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An Open Letter of Thanks and Appreciation to Joss Whedon, on the 15th Anniversary of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Doug Luberts

Note: A number of recent events have caused me to pause and consider the remarkable impact the Whedon Clan has had on my life…Almost all of it without their knowledge, of course, but today’s tweet from writer Jane Espenson reminding everyone that today is the 15th Anniversary of the premiere of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, really got me thinking…And Taryn O’Neill’s open letter to Joss seemed like such a good idea that I thought I’d do what any good writer would do…Steal the idea and make it my own (kidding) (not really.)

Dear Joss:

You don’t know me…Well, that is, we’ve never properly met, although we’ve been in close proximity enough times that you’d probably recognize me in sort of a “He looks strangely familiar, but don’t think I’ve got a restraining order out against him, yet”, kind of way.

We’ve been together at a comic book store signing in Santa Monica in 2004, the 2009 Streamy Awards, when I was sitting right behind you and NPH, as part of ‘The Guild’ crew that was nominated along with your ‘Dr. Horrible’ folks…

Joss and Me at the 2009 Streamy Awards (l. to .r) Some dude who looks like Walter Cronkite, Jeff Lewis, Me, Vince Caso's Gorgeous Date, Becca O'Callahan's forehead, Joss Whedon, Vince Caso, half of Sean Becker, and Maurissa Tancharoen-Whedon. (Photo by Mary Higgins)

Most recently, I was in the audience at (redacted) when you came to talk to the (redacted) for (redacted), and screened a bunch of (also redacted.) We even walked past each other on the (Redacted, again…Sorry, NDAs, but you know what I’m talking about…)

I’ve never really talked to you on any of those occasions, because, aside from being intensely shy around folks I don’t know, when you meet a celebrity, unless you have some common ground to keep the conversation going, it always turns in to a series of “What’s your favorite color”-type questions, and you and I really don’t have all that much in question, except, well…A mutual love of Shakespeare, television, musicals, film, comic books, and…Oh, shit…I really blew it, didn’t I?

Damn.

The funny thing is that you are probably one of the two people who are my biggest influences, and have had the most profound impact on my life and professional career over the last fifteen years…and that other great influence is someone I would have never met, worked with, or became friends with, if it wasn’t for you and your work.

Sounds pretty strange, right? How could some dude, whom I’ve followed from a far for years, skulked around on a few occasions, but never actually met, have that much impact on someone’s life in a totally healthy and non-sociopathic, well mostly, way, not requiring therapeutic intervention and a lot of psychotropic medication?

Well, back in the mid ’90s I was very gainfully employed in information systems consulting, owned my own company, and was making a ton of money twiddling bits for Fortune 100 corporations…and was completely miserable about it. The business, not the money.

Money isn’t bad … I kind of like it, in fact. Channeling Xander (which I frequently do, and nobody in the office gets, which makes me look oddly out-of-place a lot), I’m gonna’ go out on a limb here and say money is good. But it wasn’t enough.

My original entertainment career had taken a side track after film/theater school and early work in television production, and a side trip to New York morphed into something completely out-of-control. The career I had left behind was always, and I mean always, in the back of my mind. (Well, what I really wanted to do was direct. I’m sure you’ve never heard that before. Much.)

Then, on the heels of some great TV Fantasy and SciFi programming that was really spreading like wildfire in the mid-’90s, like ‘Babylon 5′, came ‘Buffy’…And a whole new way of looking at long-form television.

You broke every convention around, bent genres, wrote brilliant, snarky, dialog, and had chicks kissing on screen (I really liked that part…a lot.) This was not your Father’s Television series (although your dad and granddad wrote for some of my all-time favorite shows as well), and taken along with the work that folks like Aaron Sorkin and Kevin Williamson were doing at the time, I really wanted to work on this kind of television.

