Fringe Review

The reports of no show mythology were greatly exaggerated.

I needn't of worried, after all Fringe is in the capable hands of JJ Abrams.  The same man we're trusting Star Trek to.  Can there be any higher form of praise? (Rhetorical question, but here's the answer anyway, only the person George entrusts Episodes 7-9 to will be given a higher form of praise.)

Last night's 83 minute (after commercials) pilot set the stage for what should be an exciting series very reminiscent of the X-Files.  While mythology driven serials have been increasingly mythology heavy (not that there's anything wrong with this) since JJ's last two shows (Alias and LOST), X-Files set the template for a mythology driven serial that didn't require constant vigilance (as MadEye Moody might say).  Some episodes were "Mythological" episodes (pertaining to the overall storyline of the show, the Aliens and government conspiracy) and some were "Monster of the Week" episodes (one off stories that were completed, well as much as anything ever was in the X-Files world, in the time allotted for that episode).  Chances are good that you didn't miss too much of the overall storyline if you missed one of those episodes and therefore it wasn't imperative that you made sure you were home for every new episode of The X-Files.  When an important episode was upcoming, the previews made sure you knew it and planned accordingly.

It looks like Fringe will follow the same template.  Each week's episode will be a "mystery of the week" that will get solved within the episode.  At the same time, there is an overall mystery, known on the show as "The Pattern", that will be the characters main goal to solve, but the clues to that overall plot will be gained by the weekly mysteries.  The closer you watch the series, the more you'll discover about the overall mystery, but meanwhile, every week will have a one hour mystery that doesn't require knowledge from the viewer on the overall mystery.  It'll just be a procedural, sort of a Sci-Fi CSI.

Whether or not this will work to bring in larger viewers, since an encyclopedia like knowledge of the show won't be required (like on LOST, again, not that there's anything wrong with that), we'll have to wait and see.

Myself, I'm eager to see what else there is to know about The Pattern and what other interesting mysteries the show will throw at us as viewers.

Until Next Time, If you missed it yesterday, there will be an encore showing of the premiere episode on FOX Saturday night.  Do yourself a favor and check it out, JJ Abrams has done it again.

Fringe

FRINGE premieres tonight on FOX.  It's the new show from JJ Abrams (creator of Alias and LOST) and has a distinct X-Files vibe going on.

Tonight's 95 minute premiere opens with a mystery involving a plane landing, but everyone on it is dead.  An FBI agent is tasked to find out what happened leading her to a mad scientist (literally mad, he's in an institution) and his theories about fringe sciences, mind-reading, teleportation, excetra, in other words, all our sci-fi faves.  In order to get his cooperation, she enlists the help of the scientist's son (and the Scully of the show) played by Pacey from Dawson's Creek.  (Joshua Jackson if you insist on using actor's real names.)

By the end of the 95 minute premiere, the first mystery will be solved and we'll get a new one next week.

Apparently, the network is hoping that less of a serialized approach will hope viewers feel more comfortable, as it will allow them to come in whenever and not be too penalized by missing an episode.

I suppose this is a sound theory, but speaking for myself, I'm much more interested in investing my time in shows that ask something of me.  Sure, sometimes it means that I have to hold off after missing an episode and catching up in the summer with the DVD release (although iTunes has made it much easier to catch up quickly for the low, low price of  $1.99, and often times the networks have the episode available for free on their own website, so this is less and less of an issue), but on the flipside, keeping up with a serialized show is tons more rewarding.

I have to admit, I'm excited about Fringe, because of the creators pedigree in part and also because of the storyline and actors attached, but I think that I'd be tons more interested if it were a highly serialized show the way that Alias and LOST were.

After all, if I'm not penalized for missing an episode, isn't it more likely that I will?

Until Next Time, I'll put up my review of the pilot tomorrow.

Fall TV Preview

We're coming up on the return of the network television shows, hoping that an actors strike doesn't impact this season the way the writers strike did last year.  No need to worry about that yet, I suppose, so let's take a look at what awaits us starting in September.  As always, I ignore Reality tv.

-Monday, Sept. 1

I'll be watching the two hour season premiere of Prison Break (because I can't quit this show even when I want to.)

SPOILER ALERT ON PRISON BREAK

If somehow you haven't heard, Sara is back and apparently wasn't beheaded.  I'm not that shocked.  I always assumed that she would be back as I heard her talking about in interviews how she would be off the show for bit while she had her baby.  I am interested in seeing how they bring her back, however.

SPOILER ALERT OVER

Others might be excited about the return of Gossip Girls on the CW or the return of One Tree Hill on the same station.

