a dance accompanist played by an actor who also portraits his identical twin who is dying of AIDS. Rounding out the octet are a pair of lawyers who arrive with Gregory’s blind paramour and finally the gnomish second AIDS sufferer of the group currently unattached.

The home, a sprawling Nineteenth Century Mansion with carved marble fireplaces, original wallpapers, and wrap-around verandas is surrounded by gardens and lawns. The bags of groceries that adorn the old-style kitchen in an early scene would run to four figures today, we do not see the station wagon that must have brought them home. Gregory is a gracious accepting host, tolerant of his guest’s moods and peccadilloes.

There are scenes of casual nudity but no overt acts of gay sex displayed on camera. As befitting a stage play of its time the language is quite sedate. Set in the eighties when little was known of the causes and treatment of AIDS KS lesions make an appearance. The characters display no fears of having AIDS sufferers in their midst. In fact although they may have heated arguments their long-term friendship always prevails. Blind David’s reaction on the death of his sister seems over histrionic more suited to the stage than to film. Various characters provide direct commentary and the plot is dialogue driven as befits a stage production.

To Kill a Mockingbird

2011-11-02T08:31:00.000-04:00

Two immediate reactions. First if a child fought in school the way Scout does today her teachers would have permanently expelled her from school and suggested counselling and/or institutionalization. Second had I defied my father the way Jem does here I would not have expected to survive the experience. The children do not appear to be particularly obedient.

Jem and Scout have internalized their Father’s values without even knowing it. When they arrive at the courthouse and find the main floor packed they have no second thoughts about going upstairs to the balcony, the section to which Blacks were relegated. In a very real sense Calpurnia is their mother, fulfilling that role in their lives save for the relationship with their father.

Save for the absence of any ethnic minority whatsoever the village in which I grew up in Nova Scotia is not unlike that of Jem and Scout. Everyone knew everybody, nobody locked their doors, and strange characters were accepted for whom they were. In an agrarian society the mentally deficient or emotionally disturbed managed to survive with the support of their neighbours. In fact it was a point of honour that we looked after our own.

I thought nothing of my freedom to walk for miles through our woods and forests, to go berry-picking, or swimming at the mill pond. No one thought to caution me when I hopped on my bicycle and pedalled the 1.2 miles uphill to my grandfather’s home or walked across the hills to visit my Great-Uncle and Grandmother who kept house for him. The security I knew then I took for granted.

Crime, if it existed, was of a moral nature, the town seven miles distant had its own police department but the RCMP who patrolled the county were rarely seen and unknown to us. Murder was something one read about in the news and robberies happened far away in big cities. Night time was for sleeping and by day no one did anything their neighbours didn’t know everything about before they had finished doing it. My Father, for example, sat in his rocking chair watching the road in front of our house and identified every car that passed. He could identify anyone who visited the graveyard in front of our house by the section of the cemetery they paused at.

Titanic

2011-11-02T08:28:00.000-04:00

Just finished watching James Cameron’s Titanic. The ship as it appears in the movie has a rather grotesque, brutish, utilitarian look about it in the long-range exterior shots. It was constructed to slice through the water as efficiently as possible; not for the beauty and grace of its lines as sailboat would have been crafted. Above the waterline it was built to hold as much cargo, human or otherwise, as possible.

Having seen the Titanic Exhibit at the Johnson Geologic Museum in Saint John’s, NFLD I am aware that the lifeboat capacity of the ship exceeding legal requirements in 1912; by the math

60X20=1200-2200=-1000.

The death toll was far higher due to the under-loading of many of those boats. God forbid First-Class passengers be incommoded. Steerage passengers were kept locked below decks even as their companionways flooded for good reason. They weren’t expected to survive.

Among other details. Morse Code transmission was still in its infancy, indeed the universal distress call was CQD, S.O.S. still being an experimental signal. Despite repeated signals warning of icebergs in the waters ahead the Captain at the owner’s urging steamed full-speed ahead into ice infested waters. Unaided by binoculars the men in the crowsnest searched for bergs on a glassy sea. The ice sighted dead ahead another ship’s failing became apparent—the rudder was too small to turn the ship. It has been theorized that had the ship struck the iceberg head-on it would have devastated the bow section of the boat and created a mighty concussion throughout but the boat would probably have survived. Striking a glancing blow along its side flooded the forward compartments and once more by design the watertight bulkheads were not extended all the way to the top decks so as not to incommode the First-Class passengers hence the cascading foundering of the ship.

Having set in motion the launching of the lifeboats it became apparent that neither the crew nor the passengers had undergone any lifeboat drills or training. In fact Titanic put to sea never having undergone any sea trials which might have made evident its rudder’s deficiencies. The icy winter waters off Newfoundland and hypothermia did the rest.

To add a human dimension to the recreation of a historical event the movie makers insert a hypothetical love-story into the mix. A spoiled society lass is about to be married off to money by her bankrupt mother and runs into an artistic adventurer in the person of Jack Hawkins. We are shown his gravestone. In the end it is Rose’s self-indulgence that kills Jack Hawkins. Had she listened to Jack and her fiancé Jack would probably have survived the sinking, as it was he was unable to keep both Rose and himself afloat and the cold North Atlantic claimed him.

The Reader

2011-11-02T08:22:00.000-04:00

What is lacking in this story is any background as to how Hannah came to be illiterate or what in her childhood caused her to be the frigid, emotionally detached, totally logical individual she became in later life.

In her relationship with Michael passion or love had no place, they experienced mutually rewarding needs and indulged them. For her part no emotional attachment was placed on them.

When her faithful employment record threatened advancement to a position that would have revealed her illiteracy her fear of the exposure lead her to seek other employment. She joined the SS to become a guard because the job did not require that she be capable of writing.

After she came to post-war trial her detached logical nature was interpreted as heartlessness and enthusiasm for her task. Rather than admit she couldn’t write when asked for a hand-writing sample she confessed to writing a report she obviously was incapable of having submitted. Revealing is the manner in which her co-accused jumped on the bandwagon and openly made her the scapegoat for their collective actions.

The reader centres on the future lawyer who, as a fifteen-year-old carries on an affair with a woman twice his age, who as a law student attends her Nazi War Crimes trial but fails to come forward with material information because he knows the condemned would not wish it made public. Who has not the courage to even confront her in prison then or even later in adulthood. Who rather continues reading books to her as he did that summer as a teen but now via tape. Who failed to attend his own father’s funeral but visits his mother to tell her of his divorce.

Dark Skies

2011-11-02T08:21:00.000-04:00

What is it with Hollywood conventions, I lived through the 60ies and clothing did not look like it had hung in mothballs, furniture like it had moulded, or wall paper like it had been fading for half a century. And the sky did not have a twilight cast. That may have described my Great-Uncle’s house but then he didn’t have electricity either. Were jets capable of Mach II in 1947?

What Dark Skies has going for it is Eric Close’s good looks, square shoulders and solid frame. The show seems to incorporate every possible conspiracy theory ever associated with Area 51 and whatever occurred at Roswell, New Mexico. So far it’s touched on Frances Gary Powers, Saturn Rocket Launches at Cape Kennedy, The Kennedy Assassination, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and Howard Hughes.

Just past the midway point of the first and only season the character of Julliette is introduced. By now a Soviet cliché she is the ultimate ball crusher who chews through her first scene like a hot knife slicing butter. Shortly after John’s girlfriend is essentially written out of the series and guess who becomes his love interest.

GONE WITH THE WIND

2011-11-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

GONE WITH THE WIND

Here is a movie worthy of one of the few remaining Grand Ole Theatres. In 1939 computers were barely the stuff of Science Fiction so that railway scene of thousands of wounded soldiers represents real extras, those warehouses really did burn and collapse, those boxcars blew up. Movies still rivalled live theatre productions and began with a Musical Prelude, had Intermission Music at the 2 hour mark and ended with Exit Music. I’d forgotten that the movie title was blown across the screen in full-size letters.

I’d also forgotten that Scarlet O’Hara was Katie-Scarlet. Again that Southern predilection for double names: Sue-Ellen, Jim-Bob, Billy-Bob, Billy-Ray—a child knew it was in real trouble when addressed as William-Robert. There is also the iconic Mammie and Prissey who epitomizes the name. The actress who played her just died. Aunt Pit-a-Pat shows she’s a real Southern Lady by fainting at any provocation.

Like the gracious South it portraits the movie unfolds in unhurried fashion. Never-the-less it manages to encompass the five years of Civil War and the twelve years of Reconstruction that followed. Although historical background is provided by onscreen lettered commentary the movie concentrates on the social, economic, and physical cost to the people involved. When Scarlet returns to Tara and finds her Mother Dead from Typhus with a cow in tow her two remaining faithful slaves declare—we don’t know how to milk, we’s house slaves. However the House Slaves remained because they had more personal ties with their Masters.

The second half of this movie—yes, it is 4 hour long—is on Disk 2. It follows the lengths to which Scarlet will go to protect her beloved Tara. The emphasis here is not on the Reconstruction but how it affected Scarlet. Like Scarlet herself the movie shows how the people around her serve to meet Scarlet’s motives, they are never important for themselves. Scarlet loses her Mother and the loss of his wife drives her Father mad. Although she develops a shrewd business sense Scarlet never matures beyond her self-centred, indulged, petulant teenage self. Totally lacking in any moral sense save her over-arching desire to protect her beloved Tara she will stop at nothing in its defence. Incapable of feeling love for anyone but herself she maintains a childish obsession with her neighbour Ashley who cannot be faithful to his wife save in a technical sense.

It is Mammy who holds the story together and it she who summons Melanie after the death of the Butler’s daughter, not for Scarlet but for the Master. When the strain of that visit leads to Melanie’s death it is Scarlet’s exit from the death chamber into the arms of Ashley rather than her nearby husband that provides the final provocation. The movie ends with Rhett’s famous line, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”. Somehow I get the sense that the writer/director couldn’t come up with anything to truly complete the story after that bombshell. Did I say I found the ending unsatisfying and incomplete?

V

2011-11-02T08:11:00.000-04:00

Calling the series “V” high concept is an understatement. Coming out in 1985 ten years before Independence Day the Mother Ships bear an uncanny resemblance to the ones that hovered over major world cities in the feature film. The series jumps into the story with no preparation or explanation. I have never been able to access the mini-series that would provide the back-story. By the final third of the series the opening credit sequence adds background too little, too late. The alien invaders bear an uncanny resemblance in their tactics, militarism, and jingoism to Nazi Storm-troopers right down to the hanging of large red flags. This time the invaders objective would seem to be the annihilation of the world’s entire population. Watching these lizard creatures swallow mice, scorpians, and other creepy crawlies can be rather off-putting.

Although a nebulous off-world leader is oft mentioned the ‘Visitors’ are lead by two woman with various men thrown in and disappearing again with little explanation. Lane Smith, who later played editor of the Daily Planet in Lois and Clark, is the collaborationist leader of Los Angeles. The Resistance is lead by Marc Singer, the muscles in the Beastmaster Movies; how he manages to squeeze into those form-fitting jeans and perform those athletic manoeuvres without any ‘costume malfunctions’ is a mystery. Plenty of eye-candy provided with the pectorally endowed Jeff Yagher and the visitor Charles wearing revealing outfits to little avail. Lots of pretty women as well. Whether Singer’s moves were choreographed or dictated by skin tight jeans I’m not sure, when did they develop stretch fabric? The clothing styles definitely date the series.

Walk the Line

2011-09-23T10:56:00.000-04:00

Walk the Line is a biopic based on the life of John Cash. Until I finally watched it I had never thought much about the man behind the legend. His start as a Gospel Singer, the depth of his relationship with the Carter Family. It is on subsequent viewings that the small details start jumping out at one, he became Johnnie Cash because that was the name Sam Phillips chose to put on his record labels. He became the “Man-in-Black” because that was the only colour shirt he and his band-mates all had in common. That he’d had an older brother who died after being hacked nearly in half by an open saw blade while John was off fishing. That his father didn’t share his love of music and that their estrangement was only solidified by the death of his brother whose devotion to child labour John didn’t share. Knowing this background helps explain the rebellion that flavours so much of his music.

Joining the armed service to escape home. His failed marriages. His drinking and the drugs. The itinerant life of a recording star and the adulation of swarming fans did nothing to provide him with a stable home life. Attaining stardom is not all it’s cracked up to be. The scene in which a bank teller patiently explains to him that she cannot instantly cash a cheque for $5000 because it’s too large brings it home to him. He tears it up in frustration and tosses the pieces. He would not be the first young star to self-destruct and he owed his survival to friends who looked out for him.

Teen Wolf

2011-09-17T13:29:00.000-04:00

Every boy should have a best friend as true and faithful as Stiles is to Teen Wolf Scott McCall. There seem to be a lot of missing parents in this series. Stiles Sheriff Father is a single parent as is Scott’s Mother. His off and on again girlfriend Allison has a mother who makes only passing appearances.

How do all those teens manage to own, insure, maintain, and put gas in all those cars? Scott has a job but he tools around on a bike. Who knew lacrosse was a high school sport? Where exactly the series takes place has never been made clear but the casting crew came up with a parcel of buff, muscular young actors. Scott and Jackson regularly show off well developed pecs and abs, Derek to quote an actress “grew up in all the right places”. Their teachers on the other hand are a parody of every student’s worst nightmare. The acting from episode one is uniformly good.

Who the alpha werewolf might be is kept a mystery to the end of season 2. Is it the science teacher or the vet? Werewolf appearances are kept rather hazy to cover up a TV series’ rather lean special effects budget. This show obviously capitalizes on the current Vampire Craze begun by the Twilight Series but it rises somewhat above the standard fare. Certainly it doesn’t lack for eye candy.

Everwood--Season Four

2011-09-09T08:34:00.000-04:00

This set has been a long time coming, the season aired in 2004. The producers have created a bare-bones DVD set, there are no extras beyond episode and scene access menus. The mountain scenery continues to be a facet of the show and the small-town atmosphere is in tact. It continues to be a soap opera in which the principal characters are in continual crisis and if not they, then Andy’s Patients.

[Spoiler Alert]

I have to do some online research to confirm my conclusions but the final episodes of this season give the story arc a sense of closure. Andy returns to the Bronx to visit his wife’s grave before returning to propose to his next-door neighbour. Andy sets Ephrom up with a Concert Pianist to facilitate his return to a performance degree course and their conversation enlightens Ephrom on the darker side being a guest pianist on a world scale. Having resorted to taking piano students to put money in his pocket to pay rent he discovers his true calling is in teaching rather than performance. My piano lessons were 50¢ an hour, Ephrom charges $50/half hour.

Delia finally has her bat mitzvah and discovers that running with the most popular set in school may not be the end all and be all. Both finally arrive at a reconciliation with their father. Ephram and Amy finally reconnect in the final episode. Her brother the barrel-chested Bright remains somewhat of a loose cannon; their parents face the empty nest syndrome. With the death of Irv, Dr. Abbot’s Mother is offered a room his home. Having killed off Irv the series would be in need of someone new to give the cheesie opening narration.

Everwood has always been a show that was greater than the sum of its parts. Beyond the core group of characters there has always been a revolving door of patients to add interesting new storylines. Andy’s dead wife has continued to haunt the show as she has Andy himself. The show comes full circle when he finally lays her to rest.

Merlin

2011-09-04T08:56:00.000-04:00

The subject of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Guinevere and Lancelot, The Sword in the Stone Excalibar and the Lady of the Lake, and Merlin the Magician have been the stuff of English Legend. More a topic for Poets and Bards than archaeologists and historians the story of an idealized Ruler and his Kingdom Camelot has always been more myth than fact. Locations in Wales and Cornwall have been associated the Myth but little empirical evidence exists to prove there ever was such a kingdom. Poets and composers have created many treatments of the subject from Tristan and Isolde to Parsifal. Movie makers and animators as well as artists have found the topic irresistible. Dragons join unicorns as fabled creatures, though the exisence of dragons in Asian lore adds an interesting twist, [Godzilla, anyone?] Beowulf, Robin Hood, and Arthur form a triumvirate that have informed the writings of Sir Thomas Mallory, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir Walter Scott, and JRR Tolkien.

I find it interesting that new treatments tend to appear in times of economic turmoil, apprehended terrorism, and social and political unrest. Tales of an idealized ruler who fought off Saxon Invaders seem to bring comfort in disturbing times. That no hard facts exist gives free reign to the imagination though I find it curious that most recent versions prefer to deal with the youthful Arthur under the reign of his Father Uther rather than the flawed and failing king of his later years. Communes and Communal living tend to fall prey to human nature. There is more solace in the promise shown by an adolescent Arthur than the fall of Camelot brought on by the Fall of Man--the betrayal of a King by his Fairy Queen and a trusted friend.

The present BBC Production is told from the point of view of a teen-aged Merlin who acts as Prince Arthur’s Page mentored by Gaius, the Court Physician. Guinevere shows up as servant girl to the King’s Ward Morgana. Uther has banned magic on pain of death and keeps a talking dragon chained in a cavern below his dungeons. As Merlin Colin Morgan is a jug-eared, round-shouldered urchin with piercing blue eyes and raven black hair cut in bangs. Flaxen haired Bradley James as Arthur leads Uther’s army and is always pictured to accentuate broad shoulders in crimson tops or chain mail with shoulder armour and gauntlets. The story centres on these principal characters and rarely are palace guards or Arthur’s men addressed by name.

I have no adequate explanation as to how I managed to watch Season Two before One save that the boxes weren’t prominently marked and I had no idea what to expect. Banning Magic in Camelot appears to have been about as effective as Prohibition in the US--it only served to drive it underground. After all the series is about a magician. Ironic that a BBC Production based on ancient English lore had to go to Ireland to find its titular actor and to France to find a castle to represent Camelot. This may be an action adventure series but it becomes exhausting just watching how many scrapes these characters get themselves into. Arthur appears to make remarkable recoveries given how often he appears to be at death’s door. It’s almost magical.

Left Behind

2011-07-08T10:25:00.000-04:00

Anyone not of the born-again true believer persuasion could do well to give this show a miss. As the dialogue and title of this piece makes plain this movie is about those who get left behind, the good people get instantly translated leaving behind the clothing and jewellery in which they were sitting or standing. The flick is for the benefit of the millions who have made the Left Behind Series of books best sellers. Using Kirk Cameron as a latter-day ‘scud-stud’ is a bit of a waste as the only thing the former heart throb gets to show off here is a well rounded butt. Alas even child stars tend to put on weight in middle age.