Then there were all the chats on The Bronze, and The Bronze Beta, and seeing folks like Mere Smith break through the fourth wall and get a shot writing for you just sent me over the top…

By the time Firefly premiered, I had gone back to school, learned to combine my bit-twiddling abilities with editing and VFX software, and had sold off my life in New Jersey, to move back to California, and start building a tv/film career from the bottom of the ladder.

Fast forward a few years later, I got into the Motion Picture Editors Guild, worked on a bunch of features doing editorial, VFX, and Pipeline Technology work, and landed a job at Industrial Light and Magic, fulfilling a dream that I’d had since 1977, when I first saw ‘Star Wars’…

Life was good, but working on Blockbuster VFX movies was still not fulfilling all of my creative needs. I was looking to do more, looking to create, and looking for a medium where I could have greater, and more direct impact in whatever role I played…And then you, Jed, and Maurissa, wrote ‘Dr. Horrible’, a show which lead me to one of the most life-changing events of my career…Working as the VFX guy on Season 2 of ‘The Guild‘.

It was Dr. Horrible that lead me to Felicia Day’s IMDb profile, and a reference to a little show I’d never heard of called ‘The Guild.’ By the time I’d surfed to YouTube and heard the words, “oh yeah, there’s a Gnome Warlock in my living room sleeping on my couch”, I knew I had found something amazing, and was hooked.

A few months later, after Felicia posted a tweet about looking for crew to help on Season 2 of the show, I sent out an email that said, basically, “Hey…I think what you’re doing is really cool. Can I help?”

She said yes, and that lead to the closing sequence of Season 2, Episode 12, a Streamy Award Nomination for Best VFX in a Web Series, membership in the International Academy of Web Television, and involvement in a community of creative individuals who have become my friends, mentors, and greatest source of inspiration…Not the least of whom is Felicia, herself, who has been huge source of moral support and encouragement for my own efforts in content creation.

Right now I’ve also been (redacted) with (redacted) on a new (redacted) for (redacted) (redacted…Sorry, FrieNDA this time…I’m under so many different types of non-disclosures I’m not even sure if I can talk to myself most of the time. Which is just as well, because there are always arguments.)

So yeah, we’ve never chatted, but your work has directly impacted my life in some truly profound ways…Oh, and bee-tee-dubs, aside from all of that, I just love what you do. ‘Buffy’, ‘Angel’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Serenity’, ‘Dollhouse’…Forget about professional impact, just the amount entertainment, and sheer joy, that you’ve brought into this life over the years is enough to be thankful for.

So, yeah, Joss…Thanks. Thanks for ‘Buffy’, thanks for all the inspiration that’s guided my life to new ground, and all of the personal and professional relationships that have grown out of that inspiration. It’s all appreciated far more than even these words can convey.

So, if I say ‘Hi’ to you the next time you’re at (redacted), don’t worry…It’s not a mugging, or a hallway pitch (which isn’t much different from a mugging, I would imagine), and I promise I won’t ask you what your favorite color is (blue? Damn…)

My 80′s Movies ‘Must See’ List

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Doug Luberts

So last week I had a whirlwind vacation (?) in Los Angeles wherein I saw a lot of old friends, took a few meetings (I mean, come on, it is Los Angeles, after all), did some sightseeing and photography, and a bit of partying. All-in-all, a really great trip, and I can’t wait to head back down south again…Next trip is for Wondercon, the week after next, which should be about a zillion shades of awesome.

One of the events I attended while down there was an ’80s Movie Marathon Weekend, at my friend Kenny‘s house…Well, I actually went for the Saturday night portion, as I couldn’t be there for the whole thing.

Kenny’s movie marathons are legend…wait-for-it…dary. One of the best parts of going, as Kenny points out in his blog post about the weekend, is that we’ve been friends for years, initially through our involvement with ‘The Guild’, but never actually met IRL, as the saying goes, until this weekend. The Guildie involvement doesn’t just end with Kenny, as pretty much everyone there has been an extra on the show, or worked in the cast or crew. It was a great opportunity to meet other folks who are diehard Guild fans…Yeah, I worked on the show a number of years ago, but started out as, and continue to be, a fan, and friend, of the show. So it was fun to hang out with a bunch of folks who all share the same special geek affinity.