-Tuesday, Sept 2

The premiere of the CW's big hope 90210.  Yeah.

-Wednesday, Sept 3

The return of Bones on FOX.  (I still don't get how Angel can walk around in sunlight.  I thought Angel destroyed that ring after Oz gave it to him.)

-Tuesday, Sept 9

The two hour premiere of Fringe, the new show from J.J. Abrams, and along with Dollhouse, the front runner for Josh's Choice for Best New Show of the Season Award.  I can't wait for this show.
Also, the new show called Privileged on CW.  Doesn't really scream out to me.

-Wednesday, Sept 10

The return of Til Death and the premiere of Do Not Disturb on FOX.

-Tuesday, Sept 16

The return of Hugh Laurie as House (a show I really need to start watching.)

-Thursday, Sept 18

The return of Smallville and Supernatural on the CW.  Hopefully this season of Smallville is better then the last.  Come on Clark.  The exit of Lex and Lana has me a little worried though, not going to lie.

-Sunday, Sept 21

An interesting thing tonight.  The CW leased out thier Sunday night lineup to an independent company, Media Rights Capital who are producing the shows CW will be showing including two that premiere tonight, Valentine and Easy Money.

-Monday, Sept 22

Now things really get going.

CBS premieres Big Bang Theory, the greatness that is How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, the new comedy Worst Week Ever, and the return of CSI: Miami.

ABC brings back Boston Legal for its last season (supposedly).

NBC premieres an entire night of Heroes, hopefully having figured out it's recent slump.

-Tuesday, Sept 23

CBS gives us their Psych knock off The Mentalist in between the return of NCIS and Without a Trace and NBC presents the return of da-DAH (my written interpretation of the Law and Order musical intro) Law & Order:SVU.

-Wednesday, Sept 24

Knight Rider rides again on NBC, but my bet is not for long.  Speaking of NBC, the Seinfeld curse continues to be beaten by Elaine in The New Adventures of Old Christine to be followed by new series Gary Unmarried on CBS, who will then give us the returns of Criminal Minds and CSI:NY (if anyone cares).  Meanwhile, ABC brought back Lipstick Jungle for some reason.

-Thursday, Sept 25

My Name is Earl and The Office each get hour long premieres followed by the premiere of the final season of ER, which honestly probably should have happened about 10 years ago, on NBC.
ABC shows the premieres of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatamy.

-Sunday, Sept 28

The return of our favorite animated shows on FOX, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad.

Also Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters on ABC and Cold Case and more President Palmer kicking A** on The Unit on CBS.

-Monday, Sept 29

Chuck returns and Life, last year's third place finisher in Josh's Choice for Best New Show of the Season, is given a Heroes lead-in in order to maximize its viewership on NBC, although that lead-in didn't work for Journeyman, last year's winner of Josh's Choice for Best New Show of the Season.

-Wednesday, Oct 1

ABC owns the night with the premieres of Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.  Oh yeah, Private Practice will be shown in between them.

-Friday, Oct 3

Ghost Whisperer, new show The Ex-List, and Numb3rs premiere on CBS.  Everybody Hates Chris and The Game return to the CW.

-Monday, Oct 6

Samantha Who returns to ABC.

-Thursday, Oct 9

Kath & Kim joins the NBC comedy lineup.  Time will tell if it keeps the Thursday lineup at must see comedy level like last year (we miss you Scrubs, but maybe you're in a better place, one that recognizes your greatness).

CSI (the original one) returns on CBS followed by the series premiere of Eleventh Hour.  ABC premieres the new show Life on Mars.

-Monday, Oct 13

The new Christian Slater show, My Own Worst Enemy takes over Journeyman's slot.  Hopefully it will do better.

-Tuesday, Oct 14

The return of America's Next Top Prophet, Eli Stone!!!

-Friday, Oct 17

Two hour premiere of Crusoe on NBC.  The previews during the Olympics have me intrigued.

-Thursday, Oct 30

The return of Liz Lemon and 30 Rock.

-Sunday, Nov 2

Bob Saget returns to sitcom-ville in Surviving Suburbia on MRC's Sunday night lineup on the CW.

So, there you have it, the premieres of network television's scripted shows this fall.  As always, times are subject to change.  The networks aren't very good at sticking to plans.

Until Next Time, For ABC's full fall schedule, click here, For CBS's here, For NBC's here, For FOX's here, and for the CW's here.  Enjoy.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I heard about this, but I got excited despite myself.  So, as with any other STAR WARS movie, my friends and I found ourselves at Rave for the midnight premiere.
Unlike for Indiana Jones (and I hear for Dark Knight, but I wasn't able to make that one) the line was non existent.  Clearly the majority of the STAR WARS community hadn't been sucked in as I had by the trailers.

