Ready to Rumble? Reviews of SMOKING ACES, NOTES ON A SCANDAL, and MORE

So, the news you've been waiting all weekend to hear ...

- My teammates and I did not make it past the first round of auditions for VH1's World Series of Pop Culture, unfortunately. I can't really go into the details of the audition (legally), but I'll say that the opening round proved to be very tough even for me and my crack team of pop culture experts. I enjoyed the experience of going in on Friday and putting my knowledge to the test, and it was fun in a kind of geeky way when certain subjects came up that I was uniquely familiar with ... although there were also moments of frustration, when other subjects came up, which I found myself totally at a loss with. Like I said though, it was a fun time, and I guess my 15 minutes of gameshow fame and fortune will have to wait. Oh well. Team Camp Anawana could a' been a contender, I tell ya's.

TV STUFF:

- Just some quick thoughts from the weekend as I caught up with Smallville and The OC.

SMALLVILLE had a pretty mediocre episode on Thursday, I have to say. It seemed like a ripoff of about 5 thousand similar but better-told "alternate universe where everything you thought you knew is turned on it head" type episodes of other series. The inclusion of J'onn J'ones was kind of cool, I guess, though he didn't do much except for act as the stereotypical guiding voice for Clark. Overall, I just felt like the whole episode was pretty pointless, and the alternate reality that was presented was not even particularly interesting. The writers should have taken a course in Alan Moore 101 and read "For The Man Who Has Everything" for the end-all be-all tale of Clark Kent in an imaginary, alternate reality.

My Grade: C+

THE OC meanwhile had another kind-of-entertaining episode that seemed to be mostly treading water until the series finale. This show has burned through so many plotlines that all of the big revelations just seem pretty dull at this point. Kirsten is pregant? Unless the baby is Jimmy Cooper's, not all that interesting. Taylor is crazy? There's a newsflash. Julie Cooper had a secret relationship with Ryan's father? Five episodes ago called and wants its subplot back. At least they finally put an end to the Che character, who had long ago worn out his welcome. Was Summer even in this episode? She's been so boring lately that I didn't even notice one way or the other. The surprise savior of this ep was once again Caitlin Cooper, who has somehow morphed into The OC's most interesting character, by far, over the last few episodes - and her interaction with Gordon Bullet is actually consistently pretty amusing. I'm not sure what direction the show is headed for the last few episodes, but at this rate it's clear we're seeing the last signs of life of a show clearly on its deathbed. Still ... I give huge bonus points for the Oldboy reference.

My Grade: B -

- BTW - I'm still in awe of VERONICA MARS being cool enough to do an homage to Y: The Last Man. Anyone else out there reading this like Y? If you've never read it, please check it out immediately.

- Have not yet seen The Simpsons or King of the Hill from Sunday, as me and the G-Man headed over to the house of some friends of my fellow Camp Anawana team member, Paul L, to watch The Royal Rumble, which is always a great time no matter how crappy the WWE happens to be at the time. Watching the event with like 15 other guys in their decked out bachelor home, complete with vintage Atari arcade cabinets, mounted deer's head, and random crap strewn all over the place was quite the experience, and the jokes were a flyin' at 100 mph the entire night. Line of the night: "Shades of Jesus!"

- Damn, I think 75% of my willpower to get through this slooooowww Monday comes from my anticipation for tonight's Prison Break and 24! Also, George Takai is on Heroes, though that show takes a backseat to the almighty Jack Bauer, who when we last left him was in the midst of choking out his estranged, possibly evil brother with a plastic grocery bag. To quote Ron Simmons: "Damn!"

MOVIE REVIEWS:

- Caught a few flicks this weekend. One was SMOKING ACES, which I saw at a free Universal screening. The other was NOTES ON A SCANDAL, which I had been curious about due to its Oscar recognition and intriguing premise. So ...

SMOKING ACES Review

- Smoking Aces reminds me of a mid to late 90's Playstation game done as a movie. In the end, the whole thing is kind of pointless. But as a sugar-coated, over-the-top, acid-fueled adrenaline rush on speed, the movie does a pretty good job of being entertainingly sick and twisted.

