Day One Hundred and Eleven - Career Opportunities, "Proof positive that an era can end."

If there is one truth about movies in the 80's, it's that John Hughes was the master of the coming of age teen dramedy.

Be it Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller... Hughes was gold when it came to tapping into the zeitgeist that was adolescent ennui in the age of Cyndi Lauper, INXS, and Bananarama. So much so that I doubt anyone who grew up in that era would argue any different and anyone who was born too late would be instantly beat down in any internet fight if they said otherwise.

But there's a flipside to the argument, because once he left the zaniness of the 80's, the market changed rapidly and, where Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson were once the gods of the Brat Pack, the 90's demanded a more real and gritty take on growing up, preferring Reality Bytes and Empire Records to Baby's Day Out and Home Alone.

I sort of weep for Career Opportunities. Not only did it come at the wrong time, but it was trying to bridge the gap between the old and the new, straddling the stylistic canyon between checkered suits and grungy flannel shirts.

The story is very much a slant on what Hughes did a year before with Home Alone, just with a pair of teenagers in a department store instead of a precocious kid in his own house. Essentially, Jim Dodge (played by Frank Whaley, who really isn't leading man material) IS Kevin McAllister, just older and a brunette... but the endless tirade of lies and manipulations that come out of an eight year old's mouth are cheap and really rather pathetic from a young adult.

Jim is the Town Liar. It's obvious from the start when Hughes has him almost playing to the audience and breaking the fourth wall till we see he's regaling the dogs of an animal shelter with his fantasies. He spins his tales to a trio of pre-teens, who believe and revere him, while the rest of the town is wise to his tricks. He's a born loser.

Josie (Jennifer Connelly) is the spoiled rich girl whose idea of "doing anything" to get her father's attention consists of attempting to shoplift but chickening out. There's also a seedy undercurrent of physical abuse that you never see but is hinted at without any real drama, very much to the detriment of the movie. Instead of Judd Nelson's "carton of cigarettes" monologue from The Breakfast Club, we get Josie in monotone to Jim confessing her dad "beats her ass." No drama, no impact, just bleh.

Together, the two of them get locked into the local Target (the Big Red Dot being a new and weird thing back then) and proceed to spend the night goofing off and bonding until a pair of murderers and thieves somehow manage to break inside in a way that is never actually explained. This is especially disconcerting considering the movie expends several scenes on the notion that Jim and Josie can't get out.

The entire premise and all its little sundries are laughable. Where I could get behind Ferris and his trip across Chicago, even crashing a parade float... I cannot for one second believe in Jim and Josie, either their separate issues or their instant concrete bonding. This is especially true when Josie goes Stockholm Syndrome with one of the robbers and the last fifteen minutes of the film becomes a version of Die Hard.

I feel really bad for Jennifer Connelly in this film. She's obviously too beautiful for the room and there definitely isn't much to chew on in the script. Anyone with a brain can see she's just being used for her ample rack here. Sure, she was pretty much just starting out at this point, but OH MY GOD am I thankful her agent got her in Dark City, Requiem for a Dream, and A Beautiful Mind instead of more crapfests like this.

Her, I can forgive. Hughes? Not so much.

Plot holes, superfluous scenes, useless melodrama away from the action (Josie and Jim's respective fathers and their sleepless nights)... you can definitely see why this particular entry into Hughes' catalog never comes up on anyone's lists. I most certainly recommend that everyone stay away unless they're feeling masochistic and want to go through his entire film repertoire... all the way up through Drillbit Taylor.

*shudder*

Though, I will admit that it was fun to see racks and racks of cassette tapes again in their annoying white plastic security cases to keep folks from slipping them in their pockets. Freaking hilarious. It did beg the question, though, of how exactly Josie and Jim pried them out to play in the various HiFi's of the store.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Ten - Explorers, "Some of that Spielburgian Scifi Wonder and Awe."