NCIS

2011-06-25T15:13:00.002-04:00

Whereas the producers in one of their supplements admit that criminal investigations are not normally wrapped up in a 45 minute period they fail to acknowledge that cases would not normally come up conveniently one at a time as old ones were put to bed.

Even after working in the civil service for nearly 40 years the characters who make up this unit are among the most eccentric given such a small group. The goth crime lab operator, even allowing for indulgences given the truly brilliant, gets away with murder. The over-sexed Tony seems almost cliche had I not met people just like him in the work place. Any boss of mine would never have gotten away with slapping me on the back of the head more than once. Nor would I have put up with the hazing, teasing, and practical jokes. The condescending manner in which Tony treats Tim, the new hire is unconscionable to me. When someone pulled stunts like that on me when ‘training’ me for a new position he expressed surprise when I was resistant to attempting to learn from him. More galling at the time was his being 30 years younger than me and 25 years junior in seniority.

The equipment in Abby’s crime lab boggles the mind. It’s worth millions. The morgue scenes are graphic in the extreme, anyone sensitive about the sight of blood would lose their supper rather quickly. Funny how none of those cadavers possess genitalia. Ironic that we see chests cracked open, livers and hearts pulled out, but nary a penis in sight. How can we believe in tests for rape and the presence of semen in the absence of the body parts that would hold them.

It is obvious that this is a prime time network show as sexual references are all inuendo and small talk. Despite the violence done the victims here never is an expletive so much as bleeped out. You’d think these were choir boys.

The character of ‘Ducky’ is truly inspired. David McCalum has lost his youthful sex status long since. In one episode reference is even made to his character in The Man from UNCLE. Mark Harmon is no longer the young hunk he was in St Elsewhere. Old age it seems come to us all.

It also strikes me that for law enforcement officers, these agents seem to have little regard for the law breaking into private spaces at will and hacking into databases with impunity. It may speed up the process of their investigations but the legalities.... ?

Every professional organization possesses its own jargon and esoteric language and none more than the navy. Those who have watched the series JAG got introduced to a lot of it but we get even more here in an attempt to lend authenticity to the show. Ofttimes the explanation for acronyms and expressions seem almost laughable when explained. For instance VFR means Visual Flight Rules. Just recently I was moved to finally research the term ‘full bird colonel’; the term gets its credence from the fact that an individual of such rank gets a complete eagle on the insignia he wears.

As in all things where this show is concerned the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Despite all my criticisms and reservations about this series it possesses a charm and a verisimilitude that engages the watcher and draws one into the action. I am indebted to my Brother-in-Law and Sister for introducing me to NCIS.

So far my favourite episode is entitled ‘Heartland’. When a few people are forced to work in close proximity to one another privacy is often hard to maintain. When posted to Iraq a male and female officer find themselves forced to share an empty barracks with not even a curtain in sight. The unit’s leader has maintained an absolute blackout on his own background but in this episode he is forced to take he and his team to the small town in which he grew up for an investigation.

When we arrive in town we meet the sheriff who pulls him over and immediately renews a long-standing enmity. At the general store we meet its owner, Gibb’s Father, and learn that he left home thirty years ago and hasn’t returned since. What follows is a revelation of the adage about the difficulties of returning home. To a parent one is always their child. Being bystanders to this relationship is an eye-opener for the members of Jethro’s Team--here he is Leroy. Seeing the mighty Gibbs wield a pricing machine over a case of soup cans like he’s done it all his life boggles the mind. Big city operatives find culture shock in a red-neck hick town. Everyone knows everyone else here if they aren’t related and cell-phone service does not exist but land-lines do have touch tone.

Part of the appeal of this show is its willingness to reveal such vulnerabilities.

One Tree Hill Season 7

2011-05-28T14:01:00.000-04:00

One Tree Hill began life as a high school basketball drama that was about more than sports. Like its protagonists the series went through growing pains as its kids became young adults in the process losing whatever innocence it might have possessed. Progressing from teenage soap opera to adults with more responsibilities its characters lost their look of precociousness but retained their articulate dialogue. The fact that they are self-aware doesn’t seem to shield them from any of life’s pitfalls.

In season six the show lost its starring role with the departure of Chad Michael Murray. Hollywood remains uncharacteristically silent about the dispute that precipitated this move. It’s a tribute to its staff writers that this show managed to survive minus its lead character. By season seven the principals are pushing thirty but remain as commitment challenged and immature as ever. It is seven-year-old Jamie who steals the show and exhibits the most maturity.

With the departure of the almost saintlike Lucas, Nathan has shed much of his bad boy image. Once he goes pro he acquires an agent though one might have expected Clay to be older and more mature than the talent he manages. The love interests of the characters who remain add new life to the show. Brooke Davis’ Julian, a movie producer moves in with her. Her business is managed by Millicent who has a relationship with ‘Mouth’ who shares an apartment with ‘Skills’.

A basketball gets thrown around every now and then but the game takes a backseat to the soap opera that is these people’s lives. I suppose normal lives would not be a ratings draw but it seems hard to believe that so much could happen to a group of people. Either the show cornered the market on red-haired actors or someone used a lot of hair dye.

Smallville: Season 9

2011-05-28T13:58:00.000-04:00

As I get around to watching season 9 of Smallville the series finale in Season 10 has just been announced. The shows I watched on live TV before I gave up on it are fast disappearing. One wonders for example how much longer One Tree Hill can survive.

Like OTH Smallville began as a high school teen drama and has had an uneasy transition to adulthood. People have come and gone high school buddies moving on. For a while the show toyed with the Justice League but Jensen Ackles, for example, moved on to his own show--Supernatural. The departure of Lex Luther, a staple of the Superman Canon, was rather a shock though in a world ruled by Meteor Rock and the Wall of Weird anything including resurrection is possible. The death of Jimmy Olson was another surprise. Season 9 spends considerable effort on who will be paired with whom and Clark’s on again, off again thing for Lois Lane. The duality of her fixation on his Superman alter ego to the exclusion of the reporter who sits opposite her adds novel tension.

This season Tom Welling appears shirtless for the first time and it would seem his handlers failed to persuade him to adhere to a rigorous gym schedule and diet. In contrast clothes are wasted on Justin Hartley whose ripped physique puts Superman to shame. In an attempt to enrich rather thin plot-lines in the absence of Clark’s arch nemesis Lex more survivors from Krypton appear including a brief poorly handled appearance by Jorel, Kalel’s Father. In the final episodes of the season Martha Kent returns to the farm. Interesting note, when Clark makes his whosh entrances there the door is never locked, surely the place needs more protection than that given by the family dog Shelby.

Prison Break

2011-05-28T13:54:00.000-04:00

The word of a thief and liar is worse than useless. Mercy is a dangerous thing to practice on a cellblock.

This is a series based on High Concept precepts. The first is that a brother with a brilliant promising career would have the plans of a prison tattooed over his entire body and then get himself committed to that prison for the sake of his brother. The second is that he could plan a prison break known to a large group of inmates without getting caught. The third is that a man on death row weeks from being terminated would be let out to mingle with the general population.

Without being as graphic as other prison dramas out there the series still presents the usual fodder for such series: drugs, corruption, brutality, rape, and murder. It soon becomes clear that the warders are every bit as much in prison as the inmates. It is however the quality of the acting and our identification with Wentworth Miller and his character that carries one along and allows the viewer to buy in.

Flashpoint Season 2

2011-04-25T12:59:00.000-04:00

Flashpoint is a rare commodity, a Canadian production that has made it big in the US. What is even more amazing is the fact that it makes no apology for the fact that it is set in Downtown Toronto regularly showing off the city skyline. Toronto institutions such as Osgoode Hall, High Park, and Queens Park figure regularly. Renaming the iconic Maple Leaf Gardens however seems gratuitous, changing the name must have been part of the deal that allowed them to shoot inside.

The series has the usual black SUV’s, chase scenes and screaming sirens, the guns, high tech equipment and uniforms; however with one or two exceptions it does not have particularly sexy officers. Another uniquely Canadian aspect of the show is the fact that although all these officers are expert marksmen in all cases they attempt to talk their way out tense situations as a first resort rather than use weapons.

That a major character gets killed off in Season 2, and in particular one who was an ethnic minority would seem to signal a desire on the part of the actor to move on.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

2011-04-23T13:22:00.000-04:00

Although I deeply resent being manipulated into buying two DVD’s to watch the seventh and final chapter of the Harry Potter saga I must admit that the the narrative is greatly compressed and telescoped in this movie version. Anyone who has not recently read the book will have some difficulty following the plot. For example the wedding at the burrow does not make clear whose nuptials are being celebrated unless you catch the banner reading Bill and Flora which appears in the background for only a few brief frames. I had to run the scene a second time paying close attention to catch it.

Harry and Ronald would have been lost without Hermoine for many reasons not the least of which would be her purse. The books exploit many clichés not the least of which would be the amount of gear a woman carries around with her in her purse. I’ve marveled at the size of the interior of the tents the Weasleys have used but this architectural marvel appeared from Hermoine’s reticule along with changes of clothes and all else the guys needed and also contains the lass’ considerable library. But for magic she’d need the strength of Hagrid just to carry it around.

The principle characters have grown seven years from Harry’s initial appearance at Hogworts as an eleven-year-old. Hermoine as well as Ron’s younger sister Ginny have developed into full-figured young women. Ron has filled out to become the kind of hunk one could believe Hermoine would fall for. Harry has grown taller and lost a great deal of the little boy vulnerability that initially made him look so lovable but he retains that look of a misfit who lacks self-assurance and an awareness of his own abilities or how to use them. He is the youngest of the trio and it shows. Before he leaves his muggle home on Privott Lane he has a last look into his closet under the stairs.

As the story progresses Harry continues to lose the people who once supported him. The process begins with his parents killed when he was an infant; continued with the murder of his guardian Sirius Black; his mentor Dumbledoor; and most recently even the elf he freed from the Malfoys. Since this is part one of a two-parter everything ends in limbo, we’ll need to wait to see how things are resolved in part 2.

The Tudors--Final Season

2011-03-08T09:29:00.001-05:00

If you’ve seen a copy of the Magna Carta you will know that King John was illiterate. Henry the Eighth on the other hand was well read, the rumoured composer of many anonymous works, and more knowledgeable of medicine than most of his doctors. He was also quite athletic and an excellent soldier. Whether it is healthy for any man that his very word be absolute law is debatable.

Long since it has been obvious the producers were more interested in the acting abilities of the man who would play their autocrat than his physical resemblance to the historical descriptions. Ireland stands in for England in the exterior shots. As a historical costume drama the rich clothing, tapestries, music and architecture all seem authentic. One could debate whether the torture scenes and executions needed to be quite so graphic.

Henry is glib in describing his fellow leader’s medical issues as venereal disease. Given his roistering youth it would be remarkable if he also did not suffer such maladies. Whether this had any bearing on his inability to father sons in his many wives.... His obsession with seeding his line and assuring his male succession led him to his infamous string of partners and his break with the church of Rome.

It is interesting to see how the one son Edward was raised in seclusion and to meet the future Bloody Mary and her sister Elizabeth who became the ‘Virgin Queen’ responsible for England’s ‘Golden Age’. If nothing else, this series is an education in how an absolute monarch is managed by those subservient to him. The means his last wife, Katherine Parr uses in the final chapters to manipulate her husband, deceive him, and ensure her own protection and that of her maids is a revelation. But then this was a much more mature and savvy woman than the first five bobbleheads who were chosen as ‘brood mares’ and not for their intelligence.

Presumed Innocent

2011-02-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

Two things become eminently clear in reading this book. When it comes to law and order there are many shades of grey but things are rarely black and white. Justice is what can be proved in a court of law, the truth barely matters.

As if having a prominent prosecuting attorney accused of committing the very crime he has been investigating, arraigned and brought to trial wasn’t enough; we are then led through the defence preparation and the court proceedings by the accused. As onlookers in this process we are kept in the dark the majority of the time. In explaining the intricacies of the court procedures we are denied knowledge of the most important details of the case itself, the accused denying us the essential truth of his innocence or guilt.

I don’t usually go for best sellers so I missed this book when it was published back in 1986 and missed the movie starring Harrison Ford. Guess I’ll have to search it out somewhere in a remaindered bin.

The Great One at 50: Share your stories

2011-01-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

CBC Sports

Wayne Gretzky set up in the place that would become known as his "office," behind the net. (Allsport)January 26, 2011. Wayne Gretzky turns 50. Seems hard to believe.
His achievements and records are endless and would take up too much space to list, but here is a sampling:

Most goals in a season - 92
Most assists in a season - 163
Most points in a season - 215
Most goals - 894
Most assists - 1,963
Most points - 2,857
Fastest ever to score 50 goals - 39 games

For those who didn't see him play, there were plenty of reasons to call him the Great One. He was hockey magic.
By today's standards he was small. He was slightly built, six feet tall but only 160 pounds. He wasn't particularly fast, and he seldom threw a check.
Yet when he was on the ice the game was his.
His teammates learned to expect a perfect pass at the most suprising moments. Opposition goalies learned to never, ever relax when No. 99 was on the ice. He was uncanny
The point here is not to relive his very public success, but to explore some personal memories.
We'll kick it off here with stories from some of the Hockey Night in Canada commentators who played with him, against him, or just watched him work. We've included a story from someone who watched him play as a young superstar with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers.
We're looking here for your connections to The Great One. Read our offerings and then tell us your stories.

The Social Network

2011-01-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mar 8:36

Facebook, The Social Network Site as of January 2011 has 600,000,000 million members. This movie illustrates how it grew from an experimental attempt to establish a network on the campus of Harvard University. It begins with an extended dialogue between Mark and his girlfriend worthy of David Mamet in its adroit complexity establishing his self-absorption, moral turpitude, and nerdiness. His exploits gain wider attention when his budding experiment crashes the Harvard Network. As the project expands to campuses across America and then the public at large and worldwide what started as a dorm room experiment becomes a multi-billion dollar enterprise and the people who were in at the basement level start making claims.

Two lawsuits ensue first involving the well-heeled jocks in a Harvard Fraternity who had first asked Zuckerberg to write code for a network they proposed. In contrast to Mark these were six-foot-five-inch athletes who intimidate by virtue of their size and their connections. The second was his friend who put up the cash that got him started. What value should be placed on capital investment versus intellectual property and what loyalty is placed on friendship. That an online network based on ‘friendship’ should be founded on the betrayal of real-life friends is ironic indeed.

Justin Timberlake appears as the charismatic Sean Parker founder of Napster whose prima donna appearances serve to influence certain of Zuckerberg’s key decisions. The two make an interesting contrast. The movie takes the form of an extended voir-dire with the parties sitting around a boardroom table while flashbacks serve to illustrate the points being made by legal counsel. To show the estrangement between the former friends the director uses the stage device of having Edwardo and Mark seated facing away from one another. In a revealing moment opposing counsel asks the bored looking Mark, ‘Do I have your attention? and he replies, ‘My oath requires that I answer honestly that you have only a tiny part of it’. When Wardo makes it out to California to see what his money is doing and finds a drug party in progress in the livingroom he approaches Mark and is told ‘he’s wired in’; he picks up the laptop and smashes it to the ground saying, ‘Now do I have your attention?’

Mark’s interest seems to be in software development and online social experiment; Wardo whose cash initially supplied the start-up capital is interested in the venture as a business that should supply a return on that capital and show a profit. Both are right but whereas Mark managed to ride the juggernaut the venture became to a $25-billion-dollar enterprise Wardo got left behind. Since the parties settled out of court and signed non-disclosure agreements we may never know how they settled. The question I’m left with is, ‘Do I really want to contribute to this enterprise?’
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100000595269777

ER

2011-01-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

At time of writing I am watching seasons 3 and 4 of this show’s 15 year run. It survived that long because it enjoyed consistently good writing, directing and acting along with realistic portrayals, cutting edge medicine, and expert advisors.

I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the medical procedures on view or the language used to describe them. What is made amply clear is why no doctor should treat a family member and that doctor’s make lousy patients. Having a doctor around when a family member is being treated is a nightmare.

The hierarchical structure of a hospital becomes amply clear each profession jealously protecting its turf. In an era when superbugs are becoming resistant to treatment by any antibiotic the importance of lowly cleaning staff is coming to the fore. One staff member who does not wash between patients or after eating or using the bathroom can do irreparable harm. Don’t know that I’ll ever understand the differences between attending physicians, residents, interns, physicians assistants, and plain old doctors. What I have caught is the competition between various fields of medicine in particular that between surgeons and medical doctors though at times I’d have difficulty were I a patient discerning the subtle differences between treating a condition by operating or the use of drugs with all their attendant side-effects. For an outsider there’s a bewildering protocol surrounding what procedures a nurse can do vs a doctor and what privileges such as the writing of scripts though inside the hospital nurses dispense medicines on a doctor’s orders. What is very apparent is the importance of nurses and the degree to which doctors treat them dismissively. What can one say for example is the difference between a nurse who has seen a procedure performed daily for 25 years and an intern about to perform it for the first time and needs coaching by that nurse.

I’ll never understand the wisdom of having doctors in training attempt to work long sleep-deprived shifts and even double shifts. If we recognize the importance of a long-haul trucker keeping a log that documents the amount of sleep that is mandatory he get why is it not important that someone making life or death decisions do the same. Nepotism it would seem is not frowned upon though having two family members in the same department must lead to short-staffing if a family emergency ensues. As in good police procedurals one of the strengths of this show was the fact that these doctors and nurses had lives outside their work hours, they were three-dimensional characters.

Mark Greene’s visit to his family home in California returns him to the room he grew up in, or at least the furniture that was moved from base to base as his navy father got transferred from assignment to assignment. Given a life lived at sea and a taciturn nature his father is not an active presence in his life. It therefore comes as a shock to him that his father gave up a chance at promotion to admiral for his sake and kept that fact secret all those years. Doug Ross by contrast is forced to pick up the pieces after his dilettante roving gambler father dies in a car accident taking with him a girl friend without a name and the family man Mexican American driver of the other car.

