Movies opening this week

All of a sudden it's become very busy at local theaters, as we get ready for awards season. Most of these movies are worth taking the time to see, provided they stay in theaters for more than a week.

Across the Universe (Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, dir. Julie Taymor)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I'm a casual Beatles fan at best, but I've been looking forward to this film for a while since I really like Taymor's past work (Titus, Frida) and she makes films so infrequently. Although I'd read plenty of bad reviews (Robert Wilonsky called it "unwatchable" on Ebert & Roeper), I still had high hopes and ended up mildly disappointed. This seems like Taymor reaching for the mainstream and not quite making it, although it may just be that she needed a better screenplay. There are some really awful moments - mostly involving Bono's cameo as a Timothy Leary-esque drug guru - but some really nice ones as well, and those made me long for what this maybe could have been without the bland storyline. I also think that Taymor would do well with a completely original musical, something not tied to existing songs, where she could just let her imagination run free. Clearly that's what she does best. Opened limited Sept. 14; in Las Vegas this week

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, dir. Andrew Dominik)
It's interesting to hear about the way Warner Bros. has been mistreating this movie, because as difficult as it is I think it could be a genuine Oscar contender with the right backing (and still might be). It was dropped in Vegas theaters with virtually no warning, no screenings for the press (we were lucky we were able to squeeze in a review from an out-of-town writer in Las Vegas Weekly, and our counterparts at Las Vegas CityLife were not able to get one at all, nor did the major daily critic review the movie) and no advertising. Nevertheless, the Friday-afternoon showing I went to was fairly well-attended, although I heard some grumbling from people on the way out about how slow and uneventful the movie was.

And it certainly is slow, and far from action-packed considering it's a movie about a famous outlaw. There's a train robbery in the first 20 minutes or so, and then the rest of the 160-minute film is spent with James and his associates brooding, arguing and trying to outsmart each other, not very effectively. The weird, sort of symbiotic relationship between James (Pitt) and Ford (Affleck) is built up slowly and methodically, and Dominik takes the time to let the audience get to know each man (although James remains something of an enigma). The movie is more Ford's story, and Affleck does an excellent job conveying the man's naivete and hero-worship that turns sour when his idol is not everything Ford hoped he'd be. The copious narration (one of many Malick-like touches) can be a little overdone, but it mostly serves to fill in useful and insightful information. The cinematography is stunning, and many of the little moments (especially with Schneider's fairly minor member of the gang) are really masterful, adding up to a whole that is not as perfect as some have made it out to be, but certainly one of the best movies of the year and deserving of a much better treatment than it's getting from the studio. Opened limited Sept. 21; in Las Vegas this week

Manda Bala (documentary, dir. Jason Kohn)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I was so relieved to see a documentary that made an effort to be cinematic that I almost didn't care what this movie was about. The subject matter is pretty fascinating, though, even if it focuses narrowly on certain aspects of life in Brazil and leaves out others, and is yet another documentary about institutional corruption of some kind. Kohn makes valid points in an interesting way, and offers a glimpse into a society that is like ours in many ways, but really alien in a lot of others. Opened limited Aug. 17; in Las Vegas this week

Michael Clayton (George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, dir. Tony Gilroy)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
If I read one more review describing this as "finally, a movie for grown-ups!" I think I am going to scream. This is not the savior of the multiplex; lots of movies for "grown-ups" open every week, and are easy to find if you know where to look. Do we really need the Clooney Seal of Approval to go feel "sophisticated" at the movies? Anyway, that bullshit (which is no fault of the film itself) aside, this is a good, solid thriller with strong performances and an excellent pace. Gilroy, who was involved in writing all three Bourne movies, is a stellar craftsman, and knows how to put together a story. All the talk about this being a "grown-up" movie is just a condescending way of saying that it doesn't talk down to its audience. Something that many entertainment journalists clearly have not learned. Wide release

We Own the Night (Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall, Eva Mendes, dir. James Gray)
Here's another movie pitched at adults who never go to theaters, but it's not nearly as successful. A limp crime thriller with serious third-act credibility problems, it has a few nice moments of suspense but falls flat on believable character development and interesting performances. Phoenix looks half-asleep much of the time, and Wahlberg has much less screen time than you'd guess from the advertising - not that he does much with it anyway. A disappointing misfire that feels far too familiar and played out. Wide release

TV premiering tonight: Women's Murder Club

It's women! Solving crimes! Really, it's sort of sad that the gender of the main characters is the only twist that this thoroughly boring show has to offer on the standard procedural format. Sad not only because that's a pretty weak hook, but also because women achieving things on their own is apparently still a novelty, at least on TV crime shows. Other than some lame, forced female bonding moments, this show progresses exactly like every other crime show, then tacks on a lame plot twist to set up an ongoing storyline that's completely unnecessary. Far too many shows that should work as self-contained stories seem to be adding on superfluous ongoing mysteries this season, and the end of the Women's Murder Club pilot not only feels inconsistent, it also undercuts much of the supposed good work the characters did over the course of the episode. That puzzling development aside, there isn't anything here remotely original or interesting, and star Angie Harmon, who's been fighting crime on TV for years now, ought to find a new way to showcase her considerable talents, which are the show's only bright spot. ABC, Fridays, 9 p.m.

TV premiering tonight: Life is Wild

Two of the central roles on this show (the parents of a blended American family who move to the wilds of South Africa) have been recast since the pilot I saw, but I doubt it makes much of a difference. This is such a dull, bland show that I can't imagine any actors could make it more interesting or exciting. Filling the safe family drama post now that 7th Heaven is gone, Life is Wild is at least slightly less preachy and self-righteous, but its characters are one-dimensional and its plotting stale and obvious. Shot in an actual nature preserve in South Africa, it has some nice footage of wildlife, but if that's what you're looking for you'd do better to tune in to Animal Planet, which won't have all those annoying actors getting in the way. The CW, Sundays, 8 p.m.

