More Greats of '07 - CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR and INTO THE WILD Reviewed!

Hola amigos, hope everyone is winding down and getting ready for the long weekend. Okay, most of you are actually probably gearing up for Christmas, but hey, as a Jew who traditionally does little for Christmas other than maybe Chinese food and a movie, I'm mostly just glad for a long weekend. And yeah, I also realize that, much to my chagrin, a number of you are headed for weeks of time off, whilst (love that word ...) I have a mere two extra days with which to catch up on sleep, clean my apartment, get my life together, etc. before it's back to the grind. Oh well, at the least next week should be pretty laid back, hopefully with limited hours at the office and some quality time with which to veg out.

Sooo ... at some point soon you'll see my annual Best Of lists. But already, it's clear that this has really been a notheworthy year for film. I mean this weekend alone, there's at least four or five top-shelf flicks coming out in theaters, with a few others that have only been in limited release finally going wide. If you haven't already seen 'em, I can't recommend currently-in-theaters movies like No Country For Old Men, Juno, and Enchanted enough. Then there are a number of bigtime movies coming today - Sweeney Todd (seeing tonight I believe), Walk Hard, Charlie Wilson's War (saw last night, scroll down for the review), and There Will Be Blood. Just thinking about a potential Top 10 list for 2007, it's clear that there are any number of movies that could be named into that top-tier of the year, which really was an embarrasment of riches. You've got kickass prestige movies like No Country and Jesse James, quirky, smaller flicks like Juno and The King of Kong and The TV Set, some hilarious comedies - from Superbad to Hot Fuzz to The Ten - and some badass blockbusters like 300, Pirates of the Carribean, and Beowulf. And what about this year's influx of B-movie-style pulp movies, like Grindhouse and Black Snake Moan? And let's not forget Black Book, Michael Clayton, or Rescue Dawn ... and, oh yeah, as usual, Pixar released a gem in Ratatouille.

So you can see where I'm going here ... there were a ton of A-level movies this year ... it's tough to single out onl a few that were tops.

Anyways, last night my employers at Universal were nice enough to invite me to a free screening of our latest film, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, a movie that seemed like it would very much lend itself to the plushy seats and polite crowds of a Universal screening room ... so, here's the review.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR Review:

- As you can probably tell if you read my reviews of STUDIO 60, I tend to get annoyed when Aaron Sorkin gets on his high horse and gets all preachy on us. But really, a big part of my problem with Studio 60 was simply that the tone did not fit the premise, and all of the politics and drama seemed shoehorned in to a show that outwardly seemed like it should have been much more lighthearted. Inevitably, the attempts to balance the comedic and dramatic aspects of the program made for some very awkward and grating television. But here, Sorkin has a great story to tell and some great characters with which to tell it. Not only that, but Charlie Wilson's War is a movie with a legitimately fascinating point to make, a point that Sorkin coveys to us, remarkably, in a smart, funny, and tragically disturbing manner that gives us some insight into the looney bin that is American politics. Especially now with all of the ambiguity surrounding the Iraq war, it's pretty fascinating to see some of the events which got us to this point, and how what looks like a great political move one day can really come back to bite you ...

The writing here is sharp and crisp - like A Few Good Men, this is just about Sorkin at his snappiest and most appealing. There is some really well-done humor, which I think is a large part of what makes the film so watchable - in a year that saw a ton of potentially well-made but almost unbearably bleak political thrillers bomb (think Valley of Elah, Lions for Lambs, etc.), what really separates this one from the pack, I think, is that the humor both amplifies and sends-up the relative absurdity of what we're watching. In this age of Colbert and The Daily Show, we have come to see how absurd and crazy politics can be, and the film completely plays into that mindset, making a serious point while at the same time feeling pretty breezy and light.

To sum up, Charlie Wilson's War is the true-life story of how, about 20 years ago, a slightly sleazy but charming congressman from Texas took it upon himself to use his backroom connections to help end the Cold War. By wheeling and dealing his way around the globe, the southern-fired walking scandal that was Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) worked with a rich southern-conservative socialite (Julia Roberts), and a jaded CIA spy (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) to supply powerful surface-to-air weapons to Afghan villagers so that they could take the fight to the Soviets who were air-raiding their homes on a daily basis.

Hanks is really good here - in fact, I'd grown kind of weary of Hanks, as the last movie I really remember enjoying him in was probably Catch Me If You Can ... and after he seemed to sleepwalk through The DaVinci Code, well, his name attached to a movie wasn't exactly cause for excitement in 2007. But Hanks brings it here -- all of his usual down-home likability mixed with a genuine sleaze-factor, wehrre, right from the get-go you realize you're dealing with a bit of a shady character. As for Julia Roberts, she is pretty decent here though her Southern accent kind of comes and goes. And it may just be me but she's looking a little odd these days - I probably sound like an old man in saying this , but it wouldn't hurt her to put a little meat on them bones. Still, I enjoyed the relationship between Roberts and Hanks - it was held up by Sorkin as an interesting example of how political and social relationships can mix.

The real standout here though, is undoubtedly the spark-plug that is Philip Seymour Hoffman. He is just kickass in this role as an embittered CIA career guy who likes to express his annoyance with the system by smashing windows and making scenes. Hoffman is just so fun and hilarious in this part, and he is one of those guys who is just perfect for Sorkin's back-and-forth dialogue, because he never seems like he's just firing off lines - he slows things down and makes you hang on every word, every eye blink, every twitch. I also really loved the transformation that his character goes through throughout the movie - he starts out as a guy really on the edge, totally fed up with the lack of respect he gets, like one of those English professors in college who knows they should be a best-selling author. Through is allegiance with Charlie, Hoffman suddenly finds himself making a huge impact and using all of his accumulated knowledge - he's finally made it, and the excitement mixed with "oh crap, is this really happening, and if so there's gotta be a downside." sort of skepticism is a lot of fun to watch. It's Hoffman who eventually becomes the cautionary voice of reason, warning that one victory agaisnt the Soviets is not the endgame, that arming all these fundamentalist with RPG's could lead to some measure of trouble ...

By the way, it's funny to see Amy Adams in the mix as a dutiful assistant to Charlie. After seeing her shine in Enchanted, it's weird to see Adams in such a relatively minor role. Still, her undeniable star-quality shines through, and she really steals a few scenes throughout the movie, as a loyal aide who can't help but get caught up in Charlie Wilson's war, and there's one great little scene between her and Roberts in particular that's pretty memorable.

Overall, this is maybe the one political movie this summer that is 100% worth checking out, because really it's as fun as it is insightful. A true-life Dr. Strangelove, in a way. The pace at times is a bit slow, and the ending a little inconclusive, but I liked that this was a pretty to-the-point, snappy piece of filmmaking - expertly directed by the great Mike Nichols with a smartly satirical eye. Yet another great film of 2007.

My Grade: A -

And, one more for you guys, this one a long time coming ...

INTO THE WILD Review:

- Here's one of those movies that I really liked in a lot of respects, but something about what it was trying to say simply rubbed me the wrong way. In many ways, Into the Wild is one of the year's best -- a film filled with stunning cinematography, and a number of superb performances. This one is a breakthrough film for Emile Hirsch, for one. Regardless of what you think of the character he plays, this is undoubtedly a star-making turn for him - a fine piece of acting tht really shows what the guy can do. Hirsch has shown promise before, but this, for him, is the big one. And acrosss the board, from Catherine Keener to the amazing Hal Holbrook - there are genuine, raw, memorable performances in this one that will stick with you, that will get to you, that will haunt you. But I guess that this was a movie that had a very specific philosophy, as originally documented by writer Jon Krakauer and brough to the screen by Sean Penn. Penn, with this movie, chose to take the true-life story of a guy who ditched his wealth and ran away from his priveleged upbringing and went, literally, into the wild - in some ways for his own peace of mind, in other ways to prove a point. But as interesting as many of the characters in this movie are, I just never bought into the film's central conceit - that our main character was a guy whose story was somehow remarkable and admirable.

Now, at the end of the film, not to spoil anything, but we do get a bit of perspective on the whole adventure. For most of the movie, Hirsch's character is portrayed almost as a Christ-like figure - sure, we see the emotional havoc he wreaks on those he touches then leaves behind - but the movie seems to be firmly on his side - telling us that he is justified in his quest to go off into the wilds of Alaska and live on his own in the wild. And yes, at the film's conclusion, we get a final change of tone, a last reminder that maybe, just maybe, ditching one's friends and family and loved ones, in turn ditching all responsibility and purpose in life, may not exactly be the wisest and most worthy way of living. But for much of the film, Penn seems to have a kind of awe and wonder about this guy - and he has to, or why would he make the film? But ... I just don't buy it. It's one thing to be a writer like Krakauer, to go and do things for the sake of documentation and shared experience. It's one thing to be an explorer, a farmer, a mininmalist, a naturalist - whatever. But what's so great about a rich guy ditching his money and running away from society on his own, never to be heard from again? I see how it's interesting, how it's a potentially cool and thought-provoking story. But the tone of the film is just too reverant for my tastes. It felt like they took a semi-interesting guy who did something unusual but very foolish and pointless with his life, and made him out to be some kind of hero. As much as I enjoyed the movie on a number of levels, I could just never fully get past this basic philisophical issue. And I am a pretty liberal guy, so I don't think it's a political thing, more just an issues, as I said, ith the film's overly reverant tone.

But again, the performances really are great, and there are some completely fascinating little character studies here - from the toked-out hippies that Hirsch comes into contact with (brilliantly played by Keener and a non-actor who is really great - shades of The Big Lebowski to be sure ...), to William Hurt as a grieving father, to Hal Holbrook, who has some genuinely touching scenes with Hirsch , and whose gritty, vulnerable performance makes him in line for a Supporting Actor Oscar nom for sure. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the pretty great soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, whose trademark wails and bellows are a perfect fit for this contemplative, emotional film. So as I said - in many ways this is a great, great film - certain scenes soar with great character bits, sweeping images of the American wild, or just great emotional build-up that really immerses you in these character's lives. The action and danger can be raw, harrowing, truly scary - nature here is dangerous and untamed - and this is a movie that makes you realize just how easy it is to lose out in the eternal battle of man vs. mother nature. Despite all that heaping praise, something about this movie's emotional core just left me feeling a bit hollow and empty. And those brief moments of perspective at the end just couldn't do enough to make me 100% buy into what this movie was selling.

My Grade: B+

- Alriiiiiiiiight kids, that's it for now. Have a great weekend, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and stay tuned for LOTS more coming here on the blog over the next several days.

