• Not a good week for the spaceflight community. Following hot on the heals of the news that somebody sabotaged an ISS computer module is the truly tragic news of a fatal accident at Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites location, killing 3. And just to add insult to injury, now there’s news of NASA astronauts being allowed to fly drunk. Good grief.
• Lots of fun stuff coming out of Comic-Con, which started yesterday. The details for the amazing new Blade Runner: The Final Cut release have been confirmed (scroll down for pics and specs on the various releases). Man, that 5 disc set is gonna be so awesome. I’ll definitely have to make the Blu-Ray plunge before then. I think I’ll consider this as my primary motivator now. Another cool thing to come out of Comic-Con is the release of the first teaser for The Dark Knight. Cool, indeed.
• Speaking of cool trailers, we also see the debut of the first trailer for Robert Zemeckis’ motion CGI version of Beowulf. Looks amazing. Here’s hoping that Zemeckis can do a better job with Beowulf than Snyder did with 300 (which I consider to be a movie that has incredible style but not a heck of a lot else). I also can’t wait for Alan Silvestri’s score for Beowulf. Should be interesting to see how Zemeckis can push his fancy CGI process from the first two (impressive) kids movie outtings (Polar Express & Monster House) to this more mature and ambitious subject matter. Zemeckis is a technical wizard when it comes to film making, so I’m sure it’ll be incredible.
• So, Linksys is to be no more. Cisco is dropping their brand name in favor of their own. A mistake, if you ask me.
• Excellent! Val Kilmer is going to be appearing on Numb3rs.
• If any of you are as frequent a user of Google Reader as I am (I use it an insane amount), here’s an awesome Greasemonkey script to be able to read the source page in an iFrame within the reader. VERY nice. Obviously, to use the Greasemonkey script, you need to be running Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension.
• Speaking of Google, here’s the kind of annoying arrogance on their part that truly drives me bonkers. Their stubborn resistance to adding the simplest of sort functions to GMail is completely retarded. Even worse is their constant defense of such a position by avoiding the REAL reason we want the sort function. When are you IDIOTS on Google’s GMail dev team EVER going to figure out that we don’t want the sort function for what you think we want it for. When you’ve got thousands of e-mails in the inbox and you want to do multiple labeling/deleting/whatever, it’s painfully slow and cumbersome to do by having to constantly search for similar rather than just sort by sender, etc. Grouping would be best, but how can we ever expect something as “technologically advanced” as list grouping when you guys can’t even figure out how to let us sort the list? I mean, every e-mail client ever made (that I’ve ever seen) can sort a bloody list of items. So SHUT UP ABOUT THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LABELS IN GMAIL AND HOW IT ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR SORTING COMPLETELY! YOU GUYS ARE MISSING THE POINT *ENTIRELY*! LABELS HAVE ***NOTHING*** TO DO WITH WHY I WANT A SIMPLE SORTING FUNCTION! There is NO feature I want in GMail more than to do a simple sort of the list. You can take every possible feature I could ever want in the client and put them together, and they STILL wouldn’t be as important to me as a stupid, simple sort function. They constantly keep rolling out the topic of labels whenever anyone ever requests a sort capability… Grrrrrr………
• Ooooh, getting Robert Patrick back as a T-1000 in The Sarah Connor Chronicles would be cooler than getting Arnie to make an appearance. Heck, get him in play as a recurring performer. That would be so cool.
• Did you wish your system administrator a happy SysAdmin Day today? I was thinking of dropping some hints to people, but didn’t.
• Here’s an enviro-friendly argument that’s actually an interesting idea. But as the comments quickly pointed out, the site making this argument is an offender of exactly the same thing.
• So, just when it looked like this show might not suck after all (sorry for the pun), David Greenwalt has changed his mind and left his new producer job on Moonlight.
• You know, people who read way too much into Harry Potter on religious grounds really come off as insane. I can understand taking offense to some pieces of entertainment as related to “Satanism” - witchcraft, wizards, warlocks, etc. But people who put this kind lunatic interpretation into the Harry Potter books/films need to put their helmets on and be given their sign. When you argue Harry Potter to this level of completely lunacy, you’ve lost every ounce of credibility you might have had with me. These are people who have no idea where to draw a line, and they are the ones that give any legitimate voice for such arguments a bad name.
• Have I mentioned how much I loathe Windows Explorer in Vista?

The big question on everyone’s mind was, “can they transfer the essence of The Simpsons from the TV screen to the theater screen?” The answer is a resounding yes. The amusing thing about it is that they kept it very true to the series, in terms of story and style. While it can’t help but recycle a few themes from the show (I mean really, the show has been on 18 years and over 400 episodes - what are the chances of them not having to do that?), it’s still a great entry to the franchise. I saw the movie in digital projection with great audio/video quality, and with a sold out audience that was a perfect audience - totally into the movie and along for the ride, but not annoying in any way (a rarity). From start to finish, the movie is a lot of fun, chock full of good laughs. It deviously likes to poke fun at itself, including some subtle and hilarious digs at the TV network, and the very idea of going to the theater and paying to see this movie while the TV series is still running (in a brilliant opening sequence).

Writing: I didn’t notice how many writers were credited on screen, but you can be sure there were at least a dozen contributing writers to this thing, for as long as the feature film has been kicking around and the number of constant writers the show has. I imagine there’s been a jar of “movie ideas” where writers tossed jokes and ideas that they wanted to save for a special occasion. The jokes just keep on coming in this movie, and most of them are quite clever. They do a good job at not only taking a common type of joke and making it work, but adding a new punch at the end of it (for instance, Bart’s skateboard ride). They also have fun with one of their typical styles - taking a funny joke and making it funnier by obsessing over it. The Spider Pig material is just such an example - the Spider Pig theme song in particular. It’s also one of the few franchises around that can do physical comedy (typically injury) frequently and always make it funny. The plot is fairly simple and obvious, which actually works in favor of the film, as it’s kinda a joke in and of itself. Overall, a very fun and clever script. It’s impressive just how many regular characters they managed to cram in, too.

Production: Though they spruced up much of the animation and ambition, this movie feels VERY much like the TV series in look and style. It borrows a bit of the more flashy animation style of the sister series, Futurama (which I actually prefer a bit to The Simpsons). One thing that I loved is not only their use of full scope widescreen, but the way they play with it (I love movies that change their aspect ratio for dramatic effect). They also play with other bits to sneak in some extra jokes, like Ralph’s hilarious bit standing in the 0 of the 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning singing along with the theme. I always picture the writers room of this show/movie as a bunch of guys sitting around, tossing out ideas and trying to figure out how to make it better than the person who came up with it to begin with. Or, them just tossing out totally random ideas and the rest latching onto it as brilliant - like stupid little jokes of Ralph singing along with the studio logo theme. For as much as the show makes fun of Fox on a regular basis (a network that deserves every last bit of it), they also pull it off in a way that’s lovingly joking. Besides, the amount of money that The Simpsons have made Fox (the network and the studio) is so astronomical that they can get away with whatever they want.

Cast: What in the world can I possibly say about the cast? These people know their jobs and characters inside, outside, upside, downside, diagonalside, invertedside and sidelessly. Their comedic timing has been sharpened to absolute perfection. By this point, they couldn’t possibly be any better at it, and this is no exception.

Music: Hans Zimmer and his gang at Remote Control Productions take over the reigns from mainstay series composer Alf Clausen. While it’s a bit sad, nostalgically, for Clausen to not get to do it, it makes a bit of sense to hand it over to somebody else. If for no other reason, almost everything about this movie is being done by all the same people that do the series, and giving over a foundational piece like the music score to somebody who’s used to working on a bigger scale helps give it that little extra flourish. Zimmer has collaborated a number of times with producer James Brooks, so he was a natural choice for the job. I suppose Danny Elfman would have been the ideal choice, but Zimmer was a fine alternative. He does an excellent job at both making the score feel like and extension of Clausen’s work over the decades on the show but also a bit different. It’s got a bit of a bigger orchestra at work, and walks the line of scale and comedy quite well. It’s one of those great scores for people who don’t like Zimmer’s common action music style to appreciate. Zimmer is a more talented composer than most people give credit, and it’s these departure from the norms where he truly gets to shine. If for no other reason than that hilarious and fantastic Spider Pig choral arrangement (and the hilarious “American Idiot: Funeral Arrangement” bit).

