Well, Kiefer Sutherland has signed on for three (3~!) more years of 24, which means that Jack Bauer is in store for at least a few more really, really bad days.
And as far as last night's episode goes .... daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!
Now THAT was some vintage 24 goodness. You had Jack breaking into a bank, tag-teaming with Wayne Palmer and RANDOM CIVILIAN GUY against Robo-Henderson and his goons, the LAPD, and, oh yeah, the US MILITARY in a stand-off worthy of a Kurosawa film.
Aaron Pierce saying "Just a little battle-worn" in response to the First Lady's concern = GRAVITAS.
Pseudo JAMES BOND-ESQUE MUSIC kicking in towards the end = AWESOMELY CHEESY and KICKASS.
Inevitability of the RANDOM CIVILIAN BANK OWNER becoming yet another casualty in Jack Bauer's quest for justice? Pretty damn inevitable. Becoming a trusted ally of Jack to the point where he actually tells you everything he knows = CERTAIN DEATH for a civvie.
Vice President Green Lantern is ready to kick some Presidential ass, and I like it.
Who among us does not applaud the return of William Devane as everyone's favorite crusty yet still-kicking Secretary of Defense? I think the GRAVITAS METER just got cranked up a bit with Heller's return.
And yeah, I think this ep quelled the fears of those who were concerned that President Logan was now suddenly an evil mastermind when until this point he had simply been an indecisive incompetent. Well, I think it's now clear that good old Logan is the same as ever, just slightly more EVIL than we initially expected. Because it seems from this ep that it's he who is being manipulated and controlled by Henderson (duh, he's freakin' ROBOCOP), and not the other way around.
My one annoyance with this episode: How did they find that bank-owner so fast?
The little girl breaking down and calling 911 = drama. But what happened to her mother? We never find out. Hmmm ...
Where's Curtis?
Chloe = hacker extraordinaire, and a damn good liar.
Is Tony still dead?
Nice ending with Jack putting things into perspective as only he can. "We have to bring down the President." Indeeeeeeeeed.
Overall, a great episode, with things really coming into focus and with the mission now clear: bring down Logan. Awesome stuff -- 3 More Years! 3 More Years! My grade: A
PRISONBREAK:
Nice, another excellent installment of everyone's favorite ridiculously over the top prison saga. If anything, this episode reminded us of the cold, cruel realities of being locked away in the Joint -- the loneliness of Solitary, the sadistic prisonguards, and the giant grinning guys named Bubba who want nothing more than fresh meat to break in. Disturbing ...
Cool stuff with Scofield in solitary, and the conclusion of his plan to get himself into the psych ward was pretty cool, if not totally improbable. But hey, this show ain't exactly about realism, so I guess it's okay. Michael's cellmate trying to escape, and failing was really cool. But once again everyone's favorite psychopath, Teabag, steals the show. "So I hear you like to party." Oh. Man. As Austin Powers would say "That's a man, baby!"
Excellent stuff, if not gratuitously campy. My grade: A -
MORE TV REVIEWS:
FAMILY GUY:
Missed most of FOX's Sunday Night lineup this week due to a long-awaited viewing of Conan The Barbarian on DVD (By Crom!), and yes, I of course recorded King of the Hill, Malcolm, and The Simpsons for later viewing. But I did catch Family Guy, and I have to say ... just as I was getting ready to write a huge Family Guy owns South Park diatribe ... along comes this completely craptacular episode that pretty much represented everything that is NOT COOL of late about this once-great show. First off, this episode was NOT FUNNY. The jokes were tired and lame, and I barely laughed at all throughout the whole thing. And literally every sentance was "Remember that time when ...", "It's not as bad as the time when ...", or "This is like that time when ..." followed by a so-random-it's-NOT-funny cutaway. And too often the cutaways were simply gags that were NOT ACTUALLY JOKES. So Stewie and Brian try to expose mayor Adam West. They find a shady informant. And -- oh my god HAHAHA it turns out to be Kermit the Frog! Hilarious? No, that's not a joke, it's just supposed to be funny because it's Kermit. Now, every so often, these jokes are funny when you hit upon the right punchline. Who doesn't fondly remember the classic FG moment where a bunch of ppl are screaming Oh No! and suddenly the Kool-Aid gu crashes through a wall and screams "Oh Yeah!" THAT was hilarious, because the timing, the surprise, etc, was so well-executed. Now this type of gag happens every few minutes, but on episodes like this one where the writing isn't as sharp, nobody is laughing. This ep sucked. It had nothing going for it plotwise, terrible gags, and just came off as a frail shadow of the show this used to be. I know this show can do much, much better, but this was just pathetic. My grade: D
QUICK MOVIE REVIEWS:
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING:
Movies that are legitimately funny yet also intelligent are few and far between, so it was great to come out of this movie having been thoroughly entertained in a number of ways. I laughed, a lot. I enjoyed the satirical aspects of the film. I enjoyed almost all of the performances. And it made me think. I know, that sounds cliched, but it was cool to see a comedy that actually tackled a particular issue, without being too preachy or boring, and still managed to focus on character and humor. Aaron Eckhart was great here - perfect for the lead role as a smarmy, fast-talking tobacco lobbyist. We immediately recognize that he is not exactly a saint, in fact he is in many ways just a step removed from being a criminal -- morally bankrupt and always looking for the next angle to play. And yet we grow to like him - we sympathize with his desire to spend time with his son, and his drive to succeed