NMR: Alien quadrilogy

In the spirit of the season, I opted to check out some scary movies and decided to watch the Alien films - a franchise I had never seen before.

Alien: This one gets the series started right. The film, directed by Ridley Scott is fairly simplistic, but still offers a lot of interesting ideas. You really see the debates play out as the crew tries to determine how they will deal this creature, especially since they've never encountered anything like this before. Throw in some outside obstacles like a greedy corporation and a rouge android and you've got the makings of a solid thriller. The final sequence involving Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in her underwear dealing with this creature on her own will go down as a classic film scene. Rating: ****

Aliens: James Cameron takes over the franchise here and manages to up the ante. Many consider this just as good, if not better than the original and I agree. You can see some of Cameron's visions of space from Avatar first appear here. Weaver gives another compelling performance and it's really interesting to see the creatures evolve in their intelligence and methods of attack. I could have done without the military crew that serves as fodder for the creature and offers no interesting characters, but I liked Paul Reiser's corporate stooge character and the presence of Newt, while nothing special herself adds another dynamic to the Ripley character. Again, the film ends strong with a hell of sequence involving Ripley coming face to face with the queen. Rating: ****

Alien 3: Three films, three amazing directors. This time around it's David Fincher (The Social Network), although this was his first feature film, so it's not on par with his later work. At this point in the franchise Weaver's Ripley character is the only thing worthwhile. She gives another strong performance (without her, I'm not sure how far this franchise would have gone), and continues to find new ways to add depth to her character. Unfortunately, she's surrounded by a group of unengaging convicts who are trying to survive the aliens. The whole film is depressing rather than exhilirating, both in look and in story as they basically shit over everything that had been established in the previous film. Unlike the first two, this one crawls to a finish as there is one chase sequence too many, capped by final shot that was meant to be poetic, but instead was just unfortunate. This one felt like there were too many cooks in the kitchen all offering input and the result was a less than satisfying effort. Rating: ***

Alien: Resurrection: The first 15 minutes or so of this film showed a lot of promise. We finally get to see what happens when those who want to study this creature do once they get their hands on it. Unfortunately, the explanation for how they managed to get it is ludicrous and then they don't even do much with it. From there this turns into a typical fright fest where the creature comes out at opportune to kill off unnecessary characters. Weaver does her best to continue making the Ripley character interesting (this time around it's actually a clone of her character), but I truly question why she decided to come back for another go round. It seemed like the studio was just using the franchise name as a way to lure people in without really offering them anything new to the mythology. A disappointing effort for sure. Not even sci-fi master Joss Whedon, who wrote the script, could salvage this one. Rating: **

The Office Webisodes: The 3rd Floor

Since NBC.com didn't bother to post any deleted scenes from last week's episode, I guess I'll just have to post the latest hilarious webisode series from The Office gang instead.

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Wicked good

It's funny the paths our lives take. Take Ben Affleck for instance. No one could have predicted given his track record as an actor that he would develop into the talented director that he has become. Following up on his depressing, yet well-made debut, Gone Baby Gone, Affleck shows no signs of sophomore slump with his latest The Town. Using Boston as the setting once again, Affleck creates a taut thriller about a group of bank robbers.

Unlike Ben's career, the story feels a little familiar, but the way its delivered still makes the film very effective. In many ways, The Town feels more like some of the great gangster movies like Goodfellas, than it does a heist film. The themes of greed, regret, family, and redemption are all woven into the film without any of it feeling heavy-handed.

The film begins with this group of robbers led by Affleck himself and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) nearly successfully pulling off a heist. However, when they believe the alarm has been tripped, they take one of the tellers (Rebecca Hall) with them. To ensure that she didn't see anything incriminating, Affleck's character keeps tabs on her and ends up developing feelings for her. This of course does not sit well with the rest of his crew. Renner as the hot-headed second in command does a fine job of causing trouble and consistently emitting a sense of menace. You also have actors like Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite around as old-time crooks reminding us all of where this type of life gets you.

While there are obviously a lot of somber, dialogue-heavy scenes the film is certainly not light on action. There are several action-filled scenes that are very well made. They amp up the intensity yet don't overstay their welcome. They are very realistic in their portrayal, which only adds to the tension. One of the best things about these action scenes is that they come of as satisfying without glorifying the bad guys. Unlike say the Ocean's films where you are rooting for the theives to get away with their caper, this film makes no bones about the fact that these are bad guys who deserved to be punished for their actions. It's also refreshing to see the film portray the FBI as being competent and level-headed. Mad Men's Jon Hamm leads the way as Agent Frawley.