The blog gets ENCHANTED

What's that - two blogs in one day?!?! Yep, check my earlier post to see a review of I AM LEGEND and more. But, while I had a little time I thought I'd write down my thoughts on the latest from the House of Mouse ... enjoy!

ENCHANTED Review:

- Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle ... I had a sneaking suspicion that Enchanted might be something special, but still, I went into it with a bit of a skeptical eye. I mean sure, this was a Disney movie, but really, has that meant all that much in recent years? With the very notable exception of Pixar and a few particular PIRATES, when was the last time that we got a true, honest-to-god, instant-classic DISNEY, as in WALT DISNEY, movie? Well kids, here it is. Enchanted is a Disney movie through-and-through, and man, was it good to see. This is a movie that will take you back and make you feel like a kid, and if you are a kid, well, I can't think of a movie this year that could be anything better. Evil witches, true love, princesses, adventure, humor, music - it's all here, and I pretty much enjoyed every minute of this movie. Yes folks, a hardened, at times bitter man I may be, but at heart I am a man raised on Walt Disney and Jim Henson and DC Comics and all of that Good stuff, and very quickly it was clear that Enchanted had won me over - this is a film that Disney can be proud of, that can be held up alongside Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid as a true treasure.

Okay, you might ask, but how can that be? Isn't this one of those post-modern movies that riffs on all the classics and infuses thos great old-school, non-ironic fairy tales with a heaping dose of nu-school self-aware 'tude?

Well, that's exactly what I was worried about, and I really am sick of series like Shrek that coast along on their combination of fairy-tale trappings with pop songs and movie references and the like. Ironically I think it was Disney itself that started the trend, with Robin Williams doing Jack Nicholson impressions as the Genie in Aladdin, and then later on Shrek (part 1) did a nice job of paying tribute to the old-school stuff while ushering in the era of CGI 'toons. But what was at first a cool novelty quickly became the norm, and now you can't go a week without a new hipster-cool, CGI-animated flick popping up, promising to entertain the kids while making sly double entrendres for the adults with a soundtrack (CD available now!) by Smash Mouth. But what's so amazing about ENCHANTED is that it is, in it's own clever way, the antithesis of those types of films. What it does so well is walk a fine line - on one hand it winks at the conventions of all those classic Disney movies - but on the other hand - and this is what's so cool - is that it's never placing itself above those conventions ... instead, it's completely paying tribute to those films, lovingly reminding us why it is that we loved those great fairy tales in the first place.

While searching around online I actually saw some comparisons between Enchanted and Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It sounds strange, but the comparison is actually really apt. Because like Edgar Wright's genre send-ups, Enchanted lampoons its inspirations and yet you can feel the love for that source material bursting from every frame of the movie. I mean, when the film opens with narration by Julie Andrews and transports you into this classic Disney animated fairy tale universe, you laugh at how slyly Enchanted is having fun with those older movies, but at the same time ... it's as if Enchanted is screaming at you: "Remember?!?! Don't you remember what's so amazingly great and timeless about those legendary Disney works of art?!?!" And you do remember. Because there's something about that hand-drawn animation that can never be replicated in CGI, there's something about telling a great story unironically that can be so refreshing in this day and age. Sometimes, parody really is the best way to call attention to how great something was (I think of all the great movies and TV shows I've discovered simply because they were brilliantly satirized by The Simpsons ...). So yes, this is a satire, in a way, but really, it's a tribute, and even more than that, it feels like a call to action. This isn't just a nostalgic look at Disney days gone by - it's a reminder that that way of telling a story STILL works - because Enchanted tricks us into thinking we're seeing some hip, modern spin on Disney when, in fact, this IS a classic Disney movie in disguise.

Amy Adams is simply great here. I still love Ellen Page's performance in Juno, but honestly this one is up there as one of the year's best turns from a leading actress. Adams is so spot-on in that again, she is sending up the stereotypical Disney princess, and yet ... she wins us over and really makes us 100% believe in her character despite how ridiculous she could have seemed in lesser hands.

I've never been big on James Marsden before, but as far as I can tell this is the best work of his career - he's hilarious as the prototypical prince charming. Susan Sarandon makes for a great evil witch - between her delightfully wicked performance here and Michelle Pfeifer's outstanding turn this summer in STARDUST ... well, what a year it's been for wicked witches. Patrick Dempsey does a really nice job as well as the overworked real-world guy who falls for the fantasy-land princess, and the girl who plays his young daughter is terrific too. Timothy Spall is another great villain, here the quintessential sleezy henchman. Also really well done here are all of the various cartoon and CGI creatures that populate the film. The princess' little chipmunk friend is pretty classic as far as funny animal sidekicks go, and has a ton of personality and humor for a CGI guy in a real-world setting. At the theater I saw the movie in, the audience was cracking up at his antics, and I don't blame them. The CGI stuff here is so wel ldone not because it's technically dazzling (though at times it is), but it's because of the sheer character and personality put into the animation. Definitely a few drops of the ol' Disney fairy dust were floating about in this one ...

But aside from the joyful performance of Amy Adams, the other real star here is the music by longtime Disney composer Alan Menkin and partner Steven Schwartz. There are a couple of real winners here, songs you'll be humming and singing along to for a long time after seeing the film. I mean, my tolerance for musical numbers is not typically that great, but man, I already have these songs on "repeat" in my head - they're the same kind of catchy, happy, clever tunes that made Little Mermaid et al so beloved. And the whole "How do you know he loves you" musical number was just so well done, from the lyrics to the choreography -- the cuteness factor was turned up so high that you'd have to be a bitter, hateful person not to love it. I'm sorry, but it's true ...

ENCHANTED deserves its recent success, and I can only hope that it does remind people why classic Disney is in fact classic. The fact that Disney shut down its animation department a few years back was an absolute travesty, and it would be truly wonderful if this film, which so deftly belends live action with animation, was the start of a revival in traditional hand-drawn animation. I know Disney has one or two 2-D projects on the way, so let's see if they can live up to the bar set by this one. Sure, there are moments here that lean a little on the cheesy side, and one or two plot points that feel a bit glossed-over, but I was continually impressed by how well things flowed and how seamlessly this movie seemed to come together and just click on so many levels. But most of all, it had that extra layer of care put into it that really made it shine. Whether it was "Under the Sea" playing at a key moment of the film, those elegantly-animated scenes, the little clever moments of the script, or Amy Adams showing that a princess could be both a dreamer and a modern girl ... Enchanted has that Disney touch, that seal of quality. I'm surprised, but very pleasantly so, that the movie lived up to its name, and lived up to its legacy.

My Grade: A -

Awwww HELLS No! I AM LEGEND - Reviewed - plus DARK KNIGHT and HOBBIT thoughts

Ahhhh this week has been nuts. I've been itching to write here but just haven't had time. But anyways, here I am, so let's get right to it:

- Firstly, I have to lend my voice of approval to the fact that Peter Jackson is back where he belongs, signed up to executive-produce more films in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. Now, of course the immediate question mark is: who will direct THE HOBBIT and its sequel, culled from the secondary Middle Earth writings of Tolkien? Of course, everyone has their own opinion, and there are the usual suspects tossed around, from Terry Gilliam to Guillermo del Toro to Sam Raimi. All of those could be good if not great, but man, I just want to see more Peter Jackson-directed material. My hope is that Jackson finds someone who can kind of fill the role of apprentice while he serves as the mentor, so that the films will still have PJ's distictive stamp. But the three LOTR films were maybe the greatest event films of the last 10 years, and it's just great to know that we can hopefully look forward to more of that magic. As a sidenote, I'm assuming that Ian McKellan is on board, and Viggo Mortenson and Liv Tyler for that second movie where I imagine they might be featured ... so I guess the big question is ... who should play Bilbo in The Hobbit?!? Ian Holm was so great in LOTR ... if only they could just digitally de-age him ... hmmm.

- Oh, man, I almost forgot to write about this ... but, brace yourself for a quick rant. So on Sunday I checked out I Am Legend in IMAX, in large part motivated by the chance to see the first six minutes of THE DARK KNIGHT that would precede it. HOLY LORD, those six minutes or so were pure bliss. I was completely geeking out the entire time, and beyond that I think I had chills from the sheer awesomness and undeniable GRAVITAS of what I was seeing. It's the same feeling I had way back when, when I saw the first extended trailer for Batman Begins at Wizard World LA. Just the atmosphere, the tone, felt so spot-on. And man, there could be no denying that WILLIAM FICHTNER, in a cameo role as a vigilante bank-owner, completely ruled it here. I mean after seeing this clip I almost forgot about Batman and was about ready to watch a whole movie of a shotgun-toting Fichtner versus the Joker. But seeing how the clip played out, seeing how potentially kickass Heath Ledger will be as The Joker, seeing how this one looks to take everything that worked about BB and improve on an laready-great formula ... well, I don't know if there's any movie I'm more anticipating, or any movie I have anticipated more in recent memory. Batman vs. The Joker, done right ... it doesn't get any better than that.

So, speaking of I AM LEGEND ...

I AM LEGEND Review:

- I Am Legend is yet another big-drawing action flick that, with its intriguing premise and epic scale, COULD have been a truly great movie. Enter Will Smith, who rarely fails to entertain but usually feels compelled to inject his trademark goofiness and cartoonish sensibilities into otherwise serious movies. Last year at this time, I was seriously impressed with Smith's ability to restrain his comedic insticts and immerse himself in a character in The Pursuit of Happyness. But I Am Legend, partly thanks to Will Smith and partly due to writer Akiva Goldsman (the scribe who brought us such action-adventure masterpieces as Batman and Robin), is a return to to movies like I, Robot, where we get, essentially, Will Smith as Will Smith, and its to the detriment of the movie. And that's really a shame.

Make no mistake, I Am Legend is a pretty entertaining bit of popcorn filmmaking. And it's funny, because that whole Will Smith as Will Smith thing I just alluded to is kind of what makes it a popcorn movie for a wide audience. Without his excitable presence, I Am Legend is a pretty dark, scary movie about post-apocalyptic horrors - a pretty straightforward adaptation of the book by the same name, the tale of a killer virus that wipes out most of earth's population and turns nearly everyone else into crazy zombie monsters with a thirst for human flesh. So, for the handful of people left and left intact, let's just say it's a pretty hard knock life. This goes for Will Smith's character in particular - he just so happens to be an army scientist who had been working on a cure for the virus as it first began to spread, and who continues to spend his days in a totally deserted NYC still searching for that elusive cure.

