New comics 10/12

Cable & Deadpool #21 (Fabian Nicieza/Patrick Zircher, Marvel)
When the "next issue" blurb promises that the plot will start to make sense soon, you know you've got a problem. Nicieza's always had a weakness for these convoluted plot devices that end up being so far beside the point of the story he's trying to tell that they're almost irrelevant, and just because he makes tongue-in-cheek commentary about how confusing it all is doesn't excuse the fact that sometimes his plotting is incomprehensible. The dialogue is still fun, and it's nice to see Luke Cage and Iron Fist back in action together as they also acknowledge what Cage has been up to in New Avengers, but my patience is growing thin with the seriously impenetrable plotting.

Ex Machina #15 (Brian K. Vaughan/Tony Harris, DC/Wildstorm)
A nice switching of gears with this new storyline, which takes Mitchell out of New York and on the road, and deals with some issues from his past. This is low on political content for once, but that's fine since it ends with a nice surprise and looks like it's going to explore some new avenues in Mitchell's life and history.

Fables #42 (Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham, DC/Vertigo)
Willingham starts a new arc dealing with Middle Eastern fables coming to Fabletown, and he treads some interesting waters, politically speaking, laying it all on the line with regards to his portrayal of the Middle Eastern characters as barbaric, intolerant and xenophobic. Now, I know from interviewing him that Willingham is a political conservative, but I don't necessarily see this as an effort to push an agenda. I think it's obvious that the European fables and the Middle Eastern fables would have very different world views, and to pretend that they'd all just get along would be sort of disingenuous. The differing viewpoints of the sets of characters set up an interesting conflict that is miles away from the focus of the last few issues, and makes for a refreshing change. And Willingham doesn't skimp on developing ongoing subplots with characters we've already come to know and love, including a surprise at the end of the issue with Beauty and Prince Charming. At the same time, I think that some people may see this story as Willingham's effort to show how the culture of Islam is inherently hostile to the West, and that may come off as reactionary or racist. I don't have a problem with Willingham advancing his political views in the pages of this book, nor do I think he'll throw his storytelling skills out the window to make his points, but I do find it interesting that he's just jumped right into this quagmire with both feet.

Gravity #5 (Sean McKeever/Mike Norton, Marvel)
Although I got a little bored around the middle of this series, overall it turned out to be a very well-executed superhero story, and McKeever wraps things up nicely in a way that doesn't just trot out familiar cliches but still feels like a very archetypal superhero origin story. He tackles not only the idea of what it takes to be a hero, but also the idea of what it takes to be a hero in a world where there are already so many other heroes, something that only now with all its years of history is the Marvel universe able to address. I think sales on this series have been pretty weak, but I'd love to see more of Gravity's adventures, or even a team-up with some other young heroes in the pages of a new New Warriors series (either by McKeever or Zeb Wells, who's been handling the Warriors well lately). That doesn't seem too likely, though.

House of M #7 (Brian Michael Bendis/Olivier Coipel, Marvel)
Holy shit! Something happens! And it's sort of unexpected! Or maybe I just hadn't been paying enough attention, but I thought the revelation that Quicksilver was behind the Scarlet Witch's reality-warping was a bit of a surprise and a nice thematic touch. Somewhere in here is an interesting story about the dysfunctional dynamics of Magneto's family, but it's all just being used to further an editorial agenda and not tell a story, and it's not even an agenda that interests me. This issue has the Scarlet Witch declaring "No more mutants!" and the result of this storyline (as has been predicted for months) will be drastically reducing the number of mutants in the Marvel universe. I'm not sure I needed to buy eight overpriced issues of this incredibly padded story to get to that simple result, but whatever. What bothers me more is this mentality that Joe Quesada has explained that this is necessary to "fix" the Marvel universe, that having all these mutants around is a bad thing and what's really needed is to go back to the way things were 30 years ago. His logic is specious (as Paul O'Brien helpfully elucidates), and I hate this current trend of reversing any evolution that has come along in the past decade or two with regards to superhero universes (DC is doing the same thing with Infinite Crisis, which I will not be buying). Grant Morrison did a lot of really interesting stuff with the idea that mutants were a widespread minority, and books like District X and Muties and Madrox explored, to varying degrees of success, the evolution of mutant culture. The idea of this superpowered minority that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced 40 years ago has grown and changed in the way a real minority group might, and to hit a big reset button to send it back to the start just seems to me reactionary, misguided and, frankly, desperate, like an admission that they don't know how to handle these new ideas and thus have to go back to the status quo from when the characters were first introduced. It's just another example of how superhero comics are resistant to change, so it shouldn't really surprise me, but nevertheless, I am annoyed. Plus the story sucks.

The Middle Man #3 (Javier Grillo-Marxuach/Les McClaine, Viper)
It's still odd to me that this is a four-issue mini-series, since there's no overarching story. As an ongoing, this makes a fine third issue, but I have no idea how things are going to wrap up satisfactorily next issue. Still, fun dialogue, eye-catching, kinetic art, and if it were an ongoing, I'd keep picking it up.

Y the Last Man #38 (Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra, DC/Vertigo)
Nothing quite compares to last issue's top-notch cliffhanger, but one thing that Vaughan always does best is takes those shock moments and really deals with their consequences, so that's what this issue is all about. I love how this book is continually evolving, and it looks like this storyline will be opening up all sorts of new avenues for future issues.

Am I Jamie Kennedy's next victim?