The end credits contain a cute sequel setup. I sure hope they continue to do more of them.

OK, here’s that surprise review I was talking about in my previous Ponderings post. It’s time to start checking out the leaked copies of the new fall season TV series pilots. As always, many of these are original pilot cuts where cast members and scenes will be recast and reshot. These original pilots aren’t always completely accurate representations of the finished product. But, I’ll check out these pilots and offer my opinions on which ones work, which ones don’t, and why. They are listed here in no particular order. Well, that’s not true. They are in the order in which I watched them. OK, that’s a lie. I moved my review of Pushing Daisies up to the top to draw more attention to it. It would have been 4th in the list otherwise.

ABC: Pushing Daisies (10/10)

GASP! I knew next to nothing about this show before I started watching it. To be more specific, I knew nothing other than the name and the fact that I had looked up what network it would be on. As I began watching it, I instantly loved it. From the dizzying dialog to the floopy pacing, it was perfect. It took me a few minutes to figure out where I knew the lead actor from - “why, that’s Lee Pace!” (from Wonderfalls, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and one of my key reasons for despising the Fox network). The more of this delectably enchanting show I watched, the more I started to wonder what warped mind was behind it. As it dawned on me that not only did Lee Pace star in it, but the razor sharp wit of the dialog reminded me a lot of Wonderfalls. Could it be Bryan Fuller behind this show? Sure enough, when it got to the credits at the end, there was Bryan Fuller’s name. He was one of the key people behind Wonderfalls (along with the great Tim Minear & Todd Holland). Fuller has also written/produced Dead Like Me and recently Heroes (as well as working on the Trek franchise back in the day). Ladies and gentlemen, this series may already be my favorite of the new season. It’ll be hard for something to top this. I think the copy I saw was the finished thing, as the visuals seemed final and the flow of it was spot on. Everything about this show is fantastic. Lee Pace and Anna Friel are wonderful in the leads, and have an instant chemistry. Chi McBride is the fun straight man to the surreal events in the world of this series. The fairytale mannerisms and design of the show is delightfully punctuated by the twisted sense of humor that I’m sure Fuller is responsible for. The “forensic fairytale” slogan for the series is certainly and accurate and amusing descriptive. And hey, this is on ABC, not Fox! Perhaps an excellent and creative show actually stands a chance on ABC. Something this good on Fox wouldn’t have a welk’s chance in a supernova. This is closer to having Wonderfalls back again than I could have hoped for. Please, Mr. Fuller, get some of the Wonderfalls cast to do some guest roles on this show. He already snuck in a subtle little “monkey” reference that I’m sure only us die-hard Wonderfalls fans inferred. I hope he hides some of the other Wonderfalls muses in the show (heck, he snuck the wax lion into a Heroes episode, so why not?). OK, I’m rambling at this point. I’ll stop writing this and cue the pilot up again. I gotta watch this one at least another time.

OK, just watched it again. I love this show. There’s no way there’ll be a better new show this year. No way. Not a chance. BTW, I love the music score. Not sure, but I think it’s by James Dooley. You know you’re watching a final cut of a series pilot when it doesn’t have temp music tracked in.

FOX: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (9/10)

Similar to when I heard they were making a third Terminator film (without James Cameron), I kinda flinched reflexively when I heard they were doing a TV series. Skeptical if it would work or not, I decided to do my best to keep an open mind and give it a chance. When I heard they cast Summer Glau as a friendly Terminator, that was the single spark needed to get my attention and anticipation going. So, does this series work? Surprisingly, it does. I have no idea how they are going to sustain this thing on an ongoing basis, but this pilot is fast, well produced, written solidly enough with a great cast. Who knows, Fox may actually pull this one off. Then again, it’s an ambitious sci-fi series on Fox, so it’s already got about 5 billion strikes against it. I’m sure it’ll have to fight to survive coming out of the gate, because no network sucks more than Fox at treating the shows well or supporting them. Lena Headey is remarkably good in the titular role of Sarah Connor, rising to the occasion of following up Linda Hamilton’s landmark performance. She can easily pull off the caring and emotional material right alongside the tough action material, and it all works very well. Thomas Dekker is a solid enough casting choice as John Connor. While most of this movie feels more like Terminator 2 than 3, Dekker’s performance as John is the one thing that feels a bit more like Nick Stahl’s performance, which is a good thing. Summer Glau is, of course, a fantastic choice for the empathetic terminator protector for John (amusingly named Cameron). Glau is highly praised by myself and most everyone else for her brilliant performance as River Tam in the Firely/Serenity franchise. She is a trained dancer and she was featured in tons of fantastic stunt sequences in Firefly & Serenity, which makes her eminently qualified to play a terminator. Richard T. Jones does a pretty good job as the FBI agent in pursuit of the mother and son. All in all, I think this series has an excellent chance of working, and I recommend checking it out.

CW: Reaper (9/10)

As one of the small number of fan for Fox’s overlooked comedy series The Loop (which ran for 17 episodes total in 2 short seasons), I was primarily looking forward to this show for lead actor Bret Harrison. When I heard that Kevin Smith was directing the pilot, that made me even more interested. The plot of an underachiever being forced to work as a bounty hunter for the devil brought to mind some previous tv shows, and I wasn’t quite sure what this one would end up being like. Thankfully, it’s primarily a comedy, and a funny one at that. Harrison is great in the lead. The show isn’t quite as energetic or insane as The Loop, but it’s in the same ballpark. Harrison’s performance, however, is very similar to what he brought to the table in The Loop. Ray Wise is a positively inspired choice to play the devil. Tyler Labine is very funny as the amusing best friend/sidekick character. Rick Gonzalez is a fun addition as a more hapless buddy. The romantic interest character of Andi was played by Nikki Reed in the pilot, but she has been recast by Missy Peregrym. Peregrym was surprisingly great in the underrated movie Stick It. Nikki Reed was OK in the role, but didn’t have much of a chemistry with Harrison. I’m hoping there’s more of a spark with Peregrym. No idea if she was recast because of performance/chemistry or being unavailable when it was picked up by the network (a pretty common reason to have to recast a role). While the show features a grim and cruel “reaper” kind of theme similar to Dead Like Me, most of the similarities stop there. It’s far less sentimental or dramatic, always preferring to go for the joke in any given situation. One can’t completely ignore the Kevin Smith aspects of the show, either. Things like the fact that the main characters are basically slackers working in the retail industry. Clerks, if you will. All these things roll into a fun mix of a show. I definitely look forward to the series, and I think The CW has a real winner.