For the first half of the movie, it's shades of Castaway as we see Will deal with all of the madness and weirdness tht comes with being one of the Last Men on Earth. There are only hints of the dangers that come out at night. Then, things take a more desperate turn, and we begin to get a bit more up close and personal with the monsters that lurk in the sewers and come out at night looking to feed. All of this would be well and good -- and a lot of it is satisfyingly intense and well-shot by director Francis Lawrence, with sompe particularly well-done shots of a bleak and empty NYC that is slowly beginning to become wild and untamed, with deer running through the streets and brush growing in the developments. The problem is that the guy we are focused on through all this is Will Smith-as-superhero. He's a scientist, but of course he's a crack shot with a rifle, freakishly ripped, and a guy who still mostly speaks in Will Smith-isms. There's no shout of "aww HELLS no!", luckily, but rarely do we look at this guy and believe him as a credible genius who was mankind's last, best hope for a cure to the worst viral outbreak the planet has ever seen. And hey, I'm all in favor of over-the-top, comic-bookish characters when the situation is right. But the problem with I Am Legend is ... Goldsman and Lawrence are clearly not going for an over-the-top grindhouse-style horror movie here, so the film jsut falls in this odd in-between place where it's kind of wanting to be taken seriously, yet is too cartoonish for us to really buy into it.

Meanwhile, the film coasts on Will Smith's charm and the whole novelty of its premise, often at the expense of much in the way of plot. We get plenty of flashbacks to Will Smith's last days with his wife and daughter before he stayed behind in New York while they were whisked away as people fled the island upon the mass viral outbreak. But in this post-Lost age, I expect a bit more from my character-revealing flashbacks. Here, these scenes never really reveal all that much about the virus or about how we got from Point A of mass panic and evacuation to Point B of post-apocalypse. Especially in light of the fact that I've been reading Stephen King's THE STAND, which masterfully details just such a scenario, it was tough seeing a film that so breezily skipped over much of this kind of detail.

On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised that despite some cartoonishness and Will Smith-isms, the movie had a bit more restraint than I, Robot, and managed to stay pretty dark and intense. The mutant monsters here were genuinely creepy, and there are a number of unsettling twists and turns that don't shy away from how bleak a picture of the future is being portrayed. While in the theater, I was sitting next to a kid who was probably about twelve or thirteen, and he was genuinely pretty disturbed by the movie and scared of some of the scenes, so I give the movie credit for keeping things interesting and unpredictable to some degree. And I also don't want to totally rail on Will Smith or anything -- let's face it, he does have a ton of charisma, and even when I was cringing at his attempts to inject goofy humor and cuteness into the script, he is certainly always a fun guy to watch. Not to mention that he really does have some nice moments scattered throughout the film, a few scenes where he does stretch himself and have some real sadness, intensity, and anger.

What we're left with is a perfectly watchable movie. It's a Will Smith blockbuster to be sure, but compared to some other films that fall into that category it's pretty dark and restrained. Still, this is a far from perfect script, with some lame cutesy moments and a plotline that feels jumpy and incomplete, especially with a series of flashbacks that prove kind of pointless and unfulfilling. In the end though the story comes together pretty decently, with an ending that is certainly not exactly typical for a Will Smith blockbuster. Sure, this movie is good fun - I'd recommend catching it, especially as a nice change of pace from all of the droll and pretentious Oscar-bait films released over the last few months. But like I, Robot, it's frustrating to think what might have been, if only I Am Legend had been instilled with the level of prestige and passion that a movie like Batman Begins used to elevate itself past typical blockbuster fare.

My Grade: B

- Okay, I'm about out of time on this one, but I still have to review INTO THE WILD, which I also finally caught this past weekend. Until then, check yo'self before you wreck yo'self.

Leave your Daemon at the door - GOLDEN COMPASS - reviewed!

All hail the almighty weekend - coming in all its glory in a mere matter of hours.

Man, I am only mildly excited to see I AM LEGEND. I love the concept but am very skeptical of Will Smith-led action movies. Sure, like everyone else I loved Big Willie in Independence Day ... when I was twelve (okay I still love that movie, who am I kidding). But the one that really soured me on him was I, ROBOT, which could have been an awesome movie if it had not been injected with liberal doses of Will Smith as Will Smith, complete with obligatory "aww, HELL naw!" But, that being said ... I am dyin' to see I Am Legend In IMAX, simply for the opportunity to see the first six minutes of DARK KNIGHT that is playing along with the IMAX cut. I mean, holy kickass trailer, Batman, I am so onboard for this thing. Regular readers of the blog that few things cause me to geek out more than Batman, and after this week's torrent of DK-related info, from new posters to the promise of six minutes of Bat-riffic footage (set to feature Heath Ledger as THE JOKER offing none other than WILLIAM FICHTNER!). Yes, I am basically frothing at the mouth to see anything Dark Knight at this point ...

But this week, I did catch a much-hyped movie of a different sort ... so, here's my review ...

THE GOLDEN COMPASS Review:

- This has been an interesting time for the big-budget fantasy film. Since the conclusion of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a number of contenders have cropped up looking to capitalize on the resounding success of that superlative franchise. However, while a few of these fantasy films have really worked, a number have faltered, and it seems like a lot of directors are having little trouble translating the visuals to screen, but a lot of problems adapting the dense narratives and complex fantasy worlds that the source material creates. I thought that, overall, The Lion, The witch, and the Wardrobe did a nice job of bringing CS Lewis' book to the screen, and I eagerly anticipate future entries in the Narnai franchise. Another excellent fantasy film came this year in the form of Stardust, which was a bit messy at times but as a whole was a highly imaginative and fun movie.

Now we have The Golden Compass ... My impressions are that, somewhere buried within the theatrical cut of this movie may in fact be one hell of a film. All of the ingredients are there - a great cast, some awe-inspiring visuals, and a number of interesting underlying concepts. However, the edits make for a movie that is ultimately confusing and hard to follow. Characters are introduced abruptly, ideas quickly explained without being fully fleshed-out, and, in the end, the world of The Golden Compass, which I imagine to be fully-realized in the books, here feels as though the surface has barely been scratched. I guess what I'm saying is - I came out of the film intrigued by this world I had just visited, but without ever having felt fully immersed in it.

First, let me run through some of what made this movie really click on certain levels. For one, there's a lot of cool ideas at play here. In this world, for example, all people have little animal familiars that follow them around called "daemons." When you're a child, your daemon is constantly changing shapes to match your mood / personality of the moment, but when you're an adult, your daemon becomes fixed and no longer changes. The daemons apparently are the vessels which house a person's soul, so removing a person from their daemon is akin to stripping them of their very essence. And that, of course, is exactly what an evil governing body wants to do - they've been capturing kids from across the land and performing tortorous experiments that aim to strip them of their daemons. Why? Well, the religious subtext is tha the daemons represent a kind of free will / original sin / individuality. By removing that, well, then there's nothing to stop the evil ruling body from being even more all-powerful than they already are. The daemons are one concept that the movie handles really well both visually and narratively - it's a really unique idea that makes the world of The Golden Compass unique and distinct from its fantasy peers.

However, many other facets of this world do not fare as well. Of course, there's been a huge amount of discussion about the religious subtexts of the books and film - it it anti-Catholic? Geez, I haven't read the books but this movie is about as tame as can be, in my opinion, to its own detriment. Sure, you could equate the Magistarium with the Church - but that would pretty much be all your own inference. Here, they are no different from The Empire in Star Wars, Big Brother, etc - any typical ruling body that wants totalitarian control over its subjects. If anything, I'd almost like to see more ties to real-world religion a la Narnia, as it makes for an interesting dichotomy to have fantasy mixed with established religious mythology. But here, the Magistarium feels woefully one-dimensional. Who are they and what do they want?

It's a problem that plagues a lot of The Golden Compass. In a film like Stardust, that plays more fast and loose with its concepts, its enough to say - oh, of course, sky pirates! - and just accept it as another crazy aspect of this universe. But the way The Golden Compass is set up - it's done in a way where you feel there ARE complex backstories and origins behind all of thes concepts and characters, yet we're simply not getting them.

I mean, I'll talk more about him in a bit - but Sam Elliot as a heroic cowboy ... I mean, he's awesome - it's Sam Elliot as a badass cowboy, for crying out loud. But, um ... why is there a sterotypical American cowboy in this world? Who IS this guy? It's like we're just meant to accept him and move on. But in a world where there seem to be complex rules and backstories for everyone and everything, the idea that we should just meet this cowboy and accept that he's on board for the long haul, it just seems like things were rushed and that w'ere missing key information.

The movie tends to gallop from one character to another, from one plot point to the next. and it's a ll a bit much to take in. I mean, at one point, we see Nicloe Kidman's character recruit our young heroinne, Lyra, to accompany her on an important mission. Lyra seems to eagerly volunteer. But within moments, the implication is that Lyra has been kidnapped and forced to go against her will, and I never caught any explanation for the sudden shift in Lyra's view of her journey. Like I said, this is a very jumpy movie, and it seems to throw a ton of stuff at the viewer without much context or explanation.

I mean, in the world of the Golden Compass, there are witches, one of whom is played by Eva Green, and who seems to be a force for good. At one point though, Sam Elliot looks up at the sky, sees a ton of witches flying around (great visual), and ominously seems to indicate that whoever they are after is screwed. So are they good? Evil? Later on though, the swarm of witches arrives as the cavalry in a climactic battle, kicking ass with their magic left and right. Cool, right? But, um, I had no idea how to feel about any of this, since I never got ANY idea who these witches were or why I should care about them other than the fact that they look cool.

So what you end up with is a collection of cool moments that don't exactly add up to a cohesive epic like they should. Still, the movie is really elevated by a terrific cast. I mean, man, this movie is overflowing with talent. Christopher Lee of all people appears for like one minute - I mean, if you're trying to get quality actors for bit parts, you can't go much better. Lee's Lord of the Rings counterpart, Ian McKellan, does the voice of a badass, exiled Polar Bear king who throughout the course of the movie tries to reclaim his throne. Yes, you heard me, and yes, the polar bears in this movie kick all kinds of ass. A lot of time and care seems to have been spent on 'em, and the one-on-one bear-on-bear smackdown brawl that occurs midway through the film is truly great -- an exciting action scene that at the same time slows down and FOCUSES and draws you in - something that can't be said for much of the movie. In any case, McKellan is great as always with his vocal work here. Nicole Kidman does a nice job as a cold, conniving agent of the Magistarium. Again, she is just kind of there as a femme fatale without much baclground or context. When a particularly interesting revelation about her relationship to Lyra is dropped, it's kind of a "meh" monet, because while it's fun to watch her be evil, we never are really invested in hercharactr one way or the other. Same goes for Daniel Craig - he makes a promising entrance as an adventurous, somewhat rebellious uncle to Lyra, but then drops off the map. We know he SHOULD be important, but I'm still nto sure why we're supposed to care about him, except that he is tracking the secret origins of something called "Dust." Unlike the daemons, Dust, magic particles that fall from the sky. that have something to do with other worlds and dimensions, is a VERY vague concept here which we leave this movie knowing next to nothing about.