I received an e-mail earlier this week from a Michael Addis, who's making a documentary about Jamie Kennedy called Heckler. According to Addis, he's following Kennedy on his current stand-up comedy tour, documenting both the comedian's live performances and the way he's dealt with negative criticism about his work. He asked if I'd be willing to do a short on-camera interview for the movie about the role of the critic, while Kennedy is in town playing two shows at Harrah's. I assume Addis contacted me because of my extremely negative review of Malibu's Most Wanted, in which I compared Kennedy to Pauly Shore (Addis, perhaps not coincidentally, was a producer on Shore's recent reality show Minding the Store).

I am always happy to whore myself out for free publicity, so at first I jumped at the chance to appear. I still plan to do it, but, remembering Kennedy's old WB hidden camera show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, I'm starting to wonder if I and other critics who agree to appear are going to become the butts of jokes. I've seen enough episodes of The Daily Show to know how easy it is to use interview footage to mock someone. It's clear to me that Addis is a legitimate filmmaker, and a post on the official message board of Kennedy's site indicates that a documentary really is being made, so that's encouraging. And as long as I'm willing to laugh at myself, I suppose there's no harm in opening up to the risk of ridicule. It couldn't be much worse than having to sit through another Jamie Kennedy movie.

(Of course, since I e-mailed Addis several days ago agreeing to appear in the movie as long as it wasn't a prank, I've yet to hear back from him. Hmmmm.)

Movies opening this week

Domino (Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Lucy Liu, dir. Tony Scott)
I expected nothing less than a total train wreck from this, and it delivered. I don't know what Tony Scott's problem is lately that makes him think that cutting eight times a second and treating every frame with overexposure or annoying filters or special effects is a good idea. This movie looks exactly like Man on Fire, which is to say that it appears to have been directed by a 12-year-old with ADD. At least this has a sort of po-mo metafictional story that could theoretically be served by such an approach, unlike Man on Fire's straightforward revenge tale. I think the idea of taking a real person (bounty hunter Domino Harvey) and building a fictional story around them is interesting, and this movie could have been a really smart examination of the intersection between fact and fiction, and the way that people create myths about themselves to the point where even they don't know what's true and what's not. My friend pointed out after the screening that Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was a movie that succeeded in this way, so that you didn't mind that much of what was in the movie probably never really happened, since it all contributed to the portrait of Chuck Barris's mental state, the way he saw himself and the way he wanted others to see him. I think it's possible that if screenwriter Richard Kelly (the writer-director of Donnie Darko) had directed as well, it could have gone far enough in the surreal direction to really make a comment on personal and media-created myths. Instead it's just another annoyingly convoluted heist thriller that doesn't have the advantage of being either true or interesting. And it hurts your eyes to watch it. Wide release

Elizabethtown (Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, dir. Cameron Crowe)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I sort of feel sorry for Cameron Crowe, because this movie is obviously very personal for him, and it's been getting some really bad reviews, including some that I think are harsher than necessary. This is not a great film, and it doesn't stack up to most of Crowe's previous work (although anything is better than Vanilla Sky), but it has a lot of really good moments that work well and the romance at the heart of it is a success, I think. It just has way too much other stuff that doesn't work at all. I think this movie could have used a complete overhaul at the script stage, taking out maybe a third of the story and fashioning it into a leaner, more focused (and thus more affecting) film. Even so, I still kind of like it. Maybe I identify with Cameron Crowe too much. Wide release

Weekend viewing

The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956)
The last of the trio of movies I'll be discussing at my film series for the Vegas Valley Book Festival (October 17-19 at 7 p.m. at the Winchester Cultural Center! Come watch me make a fool of myself!) and the one I enjoyed the most, mainly because it wasn't about a boxer. The main character is instead a washed-up sports reporter (played by Humphrey Bogart in his last role) who gets involved in the corrupt management of a naive South American fighter. It's dark and cynical, although it does have that redemption at the end, and is more about betrayal and deceit than it is about boxing (there are only a couple of fights that are shown at any length). I still think boxing movies are not my cup of tea, but we'll see if I can find something intelligent to say to make up for that fact at the screenings.

New comics 10/5

Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan #1 (Zeb Wells/Seth Fisher, Marvel)
I've seen samples of Fisher's art on projects he's done for DC with Green Lantern and Batman, and it's always looked really impressive and unique, but I've never picked up any of the comics. I like Wells's writing on the new New Warriors series, so I figured this was worth a shot. The story is mostly just an excuse for Fisher to draw really weird creatures, but his art is incredibly detailed and amazingly creative, and it's worth the price just to look at it. Wells does glance off of some interesting themes, including tying the decline of giant monster comics and the concomitant rise of superhero comics to the post-WWII period in Japan, and actually making it work as an allegory for East/West relations. But mostly it's about big, strange monsters, and it does a good job with that. On the other hand, Paul O'Brien makes a good point about the price and the obtrusive ads. It might be best to wait for the trade, although since I've already bought one issue of four, I'll probably just buy the rest.

Fell #2 (Warren Ellis/Ben Templesmith, Image)
Another excellent issue, with a nice done-in-one story with roots in real events, and a continued building of characters. Ellis packs more story into his 16 pages than most comics get in two issues. And the back-pages essay is informative too. Rapidly becoming one of my favorite series.


Powers #13 (Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Avon Oeming, Marvel/Icon)
A new story arc, and it's a real mystery, meaning that it's actually sort of confusing and just jumps right into things. It seems like Bendis is putting some of the ongoing issues (Deena's powers, the new Retro Girl, although she's on the cover for some reason) on the backburner for now, which is fine as long as the mystery remains interesting and he gets back to them eventually.