Supernatural 5

2011-01-06T12:48:00.001-05:00

Here we have a show that was scheduled for a five-year run in which the story arc played out at the end of this season but was actually renewed for at least one additional season. We’ll see what the writer’s come up with to keep it fresh, mind you given the boneyard of failed shows it’s a pleasant problem to have.

The show continues to take advantage of the assets it has had from the beginning, two tall, well-built hunks who just happen to like one another on and off-set; a fast car; a large dose of the supernatural; and a revolving coterie of love-interests. The fact that the younger brother towers over his sibling and that in the credits his name appears first alphabetically has not had much press but one wanders, just ask the Smothers Brothers.

How the pair can continue to set speed records going cross-country without amassing incredible speeding tickets remains a mystery as does how they manage to get away with impersonating FBI Agents, and other public officials. Whereas their normal attire could best be described as grunge they seem to clean up real good. They would seem to be good old boys who talk tough and are not adverse to indulging in fisticuffs, hard drinking, or fast women. Their obsession with the occult seems somewhat out of character.

Numb3rs 6

2011-01-02T07:26:00.002-05:00

Whether or not the FBI in reality uses higher Mathematics to solve crime this series attempted to make it look real. The young Jewish Doctor left Alaska and became the buff leader of a team of FBI Agents assisted by his Genius Mathematics Professor little brother who still lives at home with Daddy. With the cutaways in which Charlie explains the arcane niceties of higher math it was never quite clear whether this was a crime drama or an apology for the Philosophy of Mathematics. With Peter MacNicol playing his rather loopy colleague the absentminded professor stereotype is well reinforced. Of the members of the team the quiet but solid Colby Granger played by Dylan Bruno has always been a favourite. Judd Hirsch playing the brother’s retired city planner father replays the role he had as Jeff Goldblum’s father in Independence Day.

Restrepo

2010-12-14T17:54:00.000-05:00

But for the fact that Sebastian Junger and Ted Hetherington spent a year embedded with these troops their mission to Korangal Valley in Afghanistan would be just another in which troops were deployed to a location that was later abandoned without comment. The movie serves to put faces to the characters I read about in Junger’s book War. Faces that on screen appear in extreme close-up. Modern warfare is conducted at extreme distance with ammo that can cause injury and death even when it misses you. The enemy is an impersonal entity unless you are the one being shot at or you see him in the sights of your weapon. Soldiers don’t so much fight for a cause but in support of the members of their unit.

This movie is more about the warriors than the war they fought. We see close-ups of weapons being fired but get little sense of the enemy they are aiming at, probably true to the actual situation the troops faced. What is brought home to the viewer are the spartan conditions which the troops have to live in, the pallet of bottled water wrapped in netting was obviously heloed in as was everything else they use. New arrivals labour up steep slopes with heavy packs; cartons of cigarettes and a collapsible camp chair being prized items humped in at great personal cost.

This is one movie where the DVD supplements are more useful than the actual feature. The Deleted Scenes show us more than the actual movie itself. We also get to meet each of the soldiers and hear about their lives post-mission. Young men go to war, to this 60-year-old seeming boys. The individual who gets the most screen time looks barely out of his teens. Although the movie makes no comment about politics, military objectives or moral judgments there is no missing the message that lives were lost and ruined for an objective that was later abandoned. The effectiveness of the hearts and minds campaign was vividly demonstrated by the yawn of the elder who like his ancestors before him has heard it all before. Gungho whipper-snappers come and go but the people who live there have to endure. The Taliban own the territory and collaboration with the American infidels will result in retaliation.

Is the trauma inflicted on the men sent to these theatres of war worth the cost in lives lost, families orphaned, and lives forever traumatized? It seems clear that even the men who didn’t suffer physical wounds will need care of some kind for the remaining 60 years of their natural lives if they manage to survive the nightmares they brought home with them. If this movie does nothing else it makes dramatically clear the true cost of war. The armchair politicians and generals who send boys to war should have this as required viewing, but why should reality interfere with policy.

Unstoppable

2010-12-14T17:50:00.000-05:00

Hollywood lacking in fresh ideas this is a riff on the Eric Roberts and Jon Voight vehicle Runaway Train. Here Morgan Freeman is the old pro days from being laid off and Chris Pine the rookie both on and off the screen. The pair who set the disaster in motion are so inept as to be caricatures were it not for the stories my rail traffic control friends have related.

Humans make mistakes but sending an 11,000,000 ton train loaded with explosive toxic materials hurtling down the main line at full throttle with no one on-board rates pretty high on the foul-up scale. We get the usual Corporate what will this do to stock values weaselling and precious time wasted attempting to minimize Corporate losses and bad public relations.

However the movie is about the interplay between Pine and Freeman. When we learn that Freeman has been given a 90-day termination notice it serves to explain his crusty treatment of newly arrived Pine serving his first day on the job as Conductor to Freeman’s Engineer--these days both ride in the cab.

After the rather slow initial scenes that serve to set up the disaster to come the movie is one extended adrenalin rush. We get to see rail cars turned to kindling and a few trackside obstacles pancaked. The one character I have so far ignored is the rail traffic controller played by Rosario Dawson who co-ordinates the rescue attempt and runs interference between our heroes and the Corporate weasels. At the end of the movie we get a where are they now summation in support of the supposition that these events actually happened. The final rescue event which stops the train is rather anti-climactic after the hour we’ve just been through. Such high-concept movies require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief and one needs a great deal of it here to sustain the notion that these trains are really hurtling along at 70 miles-per-hour.

Twilight: Eclipse

2010-12-14T17:46:00.001-05:00

Watched because I’ve actually been to Forks and read the books. The cynical could say the movie’s raison d’être is to show off Taylor Lautner’s taut abs and bulging bis and pecs and that it certainly does for as Robert Pattison quips he barely ever wears a shirt even during the snow scenes. That our Bella forms the apex of a love triangle involving two mythical creatures, a vampire and a werewolf, stretches credibility. If you can accept that scenario then vampires who can walk in daylight and werewolves that transform at will should be no problem. As with most other book to screen transfers many pot-lines get truncated, the majority of the screen time is devoted to Bella and her suitors. Her father Charlie gets the usual taciturn one-liners. Until the final showdown the other characters remain pretty much on the periphery. The final scenes serve to set us up for the next outing.

Southland

2010-12-14T17:43:00.000-05:00

This is a police procedural with a large ensemble cast of actors some of whom have been around for decades on and off the big screen.

Shawn Hatosy          Alpha Dog, Borstal Boy
C. Thomas Howell   E.T., The Outsiders
Tom Everett Scot   That Thing You Do,
Michael McGrady   The Thin Red Line
Michael Cudlitz      Band of Brothers--Bull Randleman
Ben McKenzie        The pouty kid from the OC

It repeats the now successful formula of combining police work with scenes from the officers’ private lives. Once again we are shown the ropes by the device of having a rookie, here McKenzie paired with an experienced Officer, Cudlitz.

These officers manage to get their jobs done despite their personal problems, foibles, and demons. The story-lines serve to put a human face on law enforcement with an emphasis on police service; as when the vice squad officer tells the perp with a baby in the rear seat to get out of there rather than make the arrest or the detective who goes that extra mile behind the scenes to ensure a questionable mother gets to keep her one-year-old.

Set in Los Angeles our rookie friend was born with a silver spoon in his mouth in Beverley Hills and has a high profile lawyer father who abandoned his family.    Rookie and trainer exchange child abuse stories. We get treated to the usual number of car and foot chase scenes and a certain amount of gunfire including a memorable pilot episode event in which Ben demonstrates his shooting prowess and a later one in which he applies a sleeper hold.

What sets this show apart from the many others of its genre I could name is its emphasis on the people who commit crime and the people who combat it. Legalize and investigative process is kept to a minimum. We spend little time with lawyers and no time in court nor is there much emphasis put on punishment. What we do get is a sense of the frustrations facing officers due to budget restraints. The 20-year back up of DNA tests, the difficulty getting someone into a witness protection program, the inequalities in the service provided high-end neighbourhoods versus slums.

October Road--Season Two

2010-12-14T17:38:00.001-05:00

There’s something poignant about watching a TV Series on DVD that failed to make it on air. This one lasted for two seasons before failing to get renewed. Poignant is an appropriate word to describe a storyline about a group of thirty something childhood friends who refuse to grow up, make commitments, or set goals and take on responsibilities.

It is said that a author should write what he knows but Nick Garrett ran off to New York for ten years to write a book based on the people he grew up with in a small New England Town. Going home it is also said is impossible. Returning after 10 years to the girl you left behind you and people who recognized themselves in print is quite another matter. One should not be surprised if people have moved on even if you haven’t.

Men are from Mars and Woman are from Venus. Men are little boys with hairy chests; women are a mystery. If the scenario sounds somewhat like the movie Beautiful Girls the co-creator wrote that script and created this series in part based on his home town’s reaction to its depiction in that movie. Sully’s Bar echoes the spiritual home of gang in the movie and there are many of the same characters right down to a Rosie O'Donnell look-a-like and a landscaper who gets the s--t kicked out of him. Nick the writer subs for Timothy Hutton the piano bar player.

As season two winds down the gang are confronted with the death of a classmate the shock serving to force the ‘boys’ to grow up. Since the series ended with many plot-lines including the long-running mystery as to who fathered Hannah Daniels son Sam left unanswered a 10-minute epilogue called Roads End: the Final Chapter was shot and added as a supplement to Season Two on DVD.

Earthsea

2010-08-29T05:31:00.000-04:00

A four hour mini-series loosely based on a set of fantasy books. In magic as in most things a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Knowledge and power without wisdom can prove one’s undoing. Just because one knows how to do a thing and has the capacity to perform the act doesn’t mean it is necessarily wise to do so. How many bodybuilders along with amateur and professional athletes alike have used performance enhancing drugs to mold magnificent physiques, great endurance, and recuperative powers only to pay the price in mental instability, heart disease, and other health problems. No one should perform any act or ask any question unless one is sure of the answer and the consequences of that action. No drug is without its side-effects and one must be certain the good it may do outways its consequences. The scientists who discovered radioactivity died of the cancer it caused, those who developed nuclear weapons discovered the ‘killer of worlds’. Genie’s that are let out of bottles are not so easily put back inside.

Shawn Ashmore plays Ged the impetuous mage and Chris Gauthier who later played the chef in Eureka plays his buddy Vetch who looks at everything for its potential as something to eat. Kristin Kreuk, Lana Lang in Smallville plays the Druidess, Tenar and Alan Scarfe, the archmagus. The movie is more a cult of personalities than the story of Earthsea and magic. The young magus spends a great deal of time sailing among the islands of the archipelago in a tiny skull. There is a great deal more action than plot line development, very little magic, no philosophy, and an all too typical Hollywood ending. Mages don’t usually get the girl, or as in this case the priestess.

The Cure

2010-08-28T15:05:00.000-04:00

Two mothers attempting to raise sons with absent fathers but there the comparison ends. One a chain-smoking red-neck with a resentful boy whose father is in New Orleans chasing a trollop; the other a long suffering single-parent caring for an eleven-year-old dying of AIDS acquired from a blood transfusion. What’s remarkable is the fact that the two boys meet over their backyard fence and strike up an unlikely friendship. The older boy is too much an outsider and too devil-may-care to be bothered by what the neighbours or his mother may think or what the risks may be. Together they embark on a summer of adventures playing with their action figures, battleship, raiding the candy store, searching out herbal cures, floating down the local stream in an inner tube and riding the streets in a shopping cart and eventually floating down the Mississippi a la Huckleberry Finn.

The marvel is that Dexter’s Mother is able to swallow her qualms about the dangers and exploitation that Erik poses and recognize his ability to divert her son’s attention from the grim realities of a life-threatening disease and allow him to concentrate on being a boy again for one more magic summer. Her ability to let go and grant his freedom to a gravely ill little boy when she knows he may be doing things injurious to his health, to share those last precious days of his all-to-short life with a stranger, to allow a child to have fun rather then be a patient; set her apart from most parents. Even during his final illness in hospital she drives Erik to the hospital where the boys play games with Dexter hooked up to monitors and intervenus drips. It is Erik’s ability to ignore the gravity of the situation and find fun with his sick friend that moves his Mother to allow them these last precious moments together without her hovering over them. They even make a game of scaring the wits out of hospital staff with the fact that Dexter may have stopped breathing until one day it proves to be an all too real.

Their drive home from the hospital that day has a unique poignancy. It is the joy this pair of boys share in each other’s company that raises this above the disease of the week movie status. Dexter’s mother’s ability to welcome a stranger into her home, feed him on a regular basis, and put up with his bad hygiene, manners, and boorish behaviour without being judgemental or overtly critical for the sake of her son’s mental well-being give her a near sainty status. In their final scene together at the funeral home she invites Erik to drop by as their shared experience will help fill the void in both their lives.

"ER"

2010-07-12T12:30:00.001-04:00

After fifteen Seasons this show finally wrapped last year. Although I have had only passing acquaintance it was fascinating to watch the pilot episode and see all the rookie actors whose careers this show launched before they became famous; were any of us ever that young? As Dr. Mark Greene, Anthony Edwards, who still has hair here, is the rock that holds everything together. A man who never calls in sick, he is quietly efficient making his job look easy until someone else attempts to do it. Noah Wyle arrives looking like a stray puppy dog, he at least has an excuse for looking lost as he begins his first hospital rotation as a med student. To a large extent it is through his eyes we get introduced to a large hospital emergency department.

In the same way that I question why anyone would want to be assigned to a military combat unit given my reading of War or the watching of Stop-Loss and Hurt Locker, I would wonder that anyone would want to subject themselves to the stress and constant human tragedy encountered in an ER in a major city like Chicago. The kinds of people who flourish in these situations must share similar characteristics as adrenalin junkies. The challenge is presenting oneself to the patients as a caring individual without letting this constant birage of human woe tear one apart. To empathize while maintaining objectivity; to keep one’s reserve without appearing coldly analytical; in a word to present a good bedside manner.

Of particular note is the day of the blizzard in which bored staff resort to childish games just before they get deluged with hundreds of casualties from a multi-car pile-up. The day a barely teenaged gangbanger threatens the ward with a gun until he learns that his target is already dead. Through the eyes of a newly arrived intern we confront staff member’s acceptance of the everyday occurance of man’s inhumanity to man. Produced back in the day when there were still 24 episodes in a season this package contains 4 DVD’s with 3 episodes per side.

Eureka 3.5

2010-07-12T08:23:00.001-04:00

First off I resent being manipulated into buying Sesaon 3 in two instalments just to line the studio pockets. Ironic as this is happening at the same time that I’m losing interest in the series. Whatever this says about me it also indicates that script-writers are failing in their task of keeping the series fresh and falling down on the job of capturing my continued interest. Somehow their plot-lines are growing stale and losing that impetus that would draw the audience back next week to see what happens next. As Sherif of Eureka Jack Carter’s job is not so much about fighting crime as protecting the town and its mad scientists from themselves. His ability to remain calm amid each succeeding end of the world scenario is remarkable but then knowing that somehow the hero of the piece is likely to survive removes some of the suspense. The series of disasters become increasingly preposterous. Season 4 is running this summer but somehow it’s unlikely that I’ll be buying. I’d not be surprised to learn that there won’t be a season 5.

Despite my admiration for Damian Lewis in the mini-series Band of Brothers which led me to watch his TV Series Life the second season of that show tanked badly and it wasn’t renewed. I have the same feeling about this show.

Everwood--Season 3

2010-07-02T12:04:00.003-04:00

As TV series go it took a long time for Season two of Everwood to show up on DVD and at 5 years after it aired Season 3 has been a long wait. Mercifully largely gone from this season were John Beasley’s folksy narrations. However the soap opera-like quality is ramped up several notches as all the principle characters seem to fall in and out of love and lurch from crisis to disaster. Even the staunch Mrs. Abbott comes down with cancer. Bright, the ironically named jock, having blown his chance at Notre Dame with on field fighting drifts aimlessly from one-night stand to temporary fling his hunky good looks attracting no lack of suitors until a sexual harasment charge by a jilted fellow worker forces his Mother, the mayor, to fire him from the post she got him. New characters get injected into the mix with equally wretched personal relationships however at the core of this show is the father-son struggle between Treat Williams and Gregory Smith, the latter’s obsession with playing piano, and his on again, off again love affair with Emily VanCamp. That he would stand in a balcony at Juilliard and watch the audition for which he worked all summer slip away and later sell off his piano buggers belief. In this show no skeleton is allowed to remain buried in the closet, in fact they frequently appear onscreen and past ghosts regularly come back to haunt their waking targets. How long it will take for Season 4 to make it to DVD who knows. Will we get to see both versions of the season-ending episode for the final season four shot before it was known that this would be the last?

Save for a few lapses in continuity where scenes shift between summer and winter snow I have no complaints about the series.

Invictus

2010-06-27T06:23:00.002-04:00

For the record I still don’t have a clue as to how Rugby is played or the purpose of a scrum; nor do I understand the how’s and why’s of the apartheid regime in South Africa surrendering power. Watching this movie I am reminded of Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One which was set during the WW#2 era when apartheid got its start. The musical score for the screenplay has the same uplifting feel to it. Whether fact or fiction both movies show how one person can change history. As much as this movie demonstrates how people can be emotionally drawn together, as Mandela’s aide repeatedly points out this still does nothing to relieve the socio-economic problems that plague South Africa to this day. In South Africa as in the continent as a whole Aids is ravaging the population and creating millions of orphans and single-parent families.

What follows is a direct quote from the IMDB Website quoted verbatim save for grammatical and spelling corrections and the addition of the name of the author who wrote the poem which gives its name to the movie.

Invictus opens with the release of Nelson Mandela (Freeman) from prison in 1990. After being held for nearly 26 years on Robben Island as a political prisoner, Mandela's release also marks what soon becomes the end of apartheid in South Africa. A new election for President of South Africa is held, in which Mandela handily wins. For his oath, he gives a speech pledging to unite the people of South Africa. The current divide has mostly separated the Afrikaners (white South Africans that came from Europe during the 17th century) and the black natives. The resulting effects from Mandela's victory give rise to jubilation for the black population of South Africa, while the white Afrikaners feel shame and begin to feel that they're losing the country. This is punctuated by a squadron of cars carrying Mandela down a road, poor black kids playing soccer on one side, white Afrikaners playing Rugby on the other. The coach of the Rugby team tells his men to remember this day, as it marks 'the day the country went to the dogs'.