NBC: Bionic Woman (7/10)

I’ll be happy to revise my opinion of this series, because I think it can be improved. I’d insert a “we can make it better” kind of joke here, given the material I’m talking about, but I don’t feel like trying to be lamely clever. I had a few reasons to anticipate this new series. At first, it was the fact that it was being run by David Eick, one of the two key people responsible for Battlestar Galactica (the other being Ron Moore). Some of the other producers on the series are also an attracting factor, like Laeta Kalogridis and Jason Smilovic. Kalogridis was a creator/producer of Birds Of Prey (and co-writer of other notable projects, like Oliver Stone’s Alexander). Smilovic has worked on underappreciated shows like Karen Sisco and Kidnapped. He also wrote the fantastic movie Lucky Number Slevin. So, plenty of talent behind the scenes. Then came news that Katee Sackhoff (the amazing Starbuck from Battlestar, and good friends with producer Eick) was cast in a story arc at the beginning of the show, which made me really anxious to check out the show. Then a little while later, it was announced that Sackhoff would be featured beyond the initially intended arc, and stay on as a recurring cast member. So, another bonus. Then, news of the departure of one of the producers/director on the series, Michael Dinner, to be replaced by Glen Morgan, famous for shows like The X-Files, Space: Above & Beyond, the Final Destination films, etc. So, yet another neato change. I was really anxious to check out the show by that point. The development of the show hasn’t been without some shake-ups and controversy, like that of Dinner departing and Morgan coming on board. Also, the casting of Isaiah Washington after the overblown controversy involving his dismissal from Grey’s Anatomy fuels the fire. For the record, another change they’ve made is the role of Jamie Summers’ sister, who is being recast and no longer a deaf character. I have no opinion on that change either way, though I do hope they turn down the attitude on the sister character a bit. Overall, I think the series has the potential to work. The cut I saw was a bit rough. It had some pacing problems, a handful of unfinished effects, etc. It’s really hard to judge something before it’s had that polishing touch put on it. The final aired version may work much better, at which point I’ll bump up my opinion of it. The series has some nice action scenes. It has some overtones of Nikita tossed in for good measure. Michelle Ryan is good in the lead. Sackhoff is fantastic as the “bad bionic woman” (the first one, actually). There’s not much from the original show left in the rework, beyond stuff like the name of Jamie Summers. Then again, Eick is no stranger to reworking 70’s sci-fi (Battlestar, of course). Speaking of Battlestar, I was pleasantly surprised and amused to see Aaron Douglas make a brief guest appearance in this pilot (he plays Chief Tyrol on Battlestar). Also amusing is the casting of Mark A. Sheppard, who’s had a featured role on Battlestar as well. I also think that the location they used to film the bar scenes at is the same bar that was featured in Birds Of Prey. Surely some Kalogridis link between the shows. Anyway, like I said, this one could turn out to be surprisingly great. I hope the final version is tweaked a bit, cause it could use some smoothing out of the rough edges. I do think this show will have trouble surviving, though, even if they do get it in shape. How wrong can you go, though - Miguel Ferrer is a regular…

CW: Aliens In America (6/10)

We now move on to this CW sitcom. It’s a fairly successful mix of previous high-school comedies with a fun politically incorrect twist of using current stereotypes, specifically that of a Muslim fish-out-of-water story. The cast does a nice job, and they have pretty good comedic timing between each other. The role of the father was recently recast with Scott Patterson (Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls), which’ll be in interesting difference for me to check out in the final aired version. This show is nothing to write home about or go out of your way to keep up on, but it’ll provide an amusing enough diversion for those that connect with it’s humor.

NBC: Chuck (8/10)

I’ll wrap up this first batch of reviews with this mostly clever spy comedy including a nerd twist. Featuring a character that works in a thinly veiled version of Best Buy’s Geek Squad (in this case Nerd Herd, which is part of the Buy More chain of stores), the series has a nice cast and some fun writing. It’s ridiculous, of course, but it has a simple charm about it. Zachary Levi is a nice, amiable choice for the lead role of Chuck. He balances a nerd character and a normal guy without overplaying it. Joshua Gomez gets to play up the nerd aspects a bit more as his friend, Morgan. The highlight of the cast is the inclusion of the great Adam Baldwin as an NSA agent who’s after Chuck for the secrets he has in his head. Yvonne Strzechowski is excellent as the competing CIA agent that’s after Chuck’s secrets. Sarah Lancaster is nice as Chuck’s sister, and Ryan McPartlin is funny as her boyfriend, “Captain Awesome” (a character that amusingly brought to mind comparisons of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, played by Niel Patrick Harris). While I was watching it, the film score geek in me couldn’t help being amused by how much use they got out of Thomas Newman’s score to Jarhead and John Powell’s scores to the Bourne films (a favorite of many pilot episodes of the last couple years). I’ll be interested to see how the final music score turns out. Overall, the series is engaging and amusing enough to make me think it’ll work over the continuing run.

After waiting not-so-patiently for this film to FINALLY open in the states, I was psyched to get to finally see it. I’m a sci-fi nerd, and proud of it. I knew this movie was designed to contain more of the science side of that name than most material of the genre. And ultimately that sentiment is true, up to a point. When it comes right down to it, this movie could have been my favorite movie of the year - right up until the final act of the film. That’s where it all completely falls apart. Everything they had tried to achieve up to that point unravels, in a massive way. Movies like this are particularly frustrating. Still, I’ll rank it pretty high despite the screwed up final act, just because the stuff preceding it is so darned great.

Writing: Like I said, this is the single problematic aspect of the film. For the first 3/4 of the running time, it is absolutely fantastic. Then all the sudden, it becomes a different movie. One that sucks. I don’t know what happened. More specifically, I have no idea what caused them to pretty much abandon what they had been trying to achieve up to that point to turn it into a movie that it’s not. If they had rewritten the final act to keep it grounded in reality, they would have had a flat-out fantastic film.

Production: Absolutely nothing to complain about here. The production of the film, from every department, is stunning. The visual effects work is absolutely gorgeous. Massive amounts of praise to the folks that pulled that off. The cinematography is beautiful and very striking. Sound design is rich, vibrant and subtle. Production and set design are spot-on. The production is fantastic even when the script completely falls apart at the end. I particularly love the way the vfx team shot the “beauty passes” of the spacecraft in different ways during the first act of the film, giving it all sorts of different moods and energy.

Cast: Here’s another excellent aspect of the film. Cillian Murphy comes through yet again in a Danny Boyle movie. Chris Evans is excellent in his no-nonsense role. Rose Byrne turns in a nice, subtle performance. The rest of the supporting cast does a fine job.

Music: Danny Boyle’s composer of choice lately is John Murphy, who along with industrial music duo Underworld comes through with a nice score. It’s a little bit reminiscent of something that composer Clint Mansell might do with the material. Overall, it works.

I admit that I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, yet even still I was fairly disappointed with it. I neither particularly like nor dislike Adam Sandler or his movies as a rule. I think a few of the films are great. He does his best work when Drew Barrymore is his co-star. 50 First Dates is easily his best film. The Wedding Singer is quite good as well. The other one that I like a lot, one without Barrymore, is Happy Gilmore. The rest are either completely average (Mr. Deeds, etc) or complete misfires (The Waterboy, Big Daddy, etc). Well, this one is to be filed under the misfires. While I didn’t dislike it quite as much as The Waterboy, it’s still pretty lame.

Writing: How in the world this script has the pedigree of talents like Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor is beyond me. It’s a mix of obvious gay jokes, one after another, and incredibly lame soapboxed political correctness. Despite a few witty moments, it all falls miserably flat or embarrassingly awkward. I sat there dreading the ending that was obviously coming, and sure enough by the end I was presented with just such an ending. Some scripts can get away with that if they play into it well enough and round out their characters by the time they get there. This film doesn’t pull that off. When it wants to be politically correct, it takes the usual Hollywood approach of making everyone on the side of its argument nice and likable and the opposing side complete whack job zealots (in this case, religious groups in general). It takes the writing talents of a kindergartener to crank this stuff out.

Production: Nothing to say here, really. Everything about this production is as incredibly average for the genre as could possibly be.

Cast: For the most part, this is the only strength of the film. Adam Sandler is amiable enough, though not particularly convincing as a womanizer, and Kevin James fits his role well enough. Highlight supporting performances to Dan Aykroyd and Ving Rhames, both of whom manage to make something of their 100% stereotyped roles. Other supporting roles are complete and total failures, surprisingly from the likes of Steve Buscemi. Rob Schneider is awful, but to whom does this come as a huge surprise? I have no idea why Sandler continues to drag Schneider’s dead weight on screen from movie to movie.

Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams comes through with a staggeringly average, stereotyped score. For a movie that is supposedly about the problems of stereotypes, almost everything about the movie could be adequately described by the term.