There was a whole line-up of great films for the marathon…I was crushed that I had to miss ‘The Princess Bride‘, due to an afternoon committment, as that is by far my favorite film from that period.

Although the event got me thinking about some of my other favorite films of the period, and that usually means compiling a list.

To share.

With you.

My readers.

Both of you.

So here are a few, but by no means all, of my favorite movies from the ’80s, that weren’t on Kenny’s playlist …

1. ‘Local Hero’ (1983)

‘Local Hero‘ was a bit of a sleeper when it premiered in 1983. I was still in San Diego at that time, just finishing up at San Diego State, and working in local theater as a lighting and sound guy. The film played at a local art house in Ocean Beach, for what seemed like forever, and I kept hearing wonderful things about it, and decided to check it out.

It’s an oddball comedy that is both a romcom and a fish-out-of-water story, about a oil company guy (Peter Reigert from ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House‘) who is sent out by his boss, played by Burt Lancaster in a standout role, to buy up a little town on the coast of Scotland to build an oil refinery. It’s a tale of twists and turns that winds up with Reigert’s character, Mac, falling in love with the sleepy little town, and its collection of brilliantly quirky, but charming, people.

Great movie, but one of the things I love about it the most is the score by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame.

Mark is a genius…His music beautiful and lyrical, and, in fact, it is this music that links him together with my other favorite film of the period, ‘The Princess Bride’, for which he also composed the score (but not the title theme, ‘Storybook Love’, which was actually written by a fellow named Willie DeVille, but that is another story entirely.)

There is a fairly recent, digital, version of the soundtrack for ‘Local Hero’, as well as many recordings of the signature song, the ‘Wild Theme’, or the up tempo version of the ‘Wild Theme’, called ‘Going Home’ (The theme of the Local Hero), which Knopfler used to end all of his gigs with Dire Straits, and still plays as an encore in his solo gigs today.

I love ‘Going Home’ … I’ve got no less than ten different recordings of it, in different orchestrations, live and in the studio, and I never get tired of listening to it, especially when I’m on a road trip in the car. If you like ‘Local Hero’, and ‘The Princess Bride’, get a copy of Mark Knopfler’s album ‘Screenplaying‘…It’s great mood music, and has all of the hits from both movies.

‘Local Hero’ … Great film. Highly recommended.

2. ‘Dream a Little Dream’ (1989)

I’m a romcom guy, and not ashamed to admit it. I love a good romantic comedy, hope to edit (and create) many more of them. While I do toil in the fields of big-studio tentpole VFX films, I’d rather watch a small indie romcom any day of the week.

‘Dream A Little Dream’ is another quirky-as-all-getout film starring the ’80s dynamic duo of the the ’2 Corey’s', Corey Haim and Corey Feldman (yeah, I know … but still it works in this iteration, all odds be damned), along with an entirely enchanting Meredith Salenger.

It’s a tale of body-switches, dreamscapes, and romance, all backed up by one of the greatest pop tunes ever…’Dream a little dream with me’, which is another song that has been an all-time favorite of mine, ever since I first heard Mama Cass Elliot singing it in the late ’60s (Cass had this wonderful legato and could effortly bend notes notes to her will, especially in this song…)

To me, it’s often the the music that makes the movies memorable, especially a romantic comedy where the music can heighten the emotions of the story into something sublime, and that’s the case with ‘Dream a Little Dream’, which gets to some very, and delightfully, metaphysical places during the telling.

Get a hookah and a bottle of wine, and watch this one on a Friday night with someone you love (or would like to…)

3. Airplane (1980)

Do you remember back when comedies where balls-out funny, and so politically incorrect that they’d never see the (green) light of day in the 21st Century? Yeah, so do I.