Despite some weak characterization, this is certainly a VERY fun cast to watch. Kidman, Craig, etc all light up the screen even if we're eventually left wondering what's up with their characters. Sam Elliot, like I said, purely kickass here, playing a cowboy as only he can. Why his character exists is a bit of a puzzle, but most of the time, let's be honest, we just want to hear Elliot say cool-sounding cowboy-things, shoot up some varmints, and do that mustache-twitch thing.

Really though, the brunt of the movie is carried by a twelve year old girl. Dakota Richards is simply great as Lyra, and from the get-go is a different tpe of young heroinne than what we're used to seeing in these types of films. She's a good guy, the hero of the saga, sure. But she's a sly one - clever, a bit manipulative, and almost unnervingly adept at concocting truthful-sounding lies. Richards does a great job here, and its constantly fun and exciting to follow Lyra on her adventures.

Visually - again this is a pretty great-looking movie. The production design is amazing, and everything looks cool as hell for the most part. The polar bears in particular are tons of fun, and the odd mix of Victorian steam-punk with more traiditonal fantasy and mythological elements make for a constant feast for the eyes. And really, the SPIRIT of high fantasy and adventure is here - like I said, underneath all the jumble is, somewhere, a really great film. But this is a jumbled movie, messy, and incomplete-feeling, and that doesn't really help with the fact that the ending is extremely abrupt and essentially a big fat "tune-in next time for the thrilling second chapter!" It leaves you with a bit of a bad taste, because this movie felt like it should have set up everything for Part 2 but, really, we are just left with a ton of questions - very little was actually set up. Overall though, I enjoyed the movie and am curious about potential sequels - the strength of the cast alone means that a Part 2 has many of the necessary elements to be great. But as for Part 1, well, good, but not quite golden.

My Grade: B

TV STUFF:

- Alright, I'm out for now. Have a great weekend.

HAPPY HANUKKAH (yes I know it ended last night) - AMERICAN GLADIATORS recap plus MORE

And I'm back. Well, despite it being over as of last night, I haven't properly said Happy Hanukkah yet here on the blog - so, hope everyone else in the Jew Crew had eight crazy nights of good food, fun, and celebration.

If you're just catching up on your blog reading, be sure to check out my last two entries: a recap of my recent trip to London, and a review of one of my favorite movies of 2007, Juno.

- I've yet to write about this past weekend, with the main event of note being that a bunch of friends and I attended a taping of NBC's upcoming revival of 80's classic AMERICAN GLADIATORS. Yep, a whole crew of Hulkamanics piled into a car and drove down to Sony Studios in Culver City to witness the one and only Hulk Hogan play host, along with Layla Ali, as a new crop of musclebound men and women competed in challenges like Joust, Powerball, and Hang Tough.

It was great to see the Hulkster again live and in person - it's no secret that I'm a true-blue Hulkamaniac from back in the day, so it was fun to paricipate in the random "Hulk" chants that broke out throughout the taping, and engage in random ear-cups and pose-downs in tribute to the wrestling legend. However, a new star was born at these Gladiator tapings - a woman seemingly descended from the Norse gods and forged by the same fiery furnace that birthed the Hammer of Thor itself. Yes, friends, the star of these tapings was undoubtedly the woman known only as The Mighty Helga - a viking warrioress who stole the crowd's affections and inspired thunderous chants of her name throughout the show.

We watched Helga and other she-Gladiators with names like Crush and Venom compete in two different events, along with their male counterparts - bruising dudes with names like Militia. The first event we saw was surely the coolest - a wobbly bridge is suspended over a pool of water - the contestants attempt to cross the bridge back and forth as many times as they can without falling into the pool, all while being assualted by giant hanging spheres being hurled at them by the gladiators, who sit perched on raised platforms at all four of the pool's corners. It kinda plays out like a level of Super Mario Bros. come to life, and was fun to watch. The second event we saw, Powerball, was a holdover I believe from the original series. It's basically a glorified game of "kill the man with the ball," and a bit hard to follow live without the aid of on-screen graphics to help you keep score.

Overall though - good times. As with any TV taping, there was a lot of waiting around, but at least the waiting was made more bearable by dancing girls, random chants of "Helga!", and the novelty factor of being in the presence of the immortal Hulk Hogan, who is essentially a real-life superhero (even if it takes him threee tries to get his teleprompter-fed lines correctly). The sets looked pretty badass, and I'm really curious to see how this all comes together on TV.

In any case, be sure to check out the all-new AMERICAN GLADIATORS on NBC, premiering January 6th and 7th at 8pm. If you see a bunch of guys and girls screaming like maniacs, doing random Hogan-esque poses, and screaming out spontaneous marriage proposals to The Might Helga - well, that might just be (and probably is) my friends and I.

TV STUFF:

- So I'm sure you guys can see that the pickings are starting to get pretty slim on the ol' tube of late. I haven't been current enough on my TV watching of late to do timely reviews - I've mostly just been catching up on programs like 30 ROCK (so hilarious), ALIENS IN AMERICA (best new comedy of the year), GOSSIP GIRL (def an addictive show - the new OC?), and PUSHING DAISIES (I loved the smell-centric episode with Paul Reubens from a few weeks back, and look forward to his characters' return tonight). Otherwise, the strike marches on and it will be interesting to see if there's any movement towards a resolution in the next few months or if this thing just drags on interminably. I've been reading rumors today about what might happen with LOST -- word is it may shift nights from Wednesdays or maybe even be delayed past '08 a la 24. Personally, while I'm kinda grateful in a way for not having new TV as a distraction over the next several weeks, I was really looking forward to at least one must-see show in Lost, esp. after last season's kickass cliffhanger ending. I say give us new episodes now, and pray that the strike is resolved in time to keep things going after the initial batch of episodes has run dry.

MOVIES:

- On my Need To See Before the End of 2007 list:

Already Released: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, The Mist, Enchanted, Lars and the Real Girl, The Golden Compass, Into The Wild, I'm Not There

Soon To Be Released: Walk Hard, I Am Legend (if only for the Dark Knight preview), There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd

From Earlier in the Year: Zodiac, probably one or two others that I'm forgetting ...

I'm pretty confident that of these, There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd will push there way into my Best of 2007 List, and who knows, maybe one or two will as well. Already though, I can say it's been an incredible year for movies, with soon-to-be-classic entries in a number of genres, some of which (like the Western) that were thought all-but-dead. I'm also really hoping to see Into the Wild, still playing in one or two theaters over here, which I've heard nothing but good things about.

- I'm happy that THE X-FILES 2 is finally up and running. As a huge X-Phile, I'm dying to see this one, and am praying to the movie gods that it will be an adventure worthy of the best episodes of the groundbreaking TV show. The fact that Lance Henrikson is rumored to be it, reprising his role as Frank Black from the late great TV show Millenium, is pure awesomeness - if handled well, seeing Lance as Frank Black could be a true chill-inducing moment, as to me Frank is one of the coolest, creepiest, most interesting characters ever to be on television, and it's a shame that Henrikson was never properly ackowledged for his amazing work on Millenium, truly one of the great shows of the 90's. Anyways, the addition of Amanda Peet and Xhibit (sp?) to the cast is kinda meh - I'm more concerned with seeing Skinner, Doggett, and please-lord, a not-quite dead LONE GUNMEN. Most of all, I jsut want a kickass story and maybe a little bit of resolution for Mulder and Scully, who certainly deserve at least one more great adventure.

- Speaking of adventure ... yes, I have seen the new painted poster for Indiana Jones. And yes, it rules.

- Also, I loved the new trailer for SPEED RACER. More than any other movie to date, it looks like a Japanese anime brought to candy-coated life, aka it looks to be fun as hell and a movie at which a sugar-filled Slurpee is most definitely a required accessory. Check it out ASAP if you haven't seen already. Between this, JJ Abrams' CLOVERFIELD, and by-God RAMBO ... there is already a ton of geektastic goodness to look forward to in early '08. And Summer of '08 ... holy lord ... between DARK KNIGHT and INDIANA JONES, it may very well be one of the biggest box-office periods of all time.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll get into a more regular blog-writing routine soon, and of course, the countdown is on to the usual massive BEST OF, YEAR-END lists and columns. PEACE.

LONDON CALLING: Anarchy in the UK - November '07 - My Trip in Review!

Well, hope everyone is having a Happy Hanukkah (of those who celebrate). It's been pretty low-key for me so far, although today I did go to my uncle Josh's for a nice and very lively Hanukkah dinner, complete with latkes, sufganiyot, and plenty of singing, candle-lighting, and good cheer. In any case, I've wanted to recap my trip to London for a while now - between work and the general business of getting back into the think of things here in LA though, I feel like I've had barely any time for anything, and half the time this week I hardly knew what day or what time it was - basically, I'm still recovering from the craziness of going to CT, to London, to CT, and finally back to LA over a week-long period.

But London was a really cool experience. Now that some time has passed, I realize it's kind of pointless to write about it in a ton of detai, but at the same time, I've always regretted that my first trip to the UK came right before I got fully immersed in the world of digital photography, social networking, and blogs like this one. Not to say that I wish I had spent my semester in England in '03 blogging, uploading pictures, etc. - but, I still marvel at how I am updated on my brother's time in England in such a real-time way via a constant stream of pictures and the modern wonder that is Facebook.

