2008 Fall TV Preview

I’m giddy with excitement over the new fall season. This year it’s a lot more about the returning shows rather than the new ones. Because of the strike, certain television shows have been absent from the schedule since last December. It’ll be like reconnecting with old friends. Okay that sounded way too addicted. Anyway, this fall there are only two new shows that I’m giving a fighting chance to. Yeah, two. The rest of the new stuff is coming this spring, like the Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. In any case, let's begin.

THE GOOD

The Premise: Two FBI agents deal with unexplained phenomenon or ‘fringe’ science. There’s also a government conspiracy behind it all. The Pedigree: JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Alias) Why I’ll Watch: Think of this show as a more graphic X-Files. I like Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek) although I hope he gets to be more sarcastic than incredulous. I also love the casting of Lance Reddick (The Wire, Lost), he commands every scene he’s in. The opening sequence of the pilot of episode was pretty grotesque and cool at the same time. I hope they can give us new stuff instead of recycled X-Files; it’ll be quite the challenge. Premieres: 9pm Tuesday, September 9 on FOX

The Premise: Henry is an average American suburbanite. Edward is a super spy. They both occupy the same body thanks to a science experiment causing split personalities. Their lives will soon overlap. The Pedigree: Jason Smilovic (Bionic Woman) and Christian Slater (Broken Arrow, True Romance, Heathers) Why I’ll Watch: Haven’t seen the pilot yet, but the premise seems interesting enough. I’ll forgive Smilovic for his involvement in Bionic Woman. I think this show will work well for Christian Slater. It does seem to have enough action to keep me interested. It’s basically Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but superspy style. We’ll see how it goes. Premieres: 10pm Monday, October 13 on NBC

THE "I DON'T KNOW" There are two other shows that I’m wary about but might give a chance this fall.

The Premise: Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell), a special science advisor to the US government helps to save people for the worst abuses of science. The Pedigree: Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI:, Cold Case, Amazing Race) Why I’m Divided: Bruckhemier does good work. The BBC version of this show is supposed to be good. It may be a good replacement for CSI: when Grissom leaves. BUT… It’s kind of like Numbers but with science and I got tired of Numbers after one season. Except for Sewell (Dark City, Knight’s Tale), I don’t recognize any of the cast. It also looks a little too serious. Haven’t seen the pilot yet so it may be too early to judge. Premieres: Thursday, Oct 9 at 10:00pm on CBS

The Premise: A girl who can read minds falls in with the vampire crowd. Vampires walk among the living because of some synthetic blood compound that is on the market. The Pedigree: It’s from Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty) Why I’m Divided: Alan Ball is a great visual artist. Anna Paquin is a fine actor. The audio mixing when Sookie (Paquin) is reading minds is fantastic. BUT… The content is a little too sexual. The southern accents may get annoying. I miss Angel. The pilot was missing some dream sequences that may or may not work. Premieres: Sunday, Sept.7 at 8:00pm on Movie Central (HBO)

THE BAD

And here’s why I’m not watching the following new shows: Life on Mars: Cop show in the 70’s? Pass. Worst Week: Constant humiliation? I got The Office. The Mentalist: Simon Baker is creepy. It’s a boring version of Psych. Gary Unmarried: Stale sitcom with Jay Mohr. Boring. The Ex List: It’s a chick show on Friday night. Pass. Knight Rider: The TV movie sucked. Kath & Kim: I hate Molly Shannon. Selma Blair looks too stupid. Crusoe: Didn’t read the book. Not watching Friday shows. Do Not Disturb: Jerry O’Connell in a sitcom. ‘Nuff said. 90210: Had enough teen soaps with Dawson and OC. I’m done.

THE OLD STUFF I know I’m a geek but I made a chart for my television watching this fall. It’s even colour coded. Mock me all you like.

Why I’m still watching these shows Simpsons (20th Season): It’s still funny. I defy you not to laugh. Family Guy (7th Season): Random but funny. Simpsons are better. American Dad (4th Season): It’s after Family Guy. It has a plot. Entourage (5th Season): I love behind-the-scenes Hollywood Amazing Race (13th Season): Only reality show worth watching Dexter (3rd Season): It’s humour is so dark, it’s creepy & addictive. Chuck (2nd Season): Love the clueless spy stuff. Adam Baldwin rocks. Heroes (3rd Season): They swear this will be better than season two. How I Met Your Mother (4th Season): Mother is revealed soon! 2½ Men (6th Season): Jake (the ½) is the funniest person on the show. Prison Break (4th Season): Sarah has her head back. How?! House (5th Season): Loved how they ended last season. Eli Stone (2nd Season): The characters grew on me pretty quickly. Pushing Daisies (2nd Season): I miss this show. More whimsy. Dirty Sexy Money (2nd Season): Loved the eccentric family. Want more. My Name is Earl (4th Season): Hope they improve since last season. 30 Rock (3rd Season): The wittiest writing on television. The Office (5th Season): The ultimate water-cooler show. So funny! Smallville (8th Season): Just waiting for it die. CSI: (9th Season): At least until Grissom leaves. Not sure after that.