• This is a long-delayed Ponderings post accumulation of stuff I’ve been meaning to get posted for a number of days…
• Watched the first 2 episodes of Monk & Psych, which just returned to USA Network’s schedule for their 6th and 2nd seasons respectively. USA has a real winning team with these two shows, which is one of the best time slot partner combinations any network has stumbled upon in a number of years. I’ll say this - USA has a real talent for seeing potential in series that the big networks pass on and making them absolute winners. And the first episodes of each show’s return were absolutely hilarious. Monk’s featured Sarah Silverman reprising her role as Marci, his biggest fan. She perfects her whacked out performance in it, and the rest of the cast are on their top game as well. Then there’s the season premier of Psych, which was possibly even funnier. It features some spot-on hilarious skewering of American Idol, with Tim Curry doing some great parodying of Simon Cowell. But it’s Gina Gershon doing a fantastically over-the-top performance of a completely whacked out Paula Abdul that is spectacularly hilarious. Psych was great during the first season, but I think they’ve really hit their stride coming out of the gate for this second season, as this opener is completely uncorked. I was rolling on the floor from that opening Psych episode. It’s one of the episodes of the show directed by John Landis. His work on Psych is actually redeeming him onto my talented director list. I dare say they may be averaging a bit funnier than Monk. Monk’s second episode was a bit weak, but Psych was still going strong. If you haven’t watched Psych, the first season was recently released to DVD and totally worth watching. Either way, both of these shows are the kind of sharp, witty, clever fun that some of the classic shows of past decades distinguished themselves as, and they both do so with a refreshingly family friendly approach. USA deserves a lot of credit for getting behind these shows. I’ll end this with a line from the second of the Psych episodes, “Doodles are the window to the soul, Gus. Or maybe that’s the epiglottis. Where’s the Uvula?”
• Speaking of which, I’ve added an archive version of my TV viewing log to the site. Not much there yet, but I’ll be backfilling more in the near future.
• And speaking of those viewing logs, Google Spreadsheets has some very cool features and is handy for some online uses, but it is still lacking in a whole slew of basic functionality. It’s got long, LONG way to go before it can be even a remotely comparative alternative to any respectable spreadsheet out there…
• “Kill me now…” Yeah, no kidding. This is just bad on ever level imaginable. Good grief. This may give me nightmares and keep me up in a state of shock and terror.
• Here’s a link to the high res version of a great AT&T telecom buyout history diagram that’s been circulating. It is an insane history, to be sure. The segment from The Colbert Report on it is a funnier presentation of the information.
• I’d seen a couple of these before, but there are a few very cool one in this list that I hadn’t seen before. I still think that leaning tower thing is too strange.
• *THE SUPER MEGASON IV!* A hilarious write-up. Language warning.
• The Futon Critic has added a neat new approach to the lead-up of the new TV season: a who’s-in and who’s-out quick reference page. Great idea Mr. Sullivan.
• Got some reviews to get posted in the next day or two. Included will be the weak I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (3) and the near-brilliant but mega-frustratingly flawed Sunshine (8), as well as one other surprise review posting.

• So, the 2007 Emmy Nominations are out. Unlike the last half dozen years, I’m not completely outraged at the nominations list. I have my problems with some of the entries, and more notably with some of the omissions (come on, this was the LAST chance to get either Kristen Bell or Lauren Graham a nomination for their perfect performances). However, Battlestar got 4 nominations including one in the writing category (Ron Moore’s two part season 3 opener). The other 3 nominations were for the synapse frying Exodus Part 2. I’ll say this right here and now, and MEAN it - if Battlestar’s nomination for Exodus Part 2 in the visual effects category doesn’t win, I will NEVER, *EVER* watch an Emmy’s broadcast again. I kid them not. The other ones in the category aren’t even a whole integer of a percent as worthy. Battlestar can mop the floor with every other program on their air in the visual effects category. Nothing comes close - yet they continually lose in the category. Exodus Part 2 was just a staggering visual effects production - the most ambitious of the series. It would make any feature film jealous. If vfx supervisor Gary Hutzel and his team of vfx artists at Zoic and the likes are robbed of this Emmy win, the Academy no longer deserves any official standing anymore, and has no validity for any such judgments ever again. It would be the biggest robbery in the history of the award. Have I made my opinion plain enough? Still sad to see the show not pick up any series or acting nominations, but us Sci-Fi fans are used to it. And thank the heavens, this’ll be the last Emmy list with The Sopranos on it. Can’t tell ya how relieved I’ll be to finally see nominations lists that aren’t littered with The Sopranos, a show I hate (that is, if Battlestar doesn’t lose in the vfx category and I boycott the awards forever). Still, 3 of the 5 writing nominations? Did I mention I hate the show? At least it didn’t dominate the list quite as severely as previous years. Still, 15 nominations? Ridiculous. Great to see 30 Rock get a bunch, though. Nice to see Studio 60 get a fair amount, too (all for the pilot, I think). Plus, funny to see that Drive qualified in the mini-series category. How embarrassing is that, Fox? It didn’t even live long enough to officially count as a series. You suck, Fox. Also nice to see some underdogs pick up a nomination here and there, like the overlooked Standoff getting a deserved main title design nomination. And, of course, great to see Tony Shalhoub get another nomination for Monk.
• So, the producers of Jericho are playing things out under the assumption that they’ll only get the 7 ordered episodes? I supposed that’s a good thing, in case they get yanked again. Still, sounds like they are setting up more of the same. BTW, CBS is actually admitting fault in the failure of Jericho? Since when does a network admit fault for ANYTHING. CBS, you guys have just bought yourself a big chunk of good will from me for a while for making that statement. Seriously. If more networks would be even remotely this honest, I wouldn’t have such contempt for their obvious mistakes. Overall, CBS has been pretty nice about things since the cancellation of Jericho. Better than I think I’ve ever seen a network respond. This puts them as the best major network in my book right now. Nobody’s worse than Fox, of course. They’d have to spend years & YEARS of making every mistake they could to even consider themselves worthy of some day being worse than Fox.
• So, Google Earth has picked up a few nifty new layers, thanks to the NASA folks.
• So David Greenwalt is trying to convince us that Moonlight isn’t like Angel. Well, we’ll see. I’ll be giving the show a chance. Here’s hoping…
• Seth Rogen to write and star in The Green Hornet movie? Really? The dude’s funny and all, but I just cannot visualize him in the role (or writing it, for that matter).
• So, they’re retooling Ali Larter’s Heroes character as more of a Nikita type role? Fine by me. I’ve still gotta watch the last handful of episodes from the first season, but her character was probably the worst written role on the show, in my opinion. Well, the ones directly involved with her, too. In a perfect world, husband and son would be completely written out of the series. I don’t think the two were portrayed by particularly bad actors, but they are horribly written roles. Suck all the quality right out of Larter’s already problematic role. Her character’s story is easily the weakest part of the show, through no fault of Larter. If they can finally nail her role, I might start to enjoy the series more. Perhaps if I finish the first season, I may consider it to be one of the better shows of the year, but the first 2/3 of it I saw weren’t. Maybe 8th or 9th favorite of the new shows of the 06-07 season.
• I got my 2 new Varese Sarabande CD Club CD’s in the mail today: The Burbs’ Deluxe Edition and F/X Deluxe Edition. La La Land Records also released a new limited edition CD that went a little more unnoticed, but I’m really enjoying at the moment. It arrived today as well, and I’ve got it playing right now. It’s their nice, new 2CD release of David Arnold’s vastly under appreciated score to the 1998 Roland Emmerich film Godzilla. There had previously been a pretty good quality bootleg, but this new and official release of it is fantastic. Chock full of material, with perfect quality. A great release, La La Land. If you enjoyed Arnold’s work on Stargate or Independence Day, this release is a must have. A great action score performed a rich, large orchestra, by a talented composer. Forget whatever you might think of the movie (I don’t hate it as much as most people, but it is flawed) - the score is excellent.
• And hey, Mark A. Sheppard has joined Bionic Woman as a regular. Excellent. For those unfamiliar, he’s been a featured guest star on the likes of Firefly & Battlestar Galactica, and is an excellent actor.