Their loss.

Sure it isn't live action, but I thought the animation was pretty good.  The story is different from the main Episodes, but it's very good and it is a lot more action oriented.  The interplay between the characters is very good, like classic STAR WARS good.  And it is a pleasure to see a heroic Anakin and not either the young (some might say annoying, but what 6 year old isn't?) Anakin or the emo (some might still say annoying) Anakin or the evil (some might still say annoying, and I'm beginning to wonder if people have something against Hayden) Anakin.  We've heard about heroic and cool General Anakin Skywalker, but we hadn't seen him yet.  Until now.  (Plus, he wasn't even voiced by Hayden, so there's that).

His new Padawan was a very interesting addition.  There was great interplay between her and Sky Guy (as she called him, one of her many fun nicknames, although R-twoie got on my nerves a little bit, but I did enjoy imagining that R2's beeps and boops were cursing at her every time she used it).

I'm really looking forward to the new animated series that this leads into, and after all that was the point. 

Mainly, the film was a lot of fun.  Good, old fashioned STAR WARS fun.

A couple other little points I noticed... it seemed like the general of the Droid Army that Kenobi and Skywalker were fighting at the beginning of the movie was totally putting on a fake Sean Connery accent, and it seemed like Ziro the Hutt, Jabba's uncle, had a bit of a Cartman (from South Park) accent going.  In fact I called him Cartman the Hutt in my head.  "Screw you guys, I'm going to take over the Hutts."

Until Next Time, I loved Stinky the Hutt, not even going to lie.  "He's really sick.  He's turning every shade of green except for the one he's supposed to be!"

The Dark Knight

First off let me say to Iron Man that you have my condolences.  It's kind of unfair to come out with the greatest comic book movie ever made only to have your title stripped away from you so completely two months later.
Because, yes, The Dark Knight is that good.  It's everything that you hoped that it might be and more.  Very, very rarely does a movie that is this hyped and that has such high expectations ever live up to them, much less exceed them.  In fact, up until now, only Serenity had ever achieved that feat in my mind.  Now it has company as The Dark Knight blew away even the highest expectations.

I didn't get to see the movie until Saturday, but it was well worth the wait.

On the Heath Ledger issue, he was unbelievably good.  It was hard to even remember that the Joker was actually Heath Ledger, because he embodied the character on screen.  He truly was the Joker.

Overall, it was quite a cast.  Even William Fichtner had a small role at the beginning of the film (and I love William Fichtner.)

Until Next Time, I can't believe that we are only a few days away from the greatness that is The X-Files in theaters!

Hellboy II

What an awesome movie.  Once again, I am in awe of the imagination of Guillermo Del Toro and eagerly awaiting his take on The Hobbit.

Going far beyond the fantasy world he introduced in Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II is a wonder to behold, filled to overflowing with fantastic creatures.  Add to that the inventive storyline and the fantastic Mike Mingola characters, and this is a sequel that far surpasses the original (which was also a great movie).

While the characters are strange and eye catching, they are also extremely relate-able, turning the fantastic characters into people that you can't help but connect to.  Even a character formed only by steam is instantly made real and grows on you throughout the film.  (Plus he's voiced by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame).

While the action is top notch and the film features some amazing fight sequences, it is really the subplots that make this film outstanding.  The ever intriguing plot line of Hellboy's desire to belong remains from the first movie with an even greater potential of a storyline hinted at for a future film.  Then there is the subplot of romance that is handled expertly by Del Toro and the cast fitting in seamlessly with the more action fueled main plot.

And I would be remiss not to add that the romantic subplot allows for the best use of Barry Manilow by any movie ever.  Trust me, it's brilliant.

Until Next Time, I cannot wait for Hellboy III.

WALL-E

PIXAR is just unbelievable.  Really.  What they've managed to do is simply unprecedented.  They've come out with 9 films so far.  All have been good movies (at the worst, and brilliant at the best).  All have been blockbusters (the original Toy Story has the smallest world wide gross).

This success gives PIXAR the ability to take a risk or two.  Last summer their film was about a rat who could cook and yet they managed to make it charming (although it and A Bug's Life are definitely my two least favorite PIXAR movies).  This summer they went even further and released a film about a robot, set 700 years in the future, and that goes for long amounts of time without dialogue.  Add to all of that the fact that it has a bit of an environmental (okay, a lot of an environmental) message and you have what could easily become a disaster.

Instead, PIXAR gives us easily their best effort since The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, and possibly one that's even better then those outstanding films.

