"She's like, so whatever. You could do so much better!"
Oh Avril, you have come through again with yet another amazing piece of musical poetry. Yes my friends, Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" is another instant-classic pop single that you will try to deny, ty to hate on, but really, deep down, you love it. After that decidely un-Avril-like Eragon soundtrack song she did, this is a return to the bratty poser we all knew and secretly loved. Hey heh yeah yeah (yes, I have issues).
Anyways ...
So much to talk about here. It's been a while, as it's been a crazy few days at work. I mean, I didn't even get a chance to do my customary post-24 / Prison Break wrap-up - that should tell you it was busy over here at the Peacock. And I have a new Ninja Turtles movie to review to boot.
Dude, yesterday I heard a guy use "'natch" in an actual conversation, as an abbreviated form of "naturally." Are you kidding me?
Okay okay enough digression. It may be a day late but it's not a dollar short, baby.
TWENTY BY-GOD FOUR:
Hmmm, Monday's 24 was over the top, cheesy, and featured about 8 instances of Jack bellowing a gravitas-infused "Dammit!" To this I say: hells yeah - it may not have been pretty, but this was vintage 24. I mean, this week's 24 was totally absurd, but at least it was SOMETHING other than the boring, derivative-of-itself mess that it's been over the last few weeks. At least, for old time's sake, we had Jack Bauer involved in a classic ridiculous scenario, where he has to get the autistic brother of a rogue techie to complete an information drop to Russian baddie Gredenko. instead of badass Jack, we got kind, tender Jack, reassuring our Rain Man stand-in that everything would be all right. The thing is, even when he's in an absurd situation, Jack Bauer is always fun to watch, and Kiefer Sutherland makes every moment as intense as possible for our viewing enjoyment. The same can't be said for still-somewhat-lame side characters like Milo and Nadia, whose forced romance comes off like a lame retread of the far-superior Tony-Michelle courtship from back in the day. It's just that these characters have little personality or charisma. I mean did anyone really care one way or the other if Nadia wasn't really guilty of being a mole? That's the other thing - all of these storylines - a mole in CTU, a rebellious Vice President, etc seem to be recycled from past seasons. And yet, without great characters like David Palmer and Tony Almeda to carry these storyarcs, we have little investment in what happens. And to build up that missing tension, the writers are really forcing the issue. I mean, even apolitical Jack weighed in with a condemnation of the VP's plan of attack ... as if Jack, locked up for two years in a Chinese prison camp, has an intimate familiarity with the current middle eastern political landscape. So the payoff to all this political drama is Wayne Palmer rising from the dead, giving an executive order to call off the nukes. Okay ... kind of entertaining in a fairly goofy way. Of course, the previews for next episode show a critically injured Palmer up and about in a suit and tie. So much for bringing him out of his coma being potentially fatal ...? So now we get YET ANOTHER instance of the VP attempting to declare the Prez unfit for office. Ummmm, again? Dammit! Stick with Jack Bauer kicking the asses of cool villains like Gredenko, get rid of all this recycled, hackneyed CTU and White House crap, and give us some characters who don't suck. In the end though, this was actually a pretty entertaining episode, if only for Jack's absurd-but-highly-entertaining trap for Gredenko, and the sheer over-the-topness of Palmer being woken from his coma for the sake of politics. This was offset to some extent though by a totally "meh" Nadia-Milo story, more "who cares?" reaction to Doyle and co, and Powers Boothe as the Veep getting too ridiculous for his own good. PS - awesome music throughout the entire episode though.
My Grade: B
- PRISON BREAK though, hot dayum, now that was a badass episode. Prison Break wears its B-movie (dare I say Grindhouse-esque) comic bookishness on its sleeve, and for that I love it. Michael Scofield is getting more and more interesting as the pretty-boy version of Jack Bauer, and Lincoln Burrows is the brawn to his brother's brains - doesn't say much but can kick some ass when called upon. Anyways, this ep entertained my socks off. The highlight had to be the climactic Scoield vs. T-Bag showdown, punctuated emphatically by Michael skewering Bagwell through the arm with a giant knife. I mean, where else on TV do you get that? Kellerman was also a show-stealer in this ep, as he made his welcome return to the show and seemed to position himself as a changed man who will now potentially be Sarah's savior in her ongoing trial. Prison Break's biggest asset is that it is loaded from top to bottom with great characters, and each had his or her moment to shine in this ep. Mahone, Bellick, T-Bag, etc. Awesome stuff. I complained last week that the plotline was getting pretty contrived to arrange all the proverbial chess pieces, but that this was clearly being done to set up a real knockout of a finale. Well, good call by men, because all of last week's contrivances allowed for some good TV this week. Can't wait for next week's finale - as T-Bag said to Michael: "Bring it, bitch."
My Grade: A
- Excited for Lost tonight, if only to see the secret origin of "Take a $#%& Guy." But seriously, Lost has been on a roll of late and when it's on its game, Lost is, dare I say, the best show on TV? (Keeping in mind that 24 is having an off year, and poor Veronica Mars can't catch a break, scheduling-wise).
On to the movies ...