If you've read the blog or listened to OotV's podcasts you know that I love films like Super 8 that don't really dumb down family science fiction. Movies like Close Encounters and E.T. manage to entertain and inspire without over-complicating the message or resorting to the lowest common denominator, either.

It should probably go without saying that Explorers holds a similar place in my heart.

Focusing on three adolescents who are brought together both by their sense of adventure and the oddly prescient and vivid dreams that they share, Explorers stars a very young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix. Joined by Jason Presson (who sadly didn't have similar star power), the trio discover that the dreams that Ben (Hawke) is having translate into an undiscovered technology that can allow them to travel anywhere in three dimensions.

The film follows their journey (both literal and figurative) as they build a ship to navigate space with this new technology and decided to slip the bonds of Earth and see just what is out there. It's a nifty sort of coming of age story that mirrors the Vision Quest (again, both figuratively and literally).

I really enjoyed the Tron-esque dream sequences that featured early CGI. It was brief and pales by far to today's standards... but, for its day, was pretty impressive.

Plus, any movie that has clips of This Island Earth and the original War of the Worlds just begs for geek support. Hard to say 'no' to that.

That's not to say it's not without problems, though.

Unlike its true Spielburgian cousins, it's rather lacking in scope, has several glaring plot holes that don't resolve, and definitely peters out far too quickly as soon as the extraterrestrial reveal is made. Once the aliens make physical contact, it all becomes a goofy pop culture exploration that feels like it wants to be serious through surreal comedy but is instead very gauche and trite.

I was particularly disappointed with how easily early plot points (the bullies, the helicopter cop) are completely forgotten by the midpoint of the film. There's no continuity with either lost thread and it messes with my sense of balance concerning the film.

Attempts are made to try, such as with Darren (Presson) and his callback line about his father... and Ben's love interest Lori, but a much better job could've been done overall to tie up the loose ends.

It's definitely not a perfect movie, that much is certain, but it still manages to pull off a decent amount of suspension of disbelief.

It's also a semi-decent showing for Robert Picardo. Not his best foray into that wacky character repertoire of his, but the man has been the go-to guy for small roles like this for decades. You can't knock them all out of the park... and, really, when I think about it, the movie's problems aren't his fault at all. For what he was asked for, he delivered his part pretty well. It's just that the effects (especially the alien suit) were crap.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Nine - High School of the Dead: Episode 9, "Mmm... Saeko. I love you."

It's been a while since I watched any High School of the Dead, so I figured I'd head back and take a few in. The episodes are short on time and long on fanservice and, sometimes, that's just what you need.

Episode 9, "The Sword and The Dead" teams up the group's nominal male lead, Takashi, and the ever deadly and beautiful Saeko as they are separated from the rest of the group. The meat of the story revolves around the two of them bonding as they are generally cut off by the horde at just about every opportunity and are forced to improvise and spend the night rough in a shrine temple.

I really love this particular episode because it highlights my favorite shippage in the series. There's just something about Saeko's character archetype that pushes all the right buttons for me. She's vicious, but not evil. Refined, but also primal. Sexy, but demure.

Granted, the series makes no qualms about showing her in a few states of undress, giving her a dousing in river water to force an impromtu wet t-shirt contest (in which she is the only contestant), a sequence where she's braless in a tanktop, and so on, but this is High School of the Dead.

It has two modes... Zombie Violence and Fan Service... and the series is REALLY heavy on the latter. If you're at all surprised with what you get at this point, I have no respect for your powers of observation.

In addition to all the service, we also get to see the weaker side of Saeko (probably just to ramp her moe factor, but still). Despite her deadly ways, she balks when confronted with zombie children and is almost bitten until Takashi intervenes. We are also treated to a bit of her backstory as she relays her fears concerning her possible status as a psychopath who loves to kill and maim.

It's weird how much I love how beautiful her darkness is... and it obviously rubs off a little on Takashi, BUT that last bit is kind of my problem with the series.

