So by now you've probably heard about the new network being formed between CBS and Warner Brothers that will essentially replace both UPN and The WB. This is a good thing...as long as all the good shows from both networks get folded in for the fall. Read the latest Entertainment Weekly for the perfect lineup (which does include all of my favorite shows on the two networks plus the high profile Aquaman series in development for The WB).
Let's face it, while The WB has had some good shows over the years (Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Everwood to name a few), UPN has had exactly two since the network began in 1995 (Nowhere Man and Veronica Mars...and since Buffy moved there we're not going to count her...and Star Trek has been crap since Voyager started). So hopefully a good combination can be made and this new network can start beating the hell out of the old guys just as FOX has of late.
Meanwhile...it's mid-season time...so here's a look at what we've checked out so far...
Emily's Reasons Why Not was crap and was justly cancelled after one episode.
Jake In Progress was an interesting show last season that was brought back with too many oddball changes (all of a sudden Jake and Patrick were childhood friends when they had just met last season??). Also cancelled after airing one episode.
24 returned with an amazing 2 night 4 hour run that saw the demise of two MAJOR characters and threw the entire show into a tizzy. Sure the logic tends to defy logic (Tony being shot in the neck and then he's running around 3 episodes later), but it is pure fun and keeps you on the edge of your seat at all times. This season's plot is a doozy.
Love Monkey isn't bad, but having Tom Cavanaugh as the star reminds me way too much of Ed which I still miss (and that show needs to be on DVD).
Scrubs has also returned and hasn't missed a stride yet. 100 episodes and still going strong.
Four Kings is the same kind of crap that NBC has always used to glue their big "Must See TV" shows together. It should be gone before next season starts.
Crumbs is inetersting and humorous...but I'm going to give it a few more episodes before really reviewing it.
There are two reasons I decided to watch The Book of Daniel. 1) The Cast. The big names are good actors and I knew a few people who were background actors (so it was nice trying to spot them). 2) The controversy. Nothing gets me watching like people raising a ruckuss that we shouldn't be allowed to see something instead of just turning their damn TV off. The show itself was okay at best. I kept waiting to see if it got any better. I knew it didn't have long life left when the ads during the third episode were all for NBC programs and nothing else. It got cancelled the following week. Score 1 for the bad guys in spite of it being just "eh".
For those curious, the folks behind the interesting, but cancelled experiment Reunion revealed the potential killer in an interview but did state they may have taken it in another direction. It would have been the daughter who was given up for adpotion in the second episode (remember, the mystery was present day but each episode flashbacked to a different year starting 20 years ago in the pilot so we'd eventually reach present day and a solution to the mystery). Oh well.
Sci-Fi will begin broadcasting the new Doctor Who when Battlestar Galactica finishes it's second season at the end of March. If you like science fiction YOU MUST WATCH THIS SHOW (that also goes for Battlestar Galactica). I want to see the second season ASAP and don't want to have to jump thru hoops to do so.
Speaking of jumping thru hoops...Cartoon Network apparently took notice of all the activity on bittorrent sites concerning the new episodes of Justice League Unlimited that they were originally planning on airing this summer. The new episodes will now start in February (there are only 9 left before the season ends).
Well...I think that's all I've got today...
Be seeing you.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
2005 Catch Up
So today we spend some time taking some quick looks at recent releases that we missed in theaters but have caught on DVD...so let's just get right to it...
Must Love Dogs is a typical romantic comedy starring John Cusack and Diane Lane. It was such a typical romantic comedy that I believe this film should force a moritorium on the genre for at leats 5 years (like that'll happen). The movie is so bland that it didn't even get a real "Special Edition DVD" release (and every piece of crap does these days) as it contains some deleted scenes, a gag reel and a trailer. Yawn.
The Bad News Bears is one of those remakes that begs the question "why did this need to be remade?" With Billy Bob Thornton stepping in for Walter Matthau we essentially get a cross between Bad Santa and The Bad News Bears. It's pointlessly raunchy...actually it's just pointless. See the original. Heck, see the sequels to the original.
