Wow, I've only really gone through one real day at work since getting back from Connecticut, and already I am more than ready for the weekend. Today it's very east coast-ish here in LA. Rainy, windy, cloudy and dim - a great day to be at home reading in bed. If only ...
My flight back to Burbank on Wednesday wasn't the greatest. Good ol' Southwest, you never fail to make things interesting ... Early Wed. afternoon, my brother drove me to Bradley airport, where I boarded a plane for what would be the first of three takeoffs that day. First, we touched down in Chicago, where I had a three hour layover. That was okay, as it gave me time to relaz and grab a leisurely lunch. Then, I got on my connecting flight to Burbank, except, of course, it was scheduled to stop in Vegas on route to CA. After a bumpy ride that triggered my innate tendencies towards motion sickness, I was more than ready to take off quickly and hightail it to Burbank. Buuut guess what? Due to undisclosed reasons, the second part of the flight, you know, the part that was supposed to take me to Burbank ... was cancelled. So I had to get off the plane, and wait in that horrible Vegas airport for over an hour for the next flight to the Burbank airport. Ugh. I got back to my apartment close to 10 pm, totally exhausted and unable to do much other than numbly watch my DVR'd Office season finale before drifting into a deep slumber.
Now, I realize that some of my earlier posts about my Boston trip may have seemed slightly cranky. And yes, there were moments of the trip that warranted crankiness, to be sure. But overall, it was a really fun trip. Matt's graduation was cool, it was a lot of fun to hang out in Boston again, from Com Ave to Newbury St. to the BU Hillel. And it was nice to have a little time in CT to relax, watch movies, etc.
And now, summer in LA begins ... what will now be my FOURTH summer here in CA. Hard to believe, but I'm ready to roll. Just give me a one day to sleep in, and I'll be good to go.
TV STUFF:
- Things I still have to watch: the Gossip Girl season finale, The Simpsons and King of the Hill season finales, Smallville's upteenth season finale, the last few eps of Aliens in America, and probably one or two other things that I'm currently forgetting.
- As for the hour-long finale of THE OFFICE ... Overall, I really liked the episode. Over the last several weeks, my issue with the Office has been that it's been telling some pretty hefty dramatic stories at the expense of comedy and jokes. This week, I thought the balance was handled much better, in a way that reminded me in a positive sense of the British series. Oftentimes, Ricky Gervais had the ability to make the mundane goings-on of an office setting take on an unusually epic nature, and this week, Steve Carell and co did accomplished the same feat. I found myself holding my breath, wondering what would happen with Michael Scott and his old relationship with Jan and his new one with Holly, played by Amy Ryan. Ryan did a great job here - it was easy to see why Michael would so quickly fall for her and how there might be some real potential with the two. And it was interesting to see some role reversal, where Jim's cautionary advice might actually have backfired, causing Michael to miss a golden opportunity. There really was a great dynamic in this episode with Michael, in what amounted to one of the best character examinations of Michael Scott we've seen in a long while. Meanwhile, the humor was pretty spot-on. Steve Carell had some classic lines, ie "You cheated on me? when I specifically told you not to?". Some of his big moments really mixed comedy with pathos too - I mean the whole Yoda exchange with Amy Ryan was one of those great bits where you aren't sure whether to laugh, cry, or cringe, but end up just smiling at its brilliance. The Kevin-might-be-mentally-challenged subplot was pretty hilarious, and Creed had some great bits as well. My only two complaints? One: The Jim-Pam tension seemed a little forced. I get that so many of their big moments happen "at the office," as Jim pointed out to Michael, but come on, is Pam really THAT disappointed that Jim didn't propose to her at some dinky office party? And one that was supposed to be in honor of a guy who had a pretty public crush on Pam no less? Second complaint is that the whole Andy-Angela-Dwight triangle thing also feels rushed and forced. We haven't really seen enough of Andy and Angela to understand why he'd propose to her already. On the flipside, Dwight's legit sadness over Angela was handled pretty well, and Rainn Wilson always does an awesome job. I just get annoyed that Andy has gone from one of the funniest characters on the show to being a kind of utility player, whose personality changes episode to episode to fit the situation. Overall though, this was an excellent season finale, and was the rare pice of comedic TV that felt truly "big" and important and epic, despite the relatively small scale of the stories being told.
My Grade: A -
- I won't go too much into LOST's penultimate S4 episode, since it aired over a week ago at this point. All I'll say is: I thought it pretty much rocked. I am absolutely loving Lost right now, and am 100% aniticipating the season finale, even though I'm sure it will leave me begging for more. I'm dyin' to know how the various members of the Oceanic 6 ultimately end up together, how Locke is going to "move" the island, and what exactly Ben's plan is, as he turns himself into Keamy and his group of badazz mercenaries. Sorry guys, I'm a little too far removed from last week's ep to do an in-depth review, but this was a definite "A" episode for me. Can't wait for this coming Thursday's 2 hour spectacular.
- And one more thing: I've been watching a ton of ALIENS IN AMERICA, as I caught up on a couple of recent episodes during my recent flights back and forth from the east coast. The more I watched, the more I came to appreciate just how great this show is - it really seemed to get better and better with each new episode, mixing in some old-school family drama with a very hip and quirky sense of humor. You've got to admire the show for just how ambitious it is in its subject matter - it tackles issues of race, xenophobia, and politics head on in a sensitive and smart way. It's a shame that this show looks to be essentially DOA - I wish I had advocated for it earlier and more often. I'd encourage anyone to check it out while you still can, or download it from iTunes or whatever - it really is one of the best comedies on TV that only got better and funnier and more clever as it went on.