Spellgame #1 (Dan Mishkin/Ramon Perez, Speakeasy)
I admit, I only picked this up on a whim because it involved magic and Las Vegas, but it was a nice little read. I've heard good things about Mishkin's writing but never read any of it before, and I assume Perez is a newcomer. The story was a little disjointed but intriguing enough for me to want to see what happens next (especially the cool cliffhanger), and Perez's art (he does pencils, inks and colors) was pretty eye-catching, although his storytelling was at times confusing. I'll at least pick up one more issue to give it a shot.

Movies opening this week

In Her Shoes (Cameron Diaz, Toni Colette, Shirley MacLaine, dir. Curtis Hanson)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
What saddens me most about this movie is that Curtis Hanson demonstrated such a nuanced understanding of human interaction in Wonder Boys, which I think is sorely underrated, and this time around he just goes for the same faux female empowerment bullshit that mars most movies about women bonding (whether, sadly, they are written/directed by men or women). This is not quite as bad as, say, Something's Gotta Give, but it similarly mistakes a few references to shoes and sisterhood for a deep statement about the ways that women relate to each other, and never earns a single one of the tears that it sheds. Wide release

Proof (Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, dir. John Madden)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
As I said to a colleague, this is a wet blanket of a movie. Not horrible, and at times fairly effective, but overall it just kind of sits there lifelessly. And Gwyneth Paltrow really has never given a worse performance. Opened limited Sept. 16; in Las Vegas this week

Thumbsucker (Lou Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kelli Garner, dir. Mike Mills)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Not that this is particularly relevant, but for a very long time I was convinced that this film was directed by R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, rather than graphic artist and music video director Mike Mills. Somewhere in some report on Sundance, I read that it was R.E.M.'s Mills, and in all the reviews I read when the film started to be released, I always wondered why the critics never mentioned Mills' musical background, instead only mentioning his music video directing (which I assumed, erroneously, that he had done for R.E.M.). Thankfully I was finally disabused of this notion before writing my own review, or I would have come off as a moron, much like whoever wrote that Sundance piece that I can no longer recall. Anyway, I really liked this movie despite the fact that it was not directed by a member of R.E.M. (which I think might make for a good movie). Opened limited Sept. 16; in Las Vegas this week

Waiting (Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long, Anna Faris, dir. Rob McKittrick)
I will say in my feeble defense that a friend of mine cajoled me into going to this screening, and that it was hard to tell from the trailers whether it would be cleverly vulgar or just vile. It definitely ended up being just vile and repugnant and not even funny in the least, although everyone else at the screening seemed to think it was hilarious. It's a bad rip-off of Office Space (which I think is way overrated anyway) and Clerks, directed like McKittrick has never used a camera before, and full of half-assed characterizations that serve only to get the movie to its next repulsive joke. Clerks was great because it placed its vulgarity in the context of genuine twentysomething ennui; this film gives lip service to that but can't even bother to follow through on the plot's extremely modest ambitions. It also features the odious Ryan Reynolds, who might be my least favorite actor currently working, in all his odious glory, oozing smarm out of every pore and delivering his lines like they're golden gifts from joke-writing gods. The restaurant critic in my office saw this movie because of its food-service connection, and went on at length about how reprehensible it was. He said it should be shown as a training film for al-Qaida. I think that tells you all you need to know. Wide release

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (voices of Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, dir. Nick Park & Steve Box)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I love Wallace and Gromit. I saw The Wrong Trousers in a filmmaking class in high school, and since then I've had a soft spot for them. They are perhaps the only characters in recent years to catch on solely through short films, a lost artform. Now that they finally have a feature, I hope they'll become the superstars they deserve to be. That Animated Feature Oscar is locked up right here. Wide release

Weekend viewing

Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)
I've been asked to moderate a three-part film series on boxing movies at the Vegas Valley Book Festival on October 17-19 (7 p.m. each night at the Winchester Cultural Center, if you're in town with nothing to do), so I'm watching the movies (which, to be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of before) to prepare and hopefully not come off as completely clueless. They're all about fixed fights, and this one is your typical classy old Hollywood melodrama (with a number of Oscar nominations), about the rise and fall of a boxing champ. It's all well done if predictable, but it didn't really wow me. Honestly, I've never been that fascinated with boxing movies, and they all seem to have very similar plots, which makes it hard for me to get excited about seeing more.

Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenabar, 1997)
I did not at all care for Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's remake of this movie, but I like Amenabar so I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. This is indeed better than Vanilla Sky, but since it has the same plot it still suffers from the monumentally stupid ending, which commits one of the cardinal sins of twist endings by basically disregarding everything that's come before it. Still, Amenabar does a better job at setting up the creepiness of the premise, and Penelope Cruz is very good, better than she was in Crowe's version. I didn't get a feeling of annoyance until the ending, and despite what to me is a cop-out, I found myself liking the movie, which is more than I can say for Vanilla Sky.

The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 1949)
The second of the boxing movies I'm to talk about. I found this more interesting than the first, because it's much grittier and simpler and more realistic. Although there's a sort of optimistic note at the end, this is a very dark and cynical movie about boxing and corruption, and it plays out in real time over 72 minutes. That gimmick creates a real tension and dread, and Wise only shows a single boxing match in the whole movie, but it too unfolds in real time, giving you all the gory and painful details, both emotional and physical. Boxing cliches abound, but it does more with them than most movies.