The Constant Gardner is one of those films you're not sure about when you see the trailer. Is it a drama? Is it a mystery? Is it a dramery? Well...after having seen it, it is a political thriller...and a really good one at that. Ralph Fiennes plays a British diplomat who gets tangled in a web of deception after his journalist wife (Rachel Weisz) dies in a car accident. These days I normally don't like films that push a political agenda, but this one's a noble nose tweaking of the pharmacutical industry so I didn't mind much. Amazingly shot, this is one beautiful film to look at. This will easily make my best list for 2005.
Red Eye is another film that was marketed strangely. Trailers suggested a horror film on an airplane since it's directed by Wes Craven...but it is mostly suspense...and then about 45 minutes later the story moves off of the airplane and completely falls apart (not that it was so great to begin with). Rachel McAdams plays a hotel manager on her way home when she is forced by a strange man (Cillian Murphy) to do something against her will (to tell you what that is would ruin what little plot there is). Not worth cathcing this one (pun intended).
Layer Cake is a must see movie...especially fi you want to see why Daniel Craig was picked to be the new James Bond. This story of a drug dealer planning to retire is simply engaging from start to finish. One of the best films of the year.
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y is an odd surreal piece of the kind I was forced to watch in film classes during college. Don't even remember what attracted me to this, but I gave up after 15 minutes (and the film runs just over an hour). It's mostly a long montage of images and sound bites of terrorist attacks from the 60s, 70s and 80s and its attempting to make some sort of point about the media's role in reporting these, but I'll be damned if I could figure it out in 15 minutes and didn't feel like wasting an hour to get there. For the record, the film was made in 1998.
The Aristocrats is the funniest film of 2005. Hands down. This documentary is essentially about the construction and deconstruction of a joke that many comedians tell amongst themselves and few people have actually heard. The joke starts "A guy walks into a talent agent's office and says "I've got this great act for you.'" And it ends with "The agent asks 'What's the act called?' and the guy replies 'The Aristocrats.'" Of course, this simple version isn't funny...it's the in between that I've left out where all the mayhem begins. You see every comedian puts their own spin on what this act does and it seems like each one is trying to top the other. They throw in every possible sex act, scatalogical act and taboo subject matter possible for this "family act" to go through. Some of the jokes last about 30 seconds (like Emo Phillips), some people claim to have streched it to a two hour story (Dana Gould), there's an animated version using the boys from South Park and even a version by a mime. And the film isn't just a string of comedians telling the joke. We get its history, how it gets reinterpreted by females, by African-Americans, how it can make a political statement and other permutations. This is not for the faint at heart as some of the descriptions defy repeating...but I was so on the floor with this film that I'm working on several versions myself.
Two animated films that got me a big angry about the use of stars instead of vocal actors are Madagascar and Robots. The former is a very funny film about animals wanting to escape from the Central Park Zoo and the latter is about a young robot with a dream that gets crushed by the system. The former utilizes Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith and the characters sound and act just like Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and some lady whose voice you won't really recognize. It's distracting and annoying, but the film is very funny (especially the penguins).
Robots on the other hand isn't as funny and it uses many more recognizable actors, but the only ones that are truly obnoxious are Robin Williams and Mel Brooks since they have the most recognizable voices and play characters similar to themselves. Everyone else, Ewan MacGregor, Halle Berry, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Jim Broadbent and Drew Carey aren't as vocally recognizable and their characters don't seem like the actors' public personas anyway. So while this film wasn't as funny and didn't make me as angry (since it had more people "acting" than being themselves) it's still a good representation of what's wrong with most big screen animation these days.
Another film that got me angry, in a completely different way is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. This documentary takes a look at the rise and fall of Enron and essentially exposes what is the biggest flaw in a capitalist system. Once greed overtakes one part of it it's very easy for it to infiltrate others. This is a film everyone should see if only to understand that this WILL happen again on perhaps an even bigger scale. This is a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions and a wealth of characters who all deserve punishments as harsh as any in the Bard's plays.