Mandela's head of security (Julian Lewis Jones) soon makes a request from Mandela concerning the team. He asks for more men to keep a secure lookout for the president. The current team is made up of four black South African's. Mandela's response is to hire four white Afrikaners. Upon first meeting, they immediately clash due to racial hang-ups but are forced to work out their differences, as Mandela is interested in leading by example in terms of racial equality.

In his first days in office the tension is palpable as most of the former president's underlings (who are mostly Afrikaners) still hold their jobs. Worried that Mandela will fire them soon they begin packing boxes, awaiting the inevitable. Mandela, upon seeing this, holds a conference in which he says that he won't fire anyone who used to work for the old regime and that they need to work together to promote racial equality throughout South Africa. The speech goes over well without any dissenters.

Mandela soon begins taking early morning walks before the sun rises. Two security team members accompany him. While walking through the streets, a blue van, making wild turns while speeding soon comes upon Mandela. While the security team fears an attack, it is merely a man delivering newspapers.

We are soon introduced to Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), current captain of the South African Springboks rugby team. The team is made up mostly up of white Afrikaners save for one black S.A. member named Chester, who misses upcoming games due to a hamstring injury. For many black South Africans, the Springbok name, logo and colours all represent the dark history and racial injustice of apartheid in S.A. and thus refuse to support them, rooting for England instead when they play the Springboks. With less than a year away to the World Cup in 1995 (of which South Africa is hosting), the Springboks lose more games than win, and are highly anticipated to lose early in the tournament to Australia.

Mandela, having read an article in which the coach of the Springboks is replaced (with captain Francois still remaining), begins to think in terms of how he's going to unite South Africa and put away their differences. He sees Rugby as the vehicle for such a problem. Since most Afrikaners are under the impression of losing their country's identity, Mandela aims to unite them with keeping the Springbok name and using the upcoming world cup as an example of how to overcome South Africa's apartheid past. Soon, a vote by the sports committee in South Africa unanimously agrees to change the Spingbok name, logo and colours, all former symbols of Afrikaner pride. Upon hearing this, Mandela personally travels to the committee to change their mind, saying that by keeping their former colours/name, they can reach out to Afrikaners that mostly think Mandela is out to rid South Africa of their presence. This doesn't go well with the natives and by the time Mandela leaves, he has acquired only 13 votes. Still, he sees this as progress. His assistant, Mary (Leleti Khumalo), does not, and wishes Mandela would concern himself with more important matters than rugby, a sentiment shared by others at the office. Nonetheless, Mandela forges ahead with his own plans.

Mandela invites Francois to tea one afternoon. One of the Afrikaners on the security team asks Francois how the Springboks will fare this year. Despite Francois promising to do their best, the Afrikaner decides that they have absolutely no chance. Inside his office, Mandela talks about inspiration and how to motivate under extreme pressure. Mandela mentions a poem that kept his spirits up while he was imprisoned and Francois says he understands, mentioning of a particular song the team sings before every match. While not directly asking Francois, he implies that a win for their team in the world cup could have huge ramifications for South Africa by uniting Afrikaners and the natives.

Francois, in an attempt to convey Mandela's message, gives his team copies of the South African national anthem, telling them that they shouldn't mumble through the words like they used to. Most of the team crumples up their copies, saying they have no interest. Francois recants and says it is optional. They are forced, however, from Mandela, to take occasional breaks from Rugby to go out into the poorer areas of S.A. and teach rugby to the natives. At first, Chester (the teams only black player) is swarmed by all the kids but soon the entire team is out there helping a new generation of children to learn rugby and instill national pride, regardless of race. Francois implores his team that forms change all the time and their team is no different.

Mandela is found outside his home, unconscious. His doctor claims bed rest is needed to sustain his energy but despite this Mary keeps his schedule open so that he can follow rugby. The tournament is soon underway and the Springboks surprise everyone by besting Australia. They continue to take morning runs and as they win more games, their support by both white and black Africans continue to rise. The Springboks continue to advance without much trouble. After one of their matches Francois proclaims that they need a break and thus head to Robben Island, where Mandela was held. Francois, standing inside Mandela's actual jail cell, is dismayed to find how small it is (barely covering his wingspan), with a sheet on the ground to sleep on. Through voice over, the poem Mandela mentioned to Francois earlier is recited while the team looks over the spot where prisoners broke rocks as part of their labour service while imprisoned.

The final day before the match finds the Springboks taking another early morning run. This time they are joined by both white and black South African's cheering them on to victory. Before the match the security team is nervous for Mandela, as it will be the most exposed he's ever been since taking office. Extra sharpshooters take guard on adjacent roofs while the rest of security take posts inside the stadium. A plane, whose captain announces full responsibility for his actions (thus leading people to believe he might commit a terrorist attack), flies very low over the stadium, the words 'Go Springboks' painted underneath. The crowd erupts in cheers.

The final match is between the undefeated New Zealand team and the Springboks. Nearly 62,000 fans have turned up at the stadium to watch. Chester's hamstring injury has finally healed and he's been cleared for the game. NZ has mostly shut out other teams in the tournament thus far, the closest victory still being won by 20 points. Though the odds don't favour S.A., they resolve to do their best. The game stays tied throughout and goes back and forth, South Africa mostly playing catch-up whenever N.Z. kicks a goal for three points. In the end, S.A. is able to edge out New Zealand by three points as the clock runs out. South Africa wins 15-12.

After the trophy presentation the streets of South Africa are booming with excitement. Both white and black South Africans are cheering for the Springboks in celebration. Mandela's security team is seen trying to make its way through the crowd with little luck. Mandela says that there is no need for them to rush. Their national pride, at least for the moment, seems to have been somewhat restored in the eyes of themselves, much less the rest of the world.

The film ends with the final recitation of the poem, Invictus (which is Latin, meaning 'unconquered'). [written by William Ernest Henley]

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The Last Don

2010-05-04T20:27:00.001-04:00

While I was home rewatched Mario Puzo’s Last Don Mini-Series. Although it parallels the Godfather books and movies in spirit this is an independent storyline. The two series are narrated by Danny Aiello who plays the old Don, but the title character is played by Jason Gedrick who has been a favourite of mine since his days in Iron Eagle, Rooftops, Murder One and the Canadian movie Stacking. Despite his good looks and pretty boy expressive face the kind of stardom some of his contemporaries have enjoyed has eluded him. To quote his character Cross DeLena in this mafia series, the die was cast the day he was born and no matter what efforts are made to keep him free from the family business he keeps getting drawn back in.

More resembling HBO’s The Sopranos than the earlier Godfather series The Last Don presents organized crime families as likable sympathetic individuals who suffer stresses and human tragedies and joys just like the rest of us. By contrast law enforcement officials are presented as corrupt, untrustworthy and easily bought. No effort is made to sugar coat what these people are about but the blood splatter and gore is kept to a minimum and we are not shown flying body parts. Although the menace is palpable it is not exploited as a means of making the audience uncomfortable. This was, after all, a series made for television audiences. Crime in one form or another may be the family business but the perpetrators have a principled approach to it and do their best to ensure their minions don’t step out of line.

There is a matter of fact approach to the fact that Cross’s father is the family enforcer but for the most part we are not shown the executions he orchestrates and even those we do have the violence minimized on screen. The greatest conflict in the series is internal to the family which sees the brothers murder their sister’s husband and family on their wedding night, sparing their sister with disastrous consequences for all. Rich as they may be this family is imprisoned in their family compound, it may be a comfortable prison, but it is no less guarded and confining.

In The Valley of Elah

2010-01-21T13:47:00.002-05:00

Best Buy has deep-discounted this movie so I picked it up as it relates to The Hurt Locker and Stop-Loss.

This is a movie in which the chief character appears only in flashback. His father, Hank Deerfield spends the movie’s entire two hours searching for his son just returned from Bosnia. Being an army brat it seems in no way prepares one for the traumas of the real thing.

Just how indoctrinated and obsessive Hank is gets brought home emphatically when he checks into a motel and precedes to remake the bed in proper military fashion.

As with the afore-mentioned movies this one again is about post traumatic stress syndrome and the toll it exacts not just on the soldiers who serve in war zones but the poeple around them when they return and in particular their families and loved ones. It has been posited that the after-care of troops commited to war zones will be at least twice the cost of waging the engagement in the first place. At that rate the price of America’s present wars will be twelve trillion dollars over the next forty years. The price of neglecting to provide that care would be even greater. And as this movie demonstrates the costs spill over into society at large. There is an awful cost in human terms in forcing soldiers to adapt to inhuman circumstances.

The movie was intended and succeeds in making an audience feel uncomfortable. Those such as myself who have never experienced battlefield conditions could not possibly understand the mental and psychological stresses that led to the acts that are here-in revealed. Again, I say, the costs of war continue long after the wars are over. I, for one, question whether those costs can be justified on any terms.

Kyle XY Season 3

2010-01-21T13:39:00.002-05:00

As this series began we met Kyle a fully-formed teenage boy who escaped butt-naked from the facility in which he was cloned posssessing extreme native intelligence and abilities but totally lacking language or social skills. When his case worker takes him home we are exposed to his wide-eyed look at the world and the interactions he has with his peers, adults and the world at large. When one can jump from a 10-storey roof-top without any physical trauma one must adjust to the fact that seeing that feat performed might ellicit extreme reactions from others and draw unwanted attentions.

Growing up is hard to do both for child actors and their imaginary counterparts. Keeping the storyline interesting as an individual approaches adulthood is always a challenge. Given its longevity the scripters of Smallville seem to have discovered the formula but those of Kyle XY fell down on the job and the series ends with the present episodes. Watching these episodes unfold one comes to understand why the series was not renewed. Somehow one finds that they drag and one loses interest. Once ratings drop series get canned.

The Hurt Locker

2010-01-20T15:22:00.002-05:00

After watching this movie last night my first reaction was, “And why are we in Iraq?” Certainly not to make friends as the booby-trapped body of the urchin who got too close to an American demonstrated.

My second reaction was horror at the thought that the human psyche is capable of adjusting to such conditions and accept them with a sense of normalcy. Instructive is the fact that the only way Sergeant James could cope with life back home was to re-up.

What is it about padre’s and army psychologists along with guidance counsellors? The type of person who gets attracted to the job or the perceived uselessness of the task they perform? The embedded staff doctor gets blown up mid-way through the movie and made to look a fool in the field. This kind of treatment is almost cliche in the genre.

The director manages a truly ensemble cast, even known actors looking barely recognizable. I couldn’t possibly comment on the authenticity of the experience and wouldn’t want to have that capacity. The true star of the piece is the hot, rumble-ridden desert landscape. The pyro-technicians surely make it blow up real good. I would hope that unlike real life no one was hurt in the exercise. The movie was shot in the Middle East and Langley, BC, Canada!

The Tudors 3

2010-01-11T10:24:00.003-05:00

On the home screen of each disk in this new season Henry is seated on a throne formed of human bodies. Seems only appropriate as underlings were drawn to court and positions of power in his realm like moths to a flame and as easily disposed of by hanging, decapitation, and burning at the stake. Basking in Henry’s reflected glory was irresistible even though many paid the ultimate price for invoking the King’s displeasure even when their offence was the carrying out of the King’s direct orders. His retainers often could not win, to argue with a despot was madness, to obey and fail because of bad orders incurred equal wroth.

Mid-season Henry loses wife number three to childbirth and sets out on the prowl for number four. Henry is an odd mixture of inconsistancies. Erudite on virtually any subject of the day but superstitious and conservative. Dependent on his advisors and retainers to accomplish his will, yet able to truly trust no one. Defender of the faith while at the same time bedding every desirable court maiden in sight.

Human nature being what it is the factor I’ve ignored to this point is intrigue. Jealousies and backbiting are a way of life thinly disguised behind polite and diplomatic gestures. There are always those who feel they have been overlooked for an appointment or plumb assignment and ever there is jockeying for position. Ability and the commonweal take a backseat to personal advantage. The position of Thomas Cromwell is a special case in point. His appointment by Henry as High Chancellor of England put more than a few noble noses out of joint as those of Noble birth resented this high position being held by a commoner. Pointedly, when Henry locks himself into secluded mourning after the death of Jane Seymour the council walk out on a meeting called by Cromwell to deal with civil unrest putting their own egos above the good of the country. When the nobles finally manage to discredit Cromwell in the king’s eyes in a final indigity they manage to ensure an incompetent executioner butchers his demise.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2010-01-06T11:08:00.002-05:00

I’m sure everyone has read the reviews of this episode in the Harry Potter franchise. It does indeed mark the transition between the youthful wizards in training whose hijinks marked the movies based on the opening books in the series. Whereas the last couple outings have foreshadowed darker things to come the emphasis here is on the ultimate conflict that has been building since we first met Harry.

The mood is dark and the tonal palette of the movie is extremely dark and dreary. The focus of the movie is Harry and the friends who surround him. His buddy and roommate Ron Weasley has filled out and no longer looks a gangling awkward misfit but at times down-right hunky. Hermione has become a competent young woman. Although we return to Hogwarts little time is spent in the classroom with the exception of potions class with Professor Slughorn where Harry suddenly excels due to his possession of an edited version of the classroom text signed by the ‘Half-Blood Prince’.

As usual we have the impression that too much storyline is being crammed into the space of a two and a half hour-long movie. Despite this disquiet very little seems to happen until the culminating adventure on which Dumbledore leads Harry. The climactic scene in which Snape finally reveals his true colours leaves one oddly disquieted; as if the pieces don’t really fit.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY HOBBIT FEAST

2009-11-20T12:15:00.003-05:00

LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY HOBBIT FEAST

Rated PG-13; 640min; Director:Peter Jackson

Location: Alamo Downtown

This show is a part of the Food & Film Events Signature Series, Click to See More

Tickets for this event will go on sale Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at noon!

This all-day event is an annual Alamo tradition as old as the ancients...or whenever RETURN OF THE KING came out. Each year we must gather to recount the epic quest of the hobbit Frodo and his merry band of dwarfs, wizards, elves and Viggo's. We snuggle up together and watch the entire LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY - nearly 12 hours - and get loaded to the gills with food, beer and wine all inspired by Tolkien's Middle Earth!

Each of the seven(!) courses is served during each Hobbit meal time! By the time the King (spoiler alert!) ascends to his rightful throne, you too are ready to go back to the Shire and be greeted as a hero by your loved ones who didn't think you would make it all the way...and then pass out. Epic

DISCLAIMER: The first two films will be the "director's cut" versions in 35mm, while the third will be the original theatrical release in 35mm. The "director's cut" of the third film was only released in DVD format, but the story goes that by the third film, Jackson had almost complete creative control... so, the theatrical cut is really like a director's cut. Based on this, we've decided to go 35mm all the way through, because it's just too pretty to pass up!

Lord of the Rings Menu
Note. The drink pairings listed below are available for an optional $35 upgrade. Check out the scroll down menu on the purchase page for the ticket which includes the drink pairings.

First Breakfast
Fresh Hens eggs, nice crispy bacon, grilled mushrooms and orange slice
Irish Coffee

Second Breakfast
Strawberries and Cream
Cristalino Brut Rose Cava Spain

Elevensies
Seared-housemade lamb sausage and tomatoes with cheeses, cabbage and pickles
A glass of fine Mead

Luncheon
Syrah braised spareribs with mashed taters, roast baby carrots
Craggy Range "Te Kahu" New zealand Meritage

Afternoon Tea
Local baby greens with garlic blackberry vinaigrette, chevre-herb galette cookies
Tea (optional grandma's tea with a shot of whiskey)

Dinner
Stewed coney with taters, carrot, leek, and fresh garden herbs with crusty bread
Les Jamelles Pinot Noir, Vin de Pays France

Supper
Swirl of tomato and spinach soups wild mushroom crouton, apple pie
Willm Riesling, Alsace France

Lembas bread as needed

Featuring local items from Richardson Farms, Mark Addison Mushrooms, Wateroak Farm, Doodlebug Farm, Boggy Creek Farms, Loncito Ranch, Elves!

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

Screenings (click on a show time to buy tickets):

Sunday, November 29, 2009
- 10:30a

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alas it has been sold out for some time!

Third Watch Season Two

2009-11-19T17:59:00.001-05:00

Third Watch remains unique among police procedural dramas in depicting fire-fighters and paramedics as well as police as flawed but caring public servants who perform heroic acts despite themselves. Always the show was more about the lives of the people portrayed on screen than crime, accidents, and fires though these were certainly part of the plotline. This second season delves even deeper into the lives of the men and woman of the 55. And through it all the city of New York is a principle character.

More than ever this season an emphasis is placed on the human cost of enforcing the law and performing rescues. These officers and firemen see people at their worst and most vulnerable moments often attending on dozens of situations per shift. A paramedic’s job is to stabilize a trauma victim so that they may be transported live to a hospital where their real treatment begins. Most paramedics don’t have the opportunity to follow through after they release that patient to an emergency room. Firemen put out fires and then rush to the next emergency. Between calls they spend boring hours drying hoses and maintaining equipment. Police must balance making arrests with the distinct possibility that the ‘perp’ may well be back on the street before they complete the paperwork, receive a plea bargain, or elude sentencing through legal sleight of hand. One can forgive them for the occasional sense of the futility of it all.

Justice, we have learned is not about right and wrong but what can be proven in a court of law. Law enforcement as well is rarely about black and white but the grey areas in between and the difference between a corrupt cop and an honest one is often a matter of interpretation and whether or not someone is out to get you. A citizen is considered innocent until proven guilty; a police officer under investigation by Internal Affairs is considered guilty until proven innocent. Was there ever a police show in which Internal Affairs Investigators were painted in a positive light or a fellow officer who exposed corruption on the part of his fellow officers met a positive outcome? The daily carnage on the streets is one thing but what happens when fire or a crime claims the life of a fellow officer or fireman. Granted this show features a large ensemble cast but it is not often that a prominent character is permanently written out of a show. Officers and paramedics who work 8-hour shifts with their partners have bonds that are in many ways closer than they share with their marriage partners and share experiences no one else could understand and confidences they are legally bound not to share. The death of that partner is traumatic on many levels as is the loss.