Wall-E is, in fact, by far the best movie that I've seen so far this year, and probably the best film I've seen since Zodiac last year.  It is touching, funny, smart, beautiful to look at, and above all, real.  This could be the first time that an animated movie wins Best Picture, because Wall-E is certainly of that caliber.

If you haven't seen it yet, go immediately.  It doesn't matter if you have kids who want to see it or not (for the record, they'll love it just because of how cute Wall-E and EVE are), this is truly a movie for everyone, enjoyable on multiple different levels.

Sure it's a risk to make this type of film (at times channeling 2001, to the point where one robotic character, Auto, is no doubt intentionally patterned after HAL) but when done right (as PIXAR never fails to do) you have in your hands a masterpiece that is destined to become a classic.

Until Next Time, Do yourself a favor.  Go see this movie.

Movie Reviews and More

First off, let me say how saddened I am by the death of two of the best and brightest in the world of entertainment...

George Carlin and Stan Winston
They will both be greatly missed as pioneers in two of my favorite fields, comedy and sci-fi.


Last weekend was the opening of the new Hulk movie as well as the latest from M. Night.  Here are my reviews...

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

So much of an improvement over the last film (Ang Lee's Hulk in 2003) that it seems like two completely different characters inspired the films.

Perhaps in a way that is true, as the inspiration for the latest incarnation of the great big green guy seems to be almost as much the 80's television show as the comic book.

Sure, Ang Lee's version had a cameo by Lou Ferrigno, this version also had a cameo by Bill Bixby (despite the fact that he's dead) and a "cameo" by the television show's outstanding theme song.  Also, at one point, Bruce Banner uses the alias David B. (on the show, the character was named David Banner).

Sure, it isn't as good a film as Iron Man was, but since Iron Man is clearly the best comic book movie ever made, it seems unfair to compare Hulk too closely with it.  As a comic book movie, it's more then adequate, and it has a lot of Hulk Smashing, and isn't that what we wanted anyway?

Add to that the fact that the CG Hulk doesn't take away from the film the way that it did 5 years ago as realistic CG characters continue to get better and better.

Bottom line is any fan of the old television show will absolutely adore this film, and anyone who just likes to see "Hulk Smash" will be equally excited by it.

THE HAPPENING

I knew going in that Marky Mark's character was a science teacher, so when the movie opened with some horrendously clunky dialogue and bad acting, I naturally thought that Marky Mark was showing some awful biology video or something (after all, we've all seen those videos).

As it continued, however, I had the sinking realization that it wasn't a bad science video, but was actually the beginning of the movie.  Not a good start.

It does get better, although the dialogue stays pretty clunky throughout (although still better then Titanic, I still get chills remembering the dialogue in that movie).  There are some genuinely creepy moments towards the end of the film, very reminiscent in many ways of the Hitchcock classic The Birds.  However it takes way too long to get to those moments and unlike The Birds (or the far superior and scarier The Strangers) it doesn't use the time it takes to get to the scares to really make you care about the characters.  (Again, probably because the dialogue is so unrealistic and the acting not very strong).

Another problem I had with the movie was the cameo by M. Night.  Just like Hitch, Night has been putting himself in each of his films, and the smart audience is conditioned to wonder about when and where he will show up.  Sure, I thought his cameo in this movie was extremely clever (by far his best cameo yet), but it really distracted from the film while you were continuously wondering where and when he would appear.  Hitchcock realized this problem and began putting his cameos very early in the film to get them out of the way and distract as little as possible.  If Shyamalan plans to continue this tradition, perhaps he should think about doing the same thing.

The best parts about The Happening both happened before the movie even began in the form of me getting carded trying to buy a ticket (seriously!  Dude, I'm 30!) and The X-Files: I Want To Believe trailer playing before the movie.  It got no better after that.

Until Next Time, I've been out of town and incommunicado for over a week (hence the lateness of these reviews) and therefore I want to rewatch the BSG mid-season finale one more time before I talk about it, but let me just say....   HOLY CRAP!  AMAZING!!  I totally didn't see that coming.

BSG Sine Qua Non & The Hub

So, it's been two episodes since I last talked about what's happening on the greatest show on television, and I have a few thoughts based on the last two episodes that I would like to share before the mid-season finale airs on Friday.

1. Lee Adama = Barack Obama

Many people throughout the years have talked about the parallels between Laura Roslin and George W. Bush, and I agree with them.  Roslin was never actually elected President by the people, which correlates to the controversy regarding Bush's right to the White House, and Roslin making decisions based on what might be a misguided faith, which again could correlate to W. and his God that is a little Old Testament for my tastes.