The Chumscrubber is an odd little film with a strange cast. Glenn Close, Ralhp Fiennes, Rita Wilson, Lauren Holly, William Fitchner, Carrie-Ann Moss, Allison Janney, Jason Isaacs, John Heard and Jamie Bell star in this darkly comic look at suburbia. When a teenager finds his best friend has hung himself everyone seems to continue acting as if its business as usual. He quickly realizes that he may not have really known his friend and winds up involved with drug dealers who think they've kidnapped his brother but have actually taken the sherrif's son by mistake. It's not a great film by any means and its not an original film either (let's face it, David Lynch cornered the market on the dark side of suburbia years ago), but it is an interesting film with some great acting.
Well...that's all for today (isn't that enough). We'll play catch up on TV shows next time...
Be seeing you.
Must Love Dogs is a typical romantic comedy starring John Cusack and Diane Lane. It was such a typical romantic comedy that I believe this film should force a moritorium on the genre for at leats 5 years (like that'll happen). The movie is so bland that it didn't even get a real "Special Edition DVD" release (and every piece of crap does these days) as it contains some deleted scenes, a gag reel and a trailer. Yawn.
The Bad News Bears is one of those remakes that begs the question "why did this need to be remade?" With Billy Bob Thornton stepping in for Walter Matthau we essentially get a cross between Bad Santa and The Bad News Bears. It's pointlessly raunchy...actually it's just pointless. See the original. Heck, see the sequels to the original.
The Constant Gardner is one of those films you're not sure about when you see the trailer. Is it a drama? Is it a mystery? Is it a dramery? Well...after having seen it, it is a political thriller...and a really good one at that. Ralph Fiennes plays a British diplomat who gets tangled in a web of deception after his journalist wife (Rachel Weisz) dies in a car accident. These days I normally don't like films that push a political agenda, but this one's a noble nose tweaking of the pharmacutical industry so I didn't mind much. Amazingly shot, this is one beautiful film to look at. This will easily make my best list for 2005.
Red Eye is another film that was marketed strangely. Trailers suggested a horror film on an airplane since it's directed by Wes Craven...but it is mostly suspense...and then about 45 minutes later the story moves off of the airplane and completely falls apart (not that it was so great to begin with). Rachel McAdams plays a hotel manager on her way home when she is forced by a strange man (Cillian Murphy) to do something against her will (to tell you what that is would ruin what little plot there is). Not worth cathcing this one (pun intended).
Layer Cake is a must see movie...especially fi you want to see why Daniel Craig was picked to be the new James Bond. This story of a drug dealer planning to retire is simply engaging from start to finish. One of the best films of the year.
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y is an odd surreal piece of the kind I was forced to watch in film classes during college. Don't even remember what attracted me to this, but I gave up after 15 minutes (and the film runs just over an hour). It's mostly a long montage of images and sound bites of terrorist attacks from the 60s, 70s and 80s and its attempting to make some sort of point about the media's role in reporting these, but I'll be damned if I could figure it out in 15 minutes and didn't feel like wasting an hour to get there. For the record, the film was made in 1998.
The Aristocrats is the funniest film of 2005. Hands down. This documentary is essentially about the construction and deconstruction of a joke that many comedians tell amongst themselves and few people have actually heard. The joke starts "A guy walks into a talent agent's office and says "I've got this great act for you.'" And it ends with "The agent asks 'What's the act called?' and the guy replies 'The Aristocrats.'" Of course, this simple version isn't funny...it's the in between that I've left out where all the mayhem begins. You see every comedian puts their own spin on what this act does and it seems like each one is trying to top the other. They throw in every possible sex act, scatalogical act and taboo subject matter possible for this "family act" to go through. Some of the jokes last about 30 seconds (like Emo Phillips), some people claim to have streched it to a two hour story (Dana Gould), there's an animated version using the boys from South Park and even a version by a mime. And the film isn't just a string of comedians telling the joke. We get its history, how it gets reinterpreted by females, by African-Americans, how it can make a political statement and other permutations. This is not for the faint at heart as some of the descriptions defy repeating...but I was so on the floor with this film that I'm working on several versions myself.