New comics 9/28

Cable & Deadpool #20 (Fabian Nicieza/Patrick Zircher, Marvel)
After last month's serious, talky interlude, Nicieza gets back to what he does best, which is: goofy dialogue, obscure Marvel characters and a quest for a random technobabble thingy. Which is to say, it's another great issue, with some funny quips from Deadpool and a good use of the B.A.D. Girls, who are exactly what they sound like. Nicieza also builds on the ongoing story of Cable running his weird floating island paradise, and I like that he's not dropping it and that he's retaining Irene Merryweather, who's always been one of Cable's most interesting supporting characters, as Cable's de facto conscience. The constant jokes about how no one reads this book are a little distressing, but it seems to be safe for a little while at least.

Jack Cross #2 (Warren Ellis/Gary Erskine, DC)
I'm not quite sure where Ellis is going with this. The primary story, about espionage between the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security, strikes me as a warmed-over 24 plotline, but the character of Jack, with his inherent contradictions, remains interesting, and I trust that larger themes will emerge to give the book a little direction. But especially after the strong debut of Fell, this is looking like the weakest of Ellis's new ongoing series. I'm also not sure that Erskine's art, which is sort of static, is best for an action-oriented book, and the complete lack of sound effects is oddly jarring in scenes with gunplay. This makes it sound like I don't like the book, but it's still got promise, and I trust Ellis enough to overlook the shortcomings for now.

New Warriors #4 (Zeb Wells/Skottie Young, Marvel)
We get our first cliffhanger of the series, which is typically bizarre (super-villains who look like famous historical figures!), as well as the introduction of a new Warrior, which seems a little late in the mini-series to be doing. Once again, it just contributes to the vibe that this would be an ongoing series, and I remain disappointed that it's not, although I'll hold out hope that Marvel has something planned for some version of the Warriors beyond the two more issues of this series.

Revelations #2 (Paul Jenkins/Humberto Ramos, Dark Horse)
I was iffy on the first issue, but the mystery definitely grabbed me this time, and my feeling that this plays like a good mystery novel is borne out. It doesn't look like it's going to veer off into the weirdly supernatural, and I like that, as well as the lead character, who is your typical crotchety detective from a million books and movies, but Jenkins writes him well. I'm still not too keen on Ramos's art, which again makes everyone looks like children and/or people with growth disorders, but it's not going to keep me from the intriguing story.

The Sentry #1 (Paul Jenkins/John Romita Jr., Marvel)
It's weird how it's been years since I've been interested in anything Paul Jenkins has written and now this week I'm buying two comics by him. I wasn't too impressed with this one, though, despite having enjoyed the first Sentry mini-series that Jenkins and Jae Lee did a few years back. I love Lee's art, though, which made up for the shortcomings in the old series, and I'd forgotten how much I can't stand Romita's blocky, ugly art (which everyone seems to love for some reason), so that probably just highlighted the shortcomings in this series. It's okay, but it relies a lot on stuff that was going on in New Avengers, which I don't read, and seemed only to highlight how hard it is to sustain the Sentry concept in the wider Marvel universe context. It might get better, but it's not worth Romita's unappealing art and seven more issues for me to find out if it will.

Silent Dragon #3 (Andy Diggle/Leinil Yu, DC/Wildstorm)
This series is really growing on me, to the point where I thought this issue was great, and the combo of the yakuza stuff and the sci-fi stuff is really clicking. It just makes me even more disappointed that after drawing all the crazy, off-the-wall stuff in this series (and his art here is excellent, kinetic and creative and eye-catching), Yu has signed an exclusive with Marvel so he can draw...Hulk and Wolverine. Sigh. This is a whole separate issue (about which I think there is a post brewing), but it's relevant here, I think. At least there are three more issues of this to enjoy.

Young Avengers #7 (Allan Heinberg/Andrea DiVito, Marvel)
After the first arc, I was kind of hoping the team would have some adventures of their own that didn't depend on the Avengers showing up, but I guess they are trying to keep the books tied together. I don't necessarily mind, since it makes sense in light of last issue, and I'm glad to see Heinberg sticking to his continuity. He also has another solid cliffhanger at the end of this issue, which continues his tactic of peeling back layers and revealing new things about characters that appeared so one-dimensional at first. DiVito's fill-in art is okay, but it's sort of generic, and I miss Jim Cheung.

Twin Peaks

After I finished watching my DVDs of the first three seasons of Felicity (season four was a disappointment and is not worth revisiting), I created a separate profile on Netflix for an entity I named "TV Bell" and put a bunch of TV show DVDs in the queue. I figure since I try to expand my knowledge of film to make myself a better film critic, it makes sense to do the same thing with TV. First up was the first season of Twin Peaks, which is only seven episodes long (something I didn't quite realize at first). Well, it's actually eight episodes, but due to some weird legal issues with broadcast rights, they can't include the pilot on the DVD. Lucky for me, I had actually seen a bootleg DVD of it a while back (it's a long story), so I had at least a vague idea of what was going on. Which, considering that the show is an intricate murder mystery (or at least started out that way only to eventually fall apart, if you believe the critics), was a good thing. The Television Without Pity recaps also helped.

Although I definitely enjoyed the season's worth of episodes, I'm not so sure that the mystery was the main appeal. Unlike, say, Veronica Mars, there isn't a real sense of urgency about solving the case, nor is there a sense that there is a big picture and that each piece of evidence is fitting into a larger puzzle. Again, from what I've read, by the time they get around to revealing who killed Laura Palmer, the show has kind of lost its way. It already seems like they're making things up as they go along, but the ride was entertaining in a very David Lynch-ian kind of way. There's a lot of humor on this show, of the off-kilter, random sort, and that was probably what I liked best about it. You really never know what's going to happen, and when all sorts of bizarre things go on, the characters just take it all in stride like it's an everyday occurrence. I suppose that's a hallmark of most of Lynch's work.