Movies opening this week

The Heartbreak Kid (Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Jerry Stiller, dir. Peter & Bobby Farrelly)

My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I have been waiting patiently ever since seeing her in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to see Michelle Monaghan get another role that showcases her vibrant talents, and this one is not it, but she does get a few scenes to hint at the kind of charm and warmth and comic timing that she is capable of. She is also about the only worthwhile thing in this movie, which is an awkward mix of extreme raunchiness and lame sappiness, and proves once again that Ben Stiller hasn't put any effort into his work in years. I've never really been a fan of the Farrellys, but this just makes them seem more and more irrelevant. Wide release

The Jane Austen Book Club (Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Kathy Baker, Emily Blunt, Maggie Grace, dir. Robin Swicord)

My review in Las Vegas Weekly
My Jane Austen-loving former classmate has been less enraged about this movie than about Becoming Jane, and while they do have similarities in their simplistic approach to the author, I think this one gets a pass because it's more about the people who view Austen in that certain misguided way, and what her work means to them. It's also a little more laid-back than Becoming was, even though I think only those with a real softness for cheesy romantic movies will want to bother sitting through it. Opened limited Sept. 21; wide release this week

TV premiering tonight: Pushing Daisies

This is yet another show that I was really looking forward to that turned out to be a mild disappointment, although I liked it enough to plan to stick with it for a while and see how it turns out. Creator Bryan Fuller was responsible for the well-regarded Dead Like Me (which I haven't seen) and Wonderfalls, which I liked but found a little excessively quirky and mannered. Daisies, which was originally conceived as a spin-off of Dead Like Me, is also excessively quirky and mannered, and has a convoluted premise that takes pretty much the entire first episode to set up. The pilot is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who adds greatly to the overly art-directed feel of the show, although at least he's showing some personality here, as opposed to the pilot he directed last fall (Notes from the Underbelly).

The relationship between the two main characters - a guy who can resurrect the dead and his once-dead, long-lost love who will die again if he touches her - is rather sweet and sort of tragic, and once you understand all the rules of the central concept, it seems like it has potential for some interesting stories. But the idea of this show being, essentially, a procedural with magical/comedic elements, is a little dicey, and the murders the main character solves with his P.I. partner (always nice to see Chi McBride) are going to have to be pretty off-kilter to live up to the rest of the show. I hope they will ease off the cloying narration and give the character interplay some time to develop; they've already got a unique show, so let's see if they can get all those odd elements to work together. ABC, Wednesdays, 8 p.m.

TV premiering tonight: Cavemen & Carpoolers

I know it's sort of unfair to rip on Cavemen (ABC, Tuesdays, 8 p.m.) when all I've seen is the original, since-retooled pilot, which isn't even the first episode they're airing. But, come on: It's Cavemen. It's a TV show based on a mildly amusing commercial. And it's also about the laziest possible execution of the concept that they could have come up with. I mean, yes, this is a dumb idea, but some clever writers could have probably made it sort of funny and weird if they had just gone nuts with it. Instead, the result (again, based on the pilot I saw, which has been revamped) is so painfully obvious that it's really more sad than irritating. It's standard sitcom bullshit about three friends living together and dealing with jobs and relationships, plus some really heavy-handed parallels about the cavemen being metaphors for racial minorities. About the only thing it has going for it is the awesome Julie White as the constantly soused mother of the main character's girlfriend.

But honestly, what bugged me most about this show was not the lame comedy and the cliched characters, but the completely sloppy, inconsistent and frustrating way they go about creating the show's world. I realize this is almost entirely beside the point but to me it showed how deeply the problems go here: What you want as people watch this show is not for them to constantly wonder about the logical inconsistencies, but just to accept the premise and focus on the jokes (then you can get to work fixing the jokes). The basic idea is not that complicated: There are cavemen in our modern world. That's it. But instead of either leaving the background unexplained (and thus unimportant) or simplifying it by dropping our three protagonists in the present day from the past, the show opens with a whole montage explaining how cavemen have actually been living beside regular people throughout history (complete with famous historical photos featuring Photoshopped-in cavemen).

This idea creates a whole host of plot holes. First, we never see any cavewomen. Have the cavemen failed to interbreed with normal people? If so, why does the main character have a non-cavewoman girlfriend? Have cavemen always been an oppressed minority? If so, how do they relate to other oppressed minorities? Other than the presence of cavemen, the world seems exactly the same - this is not some sci-fi alternate reality. But the cavemen are treated with such blatant nonstop bigotry that it's like they are black people in the 1950s. And yet there are also actual black people who appear on the show. So, in this world, did slavery exist? Were cavemen free while blacks were slaves? And if so, how is it that blacks are being treated so much better than cavemen in the present day when they started out in a much worse position? And are there black cavemen?

It is a failure of the show that it made me think about these things. Unless you are in fact doing some serious sci-fi alternate-reality thing, you don't want your audience asking these questions. The only thought they should be having is, "Boy, these cavemen sure are funny." Again, the show has been retooled since I saw it, but not so much that they don't plan to salvage the episode I saw. Which means that these problems are most likely still evident, proving that no one thought this idea through at all. As ill-advised as it is, it's even more pathetic that they don't seem to have even put in a token effort to make it exceed people's extremely low expectations.