Two animated films that got me a big angry about the use of stars instead of vocal actors are Madagascar and Robots. The former is a very funny film about animals wanting to escape from the Central Park Zoo and the latter is about a young robot with a dream that gets crushed by the system. The former utilizes Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith and the characters sound and act just like Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and some lady whose voice you won't really recognize. It's distracting and annoying, but the film is very funny (especially the penguins).
Robots on the other hand isn't as funny and it uses many more recognizable actors, but the only ones that are truly obnoxious are Robin Williams and Mel Brooks since they have the most recognizable voices and play characters similar to themselves. Everyone else, Ewan MacGregor, Halle Berry, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Jim Broadbent and Drew Carey aren't as vocally recognizable and their characters don't seem like the actors' public personas anyway. So while this film wasn't as funny and didn't make me as angry (since it had more people "acting" than being themselves) it's still a good representation of what's wrong with most big screen animation these days.
Another film that got me angry, in a completely different way is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. This documentary takes a look at the rise and fall of Enron and essentially exposes what is the biggest flaw in a capitalist system. Once greed overtakes one part of it it's very easy for it to infiltrate others. This is a film everyone should see if only to understand that this WILL happen again on perhaps an even bigger scale. This is a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions and a wealth of characters who all deserve punishments as harsh as any in the Bard's plays.
The Chumscrubber is an odd little film with a strange cast. Glenn Close, Ralhp Fiennes, Rita Wilson, Lauren Holly, William Fitchner, Carrie-Ann Moss, Allison Janney, Jason Isaacs, John Heard and Jamie Bell star in this darkly comic look at suburbia. When a teenager finds his best friend has hung himself everyone seems to continue acting as if its business as usual. He quickly realizes that he may not have really known his friend and winds up involved with drug dealers who think they've kidnapped his brother but have actually taken the sherrif's son by mistake. It's not a great film by any means and its not an original film either (let's face it, David Lynch cornered the market on the dark side of suburbia years ago), but it is an interesting film with some great acting.
Well...that's all for today (isn't that enough). We'll play catch up on TV shows next time...
Be seeing you.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Questions & Answers & Other Silly Explainations
Hey folks,
A few of your have e-mailed recently asking why you'd been taken off my list or why you hadn't gotten a new Fugue in some time. Well...I've stopped sending them. I thought that perhaps setting up the blog page would be easier than me mass e-mailing. And it has been...for me...so I'm sending this one on to remind everyone where they can catch all my latest ramblings:
http://toccataandfugue.blogspot.com/
And for those even fewer who wrote asking why I hadn't posted anything on the blog in a while, well...things have been a bit crazy, but I'm trying to get back onto a regular schedule. Check back on Wednesdays and you'll see what I mean.
In the meantime, why have I been busy?
Well...for one, I've got a 7 month old son now in addition to a wife. So that keeps me pretty busy, especially since I'm playing Mister Mom most of the time.
It's truly amazing watching Malcolm grow and change so fast. He recently started pulling himself up onto things, so that's been making things really fun. If you're interested in photos check out the following link:
http://www.seemegrow.net/gallery/fenster
That site will get updated once a month, but we'll let you know when.
In the meantime, Natasha has been performing in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Darien for the last two weekends. The show ends this coming weekend (and it's sold out I believe, but you can always call 655-5414 for tickets). It'll be nice to have her back...at least until the next show. She just auditioned for The Pirates of Penzance (which opens in April if she gets a part) and I'm producing Room Service, which opens in March, and then directing Sly Fox, which opens in May. Malcolm sometimes spends way too much time at the theater so he better like it when he gets old enough to appreciate it.