So there's all things TV. Coming soon is a preview of the fall movies and the Emmys. Stay tuned.

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder is rated R for ‘pervasive’ language among other things. I never heard the word ‘pervasive’ used in a rating before. I thought it meant ‘a lot’ but checking out the thesaurus that comes with Microsoft Word, the following synonyms came up: ‘invasive’, ‘persistent’ and ‘all-encompassing’. Even those words are understatements when it comes to describing the content of Tropic Thunder. Although is would have been fun to read ‘Rated R for unrelenting, all-encompassing course language.’ There were more F-bombs than actual bombs in this war-action-comedy. And I would have really liked the film if I didn’t have to cringe at the rat-a-tat obscenity that filled each and every scene.

The premise of Tropic Thunder is what brought me to the theatre. Prima-donna actors think they’re being filmed when in reality they are in a dangerous predicament. There are loads of inside jokes and references, most are more overt than an average episode of Entourage, but still. Because Hollywood is under the microscope a lot more these days, Tropic Thunder is much more accessible than something like The Player. Matthew McConaughey does a great job of playing Stiller’s agent, Rick Peck, which is a lot harder since most agents are now compared to Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold from Entourage. The industry is held up to scrutiny but so are individual actors. Jack Black’s Fatties franchise is an easy mockery of Eddie Murphy and the Klumps from the Nutty Professor films. In one scene where Ben Stiller takes off a wig, removes some false teeth and begins to remove make-up is a perfect send-up of fellow star, Robert Downey’s Jr’s opening moments from his Oscar-nominated turn in Chaplin. Funny stuff. Also there are some fun parodies of war films like Platoon and Saving Private Ryan to name a few.

Another reason I went to see Tropic Thunder was to see Tom Cruise as a balding, obese studio executive. I expected a one-minute cameo, but he’s in a bunch of scenes. And the mouth on that guy! The language warning mostly applies to Cruise’s Les Grossman character who puts Magnolia’s Frank Mackey obscene-strewn mouth to shame. This over-the-top, hip-hop dancing, abusive character only works because it’s Tom Cruise playing him and no imagines him to act this way. What’s funny is that most people just see Cruise as an actor but he is currently an actual studio head who is running United Artists. Cruise does have some fun scenes but the language does get to you pretty quick.

Robert Downey Jr is having a great year. After his stellar work in Iron Man, he has a lot of fun as Kirk Lazarus, a white Award winner playing a black dude who stays in character ‘until he finishes the DVD commentary.’ Downey is almost unrecognizable and while being stereotypical still manages to be semi-authentic. Maybe it’s his lips. Ben Stiller and Jack Black on the other hand are boring. Stiller is in Zoolander/White Goodman mode as Tugg Speedman, the insecure action star. Been there, done that. Jack Black isn’t given much to work with. He has two or three funny lines but he’s just too slapsticky as the drug-addicted Jeff Portnoy. Brandon T Jackson plays it pretty one-note as rapper/actor Alpa Chino, but does get the product placement scenes. Actually, I enjoyed watching Jay Baruchel (Undeclared, Knocked Up) as Kevin, the only actor who actually went through the boot camp training. The cast works together well but I didn’t find myself caring about any one of them in particular. It doesn’t help that the Vietnam ‘bad guys’ are undefined and ruled by a ten year-old who loves dumb movies.

Speaking of dumb movies, most people are going to have a problem with the depiction of the mentally challenged in Tugg’s cringe-inducing Simple Jack. The fake movie is pretty awful but Downey’s character brings up a great point about how the mentally challenged are portrayed in film. I wished they had left it at that rather than making Stiller’s character act out scenes from the movie. It’s too bad because Tropic Thunder does such a good job of making faux films. The opening trailers are fantastic and remind me a little of the Grindhouse promos. They even went so far as to pick the proper studio that would release their fake films. I loved Kirk Lazarus’ arthouse flick. The voice-over. The kudos. The editing. Awesome.

I would say that the premise and Downey’s performance makes Tropic Thunder worthwhile, but more in a rental sort-of-way. Sure, there are some big budget explosions but they’ll be just as impressive on the small screen. If you are interested in seeing this film, make sure you don’t wait until it’s on network TV, cuz I don’t know what they’ll do with all the language. That’s a lot of bleeps. And just bear in mind, when I start noticing the language, it’s pretty bad. But if you want to learn some ‘colourful’ language, be my guest.