• A preview for this fall’s new Battlestar event, “Razor,” was run during the season premier of Eureka. The return of Admiral Cain (well, sort of a “return”). Yippie!
• Kudos to Jon Lovitz, for finally taking the step nobody else seemed to want to take and roughing up Andy Dick. Bout time somebody did.
• Somebody won a counterclaim suit against the RIAA empire. Woo hoo! “We respectfully believe that this ruling is in error and is an isolated occurrence”
• A hilarious list of movies that were actually saved by being historically inaccurate. Most of them are funny, but the ones on the last page are hilarious. Warning of occasional language.
• Excellent. Katee Sackhoff is to become a recurring character on Bionic Woman.
• Speaking of Sackhoff, Sci-Fi announced that they’ll be putting together some “mini-sodes” to hold fans over until the 4th (and final) season return of the show.
• Good grief. A new Norman Lear show? The dude’s like 85. Clearly, he doesn’t like retirement.
• So, Universal HD actually knows how to cut a promo for Firefly. Hey, you morons at Fox, take notes. You guys have never, ever made a promo that was worth watching, for any series you’ve ever aired. At least if you have, I’ve never seen it. Nobody does promos worse than Fox. NOBODY. The home shopping networks assemble better promos than Fox.
• The wide gap of employee to profit values when comparing Microsoft to Wal-Mart. Interesting. Me thinks Wal-Mart needs to restructure a few things.
• I haven’t given ‘em all a listen as yet, but this is an interesting top 10 set of historic audio recordings.
• Wow. The first McDonalds commercial, featuring a truly moronic version of Ronald.
• Somebody has started a nice compilation of tons of great GMail Greasemonkey scripts into a single Firefox extension. If you install it, don’t forget to get rid of the Greasemonkey scripts it contains if you’ve already got any of them going.
• “Now that’s some heavy lifting.” - Indeed.
• Good grief. You think you were a Transformers fan? Yikes.
• Windows Media DRM cracked. Again. The more DRM systems cracked, the better. It’s even more fun when it’s a system that gets cracked over and over again.
• Another step towards finally getting The X-Files 2 movie into gear.
• The joys of bizarro search phrases
• A partial list of nuclear “whoops” scenarios over the decades.
• I will absolutely be making another attempt to switching over this site to the Drupal system when the version 6 release is in a usable beta form within the next few months. They are putting an enormous amount of effort into this revision, and I hope to see all the bigger issues I had for converting over to it a thing of the past. Many of the improvements they are making look fantastic.

I’ve been slowly playing catch up on many various episodes of The Colbert Report I’ve missed over the last year or so. For fun, I tossed together some of my favorites of his intro lines for the show (leaving off the “This is The Colbert Report!” closing)…

• This show is an acquired taste. If you don’t like it, acquire some taste.
• You’ve heard of truth in advertising? This is truth with advertising.
• Happy National TV Turn-Off Week, you hypocrites!
• Warning, the contents of USA Today are really about the USA yesterday.
• Nation, It’s time to grab the bull by the horns! If there are no horns, you’re grabbing a cow, stop it!
• Cleanliness is next to Godliness: Churches, fill your baptismal fonts with Purell.
• I got my mojo working—mojo, of course, is what I call my assistant Monica Johnson.
• This weekend, Hippies celebrated Earth Day; maybe one day they’ll celebrate Jobs Day.
• When life gets you down, don’t get mad… Get Stephen.
• Males aged 18-34 with disposable income, prepare to have your purchasing habits swayed.
• Could being a Nielsen family kill you? Watch the entire show to find out.
• America, remember the most important gun safety tip: if you have a gun, you’ll be safe.
• It’s the first day of November sweeps, and I’m pregnant!
• Tonight, the show is in…3D! Unless you are watching on a television.
• Don’t touch that dial, and if your TV has a dial… go get a new TV.

BTW, did the rest of you folks out there in the Colbert Nation pick up your issue #1 of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen comic?

One of the more distinctive independent films of the year (featured at Sundance and ultimately distributed by Fox Searchlight), Joshua is the story of a disturbing young boy. It’s not hard to immediately jump to comparisons with The Omen, but the comparisons would be nothing more than surface deep. It’s ultimately an effective movie, and quite clever when it wants to be. One of the only real problems with the movie is that you need to suffer through the first half of the movie for it to pay off correctly.

Writing: For the most part, this is a story with a cool final act that needs to spend the rest of the time laying groundwork. And the groundwork that it needs to lay is a bit tedious. The worst thing is that it would be a tough sell if you didn’t adequately lay said groundwork, so there’s no real way around it. The story does an excellent job keeping you on your toes trying to figure out if this kid is sociopathic or truly psychotic, and the end result is quite cool.

Production: This movie is very independent in feel. While most of it works pretty well, it has its moments of amateur camera work, not to mention a couple moments that have to be the result of guerrilla film-making in NYC. The irony is that the most visually effective scene is an intentionally amateur sequence with a video camera as filmed by one of the characters. Sound is average and editing is average. At points, the movie feels like it’s trying to be a Kubrick film. It does so in interesting ways, rather than pretentious ways.

Cast: Sam Rockwell was one of the main reasons I wanted to see this movie, and he does a great job as the poor by standard caught in the middle of it all. Jacob Kogan does an excellent job as the antagonist son. Vera Farmiga gets a rather odd compliment from me for her performance as the mother - she did a bit TOO well as somebody not only suffering postpartum depression, but a emotional/mental breakdown. It’s actually a bit hard to watch (not to mention all the constant baby crying), and makes the first half of the movie a bit rough as an audience member. So yeah, the slighted compliment is that she did too good a job acting out somebody that’s tough to be around. Other supporting performances are good.

Music: Much like the previous Kubrick comparison I made, the musical approach also takes that path. Cold and austere, it’s comprised of primarily simplistic piano work (as played by the son - or at least in the style of). For the most part, it works well enough.

So, one of the surprise highlights of seeing Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix this week was being treated to the first trailer for Get Smart. And hey, Harry Potter had the kids use a phone booth as a secret entrance, too. Hmmmm. For those who don’t know, I’m a huge Get Smart fan. I’ve got the (currently) exclusive Time-Life complete series DVD set (and am slowly pacing myself at watching through them all again). I was curious as to how Steve Carrell would work in the role of Maxwell Smart. After seeing this trailer, I’m convinced he was perfect casting. Anne Hathaway was a surprise casting choice for 99. If I slow down her brief appearance in the trailer, I do think it’ll work. I’m a fan of Hathaway, but thought she might be a bit young for the role. Make-up and wardrobe helps age her up a bit, and I think she can do a good job with it. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is an even stranger piece of casting. But, he does fit the “other agent” kind of role pretty well. Besides, he’s shown he can branch out in his acting with roles like he had in Be Cool. And Alan Arkin is excellent casting for The Chief, the “straight man” to all of Max’s antics. It’s great to see not only Siegfried will be in it but Shtarker will be there as his sidekick. Terence Stamp is a good casting choice for Siegfried. And hey, even Larabee is gonna be in it. I’ve heard that certain things about the movie will be fairly different from the show, but they are clearly keeping certain things.