If there's one complaint to be made about the film is that everything wraps up a little too tidy, but it's not a major deal. The film offers a satisfying enough conclusion to each of the major players in the film which is often more appealing than abiguity. Overall though, this is a well made, adult film that doesn't come off as outlandish or cartoony. As a director Affleck, who clearly knows and loves his hometown, does a great job of portraying the ins and outs of Boston and its inhabitants. I may not care for the accent or attitude displayed by its residents, but in this case it makes for a compelling film. I could even see this film be considered for a Best Picture nomination, although I think once all the contenders emerge it will likely be on the outside looking in. Credit Ben Affleck for transforming from mediocre actor to first-rate director. If he keeps making films like this, they may have to change Boston's nickname from Beantown to Bentown. Grade: B+

Fern notice

Zack Galifianakis is back with another installment of Between Two Ferns and this time he's got RED star Bruce Willis in studio with him. Cue the hilarity!

NMR: The Jonses

This was an little seen indie film from this past spring that drew me in due to its unique premise. David Duchovny and Demi Moore pose as a married couple that live with their two kids. The thing is, none of them are related. Instead, they are co-workers who's job it is to get everyone interested in buying all of the products they own without anyone realizing that they're actually salesmen. It's the ultimate soft sell. This idea only carries the film so far, though. The actual emotional crux of the film comes a little too late and what they offer is some typical dysfunctional family drama found in a lot of indie films. It's a shame they couldn't follow through with this idea. In a way, it seems like the concept may have worked better in a TV series than a single film, especially given how neat and tidy they tie things up here at the end. But the film is not a complete waste. The interest concept coupled with some decent acting from the leads, as well as reliable Gary Cole as one of the neighbors makes this worthwhile. It's nothing special, but it certainly will make you think twice about your own neighbors who seem to have it all. Rating: ***

Sex Ed deleted scenes

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NMR: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Man, is this film pure cheese. And leftover cheese at that considered it borrows heavily from other better films like The Mummy and National Treasure. If it had just been a rehash of those film, this might have been tolerable, but then it has to go and insult our intelligence by trying to infuse current political events into the storyline (i.e. a country is under attack for dealing weapons, there are debates about whether or not to invade a 'holy land', etc.). Nothing about this film is particularly creative and I found myself calling out plot points before they actually occured. Even when the film tries to emulate the video game that it is based off of, it's done in such a bland and uninspired way that most who have never seen or played the game before wouldn't think anything of it. The main hook of the film - the fact that a sword exists that allows the beholder to control time - is not used nearly enough. I will say that people like Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the lead, and Alfred Molina do seem like they are having fun here; it's just too bad they had no business being cast in the film in the first place. Grade: C-

A blast from the Future

Check out this clip that will be an extra in the upcoming Blu-Ray release of the Back to the Future trilogy. For the first time ever, here is actual video footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly. Director Robert Zemekis explains they were 5 weeks(!) into shooting the film before he realized that they needed to change actors. Sucks to be Stoltz, but I think we can all agree he made the right call.

Espionage a trois?

There is a new book out detailing the history of MI6, Britain's equivalent of the CIA. There's one particular secret in it that has caught the attention of a lot of people, which I've posted below. This explains so much about James Bond and his bed-hopping way. He was merely trying to send hidden messages!

A diary entry belonging to a senior member of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) has revealed that during the First World War it was discovered that the bodily fluid could act as an effective invisible ink.

In June 1915, Walter Kirke, deputy head of military intelligence at GHQ France, wrote in his diary that Mansfield Cumming, the first chief (or C) of the SIS was "making enquiries for invisible inks at the London University".

In October he noted that he "heard from C that the best invisible ink is semen", which did not react to the main methods of detection. Furthermore it had the advantage of being readily available.

A member of staff close to "C", Frank Stagg, said that he would never forget his bosses' delight when the Deputy Chief Censor said one day that one of his staff had found out that "semen would not react to iodine vapour".

Stagg noted that "we thought we had solved a great problem".

However, the discovery also led to some further problems, with the agent who had identified the novel use having to be moved from his department after becoming the butt of jokes.

In addition, at least one agent had to be reminded to use only fresh supplies of the 'ink' when correspondents began noticing an unusual smell.

The revelations are included in 'MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949' by Professor Keith Jeffery.

Prof Jeffery, of Queen's University, Belfast, was given access to all of MI6's files between those years. The book is published on Tuesday and is being serialised in The Times.

Community effort

I pride myself on being an eagle eye viewer when watching television, but even I missed this one. Apparently on last week's episode of Community, they gave Abed a storyline that was told strictly in the background scenes. Below is a video compilation of the scenes involving Abed helping a pregnant girl deliver a baby. Very clever stuff!

