Oh man, it's craziness here in the City of Angels. The Lakers have won the NBA championship, and the streets are still littered with the morning-after residue of a classic bout of LA-riots. Yes, my friends, Kobe and co. have done it, they beat an inexperienced Orlando Magic team into an early submission. Everyone's favorite egomaniac can now take pride in the fact that he is "the man" - he won an NBA title sans Shaq, and he didn't even have to go through the defending-champ Celtics or the air-apparent Lebron James to do it. No, Kobe and the Lakers instead steamrolled through Dwight Howard and an Orlando team that, depressingly, blew every opportunity they had to make the series competitive. Whether it was Dwight Howard's relative lack of offensive firepower or the boneheaded decision to NOT foul Derek Fischer before that huge three last game, this was definitely a learning experience for the Magic. And a team like them needs that before they can really go to the next level. So, while it was no suprise to see the Lakers take the series, it was pretty pathetic to see the Magic come out last night with so little heart and so little fight.
The Lakers were easily the better team in this series ... but, that didn't make it any easier for me to see them win. I know a couple of LA transplants who have wholeheartedly embraced the Lakers, but I just can't bring myself to root for them with Kobe at the helm. Under different circumstances, maybe. But in sports and in basketball I can't help but root for people with character. For scrappy underdogs. For people who wear their hearts on their sleeve and have the "heart of a champion," even if they never come close to winning it all. I can't root for players or coaches who seem to take winning for granted, who have that "we can turn it on when we need to" mentality. I hate that whole zen-master mentality. Give me intensity! Give me Rudy T making a dramatic pre-game speech, or Jeff Van Gundy jumping onto Alonzo Mourning's leg. That's what, to me, makes sports fun to watch.
On the other hand though, Kobe always just reminds me of that guy who was the best player on your high school team and never let anyone forget it. His reactions to any call against him remind me of a little kid's. His style of play is like watching a troubled teenager's psychology exam play out on TV. When he wants to, Kobe deliberately takes over a game and takes every shot. Other times, he seems intent on proving that he is an unselfish player, and passes up shot opportunities left and right. He constantly seems like he is playing either to spite or appease the critics, depending on his mood. My point is: unless you're a diehard Lakers fan, well, Kobe Bryant is not an easy player to like or root for.
Same goes for Derek Fischer. He's one of those annoying players who just won't go away. If he's on your team, I guess you've got to love him. But for everyone else, Fischer is the next in a long line of role-players like Robert Horry, Mario Ellie, John Paxson, etc. - those guys who always kill you with a big shot at the most inopportune of moments. But I think what kills me about these types of players is that self-confidence that they will always make the shot. Even guys like Jordan or Reggie Miller seemed pleasantly shocked when they made a huge money shot. When Derek Fischer made that huge 3 against the Magic and just smiled knowingly ... ugh. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but in that moment every non-Lakers fan in the world wanted to smack him.
And then there are the LA fans. I'm not dissing all LA or Lakers fans, but I just have the same problem with the LA mentality that I do with the NYC mentality - that sense of entitlement, the feeling that if things aren't going well for a little while, it's the end of the world. I mean, when the Lakers lose one game, the opinion columnists in the LA Times go banannas. What happened to sticking with something through good times and bad. That's something that Boston fans know about. And Clippers fans, for sure, know about. But the Lakers fans remind me too much of Yankees fans - it's not a special occasion when your team wins a title, it's just another year.
If the Showtime Lakers were playing right now, perhaps I could be a Lakers fan. I mean who doesn't love Magic, Kurt Rambis, and Big Game James? If the fun and scrappy Eddie Jones / Nick Van Axel team of the 90's was still around, maybe I could get onboard the Laker train. But for now? With the current team? Sorry, my LA friends, but for the time being, I remain a Laker-hater.
ANYWAYS ...