Being in London again though, for me, it just helped to refocus my perspective and remind me that the grand ol' USA is but a small place in a big world, and that a relatively short plane ride can take you to a place where people talk, think, eat, and act differently than the ways with which we are accustomed. It's funny though - going on this trip with my parents reminded me that there is a real power in youth. Sure, I'm not exactly a kid at this point, but I feel like being a person in your twenties, you can almost go anywhere in the world and be a part of a global youth culture - which is both scary and really cool. Everywhere in the world, young people are gawking at new technology, pondering the war in Iraq, seeking out the latest and greatest music and movies, figuring out where they fit in. During my semester in England, I was there as an American, yes, but that was in many ways negated by the fact that I was just another college kid in a world full of college kids, who have a lot more simialrities than differences. This time around, I was much more the tourist - with nearly everything I did accentuating the fact that I was a stranger in a strange land, even if only 5 years ago I had lived there long enough to think of myself as a Londoner. I guess my point is that, when you've lived in a city and absorbed it, it's in some ways difficult to go there and suddenly be relegated to the role of outsider. For me, what's truly interesting about going to new places is the culture, the little quirks, mannerisms, ways of speaking, the vibe. Luckily though, London is a city PACKED with things to do and see. So being a tourist never really got boring this time, because honestly you could live in London for a year and still not do or see even a fraction of what it has to offer.

So as for this trip - I've spoken a bit about it via my special-edition live-from-London blog, but here I'll go into a bit more detail. Going back to the beginning, I had quite the week leading up to the big trip. As I've already reviewed here, last Tuesday (which already seems like a year ago), I was rocking out to VAN HALEN in LA, live and in concert at the Staples Center. That night, I packed my things and prepared to fly from Burbank to Hartford the next morning. Despite my exhaustion, I made it to the small but convenient Burbank airport just in the nick of time on Wednesday, with some drama en route to Hartford courtesy of Southwest Airlines (following a stop in Vegas, our landing was delayed by a few hours dure to heavy fog over Bradley airport, meaning I didn't land in CT until past 2 am ET).

The next day was Thanksgiving, and my parents and I headed to my uncle Michael's house in Longmeadow, MA for the traditional celebratory meal, attended by my grandparents as well as a whole host of guest from Michael's wife's side of the family. It was a relaxing time with the family, but soon we would embark on the big trip to LONDON.

I have to say, Virgin Atlantic is a great airline. We took it going to and from London from Logan airport in Boston, and not only do you get a great meal on the flight (can you say Oreo cheesecake?), but you have an individual TV on the back of the seat in front of you with a great selection of on-demand movies, TV shows, and games.

Movies / shows I watched in the air to and from London:

- THE HOAX with Richard Gere and Alfred Molina - decent little movie, I'd prob give it a B or so.

- HOT ROD with Andy Samberg - surprisingly very funny with pretty random humor - I'd rank it a B+.

- The first ten minutes or so of EAGLE VS. SHARK, which I missed when I saw the movie at a screening over the summer. Finally, I've now seen the whole movie, one of the funniest of the year!

- An awesome British TV series called THE MIGHTY BOOSH. When my brother and I met up with Gemma and Amy in London (more on that later), they recommended I check this one out, and lo and behold they ahd select episodes to watch on the flight back from London! Like a raunchier Pee Wee's Playhouse mixed with Family Guy sensibilities and a uniquely British sense of oddball humor, this story of two washed-up rockstars, who live with a magician and a giant ape and go on many surreal adventures together, is ridiculously fun and hilarious. The episode I saw, called Old Gregg (in which our heroes are captured by a singing, gay seamonster), had me dying of laughter.

Anyways, Virgin Atlantic is a sweet airline, and sure beats the crap outta Southwest. It's funny too, because it took less time to get from CT to London than it usually takes me to get from there to LA! So it was a bit surreal as I was sure it would take longer to get to the UK - aside from the big time-difference, I was shocked at how easy it was to travel across the Atlantic versus traveling cross-country.

- When we got to Heathrow airport though, my parents and I were all pretty out of it. For us it was late at night, but in England it was the crack of dawn, and suddenly we were thrown into the midst of one of the world's largest international airports, trying to figure out how to find the car service that was supposed to take us to our hotel. It really is amazing though - being in England, you are really in a global hub, versus being in America, where any foreigner is pretty easy to spot in a crowd, The US is of course a melting pot made up of many cultures and races, but as soon as you step off the plane in England, you find yourself listening to languages from all over Europe and beyond. This isn't Kansas anymore, baby.

- We stayed at the K+K George Hotel in South Kensington - Earl's Court to be more specific. We had a 40 minute or so drive from Heathrow made pleasant thanks to a friendly / chatty driver. Once we got to our hotel though, we of course were confronted with the fact that check-in time wasn't until noon, and at that point it was about 9:30 am. Also at that point, the three of us were barely keeping it together - totally exhausted with heavy eyelids begging for precious sleep. It's kind of funny looking back too, because without a chance to get situated in our hotel and get a few moments rest, and with my brother not meeting us until later in the day, we were all pretty out of it and disoriented. I suggested we leave our baggage at the hotel and explore our surroundings a bit. But we were so tired, freezing (it was bitterly cold, especially for me since I'm pretty well used to LA weather at this point), and unsure of what exactly to do that we pretty much wandered aimlessly before just heading back to our hotel and waiting for my brother. It reminded me of the first day in London in '03 - you just kind of walk around aimlessly, totally culture-shocked and just taking in the people and surroundings.

When Matt finally joined us, we at lunch at this interesting place called Nandos in Earl's Court, then headed over to Portabello Market, which was cool but extremely crowded and perhaps a bit much to take in in our debilitated, sleep-deprived states. But we walked around, and checked out the vast array of shops and kiosks and goods for sale in the giant open-air market.

Our next stop, in light of the cold and our tiredness, was a bit more low-key - The Tate Modern museum, which was one of my favorite stops back during my '03 semester. Honestly, we were probably all a bit too tired at that point to fully appreciate the museum's vast selection of modern art, from Rothco to Picasso and everything in between. But man, they do have a great gift shop with innumerable books on any artistic subject one can imagine. And, on the way out we crossed the famed Millennium Bridge, which crossed the River Thames with great night-sky views of the Tower Bridge and the London Eye.

We then headed back to Earl's Court for some dinner at Zizi's, a local Italian chain that was a much-needed bit of relaxation and hearty food (well, as hearty as English food can be). And after being up for like 36 hours, we finally called it a night.

- Each day we ate breakfast in the dining room of our hotel, where they had a nice little English-style buffet. Of course, in English-style buffets you get like random gross meats and spreads alongside staples like toasts and cereal and crossaints, but overall it was usually a nice way to start the day.

- On Day 2, I took my parents up to the site of my former internship at Twenty Twenty TV - Camden Town! Personally, I love Camden, it's such a unique place - some condsider it the birthplace of Punk Rock, as it was the place where bands like the Sex Pistols first emerged on the London scene. Walking through the streets of Camden Town, it's just a crazy outdoor market sprawl, with souvenier shops mixed in with stores selling leather corsets and other goth-club gear, custom drug paraphanalia in all shapes and sizes, tattoo parlors out the yingyang, all manner of T-shirts sporting every snarky slogan known to man, and everything else in between. Sure, Camden Town now is a mix of tourists, curiosity seekers, and workers like those at Twenty Twenty who happen to be located in its vicinity, but it still feels like you're in some kind of rock n' roll fantasy land all the same - there's still this down n' dirty punk rock aesthetic in the air. Suffice to say, my parents were probably a bit taken aback, but good times were had. For me, it was just cool to revisit the old stomping grounds and walk by Twenty Twenty again.

From Camden, we took the Tube back south a bit to Russell Square. When you get off at the Russell tube stop, you're in this great park outside the University of London. I had many a tasty sandwich from the snack shop there in the Spring of '03 while doing an errand or two for my internship at the University, sitting on a park bench, watching the high-spouting fountain in the middle of the circular park grounds. The park looked a lot less scenic this time around, as it was cold and wintry and a Sunday ... but still, I got a definite feeling of nostalgia seeing that fountain again. Our real destination however was the British Museum, a short walk from the park. The British Museum is quite the sight to behold - a massive, imposing structure with huge columns and a grand entryway - all bright shiny white revolving around a sprawling circular stairway leading to the museum's upper levels. The main attraction is on the ground floor, however, where the Rosetta Stone is kept. We saw the Stone, many of the Egyptian artifacts and other ancient relics, as well as the vast libraries, and then headed back to South Ken.

We met my brother and had a nice lunch at Garfunkel's (basically the British version of Chiles, though as with all British restaurants, it's quiet and low-key). nearby to the BU dorms by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop. With Matt along for the ride, we then proceeded to visit a bunch of the attractions local to the Kensington area. We walked around Hyde Park - a sprawling, Central Park-esque area that is home to grassy hills, swan-filled ponds, and of course, to Kensington Palace, once home to Princess Diana. After that, we took a taxi to Harrods, the world's biggest department store. Harrod's is certainly a sight to see - it's like a gigantic mall except waaayyy more posh. They have rooms and rooms of "food-halls," with meats, poultry, ice cream, pizza, chocolate, and everything in between. There are entire areas of children's toys, of clothing in all shapes and sizes, of electronics, books, furniture, and everything else under the sun. Considering that last time I came to Harrods in '03, I made a hasty exit when I somehow set off the store's alarm system (!), it was nice to actually roam the hallowed halls of Harrods at my own leisure. Following our trip to this shopping mecca, at which I had procured a bit of tasty gelato, we took the tube a few stops over to eat at a Matt-recommended place, Pizza on the Park (while in the States, pizza joints are almost universally more dive-y places, the Brits take their pizza very serious and proper-like - it's to be eaten with fork and knife only, and hell, even Pizza Hut is a pretty high-class establishment in the UK).

On Monday, my parents and I went on a guided bus tour of some out-of-London sites. We scrambled in the morning (and trust me when I say SCRAMBLED) to find our meeting point by the Victoria tube station, but we made it to our Golden Tours bus just in time after I had literally sprinted through the streets of London to find the place (yikes!). Once on the bus though, we settled in for an enjoyable journey to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. We had a very talkative tour guide who looked a bit like John Malkovich crossed with my Uncle Harry, and talked like Patrick Stewart doing a parody of himself. Aka, he was kind of awesome. I mean, this guy rolled his "R's" like no man has ever rolled his R's before. Like, "This is the home of her ... rrrrrrrhRoyal majesty." I mean, dayum - I didn't know you could find that outside a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Windsor Castle was cool. I was surprised at how vast a town Windsor is, and how upscale and trendy. I assumed it would be more of a quiet village a la what I had seen when I toured Leeds and Warwick castles in '03, but man, Windsor is quite the cosmopolitan royal stomping grounds. The castle itself was as I had expected - gaudy, lavish, and filled to the brim with all manner of imperial excess, from hundreds upon hundreds of china plates, to vast armories of swords and firearms, to furniture so bejeweled and lavish that one chair could probably buy you a house. At Windsor we also witnessed that castle's Changing of the Guard - less famous than the one at Buckingham but pretty similar, in any case.