Well, with the move bringing Lee to the big chair on Colonial One, there are some definite parallels to Barack Obama, primarily brought out by the conversation that Lee had with Romo Lampkin (of Firefly and a season one episode of X-Files), where Lampkin accuses Lee of relying on HOPE and not having any real solutions.  I thought for a moment that Lampkin might call Apollo a Hopemonger.  Alas, the writers were not that direct, but then that's why we love them.

2. Roslin's Visions during the Jumps

I found it interesting that the visions were attempting to re-humanize Roslin.  In the past she wasn't as ruthless as she has become, and while I didn't always agree with her decisions (and certainly with how she sometimes arrived at them) I felt that she was a good choice for President given how she was a voice for the common people while The Old Man was completely out of touch with the civilian fleet.

No longer is that the case.  Roslin and the elder Adama are both coming at things from the same place (more or less) and somehow, Adama is the more human of the two.  (This of course is an interesting way to look at things, since a major theme of the series is of course about discussing exactly what it means to "be human" as often, it is the Cylons that portray this the best.)

Roslin decided to save Baltar's life and admitted her love for Adama ("About time," he says, very Han Solo of him), but I feel like she still has more to learn.  I wonder if her visions are quite done.  As idiotic as Baltar sometimes is, I feel like he is doing a good job of spreading the word of the Cylon God, who in the beginning of the series was also very Old Testament, but through Baltar has been increasingly more familiar to many of the monotheists of today, I wouldn't be too surprised if at some point Roslin finds herself a convert despite herself.

3. Caprica 6 is Pregnant?!?!?

Tigh is a Cylon, Caprica 6 is a Cylon.  The two should not be able to procreate.  Of course it is always possible that one of the guards is actually responsible for the baby inside 6, but I doubt that very much.
Way back in the beginning of the show, we were told that the reason that Cylons couldn't procreate was because they couldn't comprehend love, they needed a human to help complete them.

We've seen that often Tigh sees Caprica 6 as Ellen (his deceased wife) who, as odd as their relationship often was, he loved very much.  I'm betting that it is his love for Ellen that has allowed him to impregnate Caprica 6.

4. The Cylons are mortal

This is big, and I can't wait to see the ramifications that it has.  Cylons now can no longer resurrect.  If they die in battle they are dead forever, just like the humans against whom they fight.

This is what will lead to a final and real pact of peace between the Cylons and Humans.

My theory is that ultimately they will work together to find Earth and populate it together long before our time.
Although I was thinking the other day, wouldn't it be something if only Nicky and Hera survive and all of humanity as we know it comes from the two half-Human/half-Cylons.

5. Previews for the mid-season finale

Well, it looks like the cat's out of the bag (metaphorically speaking, not meant to represent the 6th Sense cat of Romo Lampkin) and that in the next episode at least a couple of the Final Five will become known to the fleet.  I can't wait to see what that will mean, although I dread the cliff hanger that will force us to await the last half of the last season of the greatest show on television.

Until Next Time, at least the pilot for Caprica is being filmed, meaning that we will have a little more from the BSG Universe to look forward to.

The Strangers

While I realize that I am biased, and some might use that to discredit my review, let me say that I am being completely unbiased when I say that The Strangers (written and directed by Crowley High Grad Bryan Bertino) is the best pure horror film in decades.  It is a true and full return to the suspenseful horror that used to keep me up at night when I was younger.  Unlike what many of the so-called "horror films" of today (I'm looking at you Saw and Hostel) much of the violence actually takes place off screen, and other then one exception, the blood and gore stuff is really pretty mild.

Being biased doesn't generally lead one to jump at the scary parts, and I guarantee that there are lots of genuinely scary moments in this film, and isn't that what a horror movie is supposed to do?  Scare us?  Not gross us out with body parts being cut off (sorry Ruins, this movie is much better, not to say I didn't think you were pretty good).

Another great thing about this film is that it takes the time to allow us to get to know the characters as well as make us anticipate that first scare making that much more surprising when it happens.  And getting to know the characters makes us a little more frightened for them.

This movie also does a pretty good job of having the main characters not act too stupid the way that most horror movie characters act.  The only exception is the introduction of a third character a little of midway through the film, and although you'll probably see his fate coming a mile away due to his stupidity, it doesn't lessen the impact of the scene.

If you feel like a good scare, (and you didn't already follow my advice and see the film last weekend) make it a point to go check out The Strangers.  You won't regret it.

Until Next Time, while I'm saddened that the film didn't beat out Sex and the City, I am extremely pleased with how well it did.  Help support a fellow Crowley High School Graduate.