Pineapple Express

I really liked half of Pineapple Express. I don’t really know what to do with that half. Do I recommend a film where only half the movie works and the other half is a clunky mess? It’s a shame really. Not that the good half was genius or anything, I just found myself laughing more. The story is pretty simple. Dale (Seth Rogen) is a lazy pot-smoking process server that hangs out with Saul, his equally lazy drug dealer (James Franco). Funny. Dale sees Saul’s dealer (Gary Cole) kill someone, so they are on the run. Kinda funny. People get kidnapped and now they are off to rescue each other in high action fashion. Not funny. There were some funny lines throughout (Danny McBride’s Red has a great Daewoo comment) but the story goes nowhere. Maybe I’m just not used to Cheech & Chong filmmaking.

The best part of Pineapple Express is the chemistry between Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad) and James Franco (Spiderman, Flyboys). Their scenes in Saul’s apartment are full of stoner goodness. As I have probably said before (without looking up past reviews), I really like what Seth Rogen brings to the table. He always has these characters that are smart but are too lazy to use their intelligence, so he just ends up mocking others. I think most people are surprised by the humour of James Franco after seeing his annoying turn as Harry Osborne in the Spiderman series, but if you check out his early work in the Judd Apatow produced Freaks and Geeks, you’ll have a whole new frame of reference. I’ve been watching Freaks and Geeks again this summer and the camaraderie between Rogen and Franco is undeniable. Even when the movie adds the incredibly dim Red into the mix, it still works. I like how one critic called Red the McLovin of Pineapple Express. It's so true.

The ‘on the run’ portion of this film has its ups and downs. The pot-enhanced paranoia works well. I kind of wish they weren’t being chased at all but only thought they were. I know that plot device sounds close to Dave Foley’s The Wrong Man comedy, but I think it would have worked even better. You could still have many of the scenes. The leg through the police car windshield scene still works if Saul and Dale think they’re being chased by cops. It’s this real world danger that ultimately brings the movie down, in my opinion.

I know that writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were trying to mix stoner comedy with highly explosive action but I just don’t think it melded well. Some of the fights go over the top in a funny way but there is far too much pain going on. It would have worked better for me if Saul, Dale and Red had zero fighting capabilities but thought they were awesome and ended up getting beaten up. But then our ‘heroes’ would be dead and no one likes that to happen in a comedy. I just thought the ending fighting sequence dragged the film down. This is another Apatow comedy that goes twenty minutes too long. It’s a sad trend.

So I guess I can’t really recommend Pineapple Express as a film that needs to be watched in the theatre. Sure there are some action sequences but it’s not like it’s Michael Bay style. Maybe rent this one when it comes out on DVD. And don’t rent it for date night as Pineapple Express is definitely aimed way more at guys than girls. I’m also guessing those who smoke pot will enjoy this movie far more than I did. (I don’t do drugs, by the way.) I thought it was funny, just not that funny. But it’s probably better than Half Baked.

Step Brothers

I still don’t know what possessed me to watch Step Brothers. I think it was the couple of lines from the trailer that made me chuckle. Will Ferrell is burying John C Reilly in the front yard. Reilly whimpers, “Dad’s gonna wonder where I am!” Ferrell responds confidently, “He’ll never know!” I loved the line readings. It wasn’t in the movie. Thanks to all the ad-libs and improvisation, many of the funny lines in the trailer don’t make it to the final film. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love improv. I do improv. In more recent comedies, however, I’m getting the feeling that improv is trumping the actual storyline which leads to a messy, messy film full of funny lines but not much substance.

When it comes to movies, I’m usually good at suspending my disbelief. They saved Harvey Dent’s suit after it half-burned in the big explosion? Sure. Indiana Jones can survive an atomic bomb blast without any hearing impairment, radiation or physical pain? Why not? These two step brothers are forty years old and still live with their parents? Bullshit. The other two films are flights of fancy, Step Brothers is supposed to be real life. The two brothers are pushing forty but act like ten year olds with their bunk-bed construction, punching pumpkins and general cluelessness. Now if this behaviour was constant, you could maybe chalk it up to some mental disability. But wait, they also lace their dialogue with profanity that is more teenager-style, and enjoy ‘cooler’ things like drum sets and shark week. There’s no consistency. I’m also thinking that with all the television they watch, they must have seen what a successful job interview looks like at least once in their lifetime.

Now I will admit that it looks like Ferrell and Reilly are having a lot of fun. (The same kind of fun they had in their 'Green Team' sketch on funnyordie.com.) And there are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments. But there are a lot of dragged out lameness to get to the funny parts. There’s this great opera singing scene but it takes about fifteen minutes to get there in order for it to pay off. I hate to say this, because it seems to mostly apply to Will Ferrell’s work, but this movie would work so much better as shorter sketches on Saturday Night Live. The movie doesn’t gel.