Kyle MacLachlan is perfect as the weirdly perky Agent Cooper, and Sherilyn Fenn is incredibly seductive as Audrey Horne, and it's amazing how many strong and sexy female actors were on this show (Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Madchen Amick) who went on to do basically nothing and the inert Lara Flynn Boyle was the one who became a semi-star. I guess she's not really that bad, but she's certainly the least notable woman in the ensemble cast. Overall, I was a little disappointed in the show so far, expecting something a little weirder and a little more engaging. But it was entertaining enough that I'll rent season two (which is a full 22 episodes) when it's released on DVD some time next year, if only to find out who killed Laura and to see the show descend into the train wreck it supposedly became.

Next up: The Prisoner.

Movies opening this week

A History of Violence (Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, dir. David Cronenberg)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I love David Cronenberg, and while it's nice to see him getting all sorts of critical and media attention for this film (which is indeed very, very good), I worry that it'll set him up for failure, since most of his films aren't nearly as straightforward or restrained. Of course, Cronenberg's built a career on being stubborn and contrarian, so if the success of this movie affords him a nice budget to make whatever he wants next, and he goes off and does some non-linear movie about exciting new orifices, it won't exactly be a surprise. And it's not like he's all of a sudden going to sell out, which is a good thing. Most likely, this will be a blip in his career, and he'll go back to making weird, demented movies that almost no one sees. Which is cool with me. Opened limited Sept. 23; wide release this week

Into the Blue (Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, dir. John Stockwell)
I have to admit, I really liked John Stockwell's last movie, Blue Crush, and had a certain affection for the one he did before that, Crazy/Beautiful, as well. I've actually got his movie Cheaters in my Netflix queue right now. In Blue Crush and Crazy/Beautiful, Stockwell demonstrated a great visual style informed by glossy modern magazine photography and an empathy for young people that transformed sort of stock teen movies into affecting and affectionate stories with great entertainment value. So I found myself in the strange position of looking forward to a thriller starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba, but it ended up being a disappointment. Stockwell's visual sense is completely intact - the movie looks amazing, and not just the gorgeous scenery of the Bahamas and the hot stars, but also the way he tells the story with color and innovative camera angles. But it just can't overcome the massively stupid script and awful acting. There's an interesting movie in here that would play to Stockwell's strengths, just something casual and fun about young divers/treasure hunters in the Bahamas, and the first 45 minutes or so shows signs of that. But all the thriller stuff is beyond lame, and drags on forever. Scott Caan is incredibly grating and if I heard him say "cheddar" one more time I was going to scream. Stockwell's previous movies really walked a fine line to great success, and this time he's just fallen right off it. Wide release

Serenity (Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Summer Glau, Chiwetel Ejiofor, dir. Joss Whedon)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I'm glad to see that this is getting good reviews, because while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was also a fan of Firefly, and it was hard for me to tell if critics who never saw the TV show would like it. I always thought Firefly was kind of overrated by its rabid fans, and the movie grabbed me more than the TV show ever did. It's just a fun space adventure with Whedon's typical sharp dialogue, and I hope it succeeds at the box office because I'd like Whedon to get the chance to keep making movies. Seth Stevenson argues in Slate that Whedon is better suited to TV because he's so good at serial storytelling (which is true, and one reason why he's done well in comics), but given that he's decided to dedicate himself to film for the foreseeable future, it's nice to see that he's off to such a good start. Wide release

New comics 9/21

The Middle Man #2 (Javier Grillo-Marxuach/Les McClaine, Viper)
This was out a few weeks ago but I just now got my hands on it. Grillo-Marxuach's story is a fun and light action-adventure, complemented well by McClaine's clean, impressive cartoony art. It combines elements of stuff like Men in Black, Danger Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it does so in a fast-paced, entertaining way with clever dialogue, so I'm happy. It's only a mini-series, but this issue feels like a set-up for ongoing adventures, and I'd be happy to see it keep going beyond four issues.

Runaways #8 (Brian K. Vaughan/Takeshi Miyazawa, Marvel)
I know I complained that the first arc was dragged out too long, and I was happy last issue to see that this was just a two-parter, but this issue wraps things up way too quickly. The conflict goes through several different stages that feel rushed, and the ending makes it seem like Vaughan's in a hurry to get Karolina out of the book, which I think is a mistake anyway. The ideas behind this story are interesting, but the hurried execution (especially when half of the previous issue was devoted to an unrelated matter) is disappointing. I trust that Vaughan is preparing for potential future stories, so we'll see Karolina again, but this was still a weak issue.

Movies opening this week

The Baxter (Michael Showalter, Michelle Williams, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Theroux, dir. Michael Showalter)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
This movie has gotten some pretty bad reviews, but I found it perfectly charming and enjoyable. Not great, no, and probably with the potential to be better than it is, but not worth such a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's far too likeable for that. It's also got a great performance from Michelle Williams, who has made by far the smartest career choices of any Dawson's Creek alum. Take a look at her IMDb listing, and all she's done post-Dawson's has been challenging, often obscure indie movies. Hell, the only crappy mainstream thing she did even during the show was Halloween: H20, and that was seven years ago. Granted, some of those indie movies turned out to be lame, but she's clearly constantly taking chances and pushing herself; the roles also span a number of different types. It seems like it's paid off, too, since she's got a big role in one of this year's prime Oscar-bait movies (Brokeback Mountain), and is already receiving awards buzz for it. Meanwhile, Katie Holmes's big career move involves dating an insane megalomaniac. Opened limited Aug. 26; in Las Vegas this week

