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Reviews
The Office (2005)
Not as painful as the original
It's unfair to compare it to the British version, but I will anyway: I liked the British version but it was too painful at times (and yes, I understand that's what many love about the original). I couldn't watch 24 episodes (more if it got renewed) of the British version, it would simply be too caustic to take for that long. But I could imagine the more humane version being bearable for however long it lasts.
And frankly there were more than a few lines and jokes I simply didn't understand in the original (accents and regional references).
I tried to rate this as if I'd never watched the original (which is really the only fair way to handle it). It's funny, and it made me think "I've worked with people like these" more than once.
Searching for Debra Winger (2002)
The very definition of vanity project
What can you say about a film where a bunch of women that were hired due to their breasts get together to complain about having to work in an industry where women are hired due to their breasts? It's not even a film, really, since Rosanna Arquette herself has declared it is an "experience", and she didn't direct it, she "experienced" it.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed several of the interviews. These are professionally charming people, so how could we not be charmed? But it chafes a bit to see these millionaires kvetch about their jobs like they're mill workers or gut fish for a living.
A question supposedly being asked here is "can you pursue a career in acting and still be a good mother?". This is misleading, for two reasons. Thousands of excellent mothers pursue careers in acting, but none of these women are interviewed. All of the interviewees are current or past stars and leading ladies, so a more accurate phrasing would be "can you be a movie star and still be a good mother?". But, this question actually means "can you be a career narcissist and still be a good mother?". The answer to that question is more a testament to the resilience of children than of any "sacrifice" made. If children born addicted to crack can grow to be well-adjusted adults, surely a child raised by a nanny while mom was away being famous has a chance.
The other questions asked, "Where are the good roles for middle-aged actors?", "How can men in their 60s still be leads, when any woman over 35 is automatically relegated to character parts?", "How exactly does Rosanna Arquette feel about her little sister being far more successful, and taken more seriously than she ever was?", are more interesting, but are only asked here and never really answered.
Every once in awhile, particularly in the interviews with Debra Winger, you get a glimpse that they know what a silly, self-centered exercize this really is. I guess the answer to whether it is a good documentary or not depends on whether you feel these glimpses were noticed by Arquette and left in as ironic counterpoint, or that Arquette was so impressed with the fact that these people even remembered her that she used all the good footage she could scrounge.
The Lost Empire (2001)
Typical tv-movie fare
I watched this because of the previews, which showed a kind of Matrix/Crouching Tiger/Raiders cash-in, but I was very disappointed. All the rip-offs were there, but very poorly done (even the CGI effects looked cheap). This might be what Sid and Marty Krofft would do if they were still making Saturday-morning fare.
The plot was obviously padded, the wind-ups (it seemed like there were about 30 of them) were anti-climactic, and the worst thing was the mish-mash of American and Chinese pseudo-mythology that has people saying things like "For Buddhaaaaa" while jumping off cliffs towards battle and painting Confucious as an ass-kissing bad guy.
Along the way we have things like an American bookworm achieving God-level martial arts skill with only 3 days of practice, and a random globbing together of events in Chinese history that took place anywhere from 3000 to 30 years ago.
All-in-all this was an insult to anyone that knows anything at all about Eastern history and philosophy, and a destruction (ie: more than a waste) of 4 hours for everyone else.