I guess what disappoints me most is that Will Ferrell is better than this. He is great at making pompous characters who are a little slow and have no internal censor. Look at Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby. These are fun, fully fleshed out characters. Ferrell’s Brennan Huff is just plain annoying (not Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky annoying but still). Brennan is just loud and obnoxious. While I cared about Ron Burgundy and Ricky Bobby when tragedy befell them, I didn’t care one iota about the demise of Brennan or Reilly’s Dale. They get what they deserve. Ferrell needs to take a break. He needs to regain his Stranger Than Fiction status. I hear they are considering an Anchorman sequel that takes place in the eighties. That would work too. Ferrell is so much better than this. And John C Reilly? We get it, you can do comedy. I liked his stuff in Walk Hard and Ricky Bobby, but go back to smarter roles like your work in Chicago and Magnolia; those lovable schlubs who are Oscar contenders.

So yeah, I’m not recommending Step Brothers. Maybe watch it on TBS, when it comes out, if you want to see a couple of funny lines without paying for it. And one more thing concerning the male nudity in this film: in Forgetting Sarah Marshall – funny, in Step Brothers – not funny and unnecessary. Watch this film at your own risk of becoming stupider.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Maybe I should start off saying that I am an X-Files fan. I’m a casual fan, not an 'X-Phile' as some are dubbed. I also liked Mulder over Scully, because how many supernatural things do you have to experience before you start giving Mulder the benefit of the doubt? When it came to X-File episodes, there were three categories. The first was the mythology installments that told of alien conspiracies and government cover-ups. The second was the horror-style suspense episodes that were pretty dark and grisly. The third was the light-hearted mystery, which still dealt with supernatural occurrences but had plenty of humour to keep things from getting too serious. My favourite episodes fit in the third category, ones like “Hollywood AD”, “Bad Blood”, “Arcadia” and “Humbug”. Now ten years ago there was an X-Files movie that adhered to the first category called Fight the Future. It fit right in between Season 5 and Season 6. It dealt with aliens, governments, bees, and the Arctic. Now, we have X-Files: I Want to Believe. This one is of the suspense nature. Here’s hoping if they do another movie, it’ll be the third kind. It doesn’t look likely though considering the mere five people in the theatre with my dad and me as we watched the film.

I’m guessing if this movie came out a year after the series finale, it probably would have done better; maybe even get a Sex in the City-type response. Many people wonder why it took this long for the movie to come out; six years after the series ended is quite a long time in media years. Well, let’s just say there was some money disputes between 20th Century Fox and creator Chris Carter. Regardless, six years have past, even in X-Files years, and we are reunited with Mulder and Scully as a new case has popped up involving psychic powers and the visions of a ranting priest who is in a halfway house for pedophiles. Paranormal and religion: the cornerstone of many X-Files episodes. This film is a stand-alone. If you never watched X-Files, you might still enjoy the suspense thriller aspect and come to like the characters. For die-hard fans, there are a bunch of references to episodes past for you to delight in. But the best reason to watch X-Files: I Want to Believe is to reunite with Mulder and Scully. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson know their characters inside and out. They don’t miss a beat. And they know how to act. There’s no mugging for the camera or giving a wink to their audience, they are fully immersed in their roles. Seeing the chemistry between these two brings me back to the show, before Mulder left and Dogget took over.

My biggest problem with X-Files: I Want to Believe is that Chris Carter doesn’t use the size of a feature film to its full capacity. The movie looks too much like a television show. There are maybe three shots that use widescreen well and are too complicated to put into an hour-long drama. Funny enough, these are mostly snow scenes. Fight the Future used a bunch of snow as well. I guess Carter likes the stark white to contrast with the mostly under-exposed filming. This film is way too dark at times, both camera-wise and content-wise. I also didn’t find myself engrossed in the story. I wished it was a little lighter. I didn’t mind Billy Connolly (Fido, Lemony Snicket) as the psychic priest but Amanda Peet (Studio 60, Saving Silverman) and Xzibit (Pimp my Ride) as FBI agents were useless. I didn’t buy their performances at all. I was relieved to see an X-Files character of the past reemerge near the end of the film. Would have like to have seen him a bit earlier.

This film is definitely one to rent or check out on TV. Like I said, it just didn’t have the cinematic quality needed in a feature film. If you want to watch X-Files: I Want to Believe as a suspense/thriller, you’ll be pretty entertained. It would be nice to see some lighter stand-alone movies from X-Files franchise, since I do enjoy watching Mulder and Scully mix it up, but I have this feeling that their lack of box-office will thwart that idea. No big mystery there.