TMNT Review:
- As I've mentioned on the blog, I grew up with the Turtles. From the day I first saw the cartoon show as a kid, probably no other set of characters had ever fascinated me like those four green ninjas did at the time. It didn't hurt that in the early 90's, the Turtles were, quite literally, everywhere. More so than any kids' property to date, us young fanboys weren't just watching the Turtles on TV - we were shelling out dough for the movies, parading around in colored masks at Halloween, wearing the merchandise, and spending countless hours trying to get those damn underwater bombs to deactivate on the classic NES game all the while parading around in TMNT pajamas screaming things like "Cowabunga!" For my generation, having a favorite turtle was like having a favorite Beatle. My Turtle of choice was always Rafael "cool but rude." Not only did he have the coolest weapons by far (the sai blades), but on the cartoon he was always wise-cracking and basically too cool for school. Just my kinda hero. Of course, he sucked in all the videogames, but oh well. But let's look at what's happened since this halycon era of kids' TV programming. The way I see it, TMNT was kind of the last great gasp of the golden age of 1980's action Saturday morning cartoon programming. For the kids like me born in 1982, we were a little young to fully immerse ourselves in the worlds of Thundercats and Voltron, even though we watched those shows with great enthusiasm. But as it debuted in 1989, TMNT was kind of the first cartoon that kids my age didn't just watch passively, but became obsessed over. And it hit right as the NES and Gameboy were hitting their strides, and continued its run right into 1991 and 1992 when the 16 bit videogames gave us even more gloriously animated Turtles adventures. Of course, all of us kids spending all this time fantasizing about mutant turtles was looked at with a skeptical eye by most adults at the time. The show was deemed too violent, inappropriate, and in general, a bad influence. This was at a time when Nickelodeon was all about subversive, anti-establishment programming (think Ren And Stimpy), MTV was playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam videos, and violent videogames were exploding on to the scene(yet now look tame compared to Grand Theft Auto and the like). The backlash that ensued saw kids programming neutered, videogames scrutized, and a generation of kids weened not on GI Joe, He Man, and TMNT, but mild, nonsensical fare like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Nickelodeon dropped its subversive image and became a direct competitor to Disney, and MTV lost its rock n' roll mystique, instead targeting 12 year old girls.
This is all leading up to something, don't worry. What I'm building towards is this: I couldn't be happier that TMNT is back in the spotlight, and that it seems to be as much of a hit with kids as it is with us twentysomethings who get a kick of nostalgia from all this. Now, this comeback would be all for naught if the movie sucked. But luckily, what we have here is a fun, great-looking film that manages to be family-friendly yet "dark" enough so that all of us old-school Turtles fans can find something to enjoy.
To be honest, TMNT is far from a perfect movie. But you can't help but admire its sheer enthusiam for its subject matter and its nonstop energy. There's a constant "wow" factor at work here, and the CGI visuals, for the most part, look great. Stylistically, the human characters are a bit too Shrek-like and cartoonish for my tastes, and the detail level seemed to drop a bit depending on the scene. However, many scenes flat-out look awesome. I mean, not only is the Rafael / Leonardo fight the film's narrative high-point, but man, it just plain is a marvel to look at. The direction by Kevin Munroe is fast-paced, kinetic, and energetic, and most of the action sequences are very well done, with a distinct sensibility to them.
Now, many reviews I've read bag on the script / plot here. On one hand, I admit that the main plot is somewhat weak and definitely convoluted, to the point where we're never quite sure who the villains are and what's going on. But on the other hand ... well, something about the whole way-out-there comic book-level cosmic plot made me smile. A convoluted, cosmic plot that included mumbo jumbo about portals to other dimensions, immortal warriors, and 13 escaped monsters? It may be a bit much to reboot a franchise with, but at the same time, it felt like a real comic book storyline, not oversimplified or made more palatable because this was a movie. That doesn't excuse the fact that it wasn't the greatest plotline, but it definitely gave the whole movie a feeling of authenticity. Not to mention, it took advantage of the movie's CGI form to deliver a bunch of crazy looking creatures that wouldn't have been possible with live action.
The other thing is that, as we all know, the crazy story about monsters from another dimension is really just window dressing, as the real meat and potatoes of TMNT are the characters. It was great fun revisiting all the classic personalities, and seeing the classic supporting characters like April O'Neil, Casey Jones, and of course Master Splinter. Sure, they went the obligatory route of having April, once merely a reporter, reimagined as a Lara Croft-esque adventurer with mad kung-fu skills to boot, but hey, it worked, so whatever.
All the character dynamics were captured to a T. The dialogue however suffered at times, with many attempts at humor falling flat, and nowhere near as many laugh out loud or just cool moments as the orginal, live action movie. The Turtles' quips may not have been on the mark, but the voice acting at least was universally excellent. I mean, they got Patrick Stewart to play a B-list villain, what more can you ask for? Similarly, it was fun to hear the late, great Mako as Splinter, and everyone else did a good to great job.
Overall, this movie definitely had a few rough edges. The dialogue wasn't as sharp as it could have been, the music seemed off at times, and as I said, the plot was a bit convoluted and out there. But the movie nailed it where it most counts - the characters felt spot-on, the action was a lot of fun, and there were not only a number of nods to the past movies and cartoon, but plenty of seeds planted for future installments, including the fanboy-pleasing promise of a return for Shredder in the inevitable Part 2. And, as I said, I loved that this was really an all-ages, kid-friendly movie that still had plenty of appeal to all of us old-school fans. I loved seeing a new generation of kids going to the movie and becoming infatuated with the Turtles all over again. And I love that this movie was a box office hit, because to me that signals that a.) a CGI comic book movie can do well, b.) 80's / 90's franchises are a big draw, c.) all of these characters that we loved growing up are still viable today. A solid movie, more than deserving of a "Cowabunga!"
My Grade: B+
- Alright, I gotta jet. Back later with thoughts on LOST.
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