It's been interesting trying to make this work and we'll have to change tactics (meaning hire a babysiter aside from my parents) if we've got three shows between the two of us coming up.
The house is almost done on the inside. We've been finished with the first contractor since October and the second contractor is finishing up some minor work inside this week. Everything else we want to get done is all outside (and quick work)....so yay to that!
While Tash & I have been trying to get to the movies to see a variety of things, it just hasn't worked out. We'll keep trying...but in the meantime we're catching up on DVDs. The next post will be a series of reviews of everything we've caught recently. My annual Best/Worst of the Year will not appear until closer to the end of february as I realized I hadn't seen enough films to properly fill out either list (and some major ones will be missing at the end of the day anyway).
As to why I haven't commented on Daniel Craig being picked as the new James Bond...well...I'm waiting for the whole enchilada (so to speak) of who else is in the film before commenting.
There'll be some good TV show reviews coming up shortly as well...along with a long in the works look at what's currently going on in DC Comics (yes...Earth 2 has returned for now)...
There are a few other things I've been working on, but they'll remain under wraps for a bit longer.
So...remember...if you don't get another one of these e-mails, it doesn't mean you've fallen off my list...it just means you need to check the link above as I will be updating it regularly...
Hope everyone is well and enjoying 2006 so far.
Be seeing you.
A few of your have e-mailed recently asking why you'd been taken off my list or why you hadn't gotten a new Fugue in some time. Well...I've stopped sending them. I thought that perhaps setting up the blog page would be easier than me mass e-mailing. And it has been...for me...so I'm sending this one on to remind everyone where they can catch all my latest ramblings:
http://toccataandfugue.blogspot.com/
And for those even fewer who wrote asking why I hadn't posted anything on the blog in a while, well...things have been a bit crazy, but I'm trying to get back onto a regular schedule. Check back on Wednesdays and you'll see what I mean.
In the meantime, why have I been busy?
Well...for one, I've got a 7 month old son now in addition to a wife. So that keeps me pretty busy, especially since I'm playing Mister Mom most of the time.
It's truly amazing watching Malcolm grow and change so fast. He recently started pulling himself up onto things, so that's been making things really fun. If you're interested in photos check out the following link:
http://www.seemegrow.net/gallery/fenster
That site will get updated once a month, but we'll let you know when.
In the meantime, Natasha has been performing in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Darien for the last two weekends. The show ends this coming weekend (and it's sold out I believe, but you can always call 655-5414 for tickets). It'll be nice to have her back...at least until the next show. She just auditioned for The Pirates of Penzance (which opens in April if she gets a part) and I'm producing Room Service, which opens in March, and then directing Sly Fox, which opens in May. Malcolm sometimes spends way too much time at the theater so he better like it when he gets old enough to appreciate it.
It's been interesting trying to make this work and we'll have to change tactics (meaning hire a babysiter aside from my parents) if we've got three shows between the two of us coming up.
The house is almost done on the inside. We've been finished with the first contractor since October and the second contractor is finishing up some minor work inside this week. Everything else we want to get done is all outside (and quick work)....so yay to that!
While Tash & I have been trying to get to the movies to see a variety of things, it just hasn't worked out. We'll keep trying...but in the meantime we're catching up on DVDs. The next post will be a series of reviews of everything we've caught recently. My annual Best/Worst of the Year will not appear until closer to the end of february as I realized I hadn't seen enough films to properly fill out either list (and some major ones will be missing at the end of the day anyway).
As to why I haven't commented on Daniel Craig being picked as the new James Bond...well...I'm waiting for the whole enchilada (so to speak) of who else is in the film before commenting.
There'll be some good TV show reviews coming up shortly as well...along with a long in the works look at what's currently going on in DC Comics (yes...Earth 2 has returned for now)...
There are a few other things I've been working on, but they'll remain under wraps for a bit longer.