Oh, also, Carpoolers (ABC, Mondays, 8:30 p.m.), a completely bland, predictable, standard-issue sitcom (although again without a laugh track so it seems edgy) that looks really, really good in comparison by being paired with Cavemen. Both will be off the air in a month.

Alt-Batmen

Although I don't regularly read any DC superhero books currently (and follow only a handful of Marvel's superhero series), in my early days of comics-collecting I was an avid reader of all of the various Superman and Batman series, starting with the shock-value "Death of Superman" and "Knightfall" stories and continuing for a few years until my interest in the characters, their changing creative teams and their meandering adventures came to an end. Since then, I've occasionally checked in with those characters, mostly in stand-alone miniseries or graphic novels.

DC's in endless-crossover mode these days, but they've still handed the reins of Batman over to Grant Morrison, and his most recent arc is a stand-alone piece with art by J.H. Williams III (the reason I picked it up). Morrison is about to be one cog in a Bat-books crossover resurrecting villain Ra's Al Ghul, but for now he's allowed to sort of be off in his own universe, which is of course the place where he functions the best. He focuses here on the Club of Heroes, also known as the Batmen of All Nations, a relatively obscure and odd concept for which Morrison clearly has much affection (he previously used two of the characters in a JLA Classified arc). Of course, I had to resort to Wikipedia to learn about the history of these characters, since Morrison just drops the reader right into the story with virtually no explanation of who the players are, which was especially frustrating since the story he presents is a closed-door murder mystery. Called to a remote island by their onetime benefactor, the Club of Heroes start getting picked off one by one, presumably by one of their own.

Morrison maintains an eerie, distant tone here, one that makes it hard to engage with the story, and Williams' unconventional page layouts (one of his greatest strengths) add to the sense of disconnect. So although I felt a little uneasy while reading the story, the reveal of the murderer at the end elicited more of a "Huh?" reaction from me than any sort of satisfaction. (Then again, I found the first issue of the JLA Classified story with some of these characters entirely incomprehensible. DC-continuity buffs might find more here to appreciate.)

If Morrison's problem is that he knows too much about obscure Batman continuity and is too eager to show that off, Sam Kieth has the opposite problem in his two-issue miniseries Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious. This is the third Batman-related mini that Kieth has done for DC in recent years (after Batman: Secrets and Scratch, which featured the Dark Knight in a supporting role), and I can only guess that he does them for the paycheck so that he can finance his more personal indie projects - although it's been over a year since the first issue of his latest Oni series, My Inner Bimbo, came out, with no second issue yet in sight.

Whatever his motivations, it doesn't seem that Kieth has a whole lot to say about Batman, instead using the character to explore his own pet themes, primarily the way that strong women can be threatening to insecure men, and the way that femininity can be an almost mystical force, especially when perceived from outside. Deadly Serious is, on one hand, a complete throwaway of a team-up story between two characters who have no reason to work together. It's got a flimsy premise and a contrived set-up, and it all ends abruptly. On the other hand, it's a weird metaphor for how macho men like the title characters are disturbed and frightened by the natural processes of women's bodies, featuring a sort of grotesque exaggeration of PMS that finds perfectly innocent women going nuts and slaughtering large numbers of people.

Kieth best examines these ideas when he's not shackled to the conventions of the superhero story (even though this is not an especially conventional superhero story), so other than providing him the chance to create some very pretty full-color art (his recent indie work has been in black and white) this series doesn't have a whole lot to offer. It's better than the derivative, unfocused Scratch, but not nearly as successful a marriage of character and creator as Secrets was in its best moments. Both of these books, though, are far more appealing to me than one long, neverending superhero crossover.

TV premiering tonight: Aliens in America

There are only a handful of sitcoms premiering this fall, and most of them are pretty forgettable. Sadly, this is one of them, although it's mildly amusing and has a potentially provocative premise. We've really gotten to the point now where a single-camera show with no laugh track can be as conventional as a three-camera, laugh-tracked show, as Aliens in America effectively proves. This is your standard family sitcom, with the harried, overworked dad, the fussy mom, the nerdy brother and the hot older sister who won't give him the time of day. There are lessons learned and sweet moments of togetherness at the end of each episode (or at least the two I've seen).

The one thing that sets this show apart is its hook, which is that this nice, wholesome Wisconsin family ends up with an exchange student from Pakistan. The pilot plays with the political implications in some fairly daring and funny ways, but by episode two it's strictly predictable fish-out-of-water jokes that could have been done with almost any sort of cultural clash. Like Everybody Hates Chris, the show it follows, Aliens in America manages to turn some pretty edgy concepts into safe, cuddly mainstream comedy, which in a way is sort of subversive but mostly succeeds at making the show fade into the background. The CW, Mondays, 8:30 p.m.

Movies opening this week

The Game Plan (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Madison Pettis, Roselyn Sanchez, Kyra Sedgwick, dir. Andy Fickman)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Maybe I was a little too hard on this movie, which admittedly is not as vulgar or offensive as many alleged "family" films. But it's still really, really annoying and unoriginal, and Pettis is such a smarmy kid star that I seriously wanted to punch her in the face the whole time. I was rooting for Johnson's football player to just dump her in an orphanage. Something about these movies that imply that no one's lives can possibly be fulfilling unless they have children just really bugs me. Wide release

The Kingdom (Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, dir. Peter Berg)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I've been a little surprised at the accusations of jingoism that have been lobbed at this movie by so many critics. Maybe it's just unexpected that a movie dealing with the current situation in the Middle East is not a self-serious drag, but I liked that this took the action-movie approach to the conflict. No, this is not how things really are, and, yes, there is a certain wish-fulfillment element to going over there and kicking some terrorist ass (or at least finding certain specific terrorists responsible for one isolated act), but this film is not simply a gung-ho pro-America fantasy. It shows all that ass-kicking and terrorist-stomping, and then wonders how satisfying it all really is. It questions our wishes even as it fulfills them, and manages to be a decent action movie along the way. And at this point, I'll take car chases and explosions over endless sober reflection on this topic anyway. Wide release

Back on the air

After a longer-than-expected time away, I'm returning to the radio tomorrow, on Vegas station Xtreme Radio 107.5-FM. I'll be on the Xtreme Disorder show at around 6 pm Pacific time to talk about movies opening this week, in what I hope will be a weekly gig. For those outside of Vegas, you can listen at the station's website.