at his job. All thanks to Eckhart's great performance. The supporting cast is also excellent. William H. Macy, of course, is outstanding as a short-tempered, crusading anti-tobacco Senator from Vermont. Sam Elliot brings his gravelly cowboy voice to a part he was born to play - that of an aging former Marlboro Man who is dying of cancer. Rob Lowe is hilarious as an eccentric Hollywood agent -- reminded me of his role as a similarly worldly power-player in Wayne's World. And The OC's Adam Brody is really funny also as Lowe's eager to please assistant - definitely reminded me of some of the types I've encountered here in LA. While the style wasn't quite the same, this movie's sharp wit and free-wheeling stle kind of reminded me of a Cohen Bros. type of film, which is always a really good thing. The movie can get a little talky and oddly-paced at times, but I was mostly glued to the screen thanks to the smart script and excellent acting. Again, I really enjoyed this movie and think it's a must-see for anyone who enjoys good satire. Check it out. My grade: A -
BRICK:
My senior year of college I took a great class at BU called Detective Fiction and Film Noir. I read the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and watched the adventures of Sam Spade. I read Daschel Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and was exposed to great films like The Killing, Touch of Evil, Out of the Past, Double Indemnity, Laura, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, and The Long Goodbye. Though I had already had a small appreciation for the shadowy world of noir, the class really opened my eyes to what was out there beyond modern takes on the genre like Memento and The Usual Suspects. So I was excited for Brick - a movie that promised to take the sharp dialects and shady characters of Hammet and transpose them into a modern high school setting. Veronica Mars has shown us that high school can be just as shadowy and dangerous as any urban cityscape or remote border town, so it was definitely a juxtopasition that can be made to work. And as for Brick? Well, it really is an entertaining and interesting movie. While at first it was pretty jarring to hear modern high school kids talking in some weird, Maltese Falcon-meets-Sin City-esque dialogue, the strange rythms and patterns to the dialogue soon really grew on me and became a lot of fun to try to interpret and figure out. Like the classic noirs, the plot kind of becomes secondary to the characters -- and Brick has some good ones. The crime kingpins and femme fatales of classic film noir are reimagined as high school drama queens and juvenile delinquints. Brandon, Tug, The Pin, et all were all really fun characters, and I loved going along for this ride and getting sucked into the crazy world. I also loved that there was a lot of humor, and some of the more absurd moments were kind of done tongue in cheek, knowing that you can only take some of the more outlandish moments so seriously before you have to laugh - and Brick embraces that. Take The Pin - the "old, like 26" leader of the local drug trade, who runs a shady gang of teens by night, lives in his congenial mom's house by day. Pretty funny stuff. Sure, this movie is mostly based on a gimmick -- high school kids acting out a film noir -- but it's a really, really fun gimmick. Definitely check this one out as well. My grade: A -
WHAT ELSE?
- Tommorow morning, 7 am, I'm off for Bloomfield, CT. I'm only going to be home for a few days, and I am beginning to realize just how short a time that is. While there is no way I'm going to have time to do much outside of a few mandatory appointments / visits, I am hoping I do just have a chance to relax and veg out. I've mostly been working nonstop since December with only a few days off since I went home in the winter, and I am just kind of burnt out from my daily routine. To have a few consecutive days off (if you can call it that) should be a very good thing.
- It's Passover, and once again let me reitirate how there is no better time to be home where someone can cook for you. While I do make a mean matzoh pizza, that gets pretty old pretty fast.
- This past Monday, a new NBC Page class started. What does that have to do with me? Pretty much nothing, which is a really weird feeling in a way. I can barely even keep track anymore of which of my friends are actually still pages. But I know the number is steadily dwindling.
- Things to do in CT: beat my brother in basketball and videogames, get a new cell phone (finally!), I would say go to Luna's Pizza but it'll be Passover so no ... oh, recite the word "dunghill" at my Passover seder without bursting into uncontrollable laughter (yeah, not gonna happen ...). NOTE: See last year's Passover-related entry for all the dunghill details. Sidenote: Speaking of that, I can't believe how long I've had this blog.
- Speaking of THAT, let the countdown to 10,000 hits begin. But don't get too excited, according to technorati.com this blog is only like the 860,000th most popular on the 'net.
- Thanks to youtube.com (which due to my job I should probably, like, not be supporting, but oh well), I have relived some great TV comedic moments. Borat from Ali G being interviewed, in character, on Conan, for one. And on a whim the other day I typed in The State and lo and behold -- there was Barry and Levon, Louie ("who's got something for me?!?!"), the sideways House, The Bearded Men of space Station 11, etc. Damn, The State was and still is amazingly hilarious. DVD's please!
- I Wanna Rock (ROCK!)!
- Once again, I'd like to reitirate how fantabulous Conan the Barbarian is. Great movie. "What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, to see der children driven before you, and to hear de lamentations of de women!"
- And that's all I've got for now. Tommorow I'll be seder-ing in CT. Bloomfield represent what what.
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