Although there are chase scenes, fires, and plenty of sirens this series does not set out to glamorize the work these officers do though it does play to the usual stereotypes. In so many ways watching too much of this series at once makes one feel like one is seeing a soap opera, but it is a satisfying guilty pleasure.

Everwood

2009-11-01T08:58:00.004-05:00

At long last the studio has released Season Two of Everwood on DVD, it has been a six year wait. Although I still find John Beasley's background narration somewhat saccharine and unnecessary, especially coming from a minor character in the storyline; overall, the wait has been worth it. Everwood is one of those small towns where keeping secrets is an exercise in self-delusion. Dr. Andrew Brown's secretary is the mother of his chief rival whose practise is across the street. They sit side-by-side at the counter in the diner run by Andy's neighbour. His rival, Dr Abbott has a wife who is town mayor. Their daughter is Andy's son Ephram's on and off girlfriend. Her hulking jock brother is incongruously named Bright. Also typical of small towns is the fact that people here take care of one another whether or not they like one another.

In keeping with the caring community theme what made this series unique is the fact that great care is taken with the writing of every cast member; there are no hollow cut-out one-dimensional supporting players thrown in to move the plot along. Andy treats real people the arc of whose lives play out over successive episodes. Each assumes his place in the greater community their lives interacting with each other. However it is the father-son duo at the heart of this series who provide the driving force throughout. Andy lost his life's partner and is attempting to muddle through despite his repressed grief; throwing away his career as pre-eminent surgeon for a small-town general practise and getting a crash course in parenting as a single father. The son Ephram, lost a mother who anchored his existence and acted as his life's catalyst and suddenly must discover a father who until this point was absent from his life and has now dragged him half way across the country from the stimulus of urban NYC to a small culturally-deprived mountain town. As the sixteen-year-old son with an "old soul" Ephram is coping with the loss of his Mother and his resentment toward a father who to this point has missed all the rites of passage in his life. Neither knows how to cope with his younger sister Delia.

Everwood has always had great writers and its creator, Greg Berlanti, has imbued its young actors with the same wise beyond their years intelligence and self-awareness we came to expect in Dawson's Creek. The children here raise their parents. To Andy performing 6-hour neurosurgery is easy compared to a sex-ed talk in front of a class of hormonal teens. Nor is the series shy about confronting contentious issues including teenage depression, sex, drugs, homosexuality, and HIV. After The Waltons, Everwood was among the most wholesome programming to come to television. To an even greater degree these families strive to be better despite their imperfections.

Fighting

2009-10-20T09:01:00.003-04:00

Let's be honest here, this movie is an excuse for Channing Tatum to ceremoniously doff his shirt and show off the goods. At 6'1" Tatum is a hulking charismatic presence clothed or unclothed; whatever it is, he has it. The fighting referred to here is bare knuckle back street no holds barred full contact brawling 'performed' for betting audiences in informal settings. As his third-rate promoter sensed when he saw him defend his turf on the streets of New York Shawn is an instinctual kind of fighter whose primeval urges take over when he gets backed into a corner; he has the kind of gut instincts that can't be taught. In the back story we learn that Shawn was a college fighter whose coach father stepped between he and another fighter when he was seized by one of those fighting frenzies. Hence we find him attempting to run away from his demons on the predatory streets of New York.

For a movie called fighting there really isn't much fighting on display here. Shawn does very little training either. The fights we do see are bloodless but brutal and quickly over; the action is hard to follow and there is no stop action slow motion to accentuate it. We see and hear too much from his promoter and the leering predatory gangsters with whom he deals. Of course there is a girl and various other attempts to pad a rather weak plot. The dialogue reads like a newspaper cartoon and the ending couldn't be weaker. The idea that they could just drive away with one million dollars of the mob's money is laughable. Shawn comes off as a tough back-woods hick with a heart of gold.

Tatum is ruggedly handsome. He has a model's high cheekbones, dazzling eyes and a hulking physique. I'd like to see what he could do with it if he seriously applied himself to the gym with a physical trainer.

Shawn wins his fights on pure guts and determination. Whatever his former skills might have been it is his back-street brawling skills that come into play here.

In his first fight he is being solidly out-boxed and knocked to the floor three times until he rams his opponent into a waterfountain.

The second fight is aborted when the opponent runs and things go haywire. Our ‘hero’ does not allow himself to be intimidated by the guy’s size.

Fight three is against a martial arts expert whom he fails to get even close to until he is clamped in a leg vice, picks the guy up bodily, slams him into the floor, and chokes him unconscious.

Fight four is against his old college partner. This time they trash one another and the apartment in which the fisticuffs is staged. Shawn fights back from a choke hold and wins despite having been instructed to take a dive.

Supernatural Season 4

2009-10-11T08:40:00.004-04:00

Now in its 5^th season on air this show seems to have legs. I find it amusing that Dean refers to Sammy as his 'little brother' considering that Jared towers 3 inches above Jensen. The cinematographers do a remarkable job of minimizing that difference onscreen. Whether their sibling rivalries spill over into real life on set I have not been able to find any gossip to date online but in the Sex and Violence episode they get to have a knock em down, drag em out fist fight on screen. These two powerfully built young men could do real damage were they to go at it for real.

In an episode set in a school they once attended they go undercover as gym teacher and janitor. In flashbacks we get to see Jensen as a hormonal teen then as now fixated on groping cheerleaders. Even in a janitor's jumpsuit Jared's narrow hips and broad shoulders make an impressive showing but the middle school Sammy foreshadows the academic bookish man he is to become. Even though forced to level a bully twice his size he does so because he has no other option, not to show off his physical prowess. Even then he was the quiet, intellectual who felt no need to show off, but underneath that introverted nature he possessed the same confident skill and though not eager to brag about the notches on his gun in his own way has always had the same sexual needs leading Dean to crow when he discovers that Sammy has 'scored'. We get to see the extrovert Dean contrasted with the introvert Sam remains; expect it's clear which one I prefer.

How, in this age of modern communications, this duo manages to stay one step in front of the law as they impersonate FBI Agents, use fake ID and forged credit cards, and break into crime scenes and people's homes is still a mystery as is why they've never been pulled over for speeding. The show definitely ties into America's love affair with guns and other weapons of violence; the arsenal in the trunk of their car is awesome.

Since the first season the show has definitely picked up on the rapport between the two lead actors. It has become more of a buddy road trip during which surreal events take place; where the emphasis is put on how the experience affects these two individuals rather than strictly an investigation of supernatural occurrences.

One Week

2009-10-06T09:48:00.003-04:00

What could be more quintessentially Canadian then a bunch of guys renting a bus and driving across country. Why not have them film Joshua Jackson doing the same on a motorcycle. Did I mention that he's making the trip in reaction to hearing a diagnosis of terminal cancer? In true Canadian spirit this is movie-making on a shoe-string, the crew fill in for characters Joshua meets along the way and iconic musicians whose music provides the playlist for the journey pop up as well Gord Downie on a chopper and Joel Plaskett as a street busker. Joshua Jackson gets an Executive Production credit which would indicate that he put up some of his own money to see the movie completed.

This is a Canadian Road movie with the British-made Norton bike provided by one of the crew. Jackson does the stereotypical photos of himself with tourist attractions in the background. I've actually seen most of the 'world's largest' attractions he posed in front of but I wasn't moved to photograph them. Jackson shows few signs of the illness which provides the pretext for his journey but the camera does make the 30-year-old actor look somewhat bloated. There is a poignant moment when he stands in front of the rusting statue of Terry Fox near Thunder Bay. Somehow that dour, quizzical look seems to be his natural fall-back expression, under the circumstances he's not required to smile or appear to take particular enjoyment in his journey.

I'm not sold on the concept of Campbell Scott's background narration which begins the movie and runs throughout. Not being a Hollywood opus with a budget in the millions the production values are what one would expect. The exterior shots of the Canadian panorama are impressive but the lighting of night shots and interiors suffers. The cuts to the long-suffering girl friend back home tend to interrupt the movie's flow. Liane Balaban comes off somewhat bitchy and self-centred. It may be that this movie attempts to do too much at once and gets side-tracked from its true purpose. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's Long Way Round is in my library and I suppose I need to see if I like the way they treated a motorcycle road trip better. With the odometer on my RV clicking toward the 37,000 kilometre mark I can truly identify with a desire to engage in an odyssey or visionquest. Aside from a final cut to a bookstore window display of Ben's published second novel One Week we are given no indication of the outcome of the underlying story.

Where the Red Fern Grows II

2009-09-15T07:58:00.001-04:00

First things first, this is not a Disney Production like the first in the series and the lack of production values shows. None of the actors from the first movie show up in the second but then this sequel was made nearly 9 years before Disney version was shot making it a sequel to a version supplanted by Disney.

As Billy, Doug McKeon is nobodies' idea of a great actor. His break-through role was in On Golden Pond with two lions of the Cinema: Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Anything he might have learned from that experience failed to manifest in the series of sad-sack roles that followed his performance here is as lumbering as his gait in that prosthetic leg he wears.

The buddy who returns with Billy from the war romances his sister but the impending nuptials never materialize. We are reminded that this is the deep south when a trip to church sees the congregation singing a Christmas Carol with no snow in evidence.

To reintroduce the "ah shucks" factor of a boy and his dogs Billy borrows a neighbour boy of his age in the original to accompany him coon hunting. Somehow the interaction between man and dog is just not there in this movie. When Old Dan falls out of a tree to his death a patch of red fern is spotlighted beside him. Grampa insists on going on one last hunt even though he knows the exertion will probably kill him or even intending that it be so that he not be a burden to his grandson.

The plot here is so transparent as to eliminate any possibility of suspense. Billy leaves for a job offer out west and passes Little Annie to the neighbour boy before he goes leaving things open for a further sequel which this plodding effort ensured would never come.

Third Watch

2009-06-27T20:43:00.001-04:00

Recently I finished watching the first season of this show currently offered at $19.99 the set. Police actioners have been a staple of broadcast TV practically from its inception. What is unique about this series is that it combines storylines that follow the lives of five officers from a single precinct with those of 2 paramedic squads as we have seen in Emergency and their brother fire station under the umbrella of Station 55. Yes, we get to see police chase scenes on foot and in vehicles, we hear plenty of sirens and see fires, we get down and dirty with the paramedics; but we also follow the lives of the patients who get treated and the perps who get arrested. More particularly we get to see the human and not so heroic side of the personnel in all three services and the effects their work has on their personal lives.

To provide us a window into the action we get to follow the experiences of a rookie Cop, Ty who is following in the footsteps of his father who was killed on the job as he is paired with his father's former partner and begins to learn that his father may have been a dirty cop—on the take. Also a rookie paramedic who in a profession that cares for people is totally self-centred and without compassion for the patients he treats. For the action junkies this series has more than its share of drama but it also has its share of babe-magnets who frequently strut their stuff in and out of uniform. There are no naked buns as are famously displayed in other shows but bedroom and shower scenes aplenty. It also has actors no one would account as sexy.

What made this series unique is the fact that it showed its characters as ordinary human beings who can be called upon to perform heroic acts despite their very human foibles. They have gambling addictions, child care issues, and marriage breakdowns. They have problems getting dates and the challenges their shifts provide maintaining relationships. They also work in professions where injury is always a present danger and since they drive emergency vehicles encounter drivers who fail to yield. In one scene someone parks in front of the fire hall entrance and all to frequently they smash out the windows of a vehicle blocking a fire hydrant to establish a connection.

Nor was this series shy about confronting police corruption, unnecessary force, and conflicts with internal affairs. We see street prostitution and drugs from the point of view of enforcement and the paramedics who have to deal with overdoses and the victims of rough sex. The city of New York is definitely one of the characters in this piece and we often get to see her at her worst. People in 'nice' neighbourhoods don't usually have brothels next door or tenement fires, drop by the fire hall for medical treatment, or have drug dealers on their sidewalks.

It was the humanity of this show that drew one into the lives of its ensemble cast and the fact that they were presented as fully developed human characters not paper actors. Despite its large cast the effort to keep track of all these people seemed worth the effort. All these characters had continuing story lines which successive episodes built upon. Police stories have come a long way since Officer Friday neatly wrapped up a case in 15 minutes or half an hour each week.

The Waltons--Season 9

2009-06-20T21:15:00.003-04:00

I just finished watching Season 9 of The Waltons. Having passed through the neighbourhood where this show is set it has special significance for me. Finishing the series makes me feel like I lost a group of friends I've known for years. In this last season a great many people are missing.

Richard Thomas disappeared from the series a couple seasons ago and given that he represents the narrator onscreen putting a new face, however more handsome, to his character strikes a jarring note. Grandpa and Grandma are long gone, Olivia was removed from the scene by sending her off to a sanatorium where she fails to recover and in this last season even John Sr. leaves to join her. With that mountain of flesh that was Rose off on her honeymoon the kitchen looks rather spacious and the third generation of Waltons are left to fend for themselves.

What we get here are the lives and loves of this new generation of Waltons. John-Boy's struggle to escape the sophomore jinks of his second novel. Mary-Ellen's determination to overcome the challenges of being a single widowed mother to study medicine. Jason takes over the Dew Drop Inn and shocks the family with the revelation that his girl friend is Jewish. Ben, having returned from the war with a new-found sense of independence finds himself drawn back to his father's mill. Erin struggles to find love and assert her autonomy as JD Picket's right-hand-man. Jim-Bob returns from war determined to party hearty and make up for lost time until he and his buddy find fulfillment starting a garage. Erin finds herself on the cusp of adulthood discovering that she is too old for childish games and too young to join her older siblings in more adult pursuits and lacking the opportunity to confide in her mother. The Baldwin sisters begin to confront their mortality while the miss-matched pair of Ike and Cora-Beth Godsey continue their battle of the sexes.

As folksy and down-home as this series has always been we have always been confronted with an ideal to which we can all wish our own families had aspired. When this series ruled the airwaves a more rural society made it wildly popular and one wanders how it would fare today. The writing on this show was always fresh and original and that quality was maintained to the very end. The show ends with little sense of closure when the series was not renewed. We are left wondering about John-Boy's next novel, whether Mary-Ellen ever becomes a doctor, will Jason marry his Jewish Sweetheart and will he be satisfied to remain a publican, will Erin strike out on her own and leave Pickets and find a suitable husband, what will Erin become. In the end I suppose it is better that a show ends with its audience wanting more rather than that they abandon it in boredom.

The Reader

2009-05-30T13:03:00.003-04:00

Take one hormonal 17-year-old who rises to the occasion at even the thought of a naked female and a lonely young woman stuck in a dead-end job by her illiteracy and put them together by chance and an illicit relationship develops. Hanna’s world comes crashing down when she is promoted to a desk job and her inability to read and write become known. A great deal is omitted in this movie and the audience is left to infer a great deal of the missing plot; indeed, for once the omitted scenes in the supplemental section of this DVD add a great deal of background material.

Hanna is a matter of fact, utterly pragmatic, individual who can distinguish pleasure from pain but seems devoid of any ability to emotionally express it. It is her illiteracy and the pride which prevents her from admitting it that haunts her for life. Again stuck in another dead-end job she jumps at the chance to join the SS and become a woman’s prison guard. Jump years into the future and her paramour, Michael as a law student is taken to witness a Nuremburg like trial at which Hanna is one of six defendants. The moral crux arrives when Hanna’s pride refuses to allow her to admit in open court her illiteracy and this circumstance allows her fellow defendants to jump on the bandwagon and load her with the full blame. Hanna would rather go to prison for life than admit her shame. Michael, who knows better fails to come forward knowing the scorn his supposed betrayal would bring upon him from Hanna.

Left untold are the circumstances that led to an otherwise intelligent young woman’s illiteracy. Michael’s difficult home life is only hinted at and his own experience during the war is not mentioned. We learn of his marriage and meet his daughter who it would seem followed him into law. It is only in the deleted scenes that Michael’s illustrious career as a lawyer is hinted at.

Throughout most of this tale Hanna appears to be absent even from her own life. Her relationship with Michael, even in their sex scenes seems to be utterly impersonal and during her incarceration their only contact is through the recorded tapes he sends her—they meet only once just before she is about to be released. Her case worker who contacts Michael suspects a great deal and expresses her scorn at what she perceives as his moral failings but falls short of openly accusing him. What is most apparent here is that life cannot be painted in black and white or simple terms of right and wrong. Sometimes there are no right answers, only shades of grey.

Passchendaele

2009-05-12T19:28:00.003-04:00

[Spoiler Alert]

Paul Gross wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this one-man tour-de-force. There are times one could wish that Paul Gross, the actor, had left the directing to someone else. Particularly when one begins wondering whether the love story at the heart of this film is going to win out over the war epic. Shot on the Canadian prairies during what must have been a protracted period of rainy weather this evocation of Vimy Ridge shows soldiers up to their waists in mud holes while shells burst all around them and the sky is lit up with star shells. Whether intentional or not the movie pillories the recruitment efforts of rear echelon majors and pokes fun at a British recruiter who questions the immigrant status of a second generation German family. Only generals die asleep at home in their beds. The Canadian running the battle at Passchedaele appears to be one of the few people who actually knows what he’s doing here. The battalion that pulls out when a relief column of 60 pull in are made to look like cowards abandoning their comrades to certain annihilation. The battle scenes take the cliché that ‘war is hell’ to an entirely new level. One is given the impression that it was a miracle that anyone survived this conflagration. At least the hospital scenes are free of the usual buckets of gore directors often order up. Directing one’s own death must be an odd experience in anyone’s book. Taking nothing away from Paul Gross’s considerable abilities one can wish he had a few less irons in the fire. A director less married to the script might have been able to give this movie a bit more focus. An independent director could probably have gotten a better performance from his star.

10 Things I Hate About You

2008-12-29T11:03:00.001-05:00

Reading Life Magazine's Annual Roundup was formerly a Christmas ritual with me. Were it still in print one suspects Heath Ledger would have a special section all of his own. This treatment of The Taming of the Shrew was the second such high school conversion of Shakespeare done a decade ago, the second being O based on Othello and starring Josh Harnett. The only actor the two have in common is Andrew Keegan who here plays the hunky jock. At the time Ledger was a recent arrival on the Hollywood scene from Australian and this was to have been Joseph Gordon-Levitt's movie. It doesn't take long before it becomes apparent that Heath not only steals the heart of the girl but the movie as well.