Airplane probably influenced me more, in terms of my own brand of comedy, than any other film except for Mel Brooks’ ‘Blazing Saddles‘ (another film that would never get greenlit today) or ‘The Producers‘ (the original 1968 version, not the musical…The musical version on Broadway rocked, but the movie musical was like a rock…off a diving board…into the deep end of a pool. Mel should have directed it himself.)

There is every kind of the wrong kind of joke in this movie…From blow-up autopilot doll fellatio jokes, to dying kid-on-a-gurney and drug humor (‘Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue’), it is a non-stop laugh riot. Hell, they’ve even got ‘America’s Mom’, Harriet Nelson, doing ghetto humor.

Oh, and Leslie (“Don’t call me Shirley”) Nielsen … Pure win.

The movie is just so wrong that it’s totally right …

4. ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ (1982)

If you’re talking about comedies that define the ’80s, ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High‘ has got to be one of the first films that gets name-checked.

The Cameron Crowe/Amy Heckerling pairing not only defined the suburban teenage experience of life in the ’80s San Fernando Valley, but it also launched the careers of a number of fine actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Sean Penn, not to mention featuring a brilliant performance by the late Ray Walston, as grump history teacher, Mr. Hand.

One of the marks of a true classic is film is how many quotes from the film make it into the vernacular…’Fast Times’ is a movie that still gets quoted often (okay, maybe mostly by me, but that counts … )

5. ‘Heathers’ (1988)

Forget ‘Mean Girls’…Meet some really mean girls…and guys. ‘Heathers‘ is one of those black-as-night comedies that I just love so much.

Winona Ryder gets caught up with (psychotic) bad boy Christian Slater, and visits vengeance on a bunch of high-school bullies, drama queens, and lunk-heads. They even blow up the high school years before ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘ (but there wasn’t any giant snake Mayor-meat involved.)

It’s quite the fun flick.

6. ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ (1986)

Got to finish this list with a musical … I love a good musical, and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ is, IMO, one of the best movie adaptations of a stage musical ever made.

Directedy by Frank Oz (the voice of Yoda and Miss Piggy) this is the odd story of Seymour Krelborn and his ‘Mean Green Mutha’ from Outerspace’ house plant, Audrey II (voiced to hilarity by Levi Stubbs, the great baritone singer from the Motown group, The Four Topps.)

This is a classic musical in its own right…And has songs you will find yourself singing right out of the theater (‘Suddenly Seymour’ is one of my favorites for the shower), but the film is full of great performances from huge talents like Rick Moranis as Seymour, Ellen Greene as Audrey, and a brilliantly sadistic Steve Martin as the mad dentist, Orin Scrivello (D.D.S.) The cast also includes such greats as John Candy, James Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray, just to name a few.

The thing that makes this movie stand out as a movie musical, is that there is no pretense to realism…Oz created a very stylized world from the get go, and carried the surrealistic, sci-fi comic book, look throughout every area of the production…It’s bloody brilliant.

One side note, the play, and the movie, all derive from a 1960 Roger Corman film of the same name, which features a young Jack Nicholson…It’s a horrible film, but so horrible that it’s worth watching.

Okay…So there’s a few of my favorites. Got some of your own? Please leave a comment!

The 2012 Oscars: A brief rant.

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Doug Luberts

Roger Ebert’s preliminary write-up on the 2012 Academy Awards began with, “It was like an episode from ‘The Twighlight Zone’“, which I wholeheartedly agree with…His rationale for that statement, I can’t agree with, but the overall conclusion was on-target.

It was a strange, strange year for Oscar.

I really have to wonder what was going through the minds of the Academy voters that gave the Best Picture Oscar to ‘The Artist’, an airy souffle of a film at best, or saw Martin Scorsese’s directorial efforts on ‘Hugo’ as anything less than a masterwork. Or if these self-same Academy voters realize the opportunity to place the history of film squarely in the common experience of generations of children that was lost when elevating the French pastry that is ‘The Artist’ over the cinematic masterpiece, and treasure, that is Scorsese’s ‘Hugo.’