Okay, on to the final piece of the puzzle, a movie review of the latest installment of The Chronic (what!) cles of Narnia ...
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN Review:
- The first Narnia movie was a surprisingly successful film, both creatively and at the box office. If you check out my review from way back when, you'll see that I really enjoyed the film and thought that, despite some unevenness in tone, it was overall a nice start to the series and set up the world of Narnia nicely.
In this second entry in the series, what we get is a movie that's enjoyable, but never really becomes a cohesive film, never really reaches greatness. It's one of those messy movies, where certain moments seem to radiate brilliance, yet others elicit unintentional laughs. Visually, Prince Caspian is really well done. There's all manner of cool-looking beasts roaming about, engaging in battle, etc. There are some scenes that are just impeccably framed, the type of scenes that immerse you and transport you. The battles are chaotic but typically a lot of fun to watch. There's some really nice action choreography at work here.
But the movie lacks a certain spark. Things tend to just kind of roll along without a lot of real dramatic weight, and there's a lot of deux-ex machina storytelling at play. From the get go, for example, we await the return of Aslan, the Christ-like lord of Narnia who we know will be able to get our heroes out of practically any jam. But Aslan here is essentially a walking plot device - he is so omnipotent that his mere presence is all that is needed to turn the tide of battle in favor of the Narnians. But we anticipate this, and it makes us think "geez, why doesn't Aslan just show up already and kick some ass? I mean, what's he waiting for, exactly?" I guess that's the inherent problem with including all-powerful heroes in stories like this, but it sure does eliminate some of the dramatic tension.
The other problem is, well, part of the reason Aslan is so inevitably all-powerful is that the movie has no great villain to really drive the action. We get a kind of generic, pointy-bearded overlord, and his army of vageuly European-seeming dudes - the Telmarines - who wear elaborate armor and masks. And the lack of a great villain is just made all the more evident by one particluar scene in the film. About halfway through Prince Caspian, in a bit that might very well be the movie's best, the film goes off on a tangent and features a wonderfully dark and evocative interlude in which some particularly evil Narnians decide that, rather than wait for their purported savior in Aslan, they will instead summon the White Witch, who would then presumably usurp control of Narnia and do lots of awesomely evil stuff. In a brief cameo, Tilda Swindon plain and simply rules it, bringing the kind of epic awe and wonder and magic to the movie which otherwise was often sorely missing. I absolutely loved this one scene, and wish that more of Prince Caspian could have summoned up this same level of imagination and power.
Storytelling-wise, much of the plot just seems too glossed over. We never REALLY are made to care about the royal struggles of Prince Caspian versus his malevolant uncle. We never really see the reactions of the Telmarines to the reemergance of the Narnians, who to them were supposed to be merely the stuff of legend. They just kind of go with the flow and are like "oh ok I guess we have to fight a bunch of dwarves and minotaurs now." And we never really get much weight or explanation behind the twist that the two older siblings can no longer come back to Narnia. It's just kind of accepted, and that's that.
I do like the cast here though. The four main kids, the High Kings of Narnia, are all pretty likable. I especially think that the youngest, Lucy, is the heart and soul of the movie, and seems the truest and most natural of the four. Peter, the oldest son, on the other hand, seems a bit awkward and unnecessarilly whiny. It's hard to buy him as a High King of Narnia when he comes off a little more like a slightly bratty teenager. While the acting from Susan, oldest daughter, could be a bit spotty at times, I thought they did a nice job of giving her a bigger role here than in part 1. Not only does she kick large amounts of ass with her trusty bow and arrow, she has a fun little romance with Prince Caspian. Sure, it's mostly a lot of lusty stares and whatnot, but hey, I think the movie benefitted from a little dose of teenage romance. Edward has some fun moments too, particularly in that aforementioned scene with the White Witch. Meanwhile, I loved Warwick Davis and Peter Dinklage here. Both are consummate pros and do an awesome job as a couple of dwarves out of the LOTR mold. I mean, look, when you need a dwarf for a fantasy flick, you can't really do any better than by-god WILLOW. Eddie Izzard is also a lot of fun as the voice of Reepacheep, a feisty rat / expert swordsman. Definitely a standout and responsible for some of the coolest scenes in the film.
And that's the thing - there ARE real moments of magic here. From Reepacheep's assault on the Telemarine army, to the White Witch's reemergence, to Lucy's prophetic dream in which she encounters Aslan. There are some astounding visuals, epic battles, and memorable characters here. The problem is, these moments never quite come together to form one cohesive, dramatic narrative. The stakes never feel high enough, and the story never really becomes involving. It's more a move where you're shuttled along from one spectacle to the next, making you hope that each scene offers up something cool, but increasingly skeptical that it will all add up to be something great. But don't get me wrong: this is a movie that has its heart in the right place, that really does succeed in bringing the world of Narnia to life. While this might not be the best example of what that world, what these characters are capable of, it's a world I'd happily visit again. So yeah, bring on Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
My Grade: B
- Alright, 3 day weekend baby! Tonight - Indiana Jones! Tomorrow - sleep! Now - I'm outta here.
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