TV premiering tonight: Big Shots

I ran out of time yesterday to post on the four new shows that premiered last night, so, briefly: I hated Private Practice possibly more than I hate Grey's Anatomy, which is saying something - you can read my entire Las Vegas Weekly review here; I liked Bionic Woman despite its sometimes obvious sci-fi tropes, and plan to stick with it; I thought Life was a bland procedural saddled with a random collection of quirks and another lame overarching mystery, and none of it fit together very well; and I was a little disappointed in Dirty Sexy Money, one of the shows I was most anticipating this season - it was campy but not all that funny, seemingly unsure of whether to be serious or goofy, and it comes with yet another unnecessary slow-burn mystery that really annoyed me. But since I do love soaps and there was enough there that had potential, I'll give it another shot.

I'm glad I have time to post today and warn people away from one of the worst new shows of the season, the vulgar, sexist and lamely predictable Big Shots, which makes out like it's Desperate Housewives for men but doesn't even achieve that past-its-prime show's level of intelligence and depth. Despite an impressive cast that includes Michael Vartan, Dylan McDermott and Joshua Malina, it's just a bunch of cliched misogyny, pathetic soapy twists and unearned moments of sappiness. The dialogue is terrible and the characters are hateful, no matter how likable the actors may be. Cane and Dirty Sexy Money may have their flaws, but at least they're not insulting, and anyone looking for a fun soap should focus their attention elsewhere and let this one just fade away. ABC, Thursdays, 10 p.m.

Dynamo 5

Jay Faerber's new Image Comics series Dynamo 5 has become an unlikely hit, which pleases me, since I've been following Faerber's work for some time now. He's a solid old-school superhero writer who for whatever reasons missed breaking into the big leagues at Marvel and DC, and instead of conceding defeat or continuing to knock on closed doors (although for all I know he's sending pitches to the two companies every other day), he just went off and created his own superheroes himself. With Noble Causes and now Dynamo 5 (as well as occasional one-shots and miniseries), Faerber has carved out a nice niche for himself at Image, proof that you don't have to work at one of the big corporations if you want to tell classic superhero stories, and you don't have to stay away from that genre if you want to create a successful indie comic.

Actually, Noble Causes continues to struggle; it's about to go on hiatus for five months and then launch with a five-year time jump and a new direction. But the reason it's getting this extra push is because of the success of Dynamo 5, which has completed seven issues that will be collected into a handy trade in stores the same day as issue eight. It's such a success that it's doing something nearly unheard-of in modern comics: lowering the cover price, as of the next issue. Faerber's solid writing and the dynamic, fluid art of Mahmud A. Asrar have no doubt kept people's interest, but what brings them in in the first place is simply a great hook.

Faerber introduces a dead Superman archetype named Captain Dynamo, who fathered at least five illegitimate children, each with one of his primary powers. The children, who only learn of each other and their unconventional parentage after their father's death, are recruited by Captain Dynamo's widow to form an unlikely team of heroes. It's a unique and instantly grabby premise, far more immediately gratifying than Noble Causes' "superhero Kennedys" (which I think is a pretty good concept as well, though, and I'm disappointed that they're getting away from it). Faerber does a good job of marrying the more mature superhero storytelling of books like Powers (the philandering, inconsiderate hero who only seems like a "good guy") to the time-honored, iconic style of the Marvel Comics tradition (colorfully attired heroes beat up goofy villains, angst over their personal problems). It's modern without seeming cynical, classic without seeming quaint, and rife with possibilities. Faerber has already put his soap-opera chops to good use by introducing yet another illegitimate half-sibling, forced amnesia and a character falling into a coma - and that's just in the most recent issue!

You'd never refer to anything that Faerber does as groundbreaking; he's no Warren Ellis or Grant Morrison. But he's also nearly in a class all his own, writing old-fashioned superhero yarns that manage to feel fresh without engaging in jaded deconstructionism. Dynamo 5 is a fun, smart book with stories told in bright colors and broad strokes, and it's proof that creativity and innovation can still exist in the superhero genre, without having to either resurrect old icons, or tear them down.

TV premiering tonight: Reaper & Cane

These are both shows that I'm sort of on the fence about, and if I have time I'll try to catch one or two more episodes of each beyond the pilot to see if they're worth watching. Reaper (The CW, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.) has a premise very similar to that of NBC's Chuck, with a sardonic retail employee finding himself inadvertently caught up in a large-scale battle between good and evil. In this case, he's drafted to be a bounty hunter for the devil, tracking down souls who have escaped from Hell. Like Chuck, this show mixes humor and action, but it's not quite as effective, and some of the subject matter in the pilot (the main character's parents selling his soul to the devil, threats against his life and that of his mother) is a little bleak to be taken so lightly. If they can balance the tone better, it might end up being an entertaining show.