Corpse Bride (Voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, dir. Tim Burton & Mike Johnson)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I really love Tim Burton, so I had high hopes for this movie and was a little disappointed. It's very Tim Burton-y, but it sometimes feels like he's getting dangerously close to self-parody, phoning it in by just falling back on all his familar motifs. I doubt it helped that he was trying to direct two movies at once. It does look great, though, and I sort of feel like a hypocrite for complaining in my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory review that Burton ought to do something original, and then complaining when he films an original story that it's not exciting enough. But doing a film that isn't based on source material isn't enough; what I want is for Burton to break new ground, to be original, while still retaining what makes him Burton. Maybe my standards are too high. Opened limited Sept. 16; wide release this week

Flightplan (Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, dir. Robert Schwentke)
I thought this was a really effective thriller for about an hour, when you didn't know what was going on and Schwentke was swooping his camera all over the gigantic double-decker plane, really evoking the frustration and paranoia of Jodie Foster's character. And she does a good job with it, too, playing a slightly less fierce version of her character from Panic Room (which was a much better movie). But once the pieces fall into place and the plot is revealed, the whole thing goes downhill very quickly, and I'm not sure if the well-executed suspense of the early part of the movie makes up for the stupid action cliches of the last part. Although, I'm not really sure what sort of explanation would have lived up to the suspense. I thought Red Eye was better because they didn't make a big deal about piling on twists; they just let the action speak for itself. But it wasn't like the plot of Red Eye was brilliant. It was just enough to facilitate the suspense, which was really effective. In Flightplan, the writers seem to think they have this awesome twist, when really all they have is a building of tension. Jeremiah Kipp makes an interesting point in his review in Slant: He says that this is a story that couldn't possibly have a satisfying outcome. And in a way he's right; the script writes itself into a corner building up suspense, and only sets itself up for failure. That's why Red Eye worked: There was no twist. The bad guy showed up, stated his motive and acted on it. We weren't sitting around waiting to find out what the big secret was. We were just caught up in identifying with Rachel McAdams. On a completely different note, it was quite serendipitous that I just saw The Lady Vanishes a couple of weeks ago, since this has a very similar plot, right down to the gimmick of the missing person writing something in mist on the window. The Lady Vanishes also had a nonsensical reveal, but at least it remained entertaining while bouncing through inane twists. Wide release

Summer TV wrap-up

The 4400 (USA)
This remains a guilty pleasure for me, and something I might not watch if it were on during the regular season. But despite the sometimes wooden dialogue and acting and often predictable plotting, the season wrapped up on a high note, proving that the producers did have some cards left up their sleeves even after revealing so much about the 4400 in last year's mini-series. I even almost believe that they have a well thought-out plan, although I'm not sure I'm ready to grant them that yet. The alternate reality episode was a highlight, even if it was a gimmick straight out of Star Trek. I liked that they let it have consequences rather than just returning everything to normal at the end. The finale, too, was satisfying, wrapping up a number of long-running plotlines while opening up new avenues to explore next season (which I definitely plan to watch).

Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi)
There's still one more episode to go in the mini-season (new episodes resume in January), but I'm throwing it in anyway. I started watching this because of glowing reviews and recommendations from friends, and I've found it to be interesting and involving, if not quite the brilliant drama some critics make it out to be. It took me a few episodes to get my bearings on the large cast of characters, and I'm sure there are nuances from the first season that I'm still not familiar with. But I feel like I know what's going on now, and a lot of it is very complex and layered. I like the show's seriousness, and I like that they are willing to take risks and kill off important characters or make big changes. Sometimes, like The 4400, it ends up with cheesy sci-fi cliches, but it more often than not avoids them. I'm glad to see two of the driving forces behind one of my favorite sci-fi series, Deep Space Nine, heading up interesting sci-fi dramas these days (Ronald D. Moore on Battlestar, and Ira Steven Behr on The 4400). And with all the quickie sci-fi cash-ins on the networks this fall, it's also nice to see cable taking the time to get it right, and not just jumping on a bandwagon.

The Closer (TNT)
In my mid-summer assessment, I named this one of my favorite shows on TV, and it probably still is, although, as I suspected, the police procedural nature of the show eventually started to bore me. But, also as I suspected, the dialogue, characterization and overall visual style remained top-notch, and this is still one of the most well-written shows on TV. I usually dislike procedurals for their continuity-free perp-of-the-week formats, but this show has kept up a nice balance, focusing on a different crime each week but building character development and even an overall plot arc into the season. I actually worry a little that they've allowed too much change, since the finale was really a complete turnaround from the pilot, and if her entire squad now loves her, I'm not sure what conflict is left for Brenda to face. Still, the evolution of the characters into a unified team has been a pleasure to watch, and I'm sure there will be some interesting new antagonists for next season.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)
This one was quite the surprise, as early ads made it look like a dumb sitcom. It turned out to be way better than the overhyped eating disorder "comedy" Starved, which was pretty vulgar and annoying. This is vulgar and brilliant, with Seinfeld-ian characters who have no redeeming qualities but are lovable nonetheless, and storylines that push boundaries without being self-consciously "edgy" (like Starved). It's also absolutely hilarious. Ratings were pretty weak, even for FX, but I hope they take a chance and give the show a second season, especially since this entire season only lasted for seven episodes.