Next up was Stonehenge. We stopped at a small, quaint little pub outside of Stonehenge for a traditional pub lunch. Luckily, I had grabbed a sandwich at Eat in Windsor, since to me traditional British pub food is largely vomit-inducingly gross. I will say though, while a lot of British food is not up my alley, they do have a variety of excellent little sandwich / lunch stops a la Eat, Prett a Manger, etc. I wish we had places like that in the US where you could get a freshly made baguette at a reasonable price. Definitely a great alternative to fast food, and, man, the chocolate mousse cups at both Prett and Eat are to die for. Anyways, our little tour-bus group ate at the pub in the middle of nowheresville, England, then went another 5 minutes to Stonehenge. To me, the main cool thing about Stonehenge is all of the mystical / supernatural stories that revolve around it, from its association with Merlin to its location at a point where many ley-lines converge to all of the mystery surrounding its assemblage. Unfortunately, our tour guide wasn't too into all that, and when you take that mystique away, it's basically just a huge-ass pile of rocks and a one-stop photo op. I got some suitably ominous pics of Stonehenge, complete with ravens perched atop the stony structures, but I missed our great tourguide from BU who got a bit more into all the really cool stuff as pertains to Stonehenge. Also, man - it's always friggin' freezing there in that big field.

Our final stop was Bath. Bath was another place where I kind of assumed it'd be a small vilalge centered around the Roman Baths. Surprisingly to me, Bath was another very cool little city with a ton of bustling, hip shops and eateries and seemingly a ton of young people walking around and having fun. We could have easily spent a whole day there, much like Windsor - but then again, the nature of this tour allowed us to see a heck of a lot on a very short amount of time. The baths themselves were interesting, mostly though they made me want to go to a spa or something. Since I had never been to Bath in '03 though, it was cool to visit and see what it was all about.

So overall, Monday's bus tour was fun and informative, and a nice way to take in a lot in a short time. We ended the day with a meal at the ubiquitous-in-London restaurant, Pizza Express (it's a lot cooler than it sounds, though they do make a tip-top margherita, as far as British-style margherita pizzas go), and then we headed back to the K+K after a long but interesting day.

- Tuesday, while Matt toiled at his internship, the parents and I decided to see some of the local London sights that we had yet to take in. Amusingly, we tried to do this via one of those around-London bus tours, but we soon got frustrated with trying to find the connection points for the bus route and proceeeded to go from one place to another by foot and then taxi. Oh well, at least my parents got their moment on the top of a double-decker bus (even if it was freezing on top on this mid-November English morning).

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace for the obligatory viewing of the Changing of the Guard. It's a lot of powaiting followed by a short flash of pomp and circumstance, but I'd say it's worth checking out, if only for the packed crowds of tourists hailing from all corners of the globe. While it's cool to see the ornate, gold-plated gates of Buckingham and the Wizard-of-Oz-looking guards yelling comically at each other while marching in their cartoonishly elaborate ritualized procession, the real fun is just seeing all the tourists angling for photo ops.

From there, we went to Westminster Abby, which is fairly interesting and pretty amazing in terms of the old-world artistry that bursts from each of its many elaborately-decorated rooms and tombs. It's the kind of architecture that you don't find in America, in a building far older than our country itself. It was cool seeing the tombs of great authors like Dickens and Forrester, alongside the many royals who are buried in the Abby's many chambers. After touring Westminster Abby, we somehow found ourselves at the Houses of Parliament. My dad was eager to check 'em out, so we went inside and waited to gain entry into a House of Commons debate. Unfortunately, the place was packed with visiting school-kids, and after waiting patiently for a long while, we gave up and decided to move on.

Finally, we wound up at the Tower of London, the heavily-fortified castle that houses the famous Crown Jewels. As schlocky as the whole idea of having a monarchy in today's day and age is, there is something pretty cool about seeing the crown, sceptre, sword, etc of the British Royals on display, in a series of rooms designed with uplifiting multimedia displays (actually done by Disney, I believe). Meanwhile, the Tower of London is cool in that it's a bit more castle-y than Windsor, in that to fully explore it you have to squeeze through narrow passages, climb winding, claustrophobic staircases, and traverse through iron gates, cobblestone walkways, and high arches. The place just feels bloody and brutal - you can feel the ghosts of murder and trachery seeping from the walls. Definitely a feeling of entering the Heart of Darkness, and a reminder that for all the pomp and circumstance, the British Empire was a perpetrator of great evils, and one of the world's most vile and brutal and oppressive kingdoms for centuries.

Tuesday night, I met up with Matt, and, as nice as it was to tour England with the parents, it was also nice to go out on the town as two Baram boys ready to cause trouble and stir up some anarchy in the UK. Hahaha ... Anyways, the real reason we met up was so that I could have a little reunion with two of my most favorite British ladies - Amy and Gemma Goodman. Back when I did my semester in London, which holy cow was practically 5 years ago, one of my friends and roommates from BU was lucky enough to have cousins living just outside of London - in a very nice, very Jewish suburb called Edgeware. It was in this way that I met the Goodman family, who at the time was nice neough to have us over for dinner on multiple occasions, for meals, for weekends, and even Passover seder. At the time, it was truly awesome and infinitely rewarding to befriend a British family (and a British Jewish family no less), and to really learn about the cultural differences as well as the similiarities. In any case, in all this time since then, I've really missed the Goodmans, especially the Goodman kids who I had befriended and at least sporadically kept in touch with over the years (again, Facebook really is amazing). Well, it was really cool to see Amy and Gemma again (brother Adam was away at university). It's so funny because Gemma, who is totally insane in the best way possible, on the phone was like "Your brother will think I'm mad!" Well, she had clearly not yet met my brother! Haha ... suffice to say it was quite an assemblage of personalities, and we all exhanged hearty laughs over hip Asian-fusion cuisine at Wagamama in Leicester Square. It makes you realize ... as great as it is to see museums and markets and castles, there's nothing quite like seeing good friends (cue your "awwws" now ...).

- Wednesday, my parents went on a Jewish walking tour of London while I took the opportunity to veg a bit and finally get more than a few hours of sleep. I made sure to take an hour or so and do a little store-hopping, and collect some little British odds and ends. I love the magazines and newspapaers in England - and I love the culture there which is one in which everybody reads and you can't get on a subway without 80% of the people glued to the daily edition of their newsapaper of choice. It's funny how we here in America are always bemonaing the death of books, the death of newspapers, the death of magazines. Did anyone ever stop to think that there's nothing wrong with books or newspapers or magazines? Maybe the problem is that we as a country are a bunch of braindead slobs who can't be bothered to actually READ and keep up to date with current events that don't center around celebs with no underpants? Ugh. Well, one of the main reasons that I'm such an Anglophile is that I love the British culture in which, god-forbid, INTELLIGENCE is actually valued and USED on a daily basis in discourse that involves political debate, culture, and dialogue. Then, as a pop culture junkie, it's jsut plain cool to see how th British perceive things, from TV to movies to games. There's no better magazine than EDGE with which to get an intelligent perspective on the gaming industry. The Brit's RADIO TIMES, filled with interesting articles and editorials on television, only reinforces what a rag TV Guide is. And EMPIRE is one of the best film periodicals out there - the geeky sensibilities of Ain't It Cool mixed with the snappy writing of Newsweek.

Anyways, Wednesday afternoon, I met up with my parents and brother for a trip to London's hopping West End. though touristy, it's one of my favorite areas of London, as it's just such a modern, cool-feeling area that nonetheless lacks the clutter or mess of a Times Square or downtown Hollywood. We started out in Picadilly Circus and made our way to Trafalgar Square, home of giant fountains and towering statues that you can't help but be impressed by. We wandered into the British National Gallery across the street for a few minutes, and then worked our way up to Leicester Square, home to uber-cool movie theaters featuring huge, customized marquees (At this point there were towering images of Beowulf poking out at the gathering crowds), many a tourist-friendly restaurant (including London's only TGI Fridays), dozens of trendy bars and clubs, and throngs of young people and tourists walking around the closed-off, wide and open walkways. Our final destination was Covent Garden, yet another big open-air market, at this time decorated quite festively for the Christmas season (nary a menorah to be found in London!). We explored the markets for a bit, combed through trinkets, books, etc., then staked out the theater to which we had tickets for ... Lord of the Rings - The Musical! (yikes!) Yes, my brother Matt, being an even bigger geek for Lord of the Rings than I (well, at least for the films, of which he often partake sin day-long trilogy marathon viewing sessions), insisted that we see this London-only spectacle. So after a steak dinner in Leicester Square (appeasing my dad's desire for meat, haha), we headed back over to Covent Garden and embarked on a 3 hour journey into Middle Earth, in musical form.

So in the midst of this London recap, here is a first - a MUSICAL Review!

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE MUSICAL - Review

My thoughts on the musical? Well, um ... ambitious, to say the least. The sets, costumes, and f/x were certainly amongst the most impressive and technically remarkable I've ever seen at a live stage show. You'd think a musical might shy away from the big set pieces from the movies. But the opposite was the case here -- we got Gandalf vanquishing the Balrog in the Mines of Moria, the Black Riders felling Frodo, the march of the elves in Lothlorien, and Sam Gamgee using Galadriel's light to defeat the giant spider Shelob on the road to Mordor -- all staged using massive puppets, whiz-bang f/x, and impressively choreographed action. Gollum was a huge achievement as well - a twisting, contorting, otherworldly performance that was truly something to see. On the other hand, the music was less than impressive. A few of the songs were fun and memorable, mostly those sung by the musically-inclined hobbits, in particular the opening/closing Sam-Frodo theme and a rousing song sung in the tavern towards the beignning. But musical numbers didn't dominate the production like they do in a Les Mis or Phantom - songs were used more sparingly, which drew attention to bad acting and stilted dialogue by the likes of Gandalf, Saurumon, and some others (certainly nothing that came close to measuring up to Ian McKellan or Christopher Lee, and also made it feel pretty awkward during the few times when the less whimsical characters like Aragorn broke into song. The production was also very long, condensing all three books / movies into one uber-epic story. This meant that a number of key characters and plot points were eliminated, and much of what was kept felt rushed and incomplete. Really, this is one to see for the spectacle of the set-design and staging - the mostly lackluster music and acting keep it from being anything more than a curiosity.