I'm a little more wary of Cane (CBS, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.), one of two sprawling family soaps that weren't as good as I was hoping they'd be. Focusing on a family of Cuban immigrants who run a massive rum business in Florida, it has all the familiar soap elements but is a little too bland and conventional to offer any new twist on them (the race of the characters may be different but their behavior is pretty much the same). There was a pretty sinister plot development at the end of the pilot, and I think the show's future success will depend on embracing that dark tone and not just trying to become the Latino version of Brothers & Sisters.

TV premiering tonight: Chuck, Journeyman & The Big Bang Theory

I've been sort of remiss in posting about new fall shows, although I've seen nearly all the pilots; anyone interested in my overall thoughts can read my Las Vegas Weekly fall TV preview here. Tonight sees the premiere of my favorite new show of the season (Chuck), as well as my least favorite (The Big Bang Theory), so I suppose it's a good time to get back on the ball with these previews.

Although Chuck is certainly the best new show of the fall, it didn't blow me away in the manner of pilots like Lost or Friday Night Lights or Smith. It's a fun, endlessly entertaining show with a rather convoluted premise about a slacker computer geek who ends up with a head full of government secrets and two federal agents as his handlers (as many people have remarked, it bears numerous similarities to the short-lived but well-loved UPN series Jake 2.0). There's nothing terribly innovative here, but the cast is winning, the writing is sharp and the action is fast-paced. This is one of two good new shows from The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, the other being Gossip Girl, which is darker and obviously much more soapy. I'm not gung-ho about proselytizing for this show like I have been about others in previous years, but I do think it's well worth checking out. NBC, Mondays, 8 p.m.

Also possibly worth the time is Journeyman, completing NBC's Monday geek-friendly lineup (along with Heroes). Its Quantum Leap-esque premise (about a guy who spontaneously travels to the past and has to right certain wrongs) didn't really grab me at first, but the characters have interesting complexity, and a twist toward the end of the pilot pointed toward a potentially rich future. I plan to give it at least one or two more episodes to fully engage me, and if you like sci-fi, it's probably a good bet as well. NBC, Mondays, 10 p.m.

But no one should go remotely near The Big Bang Theory, a horrid, unfunny, insulting, badly acted, poorly written piece of sitcom trash that made me ashamed to be a TV viewer. This is the kind of show that's leading to the death of the three-camera, laugh-tracked sitcom. It's every awful cliche you can think of played up to the hilt, with horrible stereotypes about geeks, men, women and foreigners and a generally nasty, unpleasant tone throughout. If NBC is embracing the idea that geeks are cool with its Monday lineup, then CBS is doing the opposite here, giving them a metaphorical wedgie and telling them to fuck off. In a just world, not a single person would watch this show. CBS, Mondays, 8:30 p.m.

Movies opening this week

Eastern Promises (Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent Cassel, dir. David Cronenberg)
I sort of pine for the days before Cronenberg became this respected prestige director, because as much as I liked this movie, I miss the bizarro gross-out Cronenberg horror films of yore. He's been in and out of the mainstream for years, though, so I hold out hope that he'll get back to something dirty and twisted soon enough. In the meantime, there's this very well-crafted thriller, which is not as successful as A History of Violence but is still pretty brutal and engaging. Some people have criticized the film for coming off as too cold and detached, but that's Cronenberg's style, and the aloof tone actually makes some of the horrors in this film seem even more despicable for how matter-of-factly they're presented. The script by Steve Knight (who wrote Dirty Pretty Things) doesn't offer Cronenberg as many opportunities to indulge his more perverse tendencies as his past work has, and at times it almost seems like he's at odds with the material. But most of the time he simply brings out its inner darkness with more grace and fluidity than Stephen Frears displayed in Dirty Pretty Things, but also less compassion. Mortensen is powerful as the Russian-mob hitman with a secret, and Watts does her usual stellar work, subtly indicating so much with her facial expressions. The plot ultimately is rather conventional, and I would say this is probably minor Cronenberg, but it does have some major moments. Opened limited Sept. 14; wide release this week

In the Valley of Elah (Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, dir. Paul Haggis)
As much as I hated Crash, I tried to approach this movie with an open mind, and I will say that it is not nearly as bad as Crash, and certainly not worth the energy of hating (especially since the mixed reviews and muted buzz hardly seem to indicate it as a likely Oscar candidate). Haggis is still very taken with the idea of himself as someone with something important to say, and there are plenty of heavy-handed, manipulative moments in this film about a father trying to solve the murder of his just-returned-from-Iraq soldier son. One thing that plagued Crash, overacting, is thankfully absent here, as both Jones and Theron bring restraint and subtlety to their parts (perhaps because they've already won Oscars and aren't angling for more). Poor Sarandon gets nothing to do other than cry, though, and even the strong acting can't generate enough interest in the weak murder mystery. When the killer was finally revealed, I couldn't even remember which character they were naming, which is never a good sign. Haggis' messages about soldiers coming back from war are simplistic and not particularly insightful, and he drains too much color from the procedural story for it to be exciting. In trying to make his audience feel guilt, or pity, he only succeeds in making them feel bored. Opened limited Sept. 14; in Las Vegas this week

The Ten (Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen, Winona Ryder, Ken Marino, Gretchen Mol, Liev Schreiber, Rob Corddry, dir. David Wain)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Although this movie is much more offbeat than the other recent comedy from former members of The State, Balls of Fury, it's not really much funnier (I may actually have laughed more at Balls of Fury). As always, the various State alums show up to support each other, and there is a sense of goofy fun when they get together. It's too haphazard, though, which is the problem with a lot of post-State projects, and the jokes just aren't there, unfortunately. Still, I'm happy to see these guys continuing to work, and I hope they hit on the right combination for a truly great movie sometime soon. Opened limited August 3; in Las Vegas this week

Gilmore Girls season two

Thanks to a co-worker lending me her DVD sets of Gilmore Girls through season four, I've been able to devote my Netflix queue to other shows and watch the Girls amid various other programs. My initial giddy excitement over discovering the show (way, way later than everyone else, I know) has worn off, and there were moments during this season that I was rather disappointed in the show's direction (sort of amplified by having a vague sense of where it went in the subsequent seasons that I haven't watched yet). But overall I still found it really entertaining and even quite affecting in its best moments, and the two central characters that Amy Sherman-Palladino has created are so wonderful that it's hard to imagine ever not being interested in what's going on in their lives.

