Reviews
Weeds: Wonderful Wonderful (2009)
This show has run out of gas
The first three seasons of "Weeds" were funny, creative and offbeat -- crime as crazy and accessible, but still causing awful consequences for those who make these unlawful choices.
The Season 4 exit from the burned-out Agrestic could have been genius on the part of creator Jenji Kohan, but instead the plots turned meaner, nastier and darker, and not ONE SINGLE CHARACTER was likable anymore. It was just an ensemble of screechy, illicit, foul-mouthed jerks slinging grass and making stupid decisions. I also must agree with the reviewer before me that Celia and Doug should have been dumped when the Agrestic arc ended, and new characters introduced, since a new locale was introduced. But no, these people linger like a giant zit on your cheek.
The Season 5 opener suggests that this show should end after this season -- what more can we get out of Nancy Botwin and her quibbling, bitter children and lame pot business? The plots are boring, and the characters are still unlikable. Celia's kidnappers unable to find someone to pay the ransom was tedious. Esteban's dominance of Nancy is disgusting. Her sons are brats. I'm done with "Weeds." When it comes to a show about a middle aged person selling illegal substances because they need more money, I'll vote instead for "Breaking Bad" on AMC, a show that just might make it creatively to four or five seasons.
Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1970)
One Sided But Historically Interesting
I was 11 years old in 1973 when I read some of "Chariots of the Gods?" and saw "In Search of Ancient Astronauts," a condensed version of this 1972 documentary. As a kid, you are impressible and can be enthralled by these new ideas, that maybe aliens helped humankind along the way to advanced civilization.
As an adult seeing "Chariots of the Gods" 35 years later, I was amazed at the claims the narrator sometimes makes, leaving out significant background details and being excessively one sided. There are several specific examples. In the first, a visit is made to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, where a set of curved tubes is said to be the exhaust port on the bottom of the rocket (and the base of a Saturn one is shown for comparison). However, no details are given of where the artifact was found, how old it was or what mainstream archaeologists thought it was.
In the second, there were statues in Mexico, who were claimed to be wearing odd hats, communication or utility devices on their chests and perhaps weapons or communicators on their belts. No alternative opinion was presented, such as the "communicators" might just be ordinary breastplates, and the hats some kind of ornamental warrior headgear. Additionally in Pelenque, Mexico, a sarcophagus lid for the Mayan leader Pacal is supposed to be a rocket ship, with no additional explanation given that his "rocket" might actually be a collection of Mayan symbols representing the king's passage to the underworld, and the meaning of these symbols unknown to few modern people except archaeologists specializing in pre-Columbian history.
I liked the crazy, spacey soundtrack, which ranged from early '70s electronica to New Ageish acoustic, and the cinematography, much shot from the skies -- the way these alleged "ancient astronauts" might have seen the earth! There just wasn't enough evidence presented that aliens created all these mysteries, which certainly are unexplainable.
Spacemen? I don't know. The theory that humans, not aliens, reached a high level of civilization thousands of years ago -- say more like late 21st century -- only to have it destroyed by a natural disaster, such as an ice age, seems like a more probable explanation for the supposedly advanced technologies in ancient artifacts and even the strange costumes. People knocked back to the stone age by a disaster over generations could have forgotten their heritage, old costuming and technology and have only traces, which to them might become religious legends. They might record them on cave or cliff walls in images that look more familiar to us because we are advanced, just like their distant ancestors. And artifacts that were fabricated with technology similar to ours thousands of years ago also could have come from these very ancient humans, not a bunch of extraterrestrials!
Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)
Weird cheese served from Down Under
I usually enjoy Australian movies, but this thing I could pass on if it ever turns up on cable again.
Jonathan Schaech (who made his name with "That Thing You Do!"), as Teddy, gets stuck in a ramshackle, bizarro town after being suckered by Angie, a horny woman, to visit her family. Her home is the title place, a former company town near an asbestos factory.
Woop Woop is a prison, ruled over by Daddy-O, Angie's father. It's also a pile of crap. It reminded me much of "Nothing But Trouble," the Dan Aykroyd-Chevy Chase movie where the former is the insane mayor of Valkenvania and holds Chase, Demi Moore and their Brazilian friends hostage at his junky mansion over a burning coal mine. Also shades of "Trapped in Paradise," a Nicolas Cage clunker where he and his fellow bank robbers are caught in a small town at Christmas and can't get out.
The movie meanders, fueled by Daddy-O's malice. Potential fun from tension between the newcomer Yank and the oddball Aussies is never used effectively. Angie is an insane shrieker at times, which got on my nerves. Her movie sister Crystal, widowed when her hairdresser husband is shot trying to flee Woop Woop, is a lot nicer. Naturally Teddy falls in with her.
Not all Australians like this movie, and I can see why. These people are wacked, and they might leave foreigners the impression that all Aussies are like this. Obviously they aren't, but this movie doesn't help.
Here are some reasons this movie is lame: (1) They spent about $5 (Australian) on the budget. (2) The digital effects with the giant kangaroo were awful. (3) The plot was nearly nonexistent (4) There were almost no likable characters, except Crystal, Duffy the Neil Diamond wannabe, and Reg the pothead.
So, if you want to cure insomnia, watch this thing. But if you want some good slices of Australian cinema, try "Gallipoli," "Picnic at Hanging Rock" or even "Mad Max."