TV STUFF:
PUSHING DAISIES - Series Finale Review:
- I want to give a huge shout-out to one of the best TV shows of the last couple of years -- PUSHING DAISIES. ABC has been burning off the last couple of episodes for the past few weeks, during a no-man's-land timeslot on Saturday evenings. Yes, the same place where other great shows (Freaks & Geeks, anyone?) have gone to die. I mean, geez, can you imagine being the TV exec whose claim to fame is relegating Pushing Daisies to Saturday nights? You almost have to feel sorry for the people whose professional legacy is basically that they made the ending of one of the great TV series of this decade into a non-event. Ugh.
But let's take a moment to celebrate the awesomeness that was PD. It's no secret that I enjoy shows where the writing takes center stage, and to me Pushing Daisies was squarely in the tradition of writer-friendly shows like The X-Files, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars. PD had a flair to its writing that was a welcome change of pace from the "realistic" and gritty tone of many TV shows. On the contrary, PD embraced the fantastical, the whimsical, the imaginative. In fact, it was practically bursting at the seems with imagination, and that is why, more that anything else, I enjoyed it so much. Of course, the cast was also phenomenal, from Lee Pace to Anna Friel to Chi McBride to Kristen Chenoweth. Not to mention the calvacade of great guest stars, from Fred Willard to Paul Reubens.
In any case, Saturday's series finale was to me a great last hurrah. Even if there wasn't time to give each and ever storyline a proper wrap-up, I liked that this ep took the time to address one of the show's biggest and most central plot-points, that being Chuck's relationship with her aunts, Lilly and Vivian, one of who, of course, was in fact her mother. Seeing the two retirees return to the Aquacade as part of a grand comeback for the Darling Mermaid Darlings and their synchronized swimming show - well, it was about as fun and visually stunning as you'd expect. The show's trademark visual panache was on full display here, as the Aquacade and its many strange carnival sideshows were an eye-melting blend of artistic eras and styles. But when one member of a rival synchronized swimming duo was unceremoniously gobbled up by a gigantic shark run amok, that was when I couldn't help but smile at the knowledge that this, right here, was what Pushing Daisies was all about. A mix of the whimsical and the gruesome. Neo-noir mixed with fairytale stories, murder-mystery meets Tim Burton meets 1950's comic books ... or something. Any show that features this kind of character and emotion, yet also doesn't hesitate to have a monster shark gobble up one half of a synchronized swimming duo at something called an Aquacade ... is a show that's alright by me.
The ultimate ending that we got was obviously somewhat tacked-on, but to me, it worked. I was happy to see some small hints at the various characters' fates. Emerson Cod was reunited with his daughter, Lilly and Vivian learned the truth about Charlotte Charles, Olive Snook found happiness with her taxidermist love-interest and left the Pie-Hole to open her own macaroni-themed eatery, and (whew!) The Piemaker, Ned, and Chuck, his childhood love, had an almost-happily-ever-after ending. Because as far as we know, they still cannot touch. But their relationship had always worked in spite of this small problem, so I see no reason why it wouldn't continue to do so ... at least for a little while longer.
So thank you to Bryan Fuller and the wonderful team of actors, writers, and production crew of PUSHING DAISIES. While it is disheartening to think that such an original and imaginative series failed to find a mass audience, I can guarantee that this will be a beloved cult classic for years to come. In the world of television, too often ratings success is equated with creative success. But the facts are these: Pushing Daisies shone bright in the often bleak world of television - it was and will be one of the true works of pop-art that the medium has produced.
My Grade: A
- Alright, onto the movies, where I finally get to my long-gestating review of Will Ferell's latest:
LAND OF THE LOST Review:
- In general, I'm all for movies that don't exactly fit into any kind of a box. I mean, how many times have I nostalgically watched some 80's kids classic, like a Goonies or Gremlins, and thought "man, they don't make movies like that anymore." So in theory, I should have a lot more praise for Land of the Lost, because lord knows it doesn't conform to any strict demographic-oriented conventions. But here's the thing: those 80's kids movies were so memorable precisely because they pushed the limits of how scary or subversive a kids movie could be, but they never crossed the line. The SPIRIT of the movies was always dead-on. Land of the Lost, on the other hand, feels like a situation where everyone was supposed to be making a family-friendly adaventure, but somewhere along the way, the filmmakers decided to make a raunchy teen comedy instead. The result is undeniably strange, and strangely entertaining. But at the same time, this is something of a trainwreck of a film. I mean, as a twentysomething guy with a strong tolerance for both gross-out humor and weird fantasy, I am probably one of the absolute few people who could find a lot to like in this movie. And yet ... I and people of my generation are too young to have ever seen the original TV series. On the other hand, I doubt many Gen X'ers wo enjoyed the old TV show are going to embrace the movie's wacked-out aesthetics. And for those with kids, man, are they in for a shock upon seeing the movie. Because, inexplicably, Land of the Lost is filled with random sex jokes and other none-too-subtle, adult-oriented humor, which I think deserves a hearty cry of WTF?!