But it's increasingly clear as the show goes on that Lorelai and Rory's relationships with each other and with Lorelai's parents are far more interesting than the romantic entanglements that seem to form the central driving force of the show. In the first season, I was sort of indifferent to Max and Dean, the respective love interests, but this season I found almost all of the relationship stuff infuriating. Max was dispatched with rather quickly, but I didn't mind since it was obvious that they weren't going to marry off the lead character. So most of Lorelai's love life this season consisted of her endless will-they-or-won't-they flirting with Luke (which drives me even crazier knowing that it gets dragged out until the end of the sixth season) and possible reconciliation with Christopher, the only love-interest character on this show I find remotely appealing. His relationship with Lorelai seems realistically complex as opposed to the parade of contrivances that mar her relationship with Luke.

Lorelai's love life is far more tolerable than Rory's, though, especially as much of this season finds her vacillating between two almost equally annoying suitors. Dean sort of faded into the background in the first season, and served more as a tool for Rory's social development than an actual character, but the decision to keep their relationship going after the effective break-up arc of the last season proves disastrous here. The quick reconciliation in the first-season finale seemed a little rushed to me, and in this season the characters demonstrated no chemistry or interesting interactions. Dean's blandness was balanced by the supreme annoyance of new love interest Jess, a stereotypical bad boy played broadly by Milo Ventimiglia. I couldn't stand almost any moment Jess was onscreen, although later on he had a few nice moments with Rory when the bad boy facade fell away. Still, the prospect of watching her bounce between these two for another season (or more) is disheartening.

The quirky townspeople got a little more well-rounded in this season, and the dialogue remained as sharp as ever. Along with the main characters, that's the primary appeal of the show, and as long as those elements stay strong, I'll keep watching (even in occasional frustration). I've already started on season three.

2007 catch-up

I was on vacation last week, watching various movies and TV shows and sleeping odd hours, and one of the things I did was start trying to catch up on notable 2007 movies that passed me by for one reason or another, in anticipation of the inevitable awards-giving and list-writing mania that comes toward the end of the year. It's an impossible task, of course, but this is a start.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesal, Angela Goethals, Kate Lang Johnson, dir. Scott Glosserman)
Okay, so maybe in the overall critical community this wasn't a particularly notable release, but it was a relative sensation among horror fans, and I am always looking for a good risk-taking horror movie. Sadly, this is just the same tired meta-humor that's plagued horror for the last decade, taken to an annoyingly useless extreme. It's a mockumentary set in a world in which slasher-movie villains like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers are real, and the title character aspires to follow in their footsteps. A naive film crew follows him around as he plans his massacre, gleefully deconstructing genre tropes as they apply to his "profession." But these familiar elements only make sense as motivations for filmmakers; as motivations for serial killers, they are entirely nonsensical and counterintuitive. Thus this movie is sort of smart about horror movies (although its insights are a tad obvious), but completely dumb about how its characters might actually act. Then the last half-hour just abandons the mockumentary concept and becomes the same kind of predictable slasher movie it's been sending up, and it's not particularly scary since we've just been told in detail what's about to happen. I loved this meta trend when Wes Craven kickstarted it with New Nightmare and Scream, but now I'm just looking for a horror movie that prizes scariness over self-awareness.

My Best Friend (Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet, dir. Patrice Leconte)
I've become a big fan of French director Leconte thanks to his last two movies that made it to the U.S., Intimate Strangers and The Man on the Train, although I haven't seen much of his earlier work (I did watch The Widow of St. Pierre a while back). This movie has been described as a more mainstream, predictable effort from Leconte, and indeed it does have a lot of elements of stupid Hollywood buddy comedies. It's thankfully a little subtler than something starring Ben Stiller might be, but it's still got plenty of cringe-inducing moments and a pretty paint-by-numbers plot. At the same time, it does explore some of the same themes as the two Leconte films that won me over recently, primarily the way that two strangers of seemingly opposite temperaments can come together via odd circumstances and form a surprisingly strong bond. And Leconte is good at portraying the relationship of the mismatched main characters convincingly, which almost makes up for all the contrivances.

Red Road (Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, dir. Andrea Arnold)
It was interesting seeing this movie right on the heels of The Brave One, since it deals with similar subject matter in a much more interesting, honest and complex way. That's not to say that the actions of this film's lead character are easy to understand or even completely realistic, but they do flow naturally from how Arnold establishes her as a person, and resonate emotionally even if they aren't entirely logical. Dickie gives a wonderful performance with a minimum of dialogue, conveying her character's anguish and detachment following the tragedy she's endured (the nature of which is unclear through most of the film). It's a slow, methodical build, but it's never not interesting, and in the end its long takes and longer silences say far more about grief than a bunch of vigilante nonsense ever could.