The Point (1971)
Strange Childhood Memory Returns
I recall being about 10 and seeing this while at home from school, sick with the flu. As a kid, I really enjoyed it. The idea of being different already hit home, as I was a class misfit from fourth grade on. I remember being so happy when Oblio was accepted into the town again. The song "Me and My Arrow" stuck with me for years and caused a chuckle in my teens when I heard it on a commercial for the Plymouth Arrow!
Nearly 30 years later, kiddle cable channel Nickelodeon plays it, and it's a disturbing, psychedelic, and sometimes depressing story. A child, mostly liked by the townspeople, is BANISHED because some powerful noble's child is a sore loser.
One of the first songs by Harry Nilsson is about a heavy subject -- death -- and talks of things getting old and dying, and shows colorful, decomposing fish in LSD animation! In a kid's show! As bad as the fake chicken getting beheaded in the boat ride scene in "Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factoy."
And I thought today's kid cartoons, influenced by "Ren & Stimpy" and "The Simpsons," were twisted, too-adult and full of bodily fluids (spit, snot, blood, etc.). They are, but the early stuff was warped as well: it just didn't have sexual innuendo and fart jokes. "The Point" is a good example... the hippies pick up ink and paint and scramble the brains of the "Lost Generation" of kids between the boomers and the Xers. Some live action was way over the edge, too. (Check out aforementioned "Wonka," "The Phantom Tollbooth," "Yellow Submarine," "The Love Bug.")
Additional trivia: Oblio was voiced by Peter Brady (Mike Lookinland).
The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)
Interesting Film from near end of MGM era
The Grand Studio of the Lion was slowly dying when this musical for kids was released.
I read the Norton Juster Book in '71 before seeing the film at a summer film series in my hometown public library. I loved Juster's book so much I read it twice. The movie "Tollbooth" I found faithful to the book, but I didn't like the way the characters were animated. Tock should have had his watch on the outside of his body, and having silhouettes for Princesses Rhyme and Reason instead of regular women was bad. Putting Officer Short Shrift on wheels was creative, though.
Butch Patrick was interesting to see without his Eddie Munster makeup. However, I didn't like his disbelief and precocious cynicism about the tollbooth at the beginning. The book Milo was much more mellow and willing to believe that the fantastic could happen. He calmly investigated and assembled the tollbooth kit (it just springs to life in the movie). After Patrick got into the animated world, he calmed down a little.
Not an animated masterpiece, but an OK cartoon for smaller kids (boredom expected for over 9).
Krippendorf's Tribe (1998)
No moral here!
The problem with this movie was not only flat, boring comedy (it really seemed to drag on for a 90-minute flick) but the way the main characters got away with lying! Anthropologist James Krippendorf makes up this big lie about a unique New Guinea tribe, whose name is constructed from his 3 kids' names. He keeps piling lies on top of lies and even drags Jenna Elfman down. I would have liked to see him, his family and Elfman get theirs for so much lying; instead an 11th-hour trick by Krippendorf's daughter convinces adversary Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) there really is a Shelmickedmu Tribe. At least in "The Blues Brothers" (1980) they got thrown into prison for all that destruction in the Chicagoland area. Centering a whole movie around lying and deception and letting them get away with it stinks. This movie sent out a poor moral message and was a crappy comedy besides.
Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
Originally junk; now getting better
"Star Trek: Voyager" was really hard to follow and deal with when it first came on in 1995. Capt. Janeway had, as an acquaintance put it, one of TV's most grating voices, and a Victorian hairdo to boot. I simply refused to watch it for the first two seasons, but during the third I thought I would check it out. It has improved, the chemistry amongst the characters has improved vastly; however, injecting soap opera with romances between Torres and Paris and possibly Seven of Nine and Kim was cutting into time that could be used for space missions, the journey home, etc. Seven of Nine seems to be a ploy to boost ratings: Need more numbers? Put Jeri Ryan onscreen! Ryan's wooden approach makes Al Gore look like the most emotional man on earth. Janeway should stop being a bonehead in so many shows. There have been so many episode climaxes with some aliens blasting Voyayer ("Captain! Shields down to 60 percent!") because of her stupidity or misjudgment. Seven often was more correct than Capt Grate Voice. Neelix is so-so; Tuvok interesting for being, apparently, another race of Vulcans; Torres and Kim need further broadening. Ensign Paris is one of the most developed guys on the bridge; why not apply this to the others as well? Episodes have been watchable, however, as more planet explorations and encounters with aliens have occurred. Final note: get The Doctor a name! Five seasons and still no name?
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Great Bond Girl; So-So Villain
Rupert Murdoch gone mad! At least, that is what happens in the latest of the Bond franchise. Appropriately sporting a British accent (though Murdoch's actually Australian) Jonathan Pryce is Elliot Carver, whose obsession with managing his own headlines also recalls Hearst. Oooh, I'm scared! Newspapers are so deadly! I also keep expecting him to stop and try to convince Mr. Bond to trade in his Mercedes for an Infiniti! Gee, I miss those mad scientists and communists who wanted to rule the world. I guess that's what you get when the Bond franchise is 35 years old. But there is new life with chop-socky action lady Michelle Yeoh, whose Wai Lin was able to mop up the floor with bad guys. I like a Bond Girl with a tough and intelligent attitude (the best since Barbara Bach's Soviet officer in "The Spy Who Loved Me"). She made a great sidekick for Pierce Brosnan. And no kissy-kissy till the very end, when Carver and his headline-cranking sub have been appropriately blown sky high (always have the bad guy's HQ go up in a Bond piece). Gotz Otto as the main henchman Stamper was appropriately ruthless, but he'll never make me forgot such top hatchetmen as Odd Job and Jaws, even if he did have a throwable hat with a metal brim.