My Grade: C+

- Okay, despite my slightly negative review, it was a fun time at the theater and definitely something worth seeing, for novelty value alone. And hey, my parents both loved it, and they are not exactly hardcore Rings fans, so what do I know. In any case, it was a fun day and night in London's West End. At this point, we said our goodbyes to Matt, without whom we would have had a much more difficult time navigating London - in a place that vast, any one with any wisdom in terms of getting around is much appreciated.

- Thursday, as soon as it had started, our trip came to an end. We had only an hour or so between breakfast and the time when a car was set to pick us up and bring us to Heathrow, so we made one last quick run-through of the Earl's Court area, picked up some last minute gifts, and then rushed to get our suitcases all packed for the journey home. Since we had some time to waste in Heathrow before our plane departed, we got to wander around and see all the shops that litter the vast airport, which is practically a mini-Harrods in its own right. Finally, we boarded our plane - another smooth ride courtesy of Virgin Atlantic - and after some reading, sleeping, another excellent meal, a viewing of Hot Rod and an episode of The Mighty Boosh - we touched down in Beantown. Soon enough, we were back in Bloomfield, CT (unfortunately as cold if not colder than London). After sleeping for many, many hours, I awoke the next day exhausted and tired still, but satisfied that I was once again a world traveller who had seen many sights and done many things. The bug was back - since that point, many of my thoughts have turned towards seeing the world and exploring what there is to see just over the horizon. Sure, already that pull of distant lands has been slightly dimmed by the grind of day-to-day life in LA, in the real world, but still, there is that spark, and I hope to travel more sooner rather than later.

- My short time thereafter in CT was mostly spent simply chilling out and resting up for the return to normalcy that would soon follow. I had a long flight via Southwest - home of cramped seats and bare-bones service, from CT to Burbank last Sunday, with stops in Nashville and Vegas en route to California. If only getting here had been as easy as getting to London ... Now, it may have only fully lasted for a day or so, but there's no doubt that for at least a little while following my trip, I was more at peace than I'd been in a while. I got to work on Monday and felt as though I was a step removed from all of the drama, weirdness, superficiality, and wear and tear that is life in Hollywood. I was here in Hollyweird, sure, but a part of me was in London and elsewhere, in giant castles and dusty museums and hopping markets. I think you need to have that perspective, that knowledge that elsewhere, things ARE different, that your way of life is only one way of life amongst many and there's no harm in being unique and not conforming to one standard of living. I hope to retain that British sense of intellectualism, of higher culture, of history, of humor - even here where it feels a million miles away.

Because, though it may be far ... London is calling.

I'd like to procure a hasty review of JUNO.

So I still have to write a London wrap-up, and I'm hoping to get to that this weekend, but right now, I am compelled to write about the movie I just saw. I want to write this review before the hype gets too big ...

JUNO Review:

- There are so many things that could have gone wrong with Juno, but I'm pretty much floored by how brilliantly this movie came together. There are those who are quickly going to sense an impending wave of hype and praise and therefore rush to jump on a backlash bandwagon. But I want to do the oppositte - I want to say that Juno is, in my estimation, one of the year's best, and a movie that radiates warmness and good humor. I know, it sounds strange to describe a movie that at first appears to be aching to be cool in such a way. But it's way too easy to simply dismiss Juno and rail on it for trying too hard. I think that's exactly the point - Juno is a movie ABOUT people who are trying too hard. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when the title character, so adorably played by Ellen Page, compliments her highschool sweetheart, played by Michael Cera. "You're so cool without even trying," she says. But then, he corrects her: "Actually, I try really hard."

The reason thaT Juno totally won me over by the time the credits rolled is that it's a movie that defied my expectations, and then defied them again and again. The movie begins in full-on cutting edge hipster mode, with Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson exchanging jive-sounding dialogue as stylized as anything that Tarantino ever put to page. Everything about the movie's opening, from its beat-perfect dialogue to its emo-simplistic animated intro to all the odd little details - like the fact that Juno calls up people using a hamburger phone (at least that's what she calls it) - are enjoyable and cool and all, but I'll admit, all of the quirk made me a little antsy for a second there. Eventually though, something truly magical happens - the movie gets turned on its head and all the quirk gives way to something that is as three dimensional and subtle as almost any movie I've ever seen. At first glance, these characters seem cartoonish, but that's only at first glance. The beauty of Juno is, without ever being obvious or preachy, it shifts and expands and allows its characters to grow and change and blossom.

The characters of Juno feel so alive in large part thanks to the absolutely phenomenal cast. Ellen Page is going to get a lot of hype for this movie, but it's well deserved. She freaking rocks as Juno, and it's by no means a one-note performance. Juno is hilarious, smart, endearing as hell, and yet not a caricature. In fact, as well-written as Michael Cera and Jonah Hill were in Superbad, Ellen Page, I hate to say, makes those characters look a little one-dimensional in comparison. Part of it is the wonderful script, part of it is the absolute level of investment that Page puts into the character - every little quirk and mannerism and offhanded expression contributes. And yet ... for all of her wit and impressive vocabulary, Juno as played by Page will make you laugh, cry, and be happy. That's quite an achievement.

Last year at this time, it was a non-stop lovefest for all of the great dames of Hollywood who were showing again why they were icons - Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, etc. In 2007, 20 year old Ellen Page, in flannel and t-shirts and ponytail, was easily the breakthrough actress of the year. In one fell swoop, I think I'm a fan for life. It's funny too, because just recently I was thinking how I couldn't think of many great female film roles from this year. Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan, Tilda Swindon in Michael Clayton, Michelle Pfeifer in Stardust - those were a few of my favorites so far. But I have a feeling that come Oscar time I will be wholeheartedly rooting for Ms. Page as Best Actress - like I said, she simply rocks as Juno. And here's one more bigtime compliment from me - Juno (the character) reminded me, in all the right ways, of the much-missed Lindsay Weir - just as Juno (the movie) reminded me, in all the right ways, of the much-missed classic Freaks and Geeks. Stylistically, the two don't necessarily have a lot in common. But to be sure, all of the depth, humor, and poignancy of that great work is alive and well in Juno.

The rest of the cast is off-the-charts great. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are really, maybe surprisingly, superb as a couple looking to adopt the teenaged Juno's baby-on-the-way. Of all the movie's characters, it's Bateman and Garner who really threw me for a loop. Without revealing anything, I was amazed at how the film created a first impression of the couple, then a second, and finally a third, leaving us amazed that we had ever looked at them as we originally did. Could we really have been that sympathetic and endeared towards Bateman, or that annoyed and critical of Garner? The brilliance of these characters is that it is, again, a very natural peeling back of the layers. These are consistent, fleshed-out characters and yet fluid and evolving. Individually, this is the best thing Bateman's done since Arrested Development, and, well, maybe the best thing Garner's ever done. Bateman does a great job at playing a guy who has seen ten or fifteen years pass him by without warning - he's a great juxstaposition to Juno. He's a grown man with the passions and dreams of a kid, she's a kid who talks and thinks, in many ways, like an adult. Meanwhile, Garner's character is someone who initially seems boring, but wins us over because in reality she's a lot more like Juno than we suspect - she has a strong sense of self and doesn't care what others think.

JK Simmons is fantastic as Juno's father. Again, I was totally impressed with how this character defied the cliche. At first you think oh, yeah, there's no way that this square old dad has anything to offer the uber-cool Juno in the way of sound parental advice. But almost as soon as he's introduced, Simmons reveals his character as yet another amazingly complex creation. Yet another character that made me laugh, made me sad, made me smile. A truly great turn for one of the great character actors.

Allison Janney is similarly awesome as Juno's stepmom. Yet again - I found myself hating her at first, and that was surely a deliberate ploy on the part of the film. But Janney is oh so human, like everyone else in the movie. The familial ties between Juno, her dad, and her stepmom are palpable. All the good, the bad, the ugly of family relationships is on display here, but the strength of that family concept ultimately wins you over and makes even initially unlikable characters ones you find yourself rooting for. For Janney's part - she has some hilarious moments, particularly one shining hospital scene in which she tells off a presumptuous nurse.

As for Michael Cera, he's been on one heck of a roll. Juno is yet another showcase for his talent, in a role where he's more George Michael Bluth than Superbad. Cera has awkward nerdiness and earnest sincerity down to an artform, and he makes it remarkably easy to buy into he and Juno as a likable and meant-to-be couple of teenagers in love. Despite the built-in hipster quirkiness, there's a realness to the two of them - afterall, isn't everyone pretty much quirky and awkward in high school?

With such a great cast (and I haven't even mentioned some of the more minor but equally standout supporting roles), it's amazing that so much attention has gone to Diablo Cody, the self-styled star-screenwriter-in-the-making whose unconventional background has thrust her into the spotlight. And there you have another reason why there will be the inevitable backlash towards Juno - people love to dogpile on anyone or anything hailed and hyped as the Next Big Thing. Well, whatever. Right now, I'm not convinced that she ISN'T the next big thing. This screenplay is legit, and it really is a winning combination of a tightly-structured plot, measuring it at a breezy length, with dialogue and character that both burts off the page and yet, as I've extolled here, will surely surprise with its depth and poignancy. What I love about this script is that, like many of the best scripts, there are BIG ideas boiling over beneath the surface. No one will call Juno an epic by any means, but what elevates it above similar teen fare is that there ARE a lot of powerful themes at play here, and not in that smug, forced manner that films like Garden State sometimes have. Juno to me felt genuine through and through, and without getting too pretentious there were things here that felt bigger than the characters, a feeling that this was a story as much about generations in America, the pop-culture-infused intelligence of Gen Y vs the squandered potential of Gen X, as anything else. Maybe that's me reading too much into things, but there's an openness to Juno that invites interpretation, and I really admire Cody for infusing her script with that rare quality. The fact that Juno manages to be quirky and hip yet still capture a kind of cultural zeitgeist is pretty commendable.

I also am just impressed with the script for its sense of humor and unique perspective. I'll admit, comedy from the female perspective is often a tough sell. Female perspective, fairly or not, has in many cases become synonomous with simply not that funny. Not the case here - Juno is really and truly a breath of fresh air - a movie that is so clearly told with a female voice, yet never feels watered-down or dumbed-down or sugar-coated for a female audience. On the contrary, the sensibilities of Juno were so refreshing precisely because it was so obviously not typical of Hollywood teen comedy. But being different would mean jack if the film never made me laugh. Juno though is genuinely funny - sometimes funny in a quick-n-easy kind of way, sometime clever-funny or quirky-funny, and sometimes, most rewardingly, it's funny in that deep belly-laugh kind of way that really has to be earned through great characters and emotional investment.