Rescue Me (FX)
I was lukewarm on this show coming out of last season and into this season, but it picked up near the middle for several episodes and then mostly fizzled out toward the end. The finale was very good, though, even if a lot of the storylines were tied up in very predictable ways. It sometimes seems like they keep writing themselves into corners on this show, and there were a number of storylines this season that just kind of faded out without any resolution. I also wonder if any time they get stuck they just decide to kill someone off; the death of Connor felt especially contrived, even if the aftermath was handled very well. I find myself in exactly the same position on this show as I was after last season: I don't like it nearly as much as many critics, but the good outweighs the bad enough that I'll tune in again for another season.

Emmys

Despite what I said back when I talked about the nominations, I did end up watching the entire Emmy telecast. Or, I was at least half-watching while doing other things, which is as much attention as something like this possibly deserves. I've long since learned not to put stock in awards shows, so various upsets and injustices don't really bother me. I was happy about a number of things, including Lost's win for best drama, J.J. Abrams' win for directing the Lost pilot, William Shatner and James Spader's wins for Boston Legal, the relative low number of wins for Desperate Housewives in categories it doesn't belong in, deserved wins for The Daily Show, and writing wins for Arrested Development and House, two shows I don't watch but definitely respect. I'm not even that annoyed at all the undeserved wins for Everybody Loves Raymond, since I find it charming and amusing enough that the obligatory valedictory awards don't upset me. I'll be far madder if Will & Grace cleans up next year for its final season (especially since there are several new shows premiering this month that should be able to liven up the anemic comedy categories).

As for the show itself, it was your typical bloated awards show (although it did come in on time), full of awkward moments and lame jokes and long, pointless segments. The "Emmy Idol" bit was particularly awful, though, as amusing as it was to see Donald Trump in overalls and to hear the Star Trek theme belted out by an opera singer (shame they didn't use the lyrics). And the opening number with Earth Wind & Fire and the Black Eyed Peas singing about the past TV season was one of the most painful things I've ever seen on any awards show. I love Ellen DeGeneres, but most of her segments were really flat, and only her monologue had any real good jokes in it. Still, not any worse on the whole than the Oscars, as long as you don't take these sort of things too seriously (and who does, besides the nominees?).

New comics 9/14

Desolation Jones #3 (Warren Ellis/J.H. Williams III, DC/Wildstorm)
This is a lot more straightforward than the last two issues, and it makes for a stronger story without all the confusing plot threads to keep track of. Ellis shows us a more sympathetic side of the lead character, and Williams really shows off some of the daring artwork that he showcased for so long on Promethea. Only a small part of the storyline's overall mystery is solved in this issue, though, so while it was a nice break, next time we'll no doubt be back to the dense and confusing main plot.

Fables #41 (Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham, DC/Vertigo)
Willingham wraps up the "Homelands" story in a very satisfying fashion, offering up an intriguing twist and some great moral ambiguity, as well as refusing to tie up everything in a neat bow. Now that we know who the Adversary is, the series has a whole new driving force, but solving the mystery in no way takes away from its central appeal. I hope that Willingham will take some time to tell different sorts of stories before getting back to the battle with the Adversary, which certainly has plenty of potential for more interesting material in the future.

Gravity #4 (Sean McKeever/Mike Norton, Marvel)
I realize that this series has succeeded by playing on traditional superhero conventions to great effect, but this issue was maybe a little too conventional for me. Everything that happened was completely predictable, and I have a feeling that the series will wrap up in a predictable way next issue. McKeever has still done a great job of showing the title character's hopes and insecurities, and setting him apart from other similar heroes. And there is a warmth to the story that shines through very strongly. When I read the first issue, I compared it to Astro City, which takes superhero conventions and looks at them with fresh eyes, and in the close of the series I just hope that McKeever keeps his outlook fresh.

Mnemovore #6 (Hans Rodionoff & Ray Fawkes/Mike Huddleston, DC/Vertigo)
My interest in this series kind of flagged as it went on, and the ending is a little underwhelming. It's not helped by giant ads right in the middle of what should be a creepy, atmospheric ending. I like that there isn't a happy ending and things are left sort of ambiguous, but I think maybe I should have waited for the trade, since the story probably reads better in one sitting (and without all the intrusive ads).

The Pulse #11 (Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Gaydos, Marvel)
Just when I was ready to give up on this book entirely, it comes back with probably the strongest issue of its entire run. With Gaydos back on art and an old-fashioned mystery at the core, it felt like an old issue of Alias, just without the swearing. Bendis plays to all his strengths, including using an obscure character as the mystery's centerpiece, and giving huge superheroes down-to-earth dialogue about everyday concerns (and no doubt working out his own feelings on parenthood in the process). This feels like it has the chance to be what Alias used to be: a smart, personal book that allows Bendis to explore forgotten corners of the Marvel universe and the inner life of what I think is his best character (Jessica Jones). I'm definitely back on board, as long as we're not stuck with a House of M aftermath tie-in anytime soon.

Festival envy

I've been reading several ongoing accounts of the Toronto Film Festival, including on the AV Club blog, and in the New York Times, and on Cinematical, as well as Slant's preview coverage of the New York Film Festival, and it really makes me wish I could get out to some of these big festivals. There seems to be such a wealth of interesting and challenging material at Toronto, with a great mix of high-profile premieres and buzzed-about indies and just random foreign and underground movies that won't ever be shown elsewhere. And New York looks like it'll have a lot of the same elements. I've tried for the past few years to convince the powers-that-be at Las Vegas Weekly to send me to Sundance, which is only a few hours' drive from here, so far to no avail. I'd actually rather go to a festival like Toronto or New York (or Telluride, another recent intriguing festival) that's not so bogged down in industry hype and deal-making and celebrity sightings (although Toronto seems to have its share). I just want a chance to spend 10 days taking in the kinds of movies that I rarely have a chance to see here in Vegas, and soaking up the film culture atmosphere (which I'd probably find tiresome if I spent all my time in it). Instead I have to make do with CineVegas, which is a great thing for Las Vegas and a fun way to spend a week, but not quite the same.