At a time when the likes of Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill gave teenagers witty parts and intelligent conversation it's easy to forget that these big-screen treatments did the same for the movies. Washington State stands in for Italy and Kate's father is a gynaecologist. Comic relief is provided by the high school guidance counsellor who is pre-occupied with writing a pulp romance novel and ogling the boys to whom she should be providing advice.

The guidance counsellor is not the only cliché about high school life that gets exploited here but what lifts this film above boring routine is the witty repartee and acting skills of the young cast. Most of the lead actors have gone on to promising careers in the decade since this movie was shot.

Mysterious Skin

2008-12-19T12:07:00.001-05:00

Greg Araki is a gay activist noted for nihilistic movies such as Doom Generation and The Living End however here he has made a movie with a definite message. This is still an Araki production admittedly bearing all his usual trademarks of explicit gay sex, sexual fondling and brutal violence therefore making this a film not intended for mainstream audiences.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Neil a male hustler all lean muscularity and boney backbone who is haunted by the victimization he suffered at the hands of his coach, a sexual predator. Fellow team mate Brian Lackey with a geeky four-eyes look about him and the same history of abuse believes he was abducted by aliens and has blacked out his memories. While Brian seeks to uncover his past Neil embarks on a self-destructive round of encounters as a sex-for-hire male prostitute ultimately moving to New York City to be with his girl friend. Uncertain of his sexuality he finds hustling an easy way to make a living until he runs into that inevitable trick who likes his sex violent and bruising.

Bearing the physical scars of his encounter Neil returns home for Christmas where he meets up with Brian and together the two engage in a therapeutic airing of their past history of abuse. Facing up to the past seems to have a healing effect on both. Neil's girlfriend warns him repeatedly of the dangers of the path down which he has headed and warns his buddy back home of dark recesses in their friend where he should not tread. To drive the message home he meets a trick who is obviously infected with advanced symptoms of AIDS.

Having just written of the self-destructive path down which another young actor, Lillo Brancato, has embarked it is gratifying to remark that Gordon-Levitt has successfully made the transition from child to mature actor while keeping himself grounded in reality. He manages to play the parts of characters who go off the deep end without carrying that malaise into his everyday life. Indeed he took a hiatus from acting to attend Columbia University.

Batman: The Dark Knight

2008-12-17T11:43:00.003-05:00

In the first place the official Title of this movie appears to be: The Dark Knight. Batman seems to have slipped into the Batcave. Since Wayne Manor was destroyed by fire in the last outing the mansion has not been rebuilt and Bruce is living in his penthouse suite in town. No word on how he makes the commute to the Batcave—I’m probably over-analyzing. Since the arrival of Christian Bale to the franchise Batman has been a severely conflicted superhero. The millionaire playboy enjoys his toys but like the creatures after which his alter-ego is named prefers to inhabit dark corners and stay out of the lime-light. This new movie blows up real good and has its share of chase scenes and special effects but while Wayne attempts to shrink from public view his nemesis the Joker is a prima donna extraordinaire.

Everything we’ve heard and read about Heath Ledger owning the picture is borne out by watching his performance here. The tribute given him is a mere blink on the screen shared with another during the closing credits which few will see. This Joker is deadly serious and doesn’t do much laughing and when he does it is a hollow pained eruption. The character has totally taken over the actor here and is unrecognizable as Heath. When, at one point in the movie he takes off a Joker Mask it is revealing that he still appears to be wearing a mask. In an industry where movie stars are a dime a dozen—even if the top ones command twenty million a flick—great actors are harder to come by. Few stars are able to sublimate their own egos to entirely inhabit a role; no matter what movie they star in you are always aware that it is Brad Pitt of Tom Cruise playing that character. Somehow they never let you forget it. To me the great character actors get less limelight because no one can remember who played that role when the show is over. Such a performance is on view here.

Other performances worthy of note are those of Michael Caine as the faithful manservant Alfred: “Do you have me followed too?” “I would if you ever left the job.” And Morgan Freeman as the CEO and gadget man. “Oops!” “Guess you should read the directions first before using.” During one notable board meeting the owner is prominently seen fast asleep slumped in his chair well down the table. As with most such movies in a couple days a second watching will reveal more details that slipped past me the first time but all in all this is a movie I will want to watch over and over.

Little Men

2008-12-15T14:48:00.011-05:00

Louisa May Alcott gained overnight success as a writer with the publication of Little Woman in 1868 at a time when teaching and nursing were barely considered respectable occupations for a woman and women were not considered legally persons for the purposes of voting and owning property. Since the proper preserves of a lady were regarded as keeping house and raising a family it was not deemed necessary that girls get an education. That all four of his daughters received home-schooling at his hands reflects their father's enlightened views and this liberal thinking is reflected in Alcott's often autobiographical writing.

Little Woman has oft been brought to screen in movies that drip of syrupy excess. The present version of Little Men, its sequel, was produced for Canadian TV and features a surfeit of young Canadian Talent.

Robin Dunne, who portraits Jo's nephew Franz has gone on to the big screen as has Corey Sevier who looks too innocent for the hard-living Dan.

The open-faced Trevor Blumas is perfect for the part of tender-hearted Nat.

Although Jo is the headmistress and owner of the school Plumfield that she founded with her late husband it is her boys who own the show.

Since this is a Canadian Production locations in and about Toronto stand in for Concord Mass. The arrival of the rough-hewn Spencer Rochfort as the hired man adds additional realism to the script but in a school for boys these lads are allowed to engage in rough-housing, the occasional fisticuffs, and bloody noses. The series received sufficiently high ratings that a second set of shows were produced giving us 8 in all.

Savage Sam

2008-12-14T07:23:00.001-05:00

Savage Sam is a sequel to Old Yeller and as such suffers from the usual pitfalls. Arlis is now as old as Travis was in Old Yeller and shows deep resentment of being bossed around by an older brother. He lacks the wide-eyed openness that Travis had at that age. His inclination toward rock throwing is not particularly endearing. Travis is now an adult and has lost his youthful charm. The majority of the movie is taken up by the chase that ensues when a posse takes off after a group of Indians that have captured Arlis and Lisbeth. Given modern sensibilities this scenario seems sadly dated.

Old Yeller

2008-12-13T13:18:00.001-05:00

Again, a Disney Film, albeit an old film. Set in Texas in the early settler period. As I've learned feral pigs are a major issue in even modern day Texas as they were when this movie was set. Cattle were driven to market in Kansas, the western railway hub, on foot. There are people in this movie but the stars are the animals and to a lesser degree the boys. The dogs may not talk here but let there be no doubt about their ability to communicate.

This is a story about the bond between a boy and his dog and the faithfulness of the animal half of that bond. Only a child could be undisturbed by a scene of a boy and his puppy eating cereal out of the same bowl. There are a few adults in this film but for the most part they supply only supporting roles. This is a land where a man does what a man's gotta do even if he is a boy. Knowing how to fend for oneself is the most important education a lad can get.

Chroniicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

2008-12-13T12:55:00.001-05:00

Let's be clear about this, we're in a Disney Film. Hundreds of beings get killed but there is no blood shed. The scary bits occur in scenes of nightmarish hues because that's when we're allowed to feel frightened. We are led to believe a teenaged boy can hold his own in single-handed combat against a grown man twice his age.

It's a pity C.S. Lewis isn't around to comment on what has been done with his fairy tales. We'll never have the opportunity to hear his thoughts. A high-concept movie such as this demands a suspension of disbelief and to maintain that engagement we need to be drawn into the story. Through it all the children involved maintain a healthy scepticism about the unreality of their situation. We're in a world where the good guys are hard to distinguish from the bad guys at times but there definitely are good guys and bad guys.

The special effects blend seamlessly into the action and the daylight scenes are sweeping. The heroes have very human foibles and weaknesses and the creatures behave in half human half animal fashion. One could almost believe there actually were centaurs. In the end one has to acknowledge that this is a world of make believe and if one analyses it too closely one will destroy the illusion. How much one is able to drawn into this world depends to a large degree upon one's willingness to exercise that imagination.

Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy

2008-10-12T18:06:00.004-04:00

The present TV Movie appears to have been a pilot for the CBC TV Series of the same name. No word on why Chad Willet didn't stick around for the mini-series that followed. I liked the way he interacted with Ted Atherton as Pan Phillipps who was included in both. Panhandle Phillipps and Richmond P. Hobson Jr. ran a cattle herd on bunch grass in Northern BC wilderness territory that made this the largest cattle ranch in the world. The characters of Rich, Gloria and Pan are based on their real-life counterparts and this series is based on the memoirs that Rich himself wrote. The three books are Grass Beyond The Mountains, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy, and The Rancher Takes a Wife, published in the 1950s. These biographical accounts serve to prove that Canada really does have swashbuckling heroes even if we have to import them from America.

Whereas the movie was shot in Ontario the big budget Mini-Series that followed was shot on location in Northern BC. Both follow the lives of these modern day pioneers as they seek to carve a living out of a vast, unforgiving, northern wilderness. Pan Phillipps was a cowboy but his partner Rich was a Stanford-educated stockbroker who decided to toss it all aside for a romantic high-stakes adventure. That romance is spiced up by the addition of a love-at-first-sight whirlwind romance between Richmond and a gal he runs into when an errant animal he is herding runs through a country-club garden party. This overnight courtship leads to marriage next day and the arrival of a courtly lady in the Northern BC Bush. The by-play between the three partners skirts the edge of slap-stick.

World War II intervenes and forces Rich to hire three boys and a wanted fugitive as his ranch hands prompting Pan to declare that Gloria and Richmond have an instant family. What follows is a heart-warming drama about situations that require everyone to keep their sense of humour. Even in conditions which could have led to mean spiritedness Rich and Gloria bring a big-heated dedication to the task at hand. There is something so Canadian about this story that it deserves to be more widely told.

Jericho Final Season

2008-08-01T09:44:00.002-04:00

One of my adages is that my liking a TV Series is the kiss of death. So it was with this series. Combining Sci Fi with family drama, combat, survivalism, and community conflict; though it enjoyed a faithful following this series fell victim to the ratings game. Whatever the free-enterprise economy may think there is still a place for public television which has stable funding and the ablility to progamme quality shows for a limited audience. When the axe came the producers of this show had little time to convincingly give this show a wrap and unfortunately it shows. Those who liked it were left wishing for more.

2008-08-01T09:41:00.002-04:00

Eureka is what in the trade is described as high concept. It takes the stereotype of the absent-minded, eccentric professor to a whole new level and inhabits an entire town with geniuses. The show revolves around Jack Carter the sheriff played by Colin Ferguson whose task it is to keep the place safe for creative genius. To enjoy this series you must like science fiction, cutting edge science fiction at that and be willing to suspend disbelief. Carter lives in a house in a bunker that responds interactively to his every wish, even if Sarah has a “mind” of her own.

One episode in particular has stood out in my mind as one that demands comment. It rifts on the cryogenics movement; bringing a scientist so suspended back to life after half a century. What happens to a man who is revived to a world that has changed so radically since his departure? How can he adjust to the history he has not experienced and to the concept that he is younger at this point than his own grandson? Having seen what happened in a parallel scientific movement we call cloning to Dolly the Sheep what happens next is not that far-fetched. Once revived Pierre Fargo soon starts catching up on the aging process he missed while in stasis and rapidly reaches a geriatric state. Both processes acknowledge the discovery that although Dolly was a newborn and Pierre had been in stasis half a century, their genetic makeup was still in an advanced state of deterioration. To date science has not discovered a way to overcome our cell’s built in auto-destruct mechanism that limits how many times they are able to replicate successfully. What happens philosophically and ethically to society in a world where people live forever is grist for another discussion. The implicatons for deep space human transport if the concepts brought forward were true is yet another topic.

If you like well-written Sci-Fi this show’s for you.

My Own Private Idaho

2008-08-01T08:45:00.003-04:00

This is a movie I’ve always liked and I’ve watched my VHS copy of it repeatedly. It is therefore with some embarrassment that I must admit that it was not until I read a series on Movie Adaptations of William Shakespeare on Rotton Tomatoes that I realized the connection. It was this discovery that led me to get it out and watch it once again. Let it be said that watching Keanu Reeves woodenly declaim his lines is not one of the atttactions of this piece. It is River Pheonix who owns the movie and his narcoleptic scenes eerily foreshadow his eventual death by drug overdose just two years later.

River Jude Bottom was the oldest son of what could best be described as flower children. Itinerant farm workers, cult members, who exploited their children to make ends meet they are no one’s idea of ideal parents. Who names there children: Rain, Summer, Liberty, Trust? With this kind of family background River Phoenix hit Hollywood at the age of 12 with his impoverished parents encouragement. Small wonder that without anything to keep him grounded the “scene” got the better of him. I cannot watch his movies without a sense of sadness at the body of great works that is lost to us due to his untimely death.

A gay themed movie with an openly gay director about street people who sell themselves to make a living this is not a movie that will appeal to the squeamish. Shot in Portland Oregon with cameos by many locals some of the actors stayed in the director’s own home. This is a buddy, road trip movie which never seems to decide what it wants to do. The plot is as confused as the characters who play in it and there are some priceless characters. In particular is the ancient den mother of the flophouse they so often frequent. Like most road movies this piece is about the journey, getting there is not the point. However confused it leaves me this is still a journey I seem to enjoy.

The One That Got Away

2008-07-29T14:28:00.005-04:00

The first thing that struck me about this movie was what a likable rogue Franz von Werra was. Considering the destruction and death German bombers were wreaking on British Cities the relationship between these prisoners of war and their captors was all very polite and civilized. How much this movie version varies from reality I’ll leave to the reader to judge. The second impression is of the aplomb with which the British Guards ignore air raid sirens and the fact that bombs are dropping all around them.

Von Werra was a confidence man par excellence whose determination to escape brooked no consideration for the consequences his actions might have for his fellow prisoners or the dangers he might encounter on the lam. His first attempt ended in a mud hole with the exhausted prisoner lying in the pouring rain. What strikes me is the massive numbers of men mobilized to recapture one man. After his second escape he is shipped by boat to Halifax and thence via train to the wiles of Northern Ontario. Nothing daunted our intrepid Franz forces open a frozen double window and leaps onto a side bank of snow from a speeding train in sub-zero conditions.

What follows is a struggle of gargantuan proportions in which the lightly clad Franz struggles across the frozen St. Clair River only to discover that the river current has kept a lead open. He then stumbles back to the Canadian Shore and finds a heavy skow which he proceeds to single-handedly drag across the ice and hummocks until he reaches open water.

It was only after the movie was nearly ended that it struck me that although this last section took place at night I could not remember seeing any colour. After reviewing earlier chapters I finally discovered that I’d watched the entire movie in Black and White and had not missed the lack of colour. One other observation about which I’d appreciate comments from anyone more knowledgeable of architecture. What is it with the popularity of buildings shaped like the letter “E” in institutional architecture? I’m most familiar with St. Mary’s University in Halifax but that shape crops up often in this and other British films.

2008-07-09T07:01:00.002-04:00

In the first place this is not intended nor does it result in being a feel-good movie. Although the Iraq war is the back-drop and the fruitlessness of that enterprise is implied this is a one-issue piece that single-mindedly polemicizes the unjustness of the policy that gives the movie its title and in doing so tends to overstate its case. Wrote to a friend this past weekend that I was interested in seeing what kind of sparks two such hunks as Channing Tatum and Ryan Phillippe struck off one another but I had not seen sufficient plot details to be prepared for the knock em down drag it out fight the two friends have near the end of the film. Somehow I'm not convinced that the older and smaller Brandon would have been able to best the taller and heavier Steve nor have I taken the time to read sufficient trade gossip to learn what the actors thought about the affair or the nature of their off-screen relationship.

Let it be said that a female director appears to be at pains not to exploit the studly nature of her two stars. Despite many scenes shot in southern Texas and Iraq we get only fleeting glimpses of well-developed pecs through open shirts. What is very apparent is the gun culture that seems to pervade American society. Gun racks grace living rooms and the rear windows of most trucks. Despite their recent return from conflict these 'good ole boys' treat their guns like toys they unwind with using bottles as target practice. As his buddy reads the greeting cards a jilted newly-wed blasts away at his wedding presents. In the final analysis this movie ends up being a fruitless road trip during which Abbie goes along for the ride in an attempt to keep Brandon from going off the deep end. If there is a second theme here it is the traumas of war and post-stress syndrome.

The Englishman's Boy

2008-05-19T20:14:00.002-04:00

Based on Guy Vanderhaeghe's book of the same name the author got the opportunity to actually write the screenplay and was given a bit part in the piece as well. The story is told in the present of 1920 in a movie studio backlot and in flashbacks to the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873. Given the bad light in which the movie business is cast it fell to the venerable CBC to bankroll this production. The exterior shots were actually shot onsite in Saskatchewan.

This is not a Disney Production; in this series there are no good guys. The basic philosophy that underlies the historical events alluded to here is that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. As the central character of both periods Shorty McAdoo finds himself swept up into circumstances beyond his control on both accounts and ultimately finds himself facing the gallows in symbolic expiation for past sins. The theme here is one of moral individuals drawn into compromising situations by the will to make a living. Finger pointing is an exercise best exercised by those who bear witness from afar. Since the series has not been given sufficient exposure to be widely viewed there are no sites listing bloopers or historical and continuity gaffs. To me the cowboy scenes look authentic, actual cowboys playing the part of extras and the Native people filmed are in the main actual descendents of those involved in the original massacre. I would say the CBC has a winner on their hands here. The pity is that it will not be given wider exposure.

Torchwood

2008-05-19T20:13:00.002-04:00

Torchwood is a BBC Wales spin-off from the popular Doctor Who series. The former Captain Harkness—John Barrowman stars. Describing it is a bit of a challenge, the series being one part sci-fi, one part horror, one part mystery, and one part detective series. I finished watching this series a couple days ago but I’m still working on digesting the experience.

Captain Jack Harkness struts the screen as if he owned it. John Barrowman who plays him is rapidly slipping toward middle age, but the character he plays bears the cross of being ageless. One of the issues this series is about is the ramifications of that state of being. This series has sexual tension but its characters are not inherently sexy. The young doctor Owen Harper spends much of his time looking very repressed with a look that betrays the emotions simmering inside. Toshiko Sato is the technical genius of the crew; Ianto Jones the gopher. Gwen Cooper, who joins the group as the series starts, represents our eyes onto the goings-on here.