Movies opening this week

The Brave One (Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, dir. Neil Jordan)
I like Neil Jordan, and I think he has a talent for making something artful out of a basic genre piece like this, but he doesn't manage to pull it off here. This is basically your average dirty exploitation movie (the kind of thing Steven Seagal made his name on) with all the dirt scrubbed off and replaced with crying and Sarah McLachlan songs. Foster is a good actress, but she hits only one note as the nice liberal public-radio host who goes all Charles Bronson after her fiance is murdered. Literary quotes and sensitive narration aside, this is just a dumb, plot hole-filled vigilante flick that thinks it's better than its audience. Jordan and Foster should both be above that. Wide release

No End in Sight (documentary, dir. Charles Ferguson)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I have said before that all these Iraq documentaries are not my thing, but as I was going on vacation this week this was the only movie I could review in time. It's a fairly cogent, calm analysis of what's gone wrong over there, although despite its parade of credible talking heads I still don't think it's going to convince anyone who isn't already convinced. I generally prefer the movies that focus on illuminating one small, human aspect of the war rather than encompassing the whole thing with statistics and policy analysis, but for what it sets out to do this movie is a success. Opened limited July 27; in Las Vegas this week

Movies opening this week

3:10 to Yuma (Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Logan Lerman, Ben Foster, dir. James Mangold)
I haven't seen the 1957 original, so I can't comment on how this compares, but on its own it's a sturdy, entertaining Western that doesn't go for any fancy reinvention. Although the ending doesn't entirely make sense, this is otherwise consistently exciting and well-acted, with Crowe getting into his bad-guy role, and Foster offering up a very good, very evil supporting performance (which didn't strike me as homophobic, but here's an interesting disagreement). Westerns for some reason often get positioned as awards contenders these days, and I think that's what Lionsgate is trying to do here to some extent, but I was glad that Mangold didn't seem to be trying too hard to make a big statement or tell an epic story. He's just made a solid genre movie, which is exactly what this rarely attempted genre needs. Wide release

The Brothers Solomon (Will Forte, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, dir. Bob Odenkirk)
I don't know why I went to see this movie, which I didn't have to review, but I guess for some reason I thought it would be funny. It was instead painfully unfunny, a thin concept stretched barely to feature length, with annoying performances, sloppy writing and a cheap, ugly look that made it seem all the more like a sketch gone awry. I know people love Arnett from his days on Arrested Development (which I only watched a handful of times), but in everything I've seen him in he's playing the same smarmy, overenthusiastic character, and I don't think he's bearable for more than a few minutes onscreen. This movie makes Balls of Fury look like the funniest, most sophisticated comedy of the year. Wide release

Hatchet (Joel David Moore, Tamara Feldman, Deon Richmond, Mercedes McNab, dir. Adam Green)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
People who aren't fond of cheesy, trashy horror movies will probably have no patience for this, but I found it entertaining enough, and refreshing for its honestly simple ambitions. I'll probably forget it in a week or two, but coming right on the heels of the overdetermined Halloween remake, it was a nice change of pace. Limited release

Shoot 'Em Up (Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, dir. Michael Davis)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
It's disappointing that this really distasteful movie is getting positive reviews of the "it's just mindless fun" variety, since it seems to have such contempt for its audience. At least something like Crank was visually inventive and had a clever sense of humor even as it ran out of steam after an hour and exhibited some disturbing sexism. This film has all those negatives without the positives, with poorly shot action and lame one-liners that display almost no effort at all. Sad to think that action junkies will happily pay to be insulted at the movies this weekend. Wide release

Them (Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen, dir. David Moreau and Xavier Palud)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Another simple horror movie with small ambitions, although it didn't work as well for me as Hatchet. In one way, its ambitions are too small - the characters aren't really fleshed out, so it's hard to care about what happens to them - and in another way they are too big, with an ending that tries to make a statement about society but falls short. Still, I think horror fans will probably mostly dig this one as well, and better to check this out than the odious Shoot 'Em Up. Opened limited Aug. 17; in Las Vegas this week

Summer TV round-up: New shows

Burn Notice (USA, Thursdays, 10 p.m.)
I was a little cautious about this show in my initial review, possibly because I had been so enthusiastic about USA's last new snarky-guy-solves-mysteries show, Psych, only to have all my interest peter out after only a few episodes. But Burn Notice has not only stayed strong, it's also gotten better, and it's maintained a very effective balance of mystery-of-the-week stories with a more long-term ongoing plot. It's still light and inconsequential, but it's almost always fun to watch, thanks to mostly snappy writing and an endearing cast. Jeffrey Donovan makes the lead character charismatic and likeable even when he's doing questionable things, and Bruce Campbell is his typically delightful self in the sidekick role. I've even warmed up to Gabrielle Anwar as the love interest, a character who's gone in an interesting direction from her initial "will they or won't they?" set-up with the lead. My only worry is whether they can sustain the momentum of the larger storyline as time progresses (already as season one winds down, a lot of questions have been answered), but for now this is breezy fun, and quite possibly the one show I look forward to most each week.

Damages (FX, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.)
I think it was this week that this show finally offered up one twist too many and descended into complete silliness. Not that this means I won't keep watching it, or that I won't enjoy it, but it's turned into one of those shows where every single character is running an angle, has a secret or is in on the central conspiracy. And I don't think quite this level of complication is necessary - there were plenty of mysteries set up just in the first couple of episodes to sustain the entire season, and all these new wrinkles just make it harder to keep track of what's going on. But at the same time the ludicrous twists are generally pretty fun and juicy, and this show is not at all afraid to turn itself into total pulp trash. It's also got some strong performances from Glenn Close, Ted Danson and Tate Donovan (those last two not necessarily people you'd expect to be strong dramatic actors), even if main star Rose Byrne is sort of bland. I have a feeling this is the sort of thing that if it were all compressed into a two-hour movie it would be easily dismissable as some dumb thriller filled with plot holes, but the serialization works well for creating suspense, and gets you tuning back in for the next absurd twist. I can't see how they could ever make a second season of this work, and I hope that they won't try to, instead piling on all the twists they can and resolving the story in the most over-the-top manner possible, which would be consistent with the tone so far.