Fall TV Report: New shows

I held off on this post so that I could see a couple episodes from each of the new series I gave a try. That way I could have a better assessment of their value.

The Event: This of course was the show that tried to bill itself as a replacement for Lost. Thus far, it's failed to achieve that crown. The show has a decent enough mystery for now, but its severely lacking in the character department. Most of the central figures are bland and forgettable, which makes it tough to care about their role in this mystery. Still, I'm a sucker for mythologically-driven shows and I figure I'm in for the ride at this point. If things get too crazy or ridiculous without offering sufficient answers along the way, I'll abandon it like I did FlashForward last year. Verdict: Sticking with it

Undercovers: As soon as I heard J.J. Abrams was attached, I was instantly interested. This is the first thing I've seen his name attached to that I did not immediately fall in love with. There's nothing inherently wrong with the show. It has a couple of likable leads (and credit goes to the show for putting two African-Americans in the leads) and some fun spy action. The main problem is that there was nothing here to make me come back every week. Given how loaded my TV schedule is already, I can't make time for procedurals if they offer no incentive for me to tune in every week. I wish the show luck, but I don't see me making this 'appointment tv'. Verdict: Pleasant, but skippable.

Running Wilde: This is a new sitcom on FOX that comes from the people that created Arrested Development and stars Will Arnett. I was surprised to see this get such poor reviews from critics. While this show is a far cry from the genius that was AD, I find there to be enough quirky humor here to keep me entertained. They've gotten a good cast that not only includes Arnett, but Keri Russell and David Cross. Thus far, it has not done well in the ratings, which may mean it's on life support, but I'm hopeful it can stick around. And if it doesn't well then hopefully that will just encourage Mitch Hurwitz to get back to work on that Arrested Development movie. Verdict: Enjoying it while it lasts

No Ordinary Family: Filling the hole that Heroes left, this shows provides me with my superhero fix. I still haven't gotten a great sense yet on whether or not this show will be good. At times it's a bit too light and concerned with the family elements. The fact that none of the family members' superpowers are very original is a bit disappointing too. Still the lead actors are solid and they've established some mysteries involving who else may have abilities to keep me intrigued for a while. Verdict: Hoping for a hero, but fearing the show may be merely mortal.

Smell like a monster

Check out this Sesame Street parody of the Old Spice Guy commercials. Ha!

NMR: MacGruber

MacGruber follows a long line of movies based off of Saturday Night Live skits that just can't quite make the transition from 4-minute skit to feature length film. Nestled inside this film are several funny moments, but the collective page reeks of amateur hour. The film tries too hard to have most of its humor come from paying homage to 80s action movies and not enough for its actual source material - MacGyver. I also would have liked to see the MacGruber character interact more with the real world. There is an isolated feel to the film where the characters seem very seperated from the rest of humanity. Will Forte is too likeable to totally hate this film, but I just wish they would have taken a little bit more time to develop something great instead of trying to strike while the iron was hot and rush this out there underdeveloped. MacGruber isn't a bomb, but it's certainly not da bomb either. Grade: C+

Andy's Play deleted scenes

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Pro-Social

It seems premature to do a film about the origins of Facebook and its controversial founder Mark Zuckerberg so soon after these events took place. It feels like there has not been enough passage of time to truly see what the significance of these events really are. However, given the technological age that we live in where things are constantly updating and adapting, maybe there is no better time than now to make The Social Network, lest it seem outdated.

I certainly had a vested interest in seeing this film given the amount of time I've spent investigating Facebook as part of my doctoral research. As much as I knew about the key players involved with the website, I still found this to be a wholly engrossing film that touches on a lot of human characteristics.

Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg through a broken narrative flashing back and forth between the website's origins and the two seperate deposition hearings that resulted from its creation. Using the deposition hearings to set up the flashback scenes works and allows you to see how things fell apart so quickly between Zuckerberg and his partners all the while Facebook continued to thrive and grow.

This is just one of the many interesting facets about this film. As you watch Zuckerberg try to deal with the people around him, you begin to wonder how someone who displays his intellectual superiority to all who are present thus alienates everyone, including friends could create a website designed for making social connections. Credit definitely deserves to go to Jesse Eisenberg, who has played the awkward nerd before, but never with the confidence and authority that he exhibits here. He commands the screen and does a nice job of displaying the complexities of Zuckerberg.

The other fascinating aspect of this film is how well it expressed the legal uncertainties associated with the Internet. Zuckerberg and co. set out to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and/or legal with Facebook and it blew up in their face when they began to fight with each other over ownership rights. It's both captivating and hilarious as you watch the lawyers not only have to deal with the ornery nature of their respective clients, but also trying to find precedent when none existed for a case like this. Those involved with Facebook really didn't know the monster they had created.