HSotD is an obvious harem anime... where the main male lead is the object of both attention and affection for all the female leads. That means that it's all super cheesy, super convenient, and the shippage that I may particularly root for is only around for a few key episodes before it falls into the background in favor of the main romance.

Or, at least, what is HINTED to be the main romance... and, based on the clues, I'm guessing it won't be Saeko.

Unless, you know, the party manages to form a comfortable trois or quart.

Or pentacle.

So many of these buxom girls are just gaga over Takashi, of course, that it annoys the hell out of me. Maybe because I, personally, am more like the chubby otaku character Kohta Hirano whose own love interest is, of course, head over heels for Takashi.

Ah, jealousy... over fictional anime characters.

I wish there was more HSotD. The anime ends on a cliffhanger in a few episodes and its source material, the manga, has been on hiatus for quite some time (over a year) and has only recently started back up again.

For what is there, though, it works on just about every primal caveman/reptile brain tendency. If that's your thing (like it is mine) enjoy with my blessing!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Eight - Breakout Kings: Season 2, Episode 1, "How many different procedurals are there? As well count the stars in the sky."

First Bones, then Numb3rs... now Netflix wants me to watch Breakout Kings, the ill-fated "cons-as-cops" procedural that only lasted halfway into its second season.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that television has a glut of procedurals. Why on earth do we need six versions of Law & Order and four of CSI? Two NCIS's and just as many that don't share a name but at least share the same universe like Bones and The Finder.

Most of them are available on Netflix, by the way.

Anyways, the point is... even though there's an overabundance of procedurals, I'm kind of bummed that Breakout Kings got cancelled. I'd watched the first season on Netflix about half a year ago and, while it's certainly rough, loved two characters enough that I wanted to see it play out.

Those characters are, of course, former wunderkind psychologist Lloyd Lowery (Jimmi Simpson) and mousey librarian type Julianne Simms (Brooke Nevin). I love the first because he plays just my kind of character, the overly intelligent, but socially inept, academic burnout... and I love the second because she's just so darn cute as a foil for the former.

Anyways, the SECOND (and final) season of Breakout Kings finally posted in Netflix and I was in the mood to see where these people were heading. The day-to-day, episode-to-episode mysteries don't matter to me... just character progression.

And that's sort of the trap of procedurals.

I remember watching the original Law & Order for the relationships between DA Jack McCoy and his ADA... between CSI's Grissom and Sara Sidle... the constant flirtations between Abby/McGee and Ziva/Tony on NCIS.

Here, the opening episode of Breakout King's second season feels more like a soft reset. True, only one character is really lost and they wait until the end of the episode, but it really has the air of studio executive meddling. The sort of  "we need to rework these characters" vibe. Lloyd and Jules seem much more prominent now (which makes me happy) and Shea seems marginalized.

If it continues like this for the remaining 10 episodes of the truncated season, I can understand why the ratings might've dropped (or risen). They tinkered... and it didn't pay off.

The mystery itself, I could care less about. A pair of rapists outwit the Kings crew at almost every opportunity and, when they are finally cornered, manage to easily turn the tables on our heroes and steal away... well, one of them does anyway. It's a Pyrrhic victory at best, but at least nothing horrible happened to the college coed victim.

I very much feel like the writers rushed the episode out of necessity... being given a last minute ultimatum to kill someone off and doing so sloppily.

There needed to be more cuts to show where the rest of the team was, not have a good 2/3rds go missing during the key moment when the heroes of the moment confront the armed and dangerous serial rapists/murderers.

What we got was NOT that.

Ah well, I guess. At least I'll be able to enjoy more Lloyd/Jules interaction for the final 10... but, still, it's disappointing. But them's the breaks.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes.

Day One Hundred and Seven - Frasier: Season 11, Episodes 23 and 24, "Goodnight, Seattle."