So, as a major fan of the series, here is a list of all the things I hope they feature in this new film version. I’ve avoided reading spoilers, so I don’t know what they will and won’t be using.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Finally got my Order Of The Phoenix review posted, after suffering some technical difficulties last night. Now I gotta catch the IMAX version. I also tossed up a list of the Harry Potter films and scores in the order I like ‘em. Speaking of which, Order Of The Phoenix is already jumping records.
• Full details for the new My So-Called Life DVD set and official press release. Woo hoo! They got involvement from Clare Danes! This looks to be a fantastic set. Thanks, Shout Factory! They spelled composer Snuffy Walden’s name wrong (”Waldren”). No commentaries, though? Still, I’m sure it’ll be a great set.
• Kevin Spacey has joined up for the Superman Returns sequel (”Man Of Steel”)
• Alex Proyas is taking on directing duties for Dracula Year Zero
• Some more info on Microsoft’s cutting edge HD Photo format. I’ve been working on a MASSIVE project for the last few months (and will continue to work on it for years) of doing high-res digital archiving of family photo from over the last 50+ years. A good number of them are on film slides. I got a fantastic scanner (the Epson Perfection V700 Photo) and spent days playing with file formats before I committed to using Microsoft’s new HD Photo format. It takes a bit of extra effort to work with right now, due to the very few apps that support it. Photoshop CS3 (and CS2) is actually one of the only ones that does, and that’s with a beta version of a plug-in. So, CS3 is what I’ve been working in for the scanning process (and using Microsoft’s nifty Photo Info tool for tagging and such). So far, it’s been a great format (with both pro level lossless encoding or consumer friendly compressed encoding), and I’ll be curious to see what kind of impact it has on the industry.
• Cool, a new Dick Van Dyke movie. Granted, it’s a Hallmark TV movie, but still. And hey, *3* generations of Van Dykes.
• I look forward to the mini-series remake of The Andromeda Strain, but why did they have to cast the awful Benjamin Bratt? I’m sure the rest of the cast and talented director Mikael Saloman can help compensate.
• Hmmmm, Dell has launched a new SMB computer line called Vostro
• Good grief, AOL has actually updated their client software. Just when you thought it was down for the count.
• The new XBox Live Arcade/PC mutliplayer Battlestar Galactica game has been previewed for reviewers. Sounds pretty cool.

Here’s a list of the Harry Potter films and music scores in the order in which I like them. By a strange coincidence, I like the music scores in the same order as the films, so I’ll just have the one list for both.

1. 3 - The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Score by John Williams)
   
2. 5 - The Order Of The Phoenix (Score by Nicholas Hooper)
   
3. 1 - The Sorcerer’s Stone (Score by John Williams)
4. 2 - The Chamber Of Secrets (Score by William Ross & John Williams)
5. 4 - The Goblet Of Fire (Score by Patrick Doyle)

A resounding success after the disappointing previous fourth film, Goblet Of Fire. It’s my second favorite of the Harry Potter franchise, (closely) following the third film, The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Like I do with each of my reviews for the Harry Potter films, I’ll state that I haven’t read any of the books as yet, so my opinion of the films is based solely on them as a film. I say this because of the people I know who didn’t care for The Prisoner Of Azkaban as much as me, they were all big fans of the books and were annoyed at it being the biggest departure from the source material. It’s those of us who haven’t read them that have no preconceptions of what it should be that seem to love it.

Writing: If there were any criticisms I’d make about the film they’d be small ones, and in the writing category. For one, I would have cut down on the clinically depressed Harry moments earlier on in the film just a bit. Second, there were a few things included in this film that seemed to server little-to-no purpose. I can only assume that they were tossed in briefly to act as establishing scenes for bigger appearances in future films. All in all, though, these notions are barely worth mentioning, as they did little to diminish my enjoyment of the film.

Production: This is, hands down, the most gorgeous and lavishly produced film of the franchise. This is British director David Yates’ first Harry Potter film (He will direct the next one as well). I was completely unfamiliar with his work, never having seen any of the stuff he’s worked on. He adds an enormous amount of style and flair to the franchise with this film. The visual effects are absolutely fantastic (except perhaps a couple of the shots during the broomstick flight through London, but I can forgive just a couple brief shots). I also like the transition design used with all the newspapers, which is a real cool new approach for that kind of age-old technique. Sound design is also very impressive (particularly in the final reel). Set design is also extremely impressive.

Cast: The impressive cast of these films keeps getting better and better. How they managed to go this long with a franchise of this style without including Helena Bonham Carter is beyond me. But now that they’ve added her to the mix, they chose a perfect character to give her. She’s spot-on perfect. Jason Isaacs gets a good amount of material this time out, and is great. Gary Oldman get just about as much material as he’s gotten previously in the franchise, and of course he’s great as well. The main cast has gotten very comfortable in their roles, and they are excellent in them. Daniel Radcliffe gets slightly buried during the first act in pessimistic self pity. He does a good job with it, but it’s nice to see him free himself up from it later on. We get to see a new side to Alan Rickman’s character of Snape. Rickman is, natrually, at his best. Imelda Staunton joins the cast as the intentionally overbearing and annoying Dolores Umbridge. She does a great job at being just that - overbearing and annoying. You grow to hate her character so much that when the payoff finally comes, it’s that much greater. But here’s the kicker - the real scene stealer in this film is newcomer Evanna Lynch as new character Luna Lovegood. Lynch is a self-confessed Harry Potter fanatic, and won the role after auditioning against thousands and thousands of girls for the role. And let me just say, she’s the absolute highlight of the film. Her offbeat, cheerful mannerisms are fantastic, but the vocal performance really puts it over the top and makes the character steal the show. I have no idea what the future of her character holds in the next books, but I really hope she’s featured well in the film versions.

Music: Nicholas Hooper, a frequent collaborator with director David Yates, is another one I had no familiarity with previously. And, like Yates, he comes through with flying colors. His score is, quite frankly, second only to Williams’ own Prizoner Of Azkaban masterpiece (though he BARELY uses any of Williams’ original material). It’s a refreshing follow-up to composer Patrick Doyle’s score to the previous film, which like the film itself was easily the weakest of the franchise. Hooper’s score is wonderful, and I’m very happy that he’s on board with Yates again for the next film. This is my favorite score of the year so far.

• Small delay on the Harry Potter review. I went to the new all-digital Stratford Square theaters that I’ve been frequenting for the last week or so. Got there and they were without power. I was already running a bit later than I’d hoped. Had to wait in line 5-10 minutes for passes being handed out. By the time I left, I’d have arrived some 10-15 minutes ahead of start at one of the other area theaters. Given how crowded Stratford was (They’ve been open less than 2 weeks, and I’ve been there 3 times - hadn’t seem more than a few dozen people there on previous visits), I figured I’d not press my luck getting to another venue that late before start. One of my ulterior motives for going to the new Stratford theaters was that clearly not a lot of people had discovered them yet. Or so it seemed before I saw the hoards of people that were there tonight. So, I’ll be seeing it tomorrow and will post the review at that point.
• Young Indy FINALLY gets a release date on DVD! Yippie!
• The friendly neighborhood lawn chair ballooner is at it again. The nut.
• Check out the 1st NES commercial. A neighbor kid got one of ‘em when it first launched, with Rob the Robot & the zap gun. Duck Hunt was the highlight of that system’s legacy. Never liked the NES much myself. Was a total Sega boy at that time, and totally loved the superior Sega Master System (SMS).
• Nice. The joys of a reissued number.
• The Smoking Gun has an amusing post on Mandy Moore’s tour rider. When you compare it to the unrestrained insanity of many of the other tour riders they have posted…
• For you fellow IT nerds, there’s a brand new SysInternals tool called AD Explorer that was just released. Nifty looking Active Directory editor/manager.
• You know you’re a nerd when you find stuff like this interesting.
• I’ve finally convinced myself to revise my Live Free Or Die Hard review. I’ve bumped it up a point and moved it up a bit on my 2007 Film Order list. It’s definitely growing on me.

A fantastic cast helps make this adequate character drama work.

Writing: Having had no idea of the existence of the book before hearing of the film, I can make no comparison. Given that the author, Susan Minot, was one of the two credited screenwriters, I have to assume that it’s at least fairly faithful to the source material. The story is pretty well told, but not hugely surprising or powerful. It’s simple, charming and moderately engaging. Perhaps some of the problem is how many times I saw the trailer for this film, which gave away too much of the plot.

Production: One thing this movie could have used was another pass by a different editor. It’s not that the movie is long, but it needed some adjustments to pacing and a little bit smoother sense of flow. The story jumps from past to present quite frequently, and not always as smooth as one would hope. A few of the characters could have been better detailed with some additional material. Set design and location are strong, and cinematography is quite solid. There are some remarkable shots in some scenes, and the simplicity of other scenes is well captured by the camera crew.