The film is filled with a lot of solid performances including Justin Timberlake as Napster founder, Sean Parker, Andrew Garfield (who will be the new Spiderman) as Zuckerberg's friend Eduardo, and Arnie Hammer, who has the difficult role of actually playing twin Harvard students. Each of them rise up to the challenge of the dense script by Aaron Sorkin and give nuanced performances that show how they were all complicit in this mess.

I'm not sure what kind of mainstream appeal this film will have, but I think anyone who is a member of Facebook owes it to themselves to see this film. Like most benefits we have thanks to the internet, we often take for granted the freedoms it affords us and the problems it can create for others. Watching this film will give you a new appreciation for the act that is social networking. It's not about clicking 'accept' to random individuals, its about being able to connect on a certain level with someone because you have a better understanding of who they are. Networking may have eliminated some of Zuckerberg's problems, but it also would have prevented us from seeing this excellent film. Grade: A

Being Franco

I linked the teaser trailer for 127 Hours in my Fall Movie Preview posts, but here's the newly released feature trailer. This film, based on a true story, has a lot of early buzz and this trailer seems to validate it.

NMR: Repo Men

It seems like it's been forever since I've done one of these. This one has been sitting on my end table for a while and I probably should have sent it back without even watching it. I was drawn by the interesting premise - Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play men who repossess human organs when people are behind on their payments. Sadly though, this movie quickly turns into an amalgam of borrowed ideas from films such as Minority Report, The Bourne Identity, and Children of Men. On top of that, this is a bloody and morose affair that fails to generate any sympathy for its characters. The only energy comes from Liev Schriber's small role as the head of this organ repossession company. The kicker here comes from their attempt at a shock ending that isn't all that shocking given how many times they hint at it earlier in the film. In general a disappointing film that failed to live up to its potential. Grade: C

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Fall TV Report: Returning Favorites (Sunday)

The Amazing Race: The new season got some early buzz thanks to a viral video involving one of the contestants catapulting a watermelon into her face on accident. Click the link, if you haven't seen it yet. The was just one of the highlights from what looks to be another exciting season. Unlike with Survivor, there seems to be some likable contestants here and the teams that I didn't seem to care for were struggling, which hopefully means an early exit for most of them. It definitely seems like the female contestants are going to be at the forefront of this season, which should be interesting to watch since there's never been an all-female team that has won this competition. Stonehenge made for a good starting location and I'll be excited to see where else they'll travel to this season. It's too early to tell how good this season will be, but for now I'm hopeful. Now if they could just start filming this series in HD... Grade: B+

Family Guy: Speaking of HD, this show is now being done in HD and they were eager to show it off in the premiere. The murder mystery plot showed a lot of promise, but I was disappointed that they spent more time with the visual effects and tracking shots than on the actual story. Having the entire town gathered should have given everyone an easy chance to get in a good joke or too, but they kept things more serious. The characters they killed off were no great loss, so the show didn't really succeed on that end either. Based on the past few ones they've done, it seems like they would be better off sticking to half hour episodes because the hour long ones (save for the Star Wars spoofs) just don't seem to be that funny. Grade: C+

The Cleveland Show: I seemed to be one of the few people who actually found this show very funny, particularly in the later half of the season. For that reason, I was excited to have this show back, but it too disappointed me. If Family Guy was too preoccupied with its visuals, this show was too focused on its guest star - Kanye West. His 'Kenny West' character did nothing for me and with so much of the story focused around him and Cleveland's attempt to make him into a star, the rest of the characters weren't given much to do. I understand you want to draw eyeballs in and big guest stars will help with that, so I'll cut the show some slack. For now, I'll write this off as a rare miss and hope they return to form in their second episode. Grade: B-

The Simpsons: Guest stars were also featured prominently here, but that's nothing new for this show. Now in it's 22nd season, I don't expect much from this show and those lowered expectations help. I was really worried that this episode would suffer from Glee overload, based on the commercials. Instead, the guys from The Flight of the Concords got the lion's share of the screen time. The songs they developed were decent, but they also took away from the show's plot. Likewise, the B story involving Krusty getting caught in a Roman Polanski-style sting sounded good but needed more time to develop. However, while the show was far from perfect, of all the Animation Domination shows, it actually yielded the most laughs from me. They've certainly had better openers, but this was fine for what it was. Grade: B

Getting to the nitty Gritty

Here's your first look at the Coens' remake of the John Wayne classic, True Grit.