As much as I wanted the next episode of Frasier that I blogged about to be one just previous to the finale, featuring more Laura Linney and a hilarious guest spot by Stephen Root, I raced through the last few episodes (skipping the Crock Tales, of course) to get to that satisfying conclusion that makes me revisit it at least once a year.

Episodes 23 and 24 span a whirlwind of life changes as Marty and Ronee get married, Niles and Daphne have their baby, and Frasier, himself, is offered a new job in San Francisco.

The double-wide finale starts in the first class section of a flight in progress where Frasier and an attractive fellow psychiatrist take their minds off turbulence by Frasier sharing his past few weeks. It's an obvious ploy that's supposed to plant the seed that perhaps this beautiful woman is a possible love interest in Frasier's future life.

But the future is isn't the issue, as this is a sort of flashback episode... that seques in bed as Frasier and Charlotte (Laura Linney) are enjoying their final day together as, sadly, she is returning to her hometown of Chicago to resume her matchmaking service there.

It's a lovely, bittersweet sort of parting that allows for a few genuine laughs as Frasier misses his afternoon show (which sets up a mistaken assumption later) and Charlotte is harassed by the return of Daphne's drunken brother (Anthony Lapaglia) who has brought two other siblings to guest for the finale (UK faves Robbie Coltrane and Richard E. Grant).

THAT trio does a good job breaking the morose mood and serve to do so for the rest of the first half, until Eddie eats Marty and Ronee's rings and has to be taken to an emergency vet for some puppy ipecac which allows for yet another guest, this time from Jason Biggs as an inept vet.

Over the finale, lots of loose ends are tied up so that Frasier's big choice doesn't come as such a shock. Roz takes over as station manager from Kenny, sly agent Bebe continues her reign of sociopathy... and, of course, Marty moves out a married man and Niles becomes a father.

All of it is heartfelt and endearing, but still feels more than a little rushed. As I mentioned in my last blog entry for Frasier, the Charlotte romance needed to span the entire season to really have the impact it should have. Or, at least, more than the last quarter. To have any merit, I would've begged a minimum of twelve episodes and fought for more.

I did really dig the plastic surgeon/missed show excuse miscommunications which, when combined with Frasier's secretive big news and his giving away of personal mementos really did feel like a 6-months-to-live announcement.

It was hilarious, but the crocodile tears from all involved in that scene didn't, well, feel real. Maybe it's because I've never seen Niles or Martin cry in grief before... I just wasn't sold. Still, it was a good scene, even if I had a hard time swallowing it.

It really was a good send off... and had a decent twist at the end that I should've seen coming the first time I saw it almost a decade ago. It's weird to think of these shows as being that old. Cheers definitely seems to have aged, but Frasier still feels fresh. I don't even want to think about what Friends or Seinfeld look like now.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Six - Numb3rs: Pilot, "Shiny, shiny math... plus murder!"

Should more math be shown?

Actually, no, it probably shouldn't... as that would probably make for bad television. Boring television. Inept television.

Because I've been watching Bones lately to have some sort of cathartic release (that still hasn't come, by the way, but I can hope), Netflix's algorithms have decided that more post-millennial police procedurals are what I need, what I crave, what I desire. Luckily for me, they haven't suggested any of the CSI's or Law & Order: SVU yet, but the week is young and I've just taken a chance on Numb3rs, so maybe that will bump the math a little.

Now, full disclosure, I did actually catch a fair amount of the early seasons of Numb3rs back when it was on the air. It was entertaining, but I mainly stayed because of its cast (namely the extremely attractive Navi Rawat). I loved Rob Morrow as Joel in Northern Exposure (now there's a title I'm extremely worried about going back to decades later) and David Krumholtz's film career has generally made me happy (if I forget The Santa Clause... darnit, remembered again).

Coming back to the pilot, I found myself reengaged. The pilot was actually quality stuff... almost worthy of a film. I was actually surprised at how well it all gelled together. This was especially the case because the pilot was a lot tighter than I remember the series as a whole.