Cast: There’s no denying that the main highlight of this film is the cast. There’s no such thing as a bad Claire Danes performance, and this is certainly no exception. Vanessa Redgrave turns in a rather brave performance, appearing as anything but flattering for nearly the entire film on her death bed. Toni Collette, another favorite actress of mine (ever since her fantastic performance in the under-appreciated independent film Clockwatchers), does a nice job as a somewhat free-spirited daughter of the Danes/Redgrave character. Patrick Wilson is up to the task of the primary romantic interest of the film. Hugh Dancy does a remarkable job as the eternally drunk but charming and well meaning character of Buddy (a character that actually takes a slightly unexpected detour from what the trailer implies). And oh yeah, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close also have small roles. Heck, even Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, and Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter, Natasha Richardson, have sizable roles. Gummer plays Streep’s character at a younger age. Richardson plays the daughter to Redgrave. Other small roles are filled with excellent actors, such as Barry Bostwick.

Music: Jan A.P. Kaczmerak, who I still hold a tiny grudge against for stealing the 2005 Best Score at the Academy Awards (from John William’s brilliant Prison Of Azkaban and James Newton Howard’s fantastic The Village). Kaczmerak is a respectable talent in film scores, and does an adequate job for this score. I don’t remember noticing much that stands out as great, but it fits the material well.

What could have been an entertaining enough movie falls a bit on its face. While the central setup of the movie may be a little bit inventive and unique, it plays out in such by-the-numbers ways that it can’t help but be boring. Featuring a mostly excellent cast, most of the material is wasted on them. If you like really obvious romantic comedies without much of the charm, witty dialog or chemistry magic, then this movie is for you. If not, then skip it and see the great many superior romantic comedies.

Writing: Like I said, the writing is very weak. It’s like it was an idea that was kicked together into a script over the weekend and quickly thrown into production. How it attracted the cast and studio support is beyond me. Then again, most films of this nature are profitable to the studio no matter what, as they don’t cost a whole lot to produce, and will typically make back what they cost and more between theatrical and video performance.

Production: Again, most everything in this production is by-the-numbers and very uninspired. The one bit they got right was the two completely creepy robot babies that the engaged couple must practice on. There are moments of them on screen which achieve pretty funny results. Director Ken Kwapis can, and has, done far better material than this.

Cast: Mandy Moore is an OK actress. She fits well into these kinds of roles. John Krasinski is mildly amusing at times, but ultimately falls pretty flat. Robin Williams is autopiloting his typical shtick. Josh Flitter is actually the stand-out actor in the film, who lands the best comedic moments. I quite liked him in Nancy Drew, and he pulls off the amusingly aggressive kid role well in this film, too. Eric Christian Olsen and Christine Taylor, two very talented comedic actors, are pretty much wasted in tacked-on supporting roles.

Music: Christophe Beck’s score is serviceable, and a bit inventive when it wants to be. Nothing great, but good enough.

• I found out over the weekend that one of the founding members of The Menta Group (a company that specializes in special education, and a client I’ve worked with for most of the last 14 years) suffered a major loss in the family. Her 7-year-old granddaughter drowned as a result of carbon monoxide fumes. Best wishes and prayers go out to the Evans family. Truly tragic news.
• The final 2 episodes of Drive that were yanked completely from Fox’s schedule are going to be made available online for free. They should appear on Fox’s On Demand area of their site within the next week or two.
• Some interesting spoilers for season 4 of Battlestar Galactica were leaked during the big press tour of the sets recently. Take much of it with a grain of salt. And, of course, don’t read if you don’t wanna know spoilage. It’s moderately significant spoilage. I tend to start avoiding spoilers near the end of the seasons, but don’t mind them too much up front. Given past season finale episodes, I’m sure the season 4 finale (aka: series finale) will be quite top secret. Here’s part 1 of a more detailed report.
• Neato. They’re trying to get at least a cameo appearance by Sam Jones in the new Flash Gordon series. Still don’t quite know what to make of the show. As a fan of the 1980 film, I’m sure I’ll have to adjust to a very different telling of the story.
• Some details for the October 2 release for season 1 of Shark on DVD. The commentaries should be good, but I bet the gag reel will be the highlight extra on that set.
• Little note to screenwriters: stop using the word “mainframe” in your scripts. 98% of the time, it isn’t what you mean to say…
• Reviews for License To Wed (3) and Evening (7) should be posted in the next day or two. I’ll likely be at the midnight screening for Harry Potter tomorrow (Tuesday) night. I’ll try to get my review posted after returning from the screening. If not, it’ll be on line at some point Wednesday.

• Happy 7 of 7 of 7, for all you OCD number freaks out there.
• So, did I call this one, or what? Fox has pulled the air date of July 13 for the final 2 episodes of Drive, with no new date given. I’ve said it many, many times before, and I’ll surely be saying it many times again: Fox, you suck. If actions do speak louder than words, there is no network (broadcast or cable) that has as much disregard for their viewers as Fox. Not even close. You could take numbers 2-5 on such a list and combine them, they still wouldn’t be as bad as Fox.
• Speaking of which, ABC has come outta nowhere to announce that they will be airing the remaining episodes of The Nine. Nifty.
• This is *SO WRONG*. The buzz about this Alvin & The Chipmunks movie has been nothing but horrible. But now I completely believe it. Looking at Alvin, Simon & Theodore on that poster makes me certain that it’s something from The Onion or a submission to a Worth 1000 contest. Turns out it’s gonna be even WORSE than all the negative hype. This CAN’T be what they are really doing to The Chipmunks. It just CAN’T! Jason Lee, you have just lost a good chunk of your reputation for quality in my book. Did your agent book you for this movie before you found out anything about it? What the…
• For those who are into the hypocritical, worldwide Live Earth event. Frankly, I’d bet most of the numbers in that article are on the conservative side.
• This video is insane. What lunatic coordinated this?
• The new My So-Called Life DVD set is looking cooler and cooler. It’s Shout Factory, so it’ll surely be excellent.
• Sad enough for the kids who had to watch it, but it’s hard to say it wasn’t something she shouldn’t have expected. The people who play with the commercial grade stuff are playing the odds as it is. To put your head over the thing is simply a Darwin Award waiting to happen.
• Can’t say I dissagree. Then again, all these DIGG hits will at least drive up the hit count for the site.
• Wow, here’s one very well supervised kid.
• So, Microsoft has dropped Pearson VUE as a testing provider to use Thompson Prometric as their exlusive testing network.
• In case you didn’t notice, I finally got my Veronica Mars farewell posted. Not quite what I’d hoped, but if I waited any longer to get it right, I’d never get around to finishing it…

Veronica Mars was one of those TV series that failed to find a massive audience for largely the same reasons that Buffy The Vampire Slayer did. Despite being one of the greatest written, not to mention greatest in general, series to ever hit the airwaves, it could never make that leap past simple preconception when pitched to potential audience members. To hear the premise of a high school girl solving crimes conjures up visions of Nancy Drew, and people immediately write it off as fluff. Buffy had many similar preconception problems, many stemming from the title itself. While Veronica Mars may certainly bear certain overly simplistic qualities of Nancy Drew, the comparisons are few and far between. I mean, let’s take just a few topics from the pilot episode. Heck, let’s sample a line of voice-over: “Quite a reputation I’ve got, huh? You wanna know how I lost my virginity? So do I.” We’ve got a murdered best friend, an alcoholic mother who abandons her family, class power struggles, the main character being drugged and raped (and belittled by the law enforcement for it). And all that’s just the start of the show, in one of the greatest pilot episodes ever made. Unlike many other series that take their time to find their footing, Veronica Mars was a show that hit the ground running. Created and run by the fantastic Rob Thomas, the series rarely made any real missteps. Thomas had a couple natural talents that played into the series with absolute brilliance. The first was his ability to do truly well structured mystery writing. The second was his ability to populate his fictional world of Neptune, California with a wide assortment of fascinating characters of all levels of society. The third was his razor sharp dialog, which was one of the key elements that immediately attracted us Buffy fans.

