Smart People
Amazon's Description:
Driven by a clever script and fine performances, SMART PEOPLE is set in the land of academia, a place where both Lawrence and Vanessa have taken refuge and plunged themselves into as escape from the external world. In spite of their high IQs, both father and daughter are equally clueless when it comes to navigating relationships. This becomes obvious as Vanessa develops a line-blurring relationship with her uncle, and Lawrence stumbles in romancing his doctor. If Vanessa wants a shot at happiness and Lawrence wants to make things work in his love life, both will have to adopt new attitudes or risk further alienation. Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Thomas Hayden Church.
I rented this movie on a whim because I like Ellen Page (fuck you, Juno haters, she was fucking amazing in Hard Candy) and I thought the cover looked interesting. However, the cover was a little misleading. I mistakenly thought Thomas Hayden Church's character was lying dead on the couch, making me believe this to be a hilarious dark comedy about people who think they are smart, until they are forced to confront a situation they are not equipped for, such as disposing a dead body without alerting the authorities. Unfortunately, that was not at all what the movie was about; in fact, that would have been a much more interesting movie than what I actually ended up watching. I guess I should have read the back of the case. D'oh!
Instead, I got a movie with a boring, uninspired plot littered with characters who felt woefully underdeveloped. I think had the characters been more richly nuanced, the movie would have been much more interesting. All we really know of Lawrence is that he's a huge, cranky asshole, and I never liked him at any point during the movie. Meanwhile, Page's character, Vanessa, is an aloof, socially awkward, but brilliant, overachiever who may-or-may-not be sexually attracted to her uncle (who is not her uncle by blood, but it is still kind of "ick"). Nevertheless, this could have been a fascinating subplot, had the script more balls to openly explore it, but it's left kind of vague. Once he moves in, he makes a concerted effort to bring her out of her shell and show her how to have fun. The result of this being that she seemingly becomes attracted to him, but it's never so apparent that it actually presents a problem. My point is, if the screenwriter really wanted this subplot in there, he should have gone whole-hog. It should have been comical at the beginning, but slowly tension is built until Vanessa either says, or does, something entirely inappropriate, bringing the subplot into a clear climax, which would then be resolved, either by the uncle having a serious talk with her, or it could be the event that makes him leave the house. They sort of try to do this, but it's messy and way too ambiguous.
Meanwhile, the romantic situation going on between Dennis Quad's character and Sarah Jessica Parker is completely unconvincing. I just don't believe, after that first disastrous date, when Parker cuts it off early because Lawrence spends 45 minutes pompously lecturing her at the dinner table about literary theory, she would give him another chance. Besides, I hate Sarah Jessica Parker - I find her very presence in any movie to be grating and intolerable, especially if there is ever a scene that requires her to scream. She has the most hellishly annoying, high-pitched scream that sounds as if it came from a 12-year-old girl going through puberty, rather than a 5o-year-old woman going through menopause (I'm just guesstimating on that).
So the movie just kind of happens, then it ends, and you walk away having felt like maybe, just maybe, you could have better spent that 95 minutes doing something more entertaining, like figuring out how magnets work.
Verdict: Fucking Awful
MacGruber
IMDB's Description:
Ex-special operative MacGruber (Will Forte) is called back into action to take down his archenemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), who's in possession of a nuclear warhead and bent on destroying Washington, D.C. Also stars Ryan Phillippe and Kristin Wiig.
You know, I think this is the first time the blurb on a DVD cover actually very accurately describes the movie it is printed on, because "Wildly Entertaining" is precisely what this movie is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a good movie by any stretch of the imagination - a lot of the jokes are crude at best, many of which are mercilessly run into the ground (such as the villain's name sounding just like the word "cunt"), and the plot is absurd, even for a comedy. However, enough heart actually went into making this movie that it's oddly infectious, and even though I never liked the MacGruber sketches on SNL, from which this movie is based, I still felt kind of thrilled to hear a movie version of the theme at the beginning. The movie is honest with itself, and the viewer, about its sophomoric humor, which makes it easier to shut off the brain and just enjoy the ride. I won't lie - I laughed way harder than I should have at the celery stalk gag (just watch and see for yourself). I also loved the running gag of MacGruber carrying his cheap, 80s tape deck wherever he goes so that it doesn't get stolen. Sometimes it's the small things like that which can make all the difference in a comedy.
Not all comedies have to be "smart"- all I ask is that they be fun to watch. Dumb and Dumber is one of my favorite comedies of all time, and it is, by no means, smart; it truly lives up to its title. There are plenty of absolutely horrible gags spread throughout the movie. However, because of the earnest performances of Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels, who both improvised some of the best lines in the movie ("We landed on the moon!"), the movie is an utter joy to watch. It seems like just as much fun was put into the production of MacGruber, which translated into a comedy that isn't perfect, but gets the job done.
Verdict: Throat-rippingly Awesome!
Fringe - Season 1
Amazon's Description:
Teleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues – a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who’s spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist’s sardonic son – who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as “the pattern.” Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.
I had high expectations for this series when I started it, which is probably much of the reason I ended up somewhat disappointed. This isn't a bad show at all - the production value is first-rate, the actors are all good at what they do, and the stories are, at times, highly fascinating. However, ultimately, I kind of felt like the show was a bit too episodic for me tastes, not to mention a bit too slowly paced and a little repetitive. I'd start every episode with certain expectations: the FBI agent, Olivia, would be kind of wooden and dull; the mad scientist, Walter, will be weird and make off-color, but funny, comments; and his con-artist son, Peter, will be on stand-by to make smart ass remarks the whole way through, as each of them work to solve a bizarre case that inevitably links back to work Walter used to be involved in before he was committed. In nearly every episode, all of these expectations would be fulfilled, with almost no deviation from the formula.
I hate "Monster of the Week" shows. It's one of the reasons I never got into X-Files and why I got bored of Smallville (though the problems with that show are too numerous to go into right now). Fringe certainly walks the line, but fortunately, it is intelligently written enough so that every monster, or strange disease, is explained cleverly through reasonable, but ultimately bogus, science. The seasonal arc, involving the shady corporation Massive Dynamic, is interesting, but the season is so full of filler, that it messes up the pacing, which slowly whittles away at one's patience to see the seasonal arc play out. However, when it finally does reach a climax, it certainly pays off, and promises a much more interesting second season.
I know I'm being way too harsh on the show, but it's only because I can see the potential for greatness that it has, and it annoys me to see it squandered by an uneven first season. Most of the greatest shows on television have had shaky, if not plain terrible, first seasons (for example: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Star Trek: The Next Generation, to name a few). Sometimes a show, with as epic a story as Fringe seems to want to tell, has to have time to blossom before it can be fully appreciated. If this were a movie, season one would be the first act, and the set up is never as fun or interesting to watch as the aftermath that follows. It'd be like watching The Matrix, and turning it off just as Neo swallows the red pill - things are just getting good! Some show also need more time to figure out just what it wants to be. Sometimes season one has to be the "bad season", so that the showrunners can figure out what works and what doesn't, and then fine tune the series accordingly from then on out.
So, while Fringe didn't blow me away, I have it from a fine source that it gets better, and after the season finale, I can believe it. I just hope that it breaks away from the "Monster of the Week" mold enough to keep me interested, or I won't make it far enough through season 2 to see how good it gets.
Verdict: S'alright
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