The basic premise is simply that a strung out Vegas magician turned wannabe mobster - Buddy "Aces" Israel (played with glossy eyes by Jeremy Piven) is turning snitch on his mob pals once he gets into things too heavy. In retaliation, the mob puts a hit out on him, which results in several gangs of comic book-ish assassins-for-hire to go out gunning for Aces, even as two dogged FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds doing a pretty decent job, and Ray Liotta in vintage toughguy form) try to get to him first.

The best part of the movie is simply being introduced to all the crazy, sordid characters who want to cash in on the bounty hanging over Aces' head. Sassy gangsta girls sporting rocket launchers and leather catsuits - one of whom is played by Alicia Keyes? Check. Neo-Nazi inbred punk-rock anarchists carrying welding kits and chainsaws? Check. Creepy, Hannibal Lechter-meets-Gollum master of disguise? Check. Blue Collar bail bondsmen, in over their heads, including an in-his-element Ben Affleck? Check. A drugged-out of his mind, furry-fetish informant played with hilarity by Jason Bateman? And ... check. I haven't seen such an entertainingly grotesque collection of morally bankrupt sadists since I first popped a copy of Twisted Metal 2 into my PS1 circa 1997.

When the movie revels in its over-the-top, darkly humourous extravagance, I really enjoyed it. These characters are all so crazy that the uber violence on screen takes on a nihilistic videogame quality. And the humor can actually be pretty sharp at times to boot. When the movie falters is when it turns serious on us and suddenly asks us to be emotionally invested in the characters. Nowhere is this more clear than during the overly long ending sequence, in which we are supposed to share in Ryan Reynold's agony over the manipulation he's been the subject of, but instead the whole thing comes off as kind of lame. Most of the big twists in the plot are pretty obvious from the get-go. Like I said, the movie falters when it tries for straight drama. But man, does it blow up stuff good. If you're in the mood for some Guy Richie-style slickness matched with Tarantino-esque grittiiness, check this one out. Just don't expect much substance to go along with your pseudo-sapphic catsuited bounty hunters-with-attitude.

My Grade: B

And now for something completely different ...

NOTES ON A SCANDAL Review:

- I sometimes am skeptical when an actress like Judi Dench gets a ton of critical acclaim for her latest bit of masterpiece theater. I mean, we KNOW she can act - but is she simply spinning the wheels or really doing something new and different? Something to make us sit up and really take notice, not just nod and say "yeah, she's pretty good." Well, this to me was a true tour de force from Judi Dench. This wasn't her playing a matronly mentor or a prim and proper lady. This was Judi Dench as a true snake in the grass - equal parts Humbert Humbert, Hannibal Lechter, and every creepy old school teacher you ever had nightmares about. Like I said, everyone knew Judi Dench was good, but to be cheesy for a second, I didn't know she could be this bad (commence eye-rolling now).

But about the movie - this is just a well-told, amazingly-acted story that is very much worth checking out. It would have been a perfect fit for the curriculum in the British film classes I took at BU London, because it deals with the classic British themes of repression and what is and isn't proper. The entire movie has a very careful air of repression, and when things do finally explode, the drama is all the more powerful because we're dealing with characters who mask their true selves and live lives of repressed desire and longing. Of course, mention also has to be made of Cate Blanchette, probably one of the three or four best actresses out there right now, who does a great job as a woman similarly trapped as compared to Judi Dench, but, intriguingly, more apt to act on her desires (in this case, turning her back on her family in order to have an affair with a 15 ear old student). Meanwhile, Dench cannot act on her desires, and therefore instead becomes a cunning manipulator - what she cannot have she will at least control and hold power over - and in doing so she tranforms from a likable, kindly woman into a loose-cannon predator.

I felt like one or two scenes in the movie were slightly over the top, and a few characters a bit underdeveloped (though Bill Nighhy (sp?) was great as Blanchette's happy-go-lucky husband). But overall, I would rank this memorable, affecting, and at times downright creepy film with some of the top movies of 2006, and definitely feel that Dench and Blanchette's Oscar nods are well deserved.

My Grade: A-

Alright, I am out. Back tommorow, time permiting, with an adrenaline-soaked 24 Rant of Doom.