Mad Men (AMC, Thursdays, 10 p.m.)
A lot of people have anointed this as the new greatest show on TV, and while I remain impressed with a lot of things about it, I think my appreciation is a little more muted. I have a regular blog reader and correspondent who is infuriated with what she sees as the period inaccuracies of this show (as well as its misrepresentation of the advertising business), but other commentary online seems more divided about whether or not certain details are accurate. Having neither lived through the 1960s nor worked in advertising, I can't really say, but I think what is important to me is that I believe the show's own world in itself; that is, the details seem consistent, and they paint a full picture of an environment that I can buy into. There are still moments when the producers seem to be trying too hard to hammer home the idea that, "Look! Things were so different back then!," but I think they've toned that down enough to where it's not too noticeable. What annoys me more is the development of a mysterious backstory for main character Don Draper, which just seems extraneous and unnecessary. I don't need a mystery to solve in every show; this one is very good just as a character drama about the corporate world of 1960. But so far at least that storyline has been handled subtly enough, and I'm fascinated by what's going on with almost all the other characters. I love Vincent Kartheiser's desperate sliminess as Pete Campbell, and Christina Hendricks is marvelous as the sexy, conniving bitch who knows all the office secrets. I'm not ready to proclaim this show brilliant yet, but it is doing a lot of things right.

Slings & Arrows

On the recommendation of a fellow-critic friend, and thanks to positive online buzz, I Netflixed the first season of this Canadian TV series about the travails of a Shakespearean theater company (that is, one that performs plays by Shakespeare, not one that existed in his time). And while it was a pleasant enough diversion, I don't see why some people have become so enthusiastic about it. Perhaps it has something to do with a love for the theater; I've never been a regular theater-goer and I've never been involved in putting on a play (although I did take a couple of playwriting classes in college), so the thrill of seeing that world depicted insightfully may be lost on me. At the same time, it doesn't seem like the show really offers any exciting revelations about the theater; even as someone with little knowledge in that area, I didn't feel like I was learning anything new.

The characters are mostly likable and interesting, and there are some solid performances, especially from Rachel McAdams (who left to become a movie star after the first season) as a fresh-faced young actress and Jennifer Irwin as the conniving corporate shill who tries to turn the company into a tourist attraction. I actually found her the most sympathetic character on the show most of the time, which was probably not the point. The main character, a mentally unstable former actor brought in as the company's artistic director when the previous one dies, gets quickly annoying, and the show's gimmick, in which the deceased artistic director haunts his successor (who's also his old friend/adversary) is tiresome and a little odd in an otherwise straightforward dramedy.

There are some funny moments and effective dramatic scenes, but the storyline is fairly predictable and drags at times. Still, it wraps up briskly (the entire season is only six episodes), and left me mildly curious to check out more. Since there are only two more seasons of six episodes each, it wouldn't be a huge effort to give them a shot - plus, Sarah Polley joins the cast in the third season, which seems like it would be worth a look. Not in the queue yet, but it could be in the future, I suppose.

Movies opening this week

Balls of Fury (Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q, dir. Robert Ben Garant)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Against my better judgment, I was actually looking forward to this movie, because I found the Reno 911! movie genuinely hilarious, and because this has such an endearing premise, and because I think Garant and Thomas Lennon clearly are talented despite all the Hollywood crap that they write. But maybe the Hollywood crap has infected them, because this turned out to be no better than your average dumbass comedy, even with Walken in a Fu Manchu get-up and David Koechner as a Reno stage act who duets with a bird. How you make that unfunny, I have no idea. Wide release

Halloween (Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, dir. Rob Zombie)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
Also against my better judgment, I was looking forward to this movie, too, since I think Rob Zombie is a talented and distinctive filmmaker who can bring something to the horror genre beyond what the typical music-video guys that they usually hire for these gigs have to offer. But this is an odd project for him, since it requires that he suppress his usual gonzo style in deference to slasher-movie conventions, and when he does put his own stamp on things, it fits awkwardly with the established formula. The decision to spend half the movie on Michael Myers' origin does not pay off, making the actual stalking-and-killing part feel like an afterthought. John Carpenter's original was about horror invading the placidity of suburbia; in Zombie's film, the horror's been there all along, and thus its presence is neither scary nor notable. Wide release

Self-Medicated (Monty Lapica, Diane Venora, Michael Bowen, Greg Germann, dir. Monty Lapica)
I am always excited when locally produced movies achieve any sort of success, and disappointed when they inevitably turn out to suck. This is by far the most successful local film that I can remember, and it's as competent and professional as any indie movie on its comparative level. So it's not as bad as the cheapo horror movies that usually do well from here, but it's still not a good movie, with a terrible lead performance from writer-director Lapica as a troubled teen, a treacly After School Special tone and a truly horrible deus ex machina in the form of a mystical homeless dude who teaches the hero about the important things in life. I interviewed Lapica for the Weekly, and he seems like a nice, humble guy, so I was happy we had an old positive review of this movie from CineVegas to run in the paper. But I still hold out hope for the day when some local feature will turn out to actually be, you know, good. Limited release