Thursday, August 10, 2006
I have a couple reviews I've been meaning to write.
First, I got the movie Side Effects from netflix. I got it mainly because of Katherine Heigl starring in it. It's about the pharmaceutical industry. I'm going to include spoilers here, but don't worry, if you see this movie, you'll see every event in the movie coming in the first ten minutes. At one point, really early on, it looked like it had the potential to be a truly original film. No such luck. Let's just say near the end credits it says the movie was made for something like $120,000 (I forget the exact number). Then, watching the director's introduction which was included in the special features, I find out that the director is a first time writer/director who wrote the script after a career in pharmaceutical sales. Let's just say I was not shocked. The editing was abrupt and the plotlines were ones that were so overused that you can't accuse it of stealing from any one movie. Any movie fan knows the scenarios. A person is in a group/position/clique she hates. She has alterior motives for not leaving. Gradually she loses her identity and becomes one of the things she hates. There is atleast one character who is on her side and outside the group and everybody in the group, the villains, are broadly drawn. At one point, they mention an industry awards dinner and you instantly know where the climatic scene of the movie will take place. Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls are just two examples of movies that have used these plots, although they aren't the first.
I can forgive the unoriginality of the movie because it never tries to be original. The purpose of the movie was to inform about the industry. The movie have scenes sliced in where facts about drug companies are stated or doctors are asked about they drug company representatives. There is apparently a documentary about the industry and part of it is included in the special features, but I didn't watch it. But it would seem the whole purpose of the movie was to inform people who wouldn't watch a documentary about drug companies. And let's just say it isn't a commercial for them. Anyway, the unoriginality and obvious bias of the movie was easy for me to block out which allowed me to enjoyed the positive of the movie: it was ninety minutes of Katherine Heigl. So I enjoyed the movie. If it's on tv or if you can get a hold of the dvd for free, it might make for a enjoyable diversion, but I wouldn't recommend paying to rent it or go out of the way to see it.
The second movie is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a film-noir type film but it is also a comedy. It stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. I saw a quote from Kilmer during the promoting of the movie where he was asked if this was the first comedy he had done since Real Genius and he replied by asking if Alexander counts. I also heard that he was asked if this was his first gay character and he replied unless you count Top Gun.
Anyway, Downey plays a thief who inadvertently becomes an actor. He goes to Hollywood and becomes involved with a woman and a murder. Downey does voice-overs the whole time and the voice-overs are aware that this is a movie. There is a legitimate murder mystery and there are guns and chases and violence, but this is a comedy and a good one. I would have paid full price to see this in the theatre. It is even funny during the credit which have the best talking-directly-during-the-audience-as-they-are-leaving-the-theatre scene since Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The next review is for the tv show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Netflix is renting out the premiere episode of it and Kidnapped on the same dvd.
First, a quick word on Kidnapped. Quality show. Great cast. The plot is about a kidnapped kid and runs the entire first season. I plan on watching it, if it's on at a convenient time for me. I can only keep up with so many tv shows and I might be waiting for it to hit dvds and Netflix.
But back to Studio 60, watch this show. It's great. It's from Aaron Sorkin, who created Sports Night and The West Wing. The premiere episode has the best aspects of both of the shows. Sports Night was a comedy about behind the scenes of a live tv show and West Wing was a drama about politics. Studio 66 is a drama about the politics behind the scenes of a live comedy tv show. It has the high energy dialogue that has become somewhat of a trademark of Sorkin. It introduces a large cast effortlessly. Like the first episode of West Wing, it teases about events in the past but waits for the right time to reveal the details. It even has the patience to wait til about 40 minutes in to introduce two of the main stars. And the cast is good enough that two great actors are only in the first ten minutes and it doesn't seem like a waste. This is not only a show I'm planning on watching, but I'm planning on taping it as well so in case something happens and I miss something. I was actually annoyed after the show was over that I would have to wait til the show to start to see the second episode.
And to bring up another point, Matthew Perry's guess appearance on the West Wing blew me away as it was the first time I had seen him where he wasn't doing a variation on Chandler Bing. His character on Studio 60 has it's Chandler-esque quality, but should be the role that seperates him from his work on his old tv show.
Anyway, if you have a Netflix account, rent the dvd with the studio 60 premiere on it. If you don't, watch it when it debuts on tv.