It’s not that ‘The Artist’ is a bad movie…It’s a very good movie, for one that is a loose remake of an established classic (‘Singin’ in the Rain’), one that I enjoyed quite a bit. It’s just that ‘Hugo’ is a far superior movie in just about every way imaginable.

I really hope that, in the final analysis, this wasn’t some kind of referendum vote on films made in Hollywood versus those shot abroad, but there’s got to be some reason that the Academy passed ‘Hugo’ over for a film whose main selling point is that it is a very ‘happy’ film, and that’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense to me … No, not that it makes sense, but that it would make sense to a bunch of big-media, old Hollywood Industry professionals that don’t have a clue as to how to save jobs in a town that is now being overrun by a new generation of filmmakers who are making content almost exclusively for the web.

‘Hugo’ is a cinematic masterpiece of Cecil B. DeMille-like epic proportions. In my opinion, there is no praise high enough to describe how much I love this film, or the advances that Scorsese has made in visual storytelling with ‘Hugo’. And I don’t think there are a lot of folks arguing that point.

Had the Academy given the Director, and the film, its rightfully-deserved top honors, the film would have been re-released, it would have garnered the kind of box office that it did not see in its initial run, because there was not a lot of marketing push behind the original release, and an entire generation of parents and children would have gotten a second chance to experience this film in all of its 3D-stereo glory, the way it MUST be scene to fully experience the genius of this film.

Further, it would have established ‘Hugo’ as a classic that would be locked into the hearts and minds of future generations, as their parents passed down the experience, generation after generation. That’s a loss, and it’s a shame.

Part of the opportunity lost was to educate generations of kids on the history of cinema, in a way that seems almost incidental to the story, but would have the result of having every kid who falls in love with this movie, understand the, largely true, story of French filmmaking pioneer George Melies. It’s a lost opportunity that every AMPAS member who voted for ‘The Artist’ should be kicking themselves about for decades to come. Think about it.

Then there was the almost total lack of recognition for Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, which, to me, was only second to ‘Hugo’ in this year’s field of films, and an entirely enchanting work that represents Allen’s best effort in decades.

Oh, and let’s not forget Alexander Payne’s ‘Thanks for coming’ award for ‘The Descendants’. Thanks AMPAS. For what, I’m not sure …

Ebert wrote another piece on the night, which basically painted the Academy’s screw-ups as a Republican Party-like attempt to find a candidate that has the broadest appeal to the base … In other worlds panders to the lowest common denominator of audience members. Thanks, Roger, but you’re not making me feel much better with that thesis, either.

This is what bothers me … The Academy, AMPAS, is us. Well, not me, yet, but the filmmaking community at large. It’s made up of working professionals drawn from its ranks. If Roger Ebert’s thesis is correct, haven’t we forgotten what the Academy Awards are all about? That is, celebrating the best in filmmaking achievement, and elevating the very best of those efforts, showcasing them to the public as the very best of what the filmmaking community has to offer?

AMPAS has lost its way, and is now trying to second-guess the public, and figure out how to reward what its members think the public likes. The system is broken, and the results, this year, were a disaster.

New ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 2 BTS Video

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Doug Luberts

The Best Worst Christmas Film: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Doug Luberts

It never fails that when someone brings up a list of “Worst Christmas Films of All Time“, or, in many cases, worst films of all time, period, ”Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” is usually on the top of the list, and I’m here to say it doesn’t deserve the title.

Sure, the 1964 film is a low budget disaster with bad sets, bad costumes, bad acting, and spectacularly bad writing, but aside from that, and, in fact, because of that, it’s a lot of fun to watch. The truth be told, this film is very near and dear to my heart, as it’s one my Dad took me to see, in the theater, as a kid, and probably resulted in my first utterance of, “Gee, Dad, the movie really sucked, but that Pia Zadora kid was kind of cute …”, a statement to be repeated, with frequency, in the ’70s and ’80s.