So...remember...if you don't get another one of these e-mails, it doesn't mean you've fallen off my list...it just means you need to check the link above as I will be updating it regularly...
Hope everyone is well and enjoying 2006 so far.
Be seeing you.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Starting the New Year with a BANG!
Before we get started today, I want to complain about a trend in movie releases that HAS to stop. All three films reviewed today suffer from it and it has gotten to be too much. I'm talking about the marketing concept known as the "Unrated Version" which has essentially become little more than an end run around the MPAA and rarely actually adds anything to the film. The true "Director's Cut" is a rarity these days with video releases and most of the time we're just getting a bland enticement to purchase something "special" that was cut for legitimate reasons and has now been reinserted (don't want to stay restored because it's not like we're talking about an instance of studio interference like David Lynch's Dune or Terry Gilliam's Brazil) essentially making good films blah and bad films even longer. I wish the studios would stop and leave well enough alone.
I haven't seen the theatrical versions of any of the films reviewed today, so you're getting my impressions on the "Unrated" DVD releases.
The concept behind The 40 Year Old Virgin is pretty much explained in the title. Andy Stsitzer (Steve Carrell) has had bad luck with women all his life and remains a virgin at age 40. When his work buddies find out about this, they make it their mission to "correct this problem". Of course, Andy finds true love in the process with a divorced mother (Catherine Keener).
Taking in over $100 million at the box office, this film was one of the more successful comedies of the year (perhaps surpassed only by the next film reviewed today). From the creator of the cult TV series Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, this film is very funny, very sweet and yet somewhat disjointed. The funniest scenes all involve the co-workers, whether it's their attempts at getting Andy laid or advice on things to do that will lead to that or their own personal subplots (and each of the three main ones does have their own) which kind of makes for something of a let down everytime Andy and Trish's story comes on. It almost gets in the way.
The theatrical version ran 116 minutes. The "Unrated" DVD version runs 133 minutes. I'm not sure what exactly was added where, but the movie feels padded and long in spots (enough so that the theatrical version was probably ten minutes too long...the best comedies tend to run no more than 105 minutes...any "pro" will tell you the shorter the better). But it is funny and very sweet (and not the raunchy sex comedy the title might suggest).
The "Unrated" DVD contains a commentary, some deleted scenes and alternate takes (these are what was probably used by the MPAA to threaten an NC-17, but they are not incorporated back into the film here), a gag reel and actor Seth Rogan having dinner with a porn star. All funny stuff, but begs the usual question of "Is this film truly special enough to deserve all these extras?" I'm not sure...but it is worth seeing. The theatrical version has also been released on DVD. There are no extras AND it is "Full Screen" only. Go figure.
Wedding Crashers has a concept that could potentially make the lead characters unlikable. Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson star as two guys who, for fun, crash weddings and mingle with the real guests. At one wedding, John (Wilson) falls for a bridesmaid and Jeremy (Vaughn) hooks up with her sister. It turns out the girls are the daughters of the U.S. Treasury Secretary (Christopher Walken) and they wind up spending the weekend with the family as they get deeper and deeper into the lie they created.
The theatrical version runs 119 minutes and this "Uncorked" DVD runs 128. Unlike the previous film reviewed, I'm pretty sure most of what was added was nudity as there's a lot of it. The film is very funny and the usually annoying Luke Wilson is less so here (don't get me wrong, he is still annoying). Vince Vaughn remains an amazing and engaging actor and runs circles around his costar. The "rude" factor of what these guys do doesn't actually hurt anyone in the film (at least in the beginning when we see them going from a Jewish wedding to a Irish wedding to an Italian one etc.) and the "ick" factor is touched upon nicely later in the film with a cameo by Will Ferrell as a former buddy of Vaughn's who has "graduated" from weddings to funerals.
The DVD of this high grossing comedy (over $200 million) contains two commentaries, some deleted scenes and some behind the scenes footage as well as both the extended and theatrical versions. The theatrical version is also available on its own (with the same extras) for those stores (cough Wal-Mart cough) who like to keep "perverted" material out of children's hands.