The Hub, their operations centre, is a combination dungeon, science lab, computer centre and sewer. There is an air of unbelieveability about the way in which they waltz past police to conduct their investigations. This show is testimony to the abuse which flows from being above the law. No agency should be above some form of oversight. The Torchwood Mobile is as much a character in the piece as any of its human occupants. Despite my queasiness I found myself drawn into this series. We should be thankful that public television makes possible programming that would never see the light of day on a private network.

Eureka

2008-05-11T21:21:00.002-04:00

Eureka is a Sci Fi Channel Series about a scientific community peopled by super-geniuses whose task it is to do pure research. To keep the cast small everyone in Eureka seems to multi-task. Henry Deacon is a quantum physicist inventor who, in his spare time acts as town mechanic, coroner, utilities repair man. Dr. Beverly Barlowe runs the local bed and breakfast but just happens to be the town psychiatrist on the side.

To keep all these absent-minded professors out of trouble add Sheriff Jack Carter who just happens to take a wrong turn into this happy community with his rebellious daughter fresh from a messy divorce. Fargo, the local high-tech geek sets him up in an underground bunker which houses a home that is every bachelor’s wet dream. Run by an artificial intelligence entity called S.A.R.A.H. it anticipates his every need supplying cold beer on tap, meals, laundry, fireplace, music, wakeup calls, everything his heart desires.

The series ends up being not so much about the scientists who live in Eureka but the Sheriff who attempts to keep law and order in a berg peopled by mad scientists and his female deputy who was passed over for the position of sheriff. It is yet another production shot in the Vancouver BC area subbing for a town in the Pacific North-West. The series gets at least four out of five super-novas the one negative being the fancy new packaging it came in that didn’t survive shipping via Canada Post—at least the DVD’s weren’t damaged.

Where the Red Fern Grows

2008-04-24T05:17:00.003-04:00

In the first place there really is a red fern.

This movie is based on the book of the same title by Wilson Rawls. Although it is not to my knowledge on any Canadian Syllabus it is apparently required reading by at least half of all classrooms in the USA. Therefore the story is widely known. I have read the book but the background information about how it was written is new to me and quite fascinating. For more background see:

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rawls.html

Not surprisingly, this is not the only movie treatment given this book but this version gives the story the full Disney Treatment. My one observation would be that if Dave Matthews were only an inch or two shorter he could pass for Billy Coleman his son played by Joseph Ashton. Only 11 years separate the two and as the picture above shows he looks boyishly young. As grampa Dabney Coleman inhabits the part fully.

This being a Disney show although Billy covers the smokehouse wall with coon skins we never see one shot even during the competition where guns are present. One of the Pritchard boys gets killed but we are not shown his injury. Given the violence that permeates the media these days this seems to be a rather sanitized version of the story. Watching it gave me the perverse notion that it should bear a Restricted to those 10 years of age or under rating.

Dante's Cove

2008-04-22T16:55:00.003-04:00

Dante’s Cove is an island beach resort where clothing is optional and even the women have buns of steel and six-packs. The producers don’t spend a great deal on wardrobe but must supply sun tan oil by the 45 gallon drum. Aside from the parade of taut bodies there is much coupling which takes place wherever the spirit moves mano a mano, female on female, and even hetero on rare occasions. I’ve gotten accustomed to gay sex on screen but must say I still don’t see the point of the lesbian variety. Into the mix is thrown witchcraft and magic, ancient curses and demon power—the casting of spells, Wiccan, and Druidic Rites. People don’t just get murdered here; they just plain disappear or get reduced to little piles of ash.

In the end though the reason for watching this guilty pleasure is the boys; and they are beautiful.

21 Jump Street--Season Five

2008-04-12T08:29:00.003-04:00

By the time Season Five of 21 Jump Street rolled out in 1990 I was no longer watching it. After all these years I don’t remember why but there was probably something else programmed at the same time in those years before VCR’s became generally in use. By season five it would appear that Johnny Depp’s contract had run out and he was too hot a commodity to remain on the small screen so he made the jump to movies opening in Edward Scissorhands that year. Dustin Nguyen left as well. In the first two episodes of season 5 David Barry Gray appears as Garrett but doesn’t remain long enough to rate as anything but a guest, he isn’t even an officer in every episode in which he appears. Michael Bendetti is then introduced in episode 3 as Officer Tony (Mac) McCann. Apparently the huskier Gray lacked sufficient ‘sex’ appeal. The ‘hunk’ factor had no part in the arrival of the chunky Peter DeLuise’s brother Michael as Joey Penhall; both having inherited their father’s fat genes. Although Holly Robinson and DeLuise remain both are now too mature to go undercover as teens so they infiltrate as substitute teachers.

There doesn’t appear to be any lack of new original ideas or writing quality in these new episodes; nor is there any fall-off in production values. It would seem the loss of it’s original stars and the fact that the cast members out-grew their roles led to the show’s demise.

Beowulf

2008-04-07T04:31:00.003-04:00

To appreciate Beowulf it helps if you’ve read the book though you’ll be hard-pressed to recognize the original story in this Hollywood rewrite. The saga is an oral tradition and the producers of this adult animated movie engaged Neil Gaiman to create a storyline that would hold up to modern viewers on the big screen. Indeed there is a 3-D IMAX version of this film. Though an ancient English saga this tale has its origins in ancient Viking mythology complete with longboats, mead halls and dragons.

The mead hall scenes are deliciously licentious and bawdy with much debauchery, drunkenness, and ribald humour. King Hrothgar wanders around for much of the movie with little but a poorly draped rag to cover his immodest parts and he makes no pretense in taking a nubile “bed-warmer” to his chambers in front of his Queen.

If the storyline and the monsters that drive this plot are totally improbable the animation which presents them is utterly realistic leaving one to pinch oneself to remember that the characters on screen are not live actors. If computer technology ever masters the production of believable human speech Hollywood will be able to dispense with over-priced stars altogether.

If your imagination allows you to engage the fantastical elements of this story you’re in for a wild ride. move

Kite Runner

2008-04-06T15:46:00.003-04:00

Being a mountainous country it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Afghanistan has been a popular place to engage in kite flying. This is a country that still plays a game on horseback that involves a carrying around a dead goat; a competition that can actually kill people. Therefore I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that kite flying is also an aggressive sport involving cutting your competitor’s kite string with your own.

As the better off of the duo about whom this story is told Amir is not a nice guy. Feeling jealous of the attention paid his friend Hassan, the son of his father’s servant he engineers the circumstance that leads to their departure from his home. Thus when, having escaped to American when the Taliban take over his homeland after the Russian Invasion his return to seek out the offspring of his now deceased childhood friend is as much an exercise in remorse as anything else.

Amir has always been bookish and reclusive; never standing up for himself in anything. His friend Hassan, though nearly half his size has the heart of a lion and fought their joint battles while Amir watched often in hiding. Nothing much changes when he returns to Afghanistan and he is given a beating by the Taliban leader he attempts to confront in seeking the release of his dead friend’s son. Indeed it is that boy who helps engineer their eventual escape.

There are no heroes here, only flawed human beings attempting to make their way through life as best they can despite the obstacles that get thrown in their way. The movie was shot in China and California not the country in which it is set. The most engaging portions of the movie centre on the early relationship between the two boys. The bond that is set there drives the remainder of the film.

Atonement

2008-03-22T11:30:00.002-04:00

Robbie Turner’s transgression was associating with people above his station in life. His mother’s employer may have willingly put his housekeeper’s son through school but having him affianced to his daughter would be quite another matter. When her younger sister tells an awful lie about him “the family closed ranks and threw him to the wolves”. Rather than rot in jail for an offense he did not commit he volunteers to fight in WW#1. The remainder of the movie shows scenes from the retreat to the beach at Dunkirk, and of the sisters serving as nurses in London Hospitals. As much as a romance craves for a happy ending in this tale none is possible. There are some hurts for which there is no atonement. No matter what she does Briony can never undo the hurt she has visited on her sister and Robbie.

Conspiracy of Silence

2008-03-19T03:28:00.002-04:00

The Holy Catholic Church is no longer universal, unfractured or particularly sacred if one subscribes to the point of view portrayed here. At the best of times the study of theology is a shattering experience but in recent times controversies that strike at the heart of the institution of the priesthood have added an entirely new level of stress. Given the 2000 + year history of Christianity celibacy has been a relatively recent accretion. While monks have practiced it for millennia before and after the birth of Christendom most religious leaders have had spouses and families.

As a follower of that heretic Luther I take issue with the pope on a number of planes. His stance on birth control and abortion, the place of women in the church, celibacy, his assertion that his is the only true Christian way, Mariology and the virgin birth, the silencing of modern Christian thinkers, and his love affair with Dogma are all turnoffs. With congregational attendance dwindling, priests in short supply and the average age of cloistered nuns in the mid-seventies the tradition role of the church is coming under severe fire. In Canada many dioceses have been nearly bankrupted by their participation in residential schools and orphanages as a result of the abuses they led to. The abuse of altar boys seems to be a world-wide phenomenon. Given all this the church seems bent on a course of repression, denial and cover-up. Are the transgressors venal or is there something inherently wrong about denying men in the prime of life a sexual outlet?

The young men at the centre of Conspiracy of Silence are caught up in this controversy in a deeply personal manner. With the eyes of the world and reporters in particular watching and looking for blood the church seems to expect its seminarians to both act and be seen to act in a manner that is beyond reproach. This at a time when these lads are on the eve of a lifetime commitment and attempting to enjoy their last few years of freedom. College students do what college students have always done. They have late night dorm room discussions, they go out to local pubs, they engage in sports. Can these young men be expected to be any different?

The 24th Day

2008-03-17T19:45:00.004-04:00

For the record, he may be a fellow Canadian but I do not find Jeff Speakman with his two-day stubble, flying hair and stocky features attractive—he looks working-class common. James Marsden is strikingly handsome with his trim build and chiseled features. This may simply be a matter of grooming and posture but in this case first impressions count.

Dan and Tom first met at a bar and before the night was over went to Tom’s apartment for a drunken one-night stand. Tom works at his family-owned restaurant and lives with his wife in the apartment bequeathed by his grandfather. He managed two years of community college before returning home to the family business. Dan is a university-educated film producer, a hustler, a metro sexual. Dan is bisexual, a man on the make and to him the encounter was a casual tryst soon forgotten. To Tom the encounter would seem to have been sexual experimentation that took place when alcohol had befuddled his better judgment.

Jump forward five years and the two meet again and end up once more at Tom’s apartment. This time, however the dynamic has changed radically. Tom has been stalking Dan because his wife died in a car accident just after learning she had AIDS and 24 days ago Tom learned he tested positive for HIV. Tom is certain his liaison with Dan is the only chance he had of being exposed and his observations of Dan’s lifestyle tend to indicate that Dan is at risk.

This sets the stage for a battle of wits, physical domination and moral suasion. Before Dan fully realizes the trap he has walked into he finds himself handcuffed to a chair and donating a forcibly removed blood sample Tom takes out to a lab for testing. As they wait for the test results these two equally matched young men spar verbally and physically with one another with words, cunning and fists.

I can only wish I’d had the opportunity to see the play with Noah Wyle starring as Dan on stage in LA. On screen the bi-play between these two is lost as the camera directs our view and we cannot see the physicality and menace that is exchanged between them. Interestingly enough despite being alone in an airless sealed apartment for two days these two young hunks keep their clothes on for the entire movie.

Moondance.doc

2008-03-16T14:53:00.002-04:00

Well, tomorrow is St. Paddy’s Day. Moondance is a capricious madcap Irish brother movie in which two loving siblings take life as it finds them living a totally unbridled existence. They play hooky from school and church too as it happens, play cowboys and Indians indoors, and bath outdoors in a dory—the movie isn’t X-rated so they keep their pants on. Their idyllic lifestyle is upset by the arrival of Anya, a German girl here for the summer. Those Irish passions for Horses, Dogs and Ale also figure.

Unfortunately for the viewer too much of the back-story is missing and this leads one to ask uneasy questions. How do two minors get away with living alone and skipping school? How did their father die and why did their Mother go off to live in Africa? Why does their Aunt Dracula do nothing when her female charge shacks up with them? Why does the trio move to Dublin and how are they acquainted with Murphy the barkeep and dog racer?

True comic relief is provided when Patrick goes to work for the obviously gay duo of Dunbar and Dunwoody who cater to the Catholic trade in religious iconography, candles, and vestments. In a time when “Real Men don’t eat quiche”, one of the duo is heard to remark that he couldn’t wait to get rid of a pair of nuns as he’d just taken a quiche from the oven.

Although I can see the husky Chalky shipping off on a tramp steamer I wonder what use a captain would find for an under-age growing boy such as Dominic. He does have to pay his way to get on board. Mind you midshipmen have served on English battleships for centuries but the pretty Dominic might find need for Chalky’s support to save him from the fate midshipmen faced.

Fargo

2008-03-16T14:03:00.002-04:00

It seemed only fitting to follow one Coen brother’s thriller with an earlier opus. In Fargo Mid-Western corn-ball seems to be played almost to the point of parody complete with Paul Bunyon statue and Blue Ox roadhouse. If, as the movie claims, events are based upon actual happenings, the chief of a large urban police force being female seems unique. We do not get to hear the comments made around the station house in her absence about her artistic house-husband.

Being the wife of one of the co-directors can’t have hurt Frances McDormand’s chances but her acting skills are not in question in any case. Beneath that childlike friendliness lies a canny mind and a will of steel. When she bellies up to the all-you-can-eat buffet she really looks like she’s eating for two, being seven months pregnant. When she finally closes in on the killers she calls it in but proceeds without waiting for backup meeting the approaching cavalry on the way back with the cuffed villain behind her in the prowl car.

Although there’s little to like about his character in this film for some reason I just don’t like William Macy period. A hen-pecked husband held hostage in life by his wife’s father’s millions he is ineffectual even when he attempts a life of crime. His son Scotty does not even register in his plans.

One of the few truly comic moments is provided by the pair of hookers the abductors meet at the roadhouse. When interviewed by the sheriff the best description the blonde can come up with is that her john was strange, the only detail she remembers about his appearance is that he wasn’t circumcised. When questioned further she returns to strange.

The sheriff and her husband spend a good part of the movie in bed, an interesting location for a director to place his wife. The movie even arrives at its conclusion there.

No Country for Old Men

2008-03-16T13:28:00.003-04:00

A Coen Brothers movie is always a unique experience challenging its audience with these brothers’s singular take on the universe. This time out they have adapted a book by Cormac McCarthy set on the New Mexico borderlands. Drugs, drug money and murder are the themes. Killers in a Coen Brothers’ movie seem to be committed and totally unconflicted about their deeds. They proceed with single-minded purpose.

As Sheriff Bell Tommy Lee Jones not only plays an aging lawman, he looks that part. I date myself when I say that I remember when James Brolin played the youthful junior doctor on Marcus Welby MD but here we see his son, Josh, playing a middle-aged Viet Nam vet; it seems only yesterday he was playing a hunky twenty-year-old in The Young Riders. That feeling of time and events having passed one by seems to inform the movie. Sheriff Bell is a canny old lawman, but he does not understand the new spin drugs have put on crime. Life has passed Llewelyn by, the man lives in a trailer; he isn’t quite sure what he’d do with $2,000,000, but he wouldn’t mind finding out. As the man on his trail Anton is plodding, relentless, and taciturn allowing neither bullet wounds nor broken bones to stop him.

There are no chase scenes in this movie; simply a modern western in which one villain tracks another without passion or remorse.

Henry Tudor

2008-03-10T05:01:00.003-04:00

I have now finished Season 1 of The Tudors. A teenaged Henry may have found it fun to be King but a supreme ruler soon discovers that it hard to decide whom he should trust. Heads do indeed roll and heretics are burned at the stake. Those who would manage a man with absolute power must walk a fine line lest the lion turn on them. Channeling that lion’s powers is a fine art which involves keeping the lion busy lest he move in directions his handlers would rather he not go.

In season one Henry becomes obsessed with producing a legitimate male heir. When his wife is unable to give him a son he seeks means to dispose of her so he can marry someone who can. The issue still hangs in the balance as the season ends but intrigue and counter-intrigues and machinations continue unabated. Henry’s desire for an heir begins when he is injured at Jousts and is given further impetuous when his nation is beset by plague.

Witnessing what passed for medical treatment in the early 1500ies makes one wonder just how antiquated we will find our present medical practice in another half millennium. Black Death was not finally eradicated from London until the Great Fire of 1655 incinerated the slums that bred it. For all our scientific advances the old saw still holds, “The six best doctors anywhere and no one can deny it; are sunshine, water, rest, fresh air; with exercise and diet.”

Henry is a man of many talents. He is a horseman, a swordsman, a bowman, an athlete, writes poetry and at one point we see him playing the lute and composing Greensleeves. How astute a judge of character he is may be in question. When he is persuaded to sack Wolsey he soon learns that a little graft may be acceptable in a man who is able to keep his finances balanced.

Interestingly enough the CBC shot a movie about England’s greatest king entirely in Ireland and chose an Irishman to play him. The sets and costuming seem authentic and there are no jarring modern anachronisms in view. It certainly does rain a great deal. If this series manages to survive through Henry’s six wives it will be interesting to see how the make-up department manages to transform the willowy John Rhys Meyers into the paunchy gout-ridden Henry we remember from our history books.

Into the Wild

2008-03-07T04:40:00.001-05:00

He may not have seen it that way but Chris McCandless was one lucky guy. His homelife may not have been stable but financially he lacked for nothing. Rather than coast through life he threw it all away—he literally donates his fortune to charity and burns the cash in his pockets, takes an assumed name, and goes walk-about. Mind you he starts out in his old second-hand car but parks it one night in a flash flood area and is awakened when a flood of water washes it away. Again he was lucky his adventure didn’t end right there. The story comes to a tragic end when his luck finally runs out. It is Chris’ lack of local knowledge that is his downfall in the end. He has no familiarity with animal migration or the fact that it occurs seasonally when insects make certain areas unlivable nor did he know that the small stream he crossed to get to his “Magic Bus” would become a raging torrent once the glacial melt waters from higher altitudes reached downstream watercourses. He dies of starvation when the food runs out and he can’t make it back to civilization. I give nothing away here as it’s all in Jon Krakauer’s book upon which this movie is based.