When I was watching Numb3rs back in the day, it felt much more rote and disingenuous as the episodes piled up and story after story, crime after crime, had to be solved in flashier math-based ways. I think that was the problem with the series.

The pilot really would've worked as just a movie... all they had to do was amp the character interactions by about thirty more pages and BAM... they would've had a great crime thriller. Instead, what they have is a pretty high quality pilot with a lot of that character drama missing, waiting to be filled out as the series progressed.

And that's what you want in a pilot, right? Great chemistry that you can exploit later? The hint of a romance between Krumholtz and Rawat... family tension subtext between Morrow, Krumholtz, and Hirsch... etc., etc., etc..

Wow, I'm just so conflicted.

I want Numb3rs to be a movie without the pressures of a weekly procedural (unique hooks, teased personal drama, satisfying episodic conclusions)... but it gave me everything a good weekly show would want to build on, then rarely delivered in the remaining episodes outside the pilot.

Well, let me couch that... eventually Numb3rs DID deliver on the romance with Rawat and beefed up Peter MacNicol's role (I really just love that guy to death)... but, in the pilot, they were compressed and only hinted at.

And, I will say this for the pilot... it didn't fall into the trap of most procedurals of having the suspect be obvious (or even NON-obvious in the background). They waited till the last minute to show you his face and he definitely wasn't a background character.

Kudos for that.

Overall, I got bored with Numb3rs as a series... but the pilot had pretty much everything I could've asked for. I find it a pity that it wasn't made into a movie and that the series didn't really deliver on the promise of the pilot, but hey... even at its worst, it was still better than CSI, NCIS, and SVU.

But, guess who's still on the air after all these years?

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Five - Cosmos: The Persistence of Memory, "Yeah, where's a Bird of Prey when you need one?"

To be honest, I've watched this episode twice in the last twenty-four hours. 

The first time was last night while I was arranging perler beads for a crafting project with friends. There was much in the way of half-listening and little in the way of actual watching. 

The second time, however, hours later, I was able to give Carl the full-attention that he deserves and felt almost the same amount of awe that I've recalled from previous episodes.

I say "almost" because, well, I wasn't too impressed with his "Dandelions" monologue on the complexity of life. 

He does have a nice bit on whales, their songs, and the effect that man has had both on isolating our mammalian cousins from each other thanks to muddying the oceans with noise pollution and hunting them so close to extinction. So much so that I think one of the writers of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home started writing the treatment for their script the moment they finished watching the segment.

Also, I was particularly enthralled with his comparisons between the sheer amount of information it takes to begin to understand life, our brains, and our need as a species to compile additional information in large memory banks outside our brains... in libraries.

He also goes into a little bit about the Voyager space program and the golden discs that are aboard both soon to be extra-solar vehicles. I find this additionally amusing due to the fact that a Voyager spacecraft was the main villain of the original Star Trek movie.

I think it's pretty fair to say that this wasn't the most thrilling of the Cosmos episodes, but it's still a certainty that I always learn something (or am reminded of a fact that I've long since forgotten since the first time I saw Cosmos is Debbie Prell's Physics classes). I wasn't exactly overwhelmed with delight when he spent a good ten minutes equating the knowledge of the human race in its various forms with stacks of books, but it was interesting how quickly he introduced the viewer to the concept of the bit... a simple yes or no that matters immensely to computer programers and logicians, but very little to the laymen.

Heck I still don't know the specific reason video game system generations operated using the bit as a measure of processing power. It was just something I always accepted with more meaning better, but hearing Carl talk about the bit as a logic gate, it makes me want to research it on my own.

And that's something I dearly love about Cosmos... even in its weaker episodes, it manages to pique my curiosity in some manner and goad me into learning something new outside the show. Sure, it's a silly little thing like what 8-bit versus 16-bit really means, but still.

As ever, I think Cosmos should be on everyone's queue and I look forward to hearing its soothing new age soundtrack and the sonorous lilt of Carl's voice again in the near future.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~