First, I got the movie Side Effects from netflix. I got it mainly because of Katherine Heigl starring in it. It's about the pharmaceutical industry. I'm going to include spoilers here, but don't worry, if you see this movie, you'll see every event in the movie coming in the first ten minutes. At one point, really early on, it looked like it had the potential to be a truly original film. No such luck. Let's just say near the end credits it says the movie was made for something like $120,000 (I forget the exact number). Then, watching the director's introduction which was included in the special features, I find out that the director is a first time writer/director who wrote the script after a career in pharmaceutical sales. Let's just say I was not shocked. The editing was abrupt and the plotlines were ones that were so overused that you can't accuse it of stealing from any one movie. Any movie fan knows the scenarios. A person is in a group/position/clique she hates. She has alterior motives for not leaving. Gradually she loses her identity and becomes one of the things she hates. There is atleast one character who is on her side and outside the group and everybody in the group, the villains, are broadly drawn. At one point, they mention an industry awards dinner and you instantly know where the climatic scene of the movie will take place. Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls are just two examples of movies that have used these plots, although they aren't the first.
I can forgive the unoriginality of the movie because it never tries to be original. The purpose of the movie was to inform about the industry. The movie have scenes sliced in where facts about drug companies are stated or doctors are asked about they drug company representatives. There is apparently a documentary about the industry and part of it is included in the special features, but I didn't watch it. But it would seem the whole purpose of the movie was to inform people who wouldn't watch a documentary about drug companies. And let's just say it isn't a commercial for them. Anyway, the unoriginality and obvious bias of the movie was easy for me to block out which allowed me to enjoyed the positive of the movie: it was ninety minutes of Katherine Heigl. So I enjoyed the movie. If it's on tv or if you can get a hold of the dvd for free, it might make for a enjoyable diversion, but I wouldn't recommend paying to rent it or go out of the way to see it.
The second movie is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a film-noir type film but it is also a comedy. It stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. I saw a quote from Kilmer during the promoting of the movie where he was asked if this was the first comedy he had done since Real Genius and he replied by asking if Alexander counts. I also heard that he was asked if this was his first gay character and he replied unless you count Top Gun.
Anyway, Downey plays a thief who inadvertently becomes an actor. He goes to Hollywood and becomes involved with a woman and a murder. Downey does voice-overs the whole time and the voice-overs are aware that this is a movie. There is a legitimate murder mystery and there are guns and chases and violence, but this is a comedy and a good one. I would have paid full price to see this in the theatre. It is even funny during the credit which have the best talking-directly-during-the-audience-as-they-are-leaving-the-theatre scene since Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The next review is for the tv show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Netflix is renting out the premiere episode of it and Kidnapped on the same dvd.
First, a quick word on Kidnapped. Quality show. Great cast. The plot is about a kidnapped kid and runs the entire first season. I plan on watching it, if it's on at a convenient time for me. I can only keep up with so many tv shows and I might be waiting for it to hit dvds and Netflix.
But back to Studio 60, watch this show. It's great. It's from Aaron Sorkin, who created Sports Night and The West Wing. The premiere episode has the best aspects of both of the shows. Sports Night was a comedy about behind the scenes of a live tv show and West Wing was a drama about politics. Studio 66 is a drama about the politics behind the scenes of a live comedy tv show. It has the high energy dialogue that has become somewhat of a trademark of Sorkin. It introduces a large cast effortlessly. Like the first episode of West Wing, it teases about events in the past but waits for the right time to reveal the details. It even has the patience to wait til about 40 minutes in to introduce two of the main stars. And the cast is good enough that two great actors are only in the first ten minutes and it doesn't seem like a waste. This is not only a show I'm planning on watching, but I'm planning on taping it as well so in case something happens and I miss something. I was actually annoyed after the show was over that I would have to wait til the show to start to see the second episode.
And to bring up another point, Matthew Perry's guess appearance on the West Wing blew me away as it was the first time I had seen him where he wasn't doing a variation on Chandler Bing. His character on Studio 60 has it's Chandler-esque quality, but should be the role that seperates him from his work on his old tv show.
Anyway, if you have a Netflix account, rent the dvd with the studio 60 premiere on it. If you don't, watch it when it debuts on tv.
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