The importance of a stable loving family experience to ground a person is rarely so graphically illustrated. Rather than take the money and run as some people would have done; Chris is unable to cope with his inner denoms and throws away a potentially lucrative career in law to live a rootless vagabond existence. Rejecting his parent’s expectations he leaves home and makes no further contact with his family. His parent’s who have been too wrapped up in their own affairs to recognize the hurt in their son’s life suddenly, out of guilt or remorse, become obsessed with finding their wayward boy. The commentary supplied here by his sister tracks the origins of Chris’ rootless existence. The fact that he first ran away from home, mind you only 4 blocks, at four; that he spent his summer vacations hitch-hiking across America; and went on major cross continent treks during his college years. In the end the fact that others love you means nothing if you cannot love yourself and life has no meaning if you cannot find it. Happiness is unattainable if you cannot share your joys with others.

Emile Hirsch does a credible job of portraying Chris here. He’s an ordinary guy with whom an audience can identify. The list of filming locations occupies an entire page and ranges across the North American continent giving us countless panoramic views from mountain tops and the valleys below. Although the movie is narrated from Chris’ Sister’s point of view, we are never given an opportunity to meet her or experience first-hand the sense of loss she expresses—the movie is not about her. In the end we are left with a sense of loss—grief at the demise of a lost soul.

Annapolis

2008-03-05T21:28:00.002-05:00

Rocky meets Officer and a Gentleman. What if a movie about the US Naval Academy got shanghaied by a boxing match? As one character declares in a deleted scene, “Can you believe we volunteered for this?” I find military discipline repellant and the treatment of new recruits in particular, appalling and reprehensible. I find the military’s methods objectionable and the need for them equally offensive—but then I’m a pacifist at heart. War is good for the economy and those who profit from it are not fussy about which side buys their toys. But I digress.

If you’re a fan of James Franco this movie gives you an unparalleled opportunity to view his taut naked bod. If those are actually his abs on display in one brief shot they are impressive indeed. No word on whether he or a stunt double performed the actual boxing scenes. The guy he’s up against looks chillingly like Mike Tyson. Gaining or losing weight to make another weight class seems to be a common theme in boxing and wrestling flicks.

This film milks all the clichés including the fat boy, the snitch, racism, bullying, name calling, the suicide, the obstacle course, calisthenics, drilling, bad weather, and sadistic officers. For good measure throw in the latest wrinkle of females in the military. Running away from home to the military to find yourself has a long tradition; problem being that you bring yourself along for the journey. Finding self-discipline by having an outside force impose it upon you seems a desperate move to me but it seems to work for some. Finding it in the military comes with the option of being brought home in a body bag as is graphically illustrated in one scene.

If you like boxing and are a James Franco fan this is an amiable time-waster—others may heed the critics advice and avoid.

Endgame (2001)

2008-03-02T08:10:00.003-05:00

Tom—we are never given his last name for he does not have one—was first molested as a nine-year-old by his adoptive father and is taken into care again when his mother discovers what is happening and uses a pitch fork on her husband. Molested again at 13 by a case worker he has been shipped from foster home to care centre all his life. When we meet him at 30 he is a stunningly handsome, six-foot two inch, extremely well-built Rent Boy closeted in a high-class West-End London Flat. It becomes apparent that upon reaching adulthood and being kicked out onto the streets he has returned to what he knows and become the sex toy of a London mobster who likes it rough, Tom’s body exhibiting the resultant scars.

When asked by a neighbour lady who befriends him what it’s like to accept sex for hire he is stumped to come up with a reply. When she later samples the goods and is disappointed by his lack of response he lays it on the line for her. Being treated like a hunk of fresh meat one learns to turn one’s body off and lose touch with what is happening to it; to become emotionally divorced. When one loses that detachment and actually thinks about it one learns to get good at finding that off switch. After 20 years he doesn’t know how to find that switch and turn it back on.

Daniel Newman, who plays Tom, has what in the Body Building trade is called a squatter’s butt—not a bad attribute for one who would play a male prostitute. He wears flashy clothes well and lives a life of indolent bored luxury. Of indeterminate sexual orientation Tom accepts rough sex as his job; not because he likes it or is too weakly submissive to fight back. The storyline of this movie is about what happens one night when he does resist.

The back story provided above is supplied us in flashbacks which occur mainly when Tom is exercising his “OFF SWITCH.” They occur in no apparent chronological order and the synopsis above rather than being a plot spoiler is the background I wish I’d had going into the movie. The production values and acting here are excellent; again, my only real quibble is with the difficulty this movie presents in attempting to follow the storyline. This is a movie that will improve upon second watching.

310 to Yuma

2008-03-01T14:53:00.002-05:00

A remake of a half-century old movie this film could bring back the popularity of westerns as a genre. As the leader of a robber band Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe slouches through the entire picture without an apparent care in the world; whistling for his horse in the final shot as he is being taken away for the inevitable hanging. The most sinister and frightening character is his loyal henchman Charlie Prince played by Ben Foster; he most reminds me of Bosie played by Charlie Hunnan in Cold Mountain for his unflinching desire to hunt down and kill anyone who would get in the way of his ambitions. Not that Ben Wade doesn’t kill people, but he does it in such an off-hand workmanlike fashion that he is not seen to derive pleasure from doing so as his henchman obviously does.

Wade appears almost amused by his capture and makes only half-hearted attempts at escape; the scene in which he single-handedly rescues his captors fighting off hostile Indians stretches willing disbelief beyond all reason. As the rancher hired to help bring Wade to justice Christian Bale’s Dan Evans glowers his way through the entire piece. The character who steals the movie for my money is his fourteen-year-old son played by Logan Lerman. A fuzzy cheeked youngster he rankles at being asked to stay home and mind the farm stealing off to follow the posse. When he faces down the desperado who has the drop on his captors there is a fire in his eye that makes even Wade believe he means to use that gun in his hand. This is a mature man in a boy’s body. His father may have been beaten down by past injuries and life’s circumstances but he has the will to succeed against all odds.

With the amount of lead that is seen to fly around this set it’s a wonder that anyone survives. Entire frontier towns were built for this movie; it’s been so long since Western Sets were utilized they’ve all fallen into disrepair. The old steam train was trucked in piece by piece and reassembled. If this movie serves to give new life to the genre expect to see these sets again and again.

James Dean

2008-03-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

The James Dean legend is based on 487 minutes of film. East of Eden is based on the John Steinbeck novel; Rebel Without a Cause has become an iconic portrayal of teenage angst and rebellion. Due to its extreme length the sprawling Giant is not often seen on TV and on DVD the uncut four hour twenty-one minute version is a marathon.

James Franco who portraits James Dean in this biopic is already 6 years older than Dean when he died, is three inches taller and decidedly slimmer and lither of build. His depiction of Dean appears to be based on the movie persona. Aside from his relationship with his mother who died when he was nine and his life-long estrangement from his father little insight into his life is given. The bulk of the movie is taken up with his struggles to become an actor and scenes from the sets of his movies; in particular East of Eden. I will have to watch that movie again in light of the new insights I’ve gained.

Whatever his onscreen charisma if this film is at all accurate working with Dean must have been a royal pain for all involved. Given his penchant for motorcycles and fast cars no insurance company today would offer completion bonds for any film on which he worked on at any price. Rightly so as his two Academy Awards were both awarded posthumously after he died in a car wreck. Whatever the merits of this movie its ending seems rather weak and leaves one wishing for more.

The Line of Beauty

2008-02-21T07:05:00.002-05:00

When newly graduated Nick Guest arrives at the opulent London home of his Dorm mate Ted he commits a faux pas that betrays his Middle Class sensibilities in mistaking the housekeeper for his hostess. This is just the beginning of a series of social gaffs around which Nick must navigate; nimbleness of mind being no substitute for an ingrained sense of noblesse oblige. On another occasion that same housekeeper reacts when Nick tries to clear the table after lunch with, “What else would I do?” When a fellow dinner guest confidentially advises him that he should never speculate with more than 12% of his capital he is forced to admit that he doesn’t have any.

Although Nick has been put up in the garret in what were obviously meant to be servants’ quarters he is accepted into this upper crust home as a privileged guest. He gets to use the locked private gardens; rub shoulders with knights, lords, and ladies; and attend lavish parties. Evening clothes are de rigor. This is the Mid-Nineteen Eighties and openly gay Nick is learning about the ‘marriages of convenience’ of his new upper crust liaisons. Even members of the aristocracy die of Aids, suffer from manic depression, abuse cocaine, and get drunk.

This is a BBC series based upon the Booker Prize winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. It would appear that “the love that dare not speak its name” is now considered appropriate fare for public television though in polite society such liaisons are still conducted in the closet. This mini-series is accorded the full BBC quality treatment. Although we are made vaguely aware of the nastiness that goes on in the background for the most part we are treated to the good life and everything glows with a golden patina until Nick’s world comes crashing down.

Heartland

2008-02-19T09:27:00.003-05:00

Heartland is a quality CBC production shot on a horse farm in the foothills of Alberta. Killing off the principal character in the first episode of a series is a novel approach to scripting but the writers seem to make it work for them. Shot in Kananaskis Country on a family farm that has passed through six generations of the same family Heartland features grampa Jack and his two daughters, a juvenile delinquent hired hand Ty, and a First Nations Vet Scott. Scott it seems is a former guest who was given a leg up by the deceased mother Marion. Rescuing wayward people and physically and psychologically damaged horses seems to be a theme here. Making it pay is quite another matter though and having a large competitive neigbour next door doesn’t help. Matriarchal families seem to be another theme that runs through the series. Men seem to get busted up on the rodeo circuit, divorced, or otherwise excluded from the picture.

Horses are high-strung animals subject to all sorts of maladies whose lineage is probably not aided by over-breeding. Although veterinary science has come a long way in treating these conditions there is a long tradition of folk medicine, native healers, and so-called horse whisperers who succeed where science fails. The premise of Heartland is that fifteen-year-old Amy has inherited her Mother’s innate gift for treating damaged horses and learned the tricks of the trade by osmosis from watching her Mother work. The supporting cast of characters have well-developed characterizations and the supplementary website and blog are not shy about acknowledging that the horses are part of the cast. As the Native-Canadian Vet, Nathaniel Arcand is the only name actor in the cast.

Ash Wednesday

2008-02-06T21:34:00.003-05:00

[Be Ware; There be Spoilers here.]

As with the ash of the title there are no black and whites in this movie. No one is innocent here. Not the self-indulgent younger brother who committed a triple murder at eighteen because he thought he was protecting his older brother. Not the priest with a past who helped fake his death and escape from the neighbourhood. Certainly not Whitey the Irish hood who runs this section of Hell’s Kitchen and was complicit in the cover-up. And not Francis the older brother who worked with his father as Whitey’s enforcer.

The uneasy equilibrium of the neighbourhood is upset when the younger brother Sean decides he must return to his old haunts and commits the indiscretion of appearing in public. He wants to re-establish a relationship with a wife who has thought him dead for three years and had intercourse with his older brother in spite of the fact that she has a son. As with so many Irish tales there can be no happy endings here. Yes, the younger brother appears to make a getaway with his wife and the child he didn’t know he had; but at the cost of his Brother’s life. Throughout the music casts a pall of foreboding on a movie that proceeds inexorably to its ultimate end. Nothing happens quickly here. Ed Burns who wrote and directed this opus finally gets to script the hit that ends his life.

In concert with the Ash Wednesday theme the closing music is a free translation of the Irish Hymn, Be Thou My Vision, performed in a minor key.

Rock Haven

2008-01-26T09:09:00.000-05:00

What does a Born-Again Christian do when his body starts telling him he’s gay? This is the moral and intellectual dilemma faced by Brady when he and his puritanical Mother move to the small coastal town of the title. The long-suffering Clifford puts up with Brady’s conflicted attentions because in a small red-necked town he doesn’t have a lot of other alternatives for compatible companionship. It isn’t until Clifford finally gives up and decides to leave town to live with his Father on another continent that Brady finally faces up to the choices before him and finds help from an unexpected source in the person of his pastor. His mother, although not going to the length of casting him out of her home nevertheless is unwilling to attempt to accept the reality that her son may have no choice in coming to terms his homosexual orientation.

The film-makers try to keep the Bible-Thumping to a minimum though dinners in front of a large reproduction of the Last Supper and long passages in church do tend to drag. The movie’s 78 minute running time is padded with a great many scenes of rocky coastline, crashing surf, and blowing grass and flowers. There’s a great deal of homoerotic petting but whether or not the pair ever actually get it on is left up to our imaginations.

The Tudors

2008-01-18T06:51:00.000-05:00

Do you remember what it was like to be a hormonally charged nineteen-year-old? Now think what it would be like to become absolute ruler of the most powerful country in the world at that age, be accounted handsome, and have an athletic body. Henry Tudor was the modern equivalent of a rock star and premiere athlete all rolled into one. Not only did he have a boundless sexual appetite but woman were literally lining up to share his bed and as monarch his wish was their command in any case. In deference to modern sensibilities Harry asks each new conquest if she consents before he ravishes her; I doubt the original took such precautions. The young men with whom Harry surrounded himself were no less active. In any case today anyone with that many sexual partners would be subject to any number of venereal diseases not the least of which would be HIV.

We now enjoy what is called a constitutional monarchy. The sovereign still enjoys all the rights and privileges he/she historically held but her Parliament and Ministers exercise those authorities in her stead. In watching The Tudors we get an inside look at how the King’s advisors managed their charge’s absolute power. Since no one man could possibly manage all the detail involved in running a country, let alone an empire and a coterie of foreign diplomats his advisors took care of these details while the king was kept busy going off hunting, jousting, playing games, and chasing skirts. In fact keeping a ready supply of wenches for his dalliance was one sure way of ensuring a favoured position at court.

With so much power to be wielded it should be no surprise that court was rife with no end of rivalries, back stabbing, and intrigue. There is truth to the old saw that one keeps one friends close and one’s enemies closer. Henry may have been king of England but his courtiers were rulers of their own private fiefdoms, held vast wealth, and maintained their own standing armies. It were better if they were at court where they could keep a close eye on one another than at home plotting insurrection behind their fortified castle walls. It is also interesting to note church and state were intricately intertwined as the most powerful temporal authority in England at the time was also the chief prelate.

Much has been made among critics of John Rhys Meyers’ lack of physical presence as Henry and there are times when this becomes jarringly apparent—particularly in such scenes as the joust where he falters in attempting to manage the heavy pole. He looks more like a scholar than a jock. Having seen the original Henry’s suit of armour; this actor would be lost in it. For the most part though, the actors lead you to suspend disbelief and draw you in. This is not a Hollywood production and hence millions were not spent on sets and period costumes. In the scene at Val d’Or, France Henry actually demonstrates that his palace is fake.

If you’re curious CBC has made this series available online at their site but I must say it looks better on a wide-screen TV than inside a browser window.

One Tree Hill

2008-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

One Tree Hill is a town where the people surrounding Lucas Scott; either on purpose or by misguided intent seem powerless to stop themselves from causing evil things to happen to one another. In the middle of this high-school soap opera Luc evinces near saint-like qualities. In the main the seventeen-year-olds in this series display a great deal more maturity and centeredness than the adults who are their nominal guardians.

Lucas Scott was raised by his unwed Mother and his Uncle Keith who last season was murdered by Luc’s biological father Dan who is father to Luc’s half-brother Nathan who has emancipated himself from his father and his drug-dependent alcoholic mother and is married to Luc’s best friend Haley. This improbable maze is set among the players of the town’s high school basketball team and their cheerleaders, their coach, their teachers, and their parents.

The force holding all this together is series creator, writer and producer Mark Schwahn. He has created an ensemble cast of characters who draw the audience into their lives and make you care about them as if they were family members. As implausible as it is that any single close-knit group of people could find themselves week after week involved in so much high drama using classic cliff-hanger plot lines the writer keeps one wanting to come back for more.

Using the device of Luc’s diary the writer provides an ongoing background commentary on the events and experiences that surround his characters. Luc’s “girlfriend” Peyton, on the other hand, keeps an online Video Blog. The series is current with all the latest teen-aged fads and their music provides the background for their lives with many popular bands appearing on the show in person. The whole is so seamlessly knit together that I found myself watching all 880 minutes of Season 4 over the New Year’s Holiday in less than four days as with a book one finds oneself incapable of putting down.

Bon Cop; Bad Cop

2007-12-25T06:13:00.001-05:00

Told in a crude combination of English, Franglish, and profanity; Good Cop; Bad Cop plays like a riff on the odd couple. Two officers from the RCMP and the Sûreté du Quebec are jointly assigned the investigation of a gangland killing which results in the corpse straddling a Quebec/Ontario Highway Sign where the 401 meets Highway 20. The French detective arrives in what looks like a beater from an impound yard and is dressed to match; his English counterpart is immaculately tricked out and drives a vehicle that has been freshly polished. So begins an endless round of slap stick and banter that plays on all the stereotypes of the two solitudes and buddy, buddy cop movies. It almost feels like a pilot for a TV series. Perhaps it would have made it had it had Paul Gross to produce it.

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-11-25T19:18:00.001-05:00

What can I say that hasn’t already been written about this movie? That it is not a fairy tale for children is an understatement. I’m as guilty of the North American prejudice against reading subtitles while attempting to watch a movie as anyone and this one, in Spanish, is no exception. Somehow the words disappear before I get a chance to read them. The un-answered question here is what Ofelia’s Mother saw in the Captain aside from the fact that he was the father of her child. Ofelia, certainly, has no qualms about posing the question. Certainly she was done no favours by being dragged into crude housing in the middle of a war zone.

As far as cruelty is concerned there is little to choose between the guerillas and their fascist advisories. As the movie progresses the body count mounts in cross piles of Shakespearian proportions. By the end the only principle character who still lives is Mercedes, the housekeeper. The mystery is how she could support the rebels so openly for so long under the Captain’s nose without arousing his suspicions. Certainly Ofelia had no doubts. Given the carnage around her an attempt to escape reality would seem the only sane course of action.