As I said, I'm all for a movie that can't easily be pigeonholed, but in this particular case, I really have to ask: who was this movie made for?! It's totally inappropriate for kids who might be drawn to the material, it's based on a franchise that means nothing to teens and twenty-somethings, and is too strange and surreal (not to mention raunchy) for the more buttoned-down older-crowd. Again, in some cases, such a mish-mash of sensibilities could be a welcome change of pace. But here, it speaks to a pointed lack of vision and direction for the movie, which was marketed mostly as a family-friendly flick, but is really anything but.
Now, did I get a strange sort of joy out of the fact that Land of the Lost has so many moments that are just plain wrong? Sure, I definitely did. Many times while watching, I looked over to my friends in slack-jawed amazement - did Danny McBride really just make a vibrator joke to Anna Friel? Did Will Ferell just comment that a lizard creature had just "tapped the ass" of another lizard creature? Was there really an extended scene of Ferell and McBride hopped up on otherdimensional drugs acting really, really stoned? Like I said, it's a pretty entertaining mess, but definitely deserving of many a "WTF."
On the positive side, people like me who normally get a kick out of Will Ferell and Danny McBride will find things to like in this one. McBride in particular has some really hilarious dialogue, and his trademark deadpan drawl (made famous in movies like The Foot Fist Way and Pineapple Express) is completely intact here. He's one of those guys who can make almost any line of dialogue funny just by virtue of his affectation, and the inherent absurdity of a guy like McBride being thrown into this crazy world of dinosaurs and lizard-people makes for a pretty hilarious contrast. Will Ferell is kind of just doing his usual pompous / oblivious Will Ferell schtick, which is sometime funny, sometimes annoying, depending on the scene. Meanwhile, as a huge fan of Anna Friel thanks to Pushing Daisies, I was happy to see her have such a big role in this movie, with her British accent intact to boot. However, given how flimsy her character is in the movie, you almsot feel as if her talent is wasted. She is mostly just there to be Will Ferell's defacto love interest, and seems to spend most of the movie getting fondled by Cha-Ka, the funny-creepy monkey-man who tags along with our crew.
The other thing here is that, visually, I loved the look of the movie. The old-school set and costume work is all pretty awesome, and the villainous Sleestaks all look uber-cool and creepy. The whole movie perfectly captures the tripped-out, crazy vibe of the original TV show in terms of its visuals. But I think the mistake may have been that the movie never takes any of it very seriously. Kids would have loved the crazy creatures and sets if the movie had sort of played things straight, and yet Land of the Lost seems caught between paying loving tribute to the old show and trying too hard to convince skeptical teens that this is, in fact, some kind of kewl and edgy movie. Um ... why exactly did Land of the Lost need gay jokes again? Again, just odd and definitely off-putting to people who might want to bring kids to this.
So again, as a pure piece of entertainment, I can't deny that I had a lot of fun with this movie. It made no sense and was completely all over the place, but never was I bored while watching. At the same time, I realize that there is an art to making edgy and subversive family entertainment, and the minds behind Land of the Lost don't seem to grasp it. Think about The Goonies, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, etc. - those were movies that had a darkly-comic edge but that knew exactly what they were doing. Land of the Lost has moments, but it feels like a movie without a vision - a misguided attempt at resurrecting yet another musty franchise, just because, well, that's what Hollywood does lately.
My Grade: B-
- Alright, that's all for now. Happy Monday everyone.
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