Universal Pictures has had amazing success with their American Pie franchise. With three entries each grossing more than $100 million you'd expect more life out of the series. Universal has decided to take a slightly different route for a fourth entry. They've had plenty of success with direct-to-video sequels (Darkman, Tremors, The Land Before Time, The Skulls and Bring It On all come to mind) and most of these haven't been complete wastes of time and money. So now we have American Pie Presents Band Camp and I'm pretty sure this will be the franchise killer.
Stifler's younger brother Matt is trying to follow in his big brother's footsteps. He's a jock jerk who is constantly playing tricks on the band geeks. When one of these backfires, his guidance counselor (Chuck Sherman, played by Chris Owen again) sentences him to Band Camp in order to learn to get along with the geeks. Once there he decides to secretly make videos of the hot band geeks and one up his brother (who is apparently doing girls gone wild videos of his own). Of course, by film's end he falls in love with one of the "geeks" and learns the errors of his ways. Eugene Levy also appears as Jim's dad in a contrived bit of plotting that makes him the camp's guidance counselor.
It's very hard to enjoy a film that is focused on an obnoxious and detestable character. At least in the three previous films Stifler was not the main character, so you could easily laugh at him and not take him seriously. Here, we're stuck...and it's not pretty. On top of this, the writer (Brad Riddell...first job) and director (Steve Rash...Under the Rainbow and Can't Buy Me Love) seem to have emphasized the gross in "gross out humor". None of it is funny and it all reeks of being "realistic" which is bad for humor (they should have watched either Family Guy or Stand By Me to learn how to make vomitting hysterical...and the scene of Stifler jerking off in an out of order bathroom stall is probably the grossest I've ever seen...and I own Passolini's Salo on DVD so that's gotta be saying something).
The "Unrated" DVD (there had to be 2 versions?? the film didn't get a theatrical release??!) runs 95 minutes and the R Rated version runs 87. My guess is that we're treated to many more boob and butt shots (which don't help this crap fest). The "Unrated" version has loads of "special features" it doesn't deserve. The R Rated version is fullscreen only. This may be the first time I'd recommend a "cut version" of a film...because the less we have of this the better. I'm pretty sure Eugene Levy lost a bet or is being blackmailed based on his appearance here.
That's all for today.
Be seeing you.
I haven't seen the theatrical versions of any of the films reviewed today, so you're getting my impressions on the "Unrated" DVD releases.
The concept behind The 40 Year Old Virgin is pretty much explained in the title. Andy Stsitzer (Steve Carrell) has had bad luck with women all his life and remains a virgin at age 40. When his work buddies find out about this, they make it their mission to "correct this problem". Of course, Andy finds true love in the process with a divorced mother (Catherine Keener).
Taking in over $100 million at the box office, this film was one of the more successful comedies of the year (perhaps surpassed only by the next film reviewed today). From the creator of the cult TV series Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, this film is very funny, very sweet and yet somewhat disjointed. The funniest scenes all involve the co-workers, whether it's their attempts at getting Andy laid or advice on things to do that will lead to that or their own personal subplots (and each of the three main ones does have their own) which kind of makes for something of a let down everytime Andy and Trish's story comes on. It almost gets in the way.
The theatrical version ran 116 minutes. The "Unrated" DVD version runs 133 minutes. I'm not sure what exactly was added where, but the movie feels padded and long in spots (enough so that the theatrical version was probably ten minutes too long...the best comedies tend to run no more than 105 minutes...any "pro" will tell you the shorter the better). But it is funny and very sweet (and not the raunchy sex comedy the title might suggest).