Movies opening this week

9 Songs (Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley, dir. Michael Winterbottom)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I saw this back in June at CineVegas and was mildly disappointed. When I first heard of it (which seems like forever ago), I was excited, because it's clearly a movie that's pushing boundaries. But by the time I saw it, it had already gotten so many bad reviews that my expectations were low, and it pretty much met them. Not a terrible movie, but definitely a missed opportunity, I think. Opened limited July 22; in Las Vegas this week

Just Like Heaven (Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder, dir. Mark Waters)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I want to mention something that I touched on only briefly in my review, both because I had limited space and because it spoils a key plot point. So if you plan to see the movie and don't want to know what happens, stop reading here. Okay, so when Reese Witherspoon's character (Elizabeth) first shows up, she appears to be a ghost (i.e., dead). We see her get in a car accident at the beginning of the movie, so we assume she's dead, as does Mark Ruffalo's character (David). About halfway through the movie, they discover that Elizabeth isn't dead; she's in a coma, and her spirit is sort of floating in limbo. Now, to me it seemed fairly obvious that something like this would happen, since you can't very well have the two characters fall in love and live happily ever after if one of them is dead (unless the other one commits suicide to be with his love; that might have made for a more interesting movie). I think, then, that this development is done more for plot expediency than anything else.

However, the story shifts in the last third or so to focus on Elizabeth and David's efforts to stop Elizabeth's sister from pulling the plug on the comatose Elizabeth. A doctor even uses the words "persistent state" to describe what's happening to Elizabeth. David and Elizabeth are frantic to stop the plug-pulling, since although Elizabeth appears unresponsive (and has signed consent forms saying she wants to be taken off life support in this kind of situation), her spirit is, of course, still alive. I don't know when the movie was written (and it's based on a novel) or filmed related to the Terry Schiavo case, but it ends up coming across as an impassioned argument for keeping patients on life support no matter what, since their spirit might just be floating around out there somewhere. The doctor who keeps pushing to take Elizabeth off life support is portrayed as an arrogant asshole, and of course keeping her plugged in is ultimately the right choice, since she eventually wakes up (and they live happily ever after, blah blah blah). Again, I think most of this was done for plot expediency (there needs to be a way for the two to get together, and there needs to be an obstacle keeping them apart in the last part of the film), not to make a political statement, but it's interesting and a little unsettling nonetheless. Wide release

Lord of War (Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ethan Hawke, dir. Andrew Niccol)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I really wanted to like this movie more than I did, because I think Andrew Niccol is immensely talented and I want to see him succeed (although I prefer his sci-fi stuff to this more real world-based drama). That said, I think there was a lot to like in this film. The main problem is probably that Niccol had too many ideas, and he tried to cram them all into two hours, strung together with extensive voiceover. I think voiceover gets a bad rap from critics and can be a really effective tool, and it works that way during a lot of this film. But Niccol uses it as a crutch too often, and it gets annoying sometimes. Still, this is a movie that thinks about real issues, has style to burn and features a lot of really sharp writing, so if its main problem is being too ambitious, that's not so bad. Wide release

Weekend viewing

Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)
This was rushed into theaters here without a press screening, so I actually went and paid to see it (crazy, I know) over the weekend. I'm not sure if I'd call it the best documentary of the year (I'm still partial to The Aristocrats), but it was very good, and managed, like all of the good documentaries this year, to get a great deal of mileage out of what could have been a ten-minute segment on a newsmagazine. Grizzly-obsessed Timothy Treadwell is so weird and crazy that Herzog could probably have just strung together a bunch of his footage without comment and made a fascinating movie, but he does a good job of pressing things further and thinking carefully about what Treadwell's obsession meant, both to Treadwell himself and to the world at large. I love the way he leaves the camera on his subjects just a little too long after interviewing them, showing the awkwardness that results, just like he lets Treadwell's various "takes" of his deluded monologues run uninterrupted, giving us insight into the process of filmmaking and the ways that people perform for a camera, even when no one else is present. Herzog is a ridiculously prolific filmmaker (he's got two other movies out this year alone), and I'm sort of ashamed to admit that not only have I not seen any of his other films, I've not heard of most of them. I'll have to work on that.

Romy and Michele: In the Beginning (Robin Schiff, 2005)
I know, I know. But I had some mail-related issues, and none of my Netflix movies showed up, and I've had this on tape for almost four months (it premiered on the ABC Family Channel in May). And I love, love, love Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. It's one of those movies that no one can convince me is bad. It's got some of the greatest non-sequtur one-liners this side of The Big Lebowski, and two totally bizarre yet perfectly drawn characters in Romy and Michele. They are the closest thing to female versions of Bill and Ted or Wayne and Garth, and yet so much more than that simplistic description implies. Anyway, a TV movie prequel with different actors is always a bad sign no matter what, but I had some small hope since Robin Schiff, who wrote and directed this movie, also wrote the original. And there are some very, very small glimmers of what made the first one so great. But the casting is weak and the main actors (especially Alex Breckenridge as Michele) do not capture what made the characters work. The plot - not that the original had the most sophisticated story - is completely nonsensical and half-assed. And of course the production values are on the level of, well, a TV movie. Definitely only worthwhile for big Romy and Michele fans (like me), but I'm glad I finally watched it. Now I can reuse the tape.