• Looks like the box set of Alien Nation TV movies is going to be very cool, with tons of great extras. Great to see some attention given to them.
• So, Manhunt 2 for the Wii is a murder training device? I think they should advertise it that way. Probably boost sales. Good ol’ Jack Thompson is at it, yet again. That guy needs a hobby. A new one, anyway. Perhaps he might want to look into becoming a gamer.
• Poor Pluto… An amusing illustration.
• Good grief, I may have to quickly start watching Stargate Atlantis to catch up to the upcoming fourth season (I’m already some 8 years behind on SG-1). Jewel Staite is joining the cast!
• This weekend’s Doctor Who episode (as aired on BBC in the UK, not lagging way behind on Sci-Fi Channel in the USA) was titled Blink. What a marvelous episode. It’s so perfectly Doctor Who, and a wonderfully inventive episode for a “doubled banked” episode (where The Doctor and Martha are barely in the episode due to the way they schedule this one episode during the simultaneous production of another episode or two). I thoroughly loved this one. It’s one of those where I had a gleefully devious laugh throughout much of it. In particular, this is one of them where you can just picture the effect it’ll have on kids while you are first watching it. It’s brilliantly clever, in an amazingly simple way. And the guest performance of Carey Mulligan is excellent. After the two parter that preceded it, which until now were my favorite of this current season, this is now my favorite of the current season. I look forward to the three final episodes of the season to follow.

This movie will quickly draw comparisons to other genre films. While is does have a good amount of stereotypical genre trappings, it also puts a somewhat different feel and spin on much of the material. One of my primary interests in seeing the film were for the loosely based auto-biographical aspects of the story to Elizabeth Shue and her family. The movie is definitely a successful attempt at a simple and engaging story. It might not be quite as good as We Are Marshall or other recent inspiring sports films centered around tragedy, but it’s definitely a good film to add to the list.

Writing: While the story may be based on the soccer-obsessed Shue family and their loss, many aspects of the story were changed in favor of a different narrative and story, but the same sentiments and emotional tone. Overall, I think they did a good job with it. Some of my favorite aspects of the story are just how hard the lead character of Gracie has to work, not just to break into the team, but to even be good enough to do so. This isn’t some gifted player who knows what she’s doing from the get go. We get to see her fail over and over again, never quite sure enough of herself to know how well she’ll do. And the material between her and father is very well played, with him wanting to believe she can do it but always somewhat unsure. Even right up to the end, we see her not quite up to the challenge. In fact, the movie never implies that she would be anything more than an average player amongst the rest of the team, which is a nicely reserved and realistic approach. In fact, realism seems to be something of an obsession on this film, from the period setting to the flawed and occasionally edgy characteristics of the main character - including a casual but flawed relationship with the best friend character that helps ground it in a non-sensationalistic style.

Production: While there’s not a lot to rave about in terms of production, it is all solid across the board and everything works very well. Nothing seems lacking, and if feels like a very competent crew was put together. Overall, they seem to have been most interested in a sense of reality, by not overplaying anything for style, and it works.

Cast: Carly Shroeder, who I was pretty unfamiliar with previously (other than playing the daughter in Firewall), does a fantastic job in the lead. She pulls off the delicate balance of being capable enough to be good at the sport but not overly tomboy or athletic to make any of it particularly obvious. Her dramatic acting skills are also quite good and really make the character material work, particularly with the rest of her on-screen family. It has to be a bit tougher when you know you’re playing a character that is based not only on a real person, but one who is your producer/co-star. Granted, the character is only loosely based on reality, but you gotta figure it still had some influence on her performance. Speaking of real life characters, we get a couple of the Shue family members on screen. Elizabeth Shue takes to role that is reportedly most like the real life character - that of the mother. She does a good job with it. Dermot Mulroney does a very nice job in the role of the father. The rest of the cast does a fine job.

Music: Mark Isham does a good job with the score. It takes a little bit of similar style approach to Christophe Beck’s score to We Are Marshall, particularly with the use of percussion during games. While it might not be as great as Beck’s We Are Marshall score, it’s quite good.

While not as good as Ocean’s Eleven, this third film in the franchise is a bit better than Ocean’s Twelve. In a summer populated with third entries in film franchises, this one is competitively pretty good. Featuring a great cast and a somewhat well put together plot, it holds together well enough.

Writing: I’ll admit that this franchise is beginning to suffer a bit from one of its key gimmicks, the idea of progressively increasing the cast of characters with each outing. The plot is able to be followed, but much of it comes off as either too convoluted, overly simplified or cheated for time. It does slow down from time to time to give things a chance to relax and breath, which is definitely helpful.

Production: Steeped heavily in retro 60’s filming styles, including fun manual zooms and fun split screens, there’s a great sense of nostalgia all over the film. All this is despite the amount of modern settings and technology. The characters even reminisce a bit about how things have changed, and the audience gets to see said changes in the sharp contrast of old versus new production technique. For instance, while much of the film is shot in stark hand held moves and locked off framing, there is the occasional aerial shot of the gorgeous new Vegas hotel all this takes place in, which is filled with smooth filming and flawless visual effects. It’s a kinda interesting blend.

Cast: There’s no arguing that the strength of this franchise is the wildly diverse and notable cast. All of them are great, but it’s George Clooney & Brad Pitt that are the greatest of the mix. After enough practice in previous films, the two of them have absolutely perfected their rhythm together in scenes. I absolutely love the way the two are always half a sentence in front of each other. That and the way they seem so comfortable around each other that they barely look at each other when they are talking to each other. Matt Damon gets to have some fun with his prosthetic nose, and his downplayed interactions with the rest of the cast is again spot-on. Al Pacino & Ellen Barkin are nice additions to the fun. Great to still see Carl Reiner on screen (he is 85 years old, after all), still doing a great job. David Paymer gets to join the fun as a character with some of my favorite material in the film. Elliot Gould gets to have fun with his usual goofball charm, playing the quasi-father of the gang yet again with ease. The list can go on and on and on - and it does.

Music: David Holmes does a great job again with his retro-electronica styled score. Filled with modern rhythm and approach, it features a great range of classic music textures, like the electric organ.