All of this was handed over to an absolutely top notch cast. To say that Kristen Bell turned in one of the most singularly distinctive character performances on TV is actually an understatement. Bell’s flawless performances, episode after episode, are truly amazing. Nobody can really be sure when they cast roles like this just how well they’ll work out in the long run. Rob Thomas stumbled into the greatest casting he could have possible ever gotten for the all-important lead role of Veronica. Bell has that rare ability to cover every possible aspect of her richly developed character, often simultaneously. From comedy to drama to action, she could do it all while making every last piece of sharp dialog come to life, and make it look easy. She could play the character as both vulnerable and also as one of the toughest characters you’ll ever see, most often as a somebody you do not want to cross or provoke. Very few actors have ever nailed their role so perfectly. It all plays against stereotype. And the amazing casting didn’t stop there. Enrico Colantoni seemed to be something of an unusual casting choice for the role of Keith Mars, Veronica’s beloved father, the private detective. Colantoni could also play the full rang of character, from comedy to drama. And his chemistry with Kristen Bell was flat-out flawless. I dare say it’s the greatest father-daughter relationship ever featured on a TV series, and it was a major featured component of the series. Unlike many teenager/parent relationships on TV, theirs was one of admiration and trust. There were even fascinating distinctions to their relationship, such as secrets Veronica kept from her father, more often than not to spare him grief or heartbreak than to keep herself out of trouble. It wasn’t always a perfect relationship, but it was always solid and one of the few constant sources of hope and consolation that Veronica could always turn to. What also made it intriguing is that it wasn’t a flat or static relationship. It developed as the series progressed, as did most aspects of the story and characters. By the end of the series, Keith had come to figure out that there was little use in trying to shield Veronica from information, no matter how dark or gruesome.

Other series regulars came and went, but there were a core set of characters that would hang in through the end. One of them was Veronica’s best friend Wallace, played by Percy Daggs III, who she met in the first episode. Wallace always remained a faithful friend over the years of the show. He was her faithful sidekick. Then there’s the on-again, off-again, tormented romance between her and Logan Echolls. Logan was introduced as a real jerk at the start of the series. Eventually, we would learn all the dirty details of what made him who he was. Ultimately, we would see Logan grow and (somewhat) mature by the end of the show. While I was one of the few fans that preferred Veronica end up with somebody other than Logan, he was still a fascinating character, played very well by Jason Dohring. Then we have Weevil, a character that had a strained but respectful relationship with Veronica. Starting as the leader of the local biker gang and ending up as a rehabilitated handyman at Hearst College, Weevil was another trusty character that Veronica could turn to for favors. And, like any characters in the series of that nature, there were plenty of favors that she would do for them as well. Some characters came and went as recurring and/or regular cast members. Dick & Cassidy Casablancas were great sources of comedy and occasionally very dark drama. Michael Muhney did a wonderful job playing quasi-incompetent sheriff Don Lamb, Keith’s successor. Scenes between Lamb and Veronica were guaranteed to be razor sharp and loads of fun. The first half of the show featured Teddy Dunn as Veronica’s original boyfirend, Duncan Kane - somebody very heavily tied into the first mystery arc, involving his sister and Veronica’s best friend, Lily Kane. Mac was one of my favorite recurring characters, as somebody who turned into one of Veronica’s best friends. She was thankfully promoted to a main title regular in the third season. The third season also saw a couple new characters added to the cast. Parker was a less integral character to the series, but her material was well done, and Julie Gonzalo did a nice job with the role. Piz managed to end up being a bigger part of the show, and I thought he was a very nice match for Veronica as a romantic interest. He didn’t have the danger or tumultuous nature of Logan, but I still thought he was a great match for her. Other great characters were filled by former Buffy cast members, like Kendall Casablancas played by Charisma Carpenter and Allison Hannigan as Trina Echolls. Heck, even Joss Whedon turned in a great cameo performance. There were many, many more great supporting performers, but I have to single out two of them that were my favorites. Ken Marino played the rival, unscrupulous private detective Vinny Van Lowe. He was always hilarious in the role, and could be counted on as a great foil for not only Veronica but Keith as well. Then there’s my absolute favorite supporting character, public defender Cliff McCormack, played pitch perfectly by Daran Norris. Every scene he had was pure gold, including countless lines of great dialog with Veronica & Keith. He also had a voice and characteristics that helped bring out the noir style of the show.

Then there’s the fantastic production work of the show. While this series wasn’t one to feature any flashy visual effects or massive action sequences (though there were a handful of decently staged action bits), every other production aspect was handled with talent and class. Most notable was the rich cinematography and set design. Ranging from the high-contrast noir lighting and the souther California color pallet (which combine into fascinatingly unique visual style) to the bright and cheery upper class world of Neptune’s neighborhood and country clubs, it was all made with outstanding talent. It’s also one of those genre shows that most of the time featured excellent source music usage. Rob Thomas was a key part of that aspect, often times even including music choices in the original writing process. It’s one of the typical aspects of such a production that he used to give the show the edge it wanted.

While the final fate of the show didn’t come as a huge shock, thanks to the constantly struggling ratings, it was still a heartbreaking cancellation. It had barely survived the death of the very network it ran on at the end of its second season, when its network (UPN) and WB folded and combined to form CW. Said to have survived primarily on the fact that UPN and then CW network president Dawn Ostroff was a huge fan of the series, the show just couldn’t muster up a bigger audience than its loyal core fans. The series was in no way tired or worn out. It was constantly changing and evolving, and had nothing but massive amounts of potential. Rob Thomas is one of those writers that can take something like the network pushing to cut back on the season long mystery arcs and actually take the opportunity to try something new, and as always being able to make it shine. In fact, he even took the last handful of episodes and really made some interestingly laid out stories weave in and out of each other, while still maintaining self-contained primary stories. And all that was in the middle of finding out his final episodes count was being cut back by a few episodes. While he ultimately couldn’t convince the network to continue with the show, even after a valiant attempt to pitch them via a produced demo reel a revamped series set a few years into the future (which I’m anxious to see on the upcoming season 3 DVD set), he did as well as one could hope closing out the series with style - heads held high. I greatly miss having new episodes of this series to look forward to. Still, 3 seasons worth of top quality episodes is something to be proud of, and will be something I will watch on a regular basis for many years to come.

• I saw Die Hard 4 (I’m gonna stop calling it Live Free or Die Hard - I hate that title) again tonight. I did like it a bit better the second time around, but I think I’ll refrain from changing my personal score of the film up from an 8 out of 10. That F-35 sequence with the expressway is just too needlessly excessive. Yeah, I’m drawing one of those personal believability lines in the sand, I suppose. I mean, what’s to say that the cool sequence of ramping a cop car into a helicopter in mid-air isn’t past a similar line in the sand. Ah well, personal entertainment will vary. I did catch a couple little jokes in the movie I didn’t notice the first time. One of them I missed was McClane’s amused response to one of the FBI agents introducing himself as Agent Johnson - a reference to the two (”no relation”) Agent Johnsons in the first Die Hard. Another one I missed the first time is a bit where McClane opens one side of a big, heavy metal doorway and Justin Long’s Farrell character casually jokes “this side must be locked.”
• On the subject of seeing Die Hard 4 again, I went to see it at the just-opened Cinemark, 16 screen Stratford Square theaters in Bloomingdale. From the early 80’s, Stratford Square mall had a Cineplex Odeon set of theaters (one of which was a great big “event” size screen). I saw many movies there growing up. When Loews bought Cineplex Odeon, that was one of a number of my beloved Cineplex Odeon locations to bite the dust. A small operation called Village Theaters re-opened the theaters for 5 or so years, but did little-to-nothing to improve upon the dated, run-down facilities. They folded operation of those screens again a couple years ago. I only went to them under the Village Theaters ownership a few times, primarily for nostalgia reasons, as the presentation and facilities left quite a bit to be desired. Well, Century Theaters began completely remodeling that section of the mall a year or so ago to relaunch a fancy new set of theaters. During said construction, Cinemark bought out Century, so it became a