Also give credit to Jason Reitman, who is now two-for-two with last year's excellent Thank You For Smoking and now Juno. I really enjoyed the simple-yet-stylized look of the film, and the sensibility with which it was shot, in a way that really complimented Cody's script. I also have to mention the soundtrack, which I really enjoyed. I'm not usually a fan of these types of quirky indie-music soundtracks, but each track here was pretty infectious and well-selected. It's a soundtrack I could actually see myself revisiting in the future on its own merits.

I think Juno is a movie that most people will approach with a bit of trepidation. There's now a built-in hype factor, and I get that people are becoming wary of these movies that are prematurely praised as generational touchstones. I know I usually hate that kind of thing, and for the first few minutes of Juno, I was worried that this might be a film that was merely solid but not the truly special movie that some had claimed. But soon enough, the film had zipped by and completely won me over. You may or may not be similarly taken by it, but for me things eventually 100% clicked. Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, JK Simmons and Alison Janney all pop, particularly Page for whom this is undoubtedly a breakthrough performance, maybe THE breakthrough performance of the year. Most of all though, Juno left me with a great feeling that I had just spent time with characters I had quickly grown fond of, in a world I wanted to immediately revisit, with a story that got to me as comedy, as a love story, as a character study, as a slice of life. Not for the cynical, not for the haters ... but for me, Juno was aces.

My Grade: A

A Brief Interlude: HEROES and CHUCK Fall Finale Thoughts

So I need to sit down and do a little London recap, and I'm hoping to do that soon. For now, check out Facebook or MySpace for many cool pics direct from the UK.

But in the meantime, some quick thoughts about HEROES and CHUCK, which each had their fall finales last night, and thanks to the Strike, potentially their last episodes for the forseeable future.

HEROES:

- Don't get me wrong - I was entertained well enough by last night's Heroes Volume II concluding chapter. But in the end, it was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, and ultimately a strong reminder that this season of the show has yet to show any signs that this is the same series that in the past delivered iconic pieces of TV like "Company Man."

For one thing, there's no denying that Heroes became something of a cluster this season. Of all the numerous new characters introduced, almost none were worth a damn. It's a similar problem to Lost: Season 2, although at least the Tailie characters had POTENTIAL. The Telemundo Twins were annoying and cringe-worthy from the moment they were introduced, and it says something that, by far the most satisfying moment in last night's ep was when Sylar mercilessly gunned down Maya, who proceeded to collapse onto the ground with the same awkward expressions of pain that we had to endure all season thanks to her and her brother's repetitive, meandering, and worthlessly drawn-out storyline. On one hand, it's kind of pathetic that the show had to kill off these characters as coldly and abruptly as it did, almost out of self-realization that they needed to thin the heards. On the other hand, at least they had the self-awareness to do so.

A similar storyline that ultimately went nowhere was that of the immortal Adam. First of all, this character is nothing more than a weak-ass ripoff of Batman villain Ra's Al Ghul. Secondly, his motivations and psyche as a villain were never convincing, never properly explored, and felt ripped right out of Liam Neeson's dialogue in Batman Begins. What could have been a compelling character turned into stock villain #579. The worst part is that so much time was spent on Adam this season that the setup seemed to be there for SOME kind of twist or unexpected wrinkle ... and yet, there was nothing. Adam's storyline simply went from Point A to Point B without a single moment of surprise or originality. Totally disappointing.

Now, easily the most intriguing storyline going into this season was that of the Company conspiracy of which Adam had been a part. In fact, this volume of Heroes, you might remember, was even entitled "Generations." So, um ... what happened to that? We still have little to no idea of who the original Company founders were, how they got together, or even what their powers are, exactly. Instead, The Company became more ambiguous than ever, and even though hints were given that they had some benevolant side to them, they were mostly just a generic cabal of old people doing bad things. In last night's episode, I felt there was a chance to really move Heroes forward as a show by having Claire move to expose the Company and begin moving towards a direction where at least a few of the heroes work openly and make the public aware of their powers - now THAT would be an interesting direction for the show to take. Instead, we get a last-minute twist in which HRG re-joins the Company, a turn that came with only the weakest of justifications on his part. Why take the show's most interesting character and simply bring him back to square one?

Then there was the Micah / Nikki storyline, in which Nikki appears to bite the dust. Here was one more long, drawn-out storyline that seemed to see little advancement after so much time was spent on it. All the drama about Nikki having the virus (the virus, which basically turned out to be one giant ball of nothing / deux ex machina in a box) basically amounted to nothing. And then, I think every geek worth his salt at least had a twinge of anticipation that Micah's cousin might go the route of comic hero / vigilante. After so much build-up, she simply gets kidnapped by some thugs and left to die in a burning building? Okay ...

Meanwhile, the show just seems to be lacking internal logic or continuity. Last I checked, Peter Petrelli could: walk through walls, read minds, and fly. He could have used power A to simply walk through the door and grab the virus at Adam's behest. He could have used Power B to check on Adam's trustworthiness instead of blindly following him all this time. And I mention Power C because, well, you'd think that with Nathan getting shot at episode's end, it wouldn't be all that beneficial to the Company, since the guy standing right next to him could also fly, stop time, and shoot lightning bolts from his hands ... and I'm sure that, you know, following an assasination attempt, the press would be a bit curious to interview ol' Peter.

And how about Sylar? Molly, who can track anyone, is right there in the room, and Mohinder and Elle just let him get away? How far could he have gotten in the 5 seconds since he was being pursued? Again, I don't mean to nitpick, but it just seems like Heroes is afraid at times to write its characters' powers in a consistent, creative, and internally-logical manner. Maybe my favorite moment of the series thus far was in Company Man, when HRG blocks Greg Grunberg's mental probes by thinking in Japanese. Right there, HRG took on a whole new level of badassness. I don't know if there's yet been a moment nearly as creative on the show in terms of characters using or reacting to super powers.

So again, there were some fun moments last night. A lot of that was due to some great actors stepping up and elevating the material. Zachary Quinto as Sylar has been awesomely evil of late, and he stole every scene he was in in last night's ep. Masi Oka as Hiro continues to be eminently likable, and you can't help but root for the guy when he dares to confront Adam and seeks to avenge his father. Kristen Bell has been a great addition to the show, and has overcome a questionable Company storyline to create one of the show's most intriguing characters, and a great potential rival for Claire. And Jack Coleman has really been the show's MVP as Noah Bennett - even when his character has lacked compelling storylines, or been forced to make out of character moves like last night, Coleman always brings a great intensity to the role, and HRG is the one character whose next move is always much-anticipated. A lot of that is thanks to Coleman.

So what we are left with is an episode that in many ways simply hit the reset button. In some ways, that might be a smart move, but it's still not really an excuse for such a messy and underwhelming collection of storylines, that never delivered a truly satisfying payoff. I got a little excited when we saw the "preview" for Volume 3, enticingly entitled "Villains." Then I realized it was simply Sylar getting his powers back, shades of the ending to X-Men 3. No new big villain, no new twist, just the visualization of a plot point we all knew was coming since the season premiere.

If anything, Tim Kring and co have created a wonderful sandbox of a universe with which the writers can play in. Some, like Brian Fuller, have taken the toys of the Heroes-verse and done something great with them. But so far this season, no one has stepped up to the plate, and there's been nothing that screams "hey, watch this show!" I think we all want to root for Heroes, we all want it to be great. So come on guys, give us something to cheer for.

My Grade: C+

CHUCK:

- While the first few episodes of Chuck didn't quite live up to the amount of enthusiasm I initially had for the pilot, I can't deny that for several weeks now, CHUCK has been an an absolute roll. With the show's own little mythology kicking into high gear over the last few weeks, things have really picked up. I loved last week's Bryce Larkin-centric episode. After that action-packed ep, this week's more mellow affair at first seemed like a bit of a let-down. But by episode's end, I was once again caught up in all of the glorious emo-adventure that is Chuck.

I just have to say right off the bat - Adam Baldwin's expression when his prized car got blown up, near episode's end, was absolutely classic. I was seriously just dying of laughter as his expression subtley changed from anger to weepy sorrow in a matter of moments.

Meanwhile, the show has done a surprisingly great job of moving the Chuck - Sarah relationship forward without runing it by having them in a full-blown relationship or at total odds with each other. At times, Chuck's pining for Sarah got a little too OC-ish, but at the same time that's what's so fun about the show - the way it seamlessly blends all of The OC's emo soap operatics with action and adventure and intrigue.

I don't think I need to go on too much about CHUCK. In short, it's evolved into one of the most enjoyable shows on the air, and has some of TV's best characters at the moment. Thanks to everyone behind Chuck for bringing it and improving on the formula nearly every week - I look forward to, hopefully, a lot more Chuck to come.

My Grade: A -

Alright, that's it for now ... check back soon for the LONDON recap, in which I'll mention my new fav British show, an oddball comedy by the name of ... THE MIGHTY BOOSH!

First Time Ever -- LiveBlog From LONDON~!

Right now, as I type this -- I'm in London!!!

So far I've: 

- Stayed up for like 36 hours so that I could adjust to London time.

- Had a spicy lunch at a place called Nandos

- Waded through throngs of people from all over the world at Portabello Market

- Cheked out Picasso, Rothko, Lichtenstien, etc. at the Tate Modern and walked over the Millenium Bridge on the River Thames

- Ate dinner at Zizzi's

- Had some traditional English breakfast here at the K+K George

- Shocked and amused my parents by taking them to the punk-rock capitol of the world, Camden Town, and showing them the home of Twenty Twenty Television, where I interned during my semester abroad.

- Made many jokes with my brother about such London Underground stops as Cockfosters and Goodge Street, and such pubs as Ye Old Cock.

- Revisited my old favorite lunch spot, the park and fountain at Russell Square.

- Saw the Rosetta Stone and other famous treasures whilst exploring the British Museum

- Ate lunch at Garfunkel's near the Gloucester Road tube stop.

- Explored Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Saw swans in the pond, British kids playing football / soccer, repeatedly tried my hand at various British accents and dialects. 

 - Roamed the halls of Harrod's. This time, no alarms went off when I entered (thank G0d). Ate some Gelato, drolled in the electronics section.

- Had dinner at Pizza by the Park, where I had some tasty food.

Alright, I'm exhausted and have to get up early tommorow for a tour of Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. Cheers!