The "Unrated" DVD contains a commentary, some deleted scenes and alternate takes (these are what was probably used by the MPAA to threaten an NC-17, but they are not incorporated back into the film here), a gag reel and actor Seth Rogan having dinner with a porn star. All funny stuff, but begs the usual question of "Is this film truly special enough to deserve all these extras?" I'm not sure...but it is worth seeing. The theatrical version has also been released on DVD. There are no extras AND it is "Full Screen" only. Go figure.
Wedding Crashers has a concept that could potentially make the lead characters unlikable. Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson star as two guys who, for fun, crash weddings and mingle with the real guests. At one wedding, John (Wilson) falls for a bridesmaid and Jeremy (Vaughn) hooks up with her sister. It turns out the girls are the daughters of the U.S. Treasury Secretary (Christopher Walken) and they wind up spending the weekend with the family as they get deeper and deeper into the lie they created.
The theatrical version runs 119 minutes and this "Uncorked" DVD runs 128. Unlike the previous film reviewed, I'm pretty sure most of what was added was nudity as there's a lot of it. The film is very funny and the usually annoying Luke Wilson is less so here (don't get me wrong, he is still annoying). Vince Vaughn remains an amazing and engaging actor and runs circles around his costar. The "rude" factor of what these guys do doesn't actually hurt anyone in the film (at least in the beginning when we see them going from a Jewish wedding to a Irish wedding to an Italian one etc.) and the "ick" factor is touched upon nicely later in the film with a cameo by Will Ferrell as a former buddy of Vaughn's who has "graduated" from weddings to funerals.
The DVD of this high grossing comedy (over $200 million) contains two commentaries, some deleted scenes and some behind the scenes footage as well as both the extended and theatrical versions. The theatrical version is also available on its own (with the same extras) for those stores (cough Wal-Mart cough) who like to keep "perverted" material out of children's hands.
Universal Pictures has had amazing success with their American Pie franchise. With three entries each grossing more than $100 million you'd expect more life out of the series. Universal has decided to take a slightly different route for a fourth entry. They've had plenty of success with direct-to-video sequels (Darkman, Tremors, The Land Before Time, The Skulls and Bring It On all come to mind) and most of these haven't been complete wastes of time and money. So now we have American Pie Presents Band Camp and I'm pretty sure this will be the franchise killer.
Stifler's younger brother Matt is trying to follow in his big brother's footsteps. He's a jock jerk who is constantly playing tricks on the band geeks. When one of these backfires, his guidance counselor (Chuck Sherman, played by Chris Owen again) sentences him to Band Camp in order to learn to get along with the geeks. Once there he decides to secretly make videos of the hot band geeks and one up his brother (who is apparently doing girls gone wild videos of his own). Of course, by film's end he falls in love with one of the "geeks" and learns the errors of his ways. Eugene Levy also appears as Jim's dad in a contrived bit of plotting that makes him the camp's guidance counselor.
It's very hard to enjoy a film that is focused on an obnoxious and detestable character. At least in the three previous films Stifler was not the main character, so you could easily laugh at him and not take him seriously. Here, we're stuck...and it's not pretty. On top of this, the writer (Brad Riddell...first job) and director (Steve Rash...Under the Rainbow and Can't Buy Me Love) seem to have emphasized the gross in "gross out humor". None of it is funny and it all reeks of being "realistic" which is bad for humor (they should have watched either Family Guy or Stand By Me to learn how to make vomitting hysterical...and the scene of Stifler jerking off in an out of order bathroom stall is probably the grossest I've ever seen...and I own Passolini's Salo on DVD so that's gotta be saying something).
The "Unrated" DVD (there had to be 2 versions?? the film didn't get a theatrical release??!) runs 95 minutes and the R Rated version runs 87. My guess is that we're treated to many more boob and butt shots (which don't help this crap fest). The "Unrated" version has loads of "special features" it doesn't deserve. The R Rated version is fullscreen only. This may be the first time I'd recommend a "cut version" of a film...because the less we have of this the better. I'm pretty sure Eugene Levy lost a bet or is being blackmailed based on his appearance here.
That's all for today.
Be seeing you.
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