If we only new then that little Pia would grow up to be, now nearly forgotten, star of stage screen, and half-a-dozen adult magazines, while being famous for pretty much nothing outside of being kinda’ hot and having a husband with more money than god to pay for her career (I think there’s a potential for a Citizen Kane/W.R. Hearst/Marion Davies riff to go on here, but I’m trying to keep this about the Christmas stuff …)

The film keeps coming up, year after year, and I’ve gotta’ believe that anything with this much staying power in the public eye has gotta’ be better than it’s been getting credit for.

The story revolves around a Martian dad, Kimar, and his wife, Momar (no relation to Qaddafi), and their two kids Bomar and Girmar (played by the 8-year old mother-of-all-trophy-wives-in-training, Pia Zadora.) Kimar is concerned that his whacky kids have been watching too much Earth TV, and are becoming too much like Earth Kids, especially after they start asking questions laced with too much interest in human emotion like, ”What is ‘tender, loving care?’”

An outrage!

Kimar consults with Chochem, an old Martian equivalent of Yoda, but with better grammar and sentence structure skills (He’s green, 800 years old, and …Hey, do you think? Nah, must just be a coincidence), and decides he needs to put an end to the situation by going to Earth and kidnapping Santa. Naturally, hilarity ensues …

On the way to the all-too-predictable end, where Kimar’s plans are undone and Santa manages to melt everyone’s green hearts, the film is just one non-stop bad gag after the other, including the martians superior ‘weaponry’ which was the result of some kind of product placement deal with Wham-0, makers of the hula hoop, the Frisbee, slinkys, and the Air Blaster, a favorite ’60s toy that was the Martians’ primary weapon throughout the film.

You guys, this is fun stuff. There is a double-edge to this film that is filled with wild-eyed innocence, while at the same time living on the knife’s-edge of the cold-war inspired nuclear terror, and related xenophobia, of the time. It’s a reflection of the World of the 1960s and it’s kind of like a nostalgic joyride with an aftertaste of the darkside…One with parallels to our World today.

The thing you have to put into context was the strange times during which this film was released. It came out less than a month after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and only a few months after the Bay of Pigs fiasco…The entire World was on the edge of nuclear war, and were it not for the chemically-enhanced bravado of President John F. Kennedy, who was being held together by cocaine and cortico-steroid injections, we might have well found ourselves trading nukes with the Soviets. This was a period where, despite global tensions, the citizenry of the United States was still basking in the glow of the wide-eyed optimism of the Eisenhower era that would only end, the following November, when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

This film is a direct reflection of a very strange time in this Country’s national character and mindset, and because of that I believe it is a classic bit of Americana.

You can pick this up “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” for about $8 on Amazon, or, if you prefer, there’s a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version available starting at about $50, used.

My recommendation for a Holiday Fun-Fest would be to host an XBox Live streaming party with the Netflix version, and do your own commentary with friends and loved ones. Preferably one that involves lots and lots of adult beverages.

There’s also a full-length version available on YouTube, which is linked. Also, I just cut a new music video version of ‘Hooray for Santa Claus’.

Here’s a few geeky facts about the film:

This was Pia Zadora’s film debut and, quite possibly, her best performance. Ever.
“Chochem”, the Yoda-esque Martian sage, got his name from the Yiddish word for ‘Genius’. (Cough.)
The film’s theme song, “Hooray for Santa Claus” is a surf-rock classic written by Milton DeLugg, a veteran Hollywood composer who also did the music for a bunch of Chuck Barris game shows including “The Newlywed Game” and “The Gong Show“
The trumpet player on “Hooray for Santa Claus” is none other than the legendary Al Hirt
Costumes for the film were designed by Ramsey Mostoller, the costume designer for the cult hit soap, “Dark Shadows“. In the film, his credit is listed as “Custume Designer”
The role of “Dropo” was played by veteran comedic character actor, Bill McCutcheon, whose 50+ year career spanned from early TV, such as “Johnny Jupiter“, to Sesame Street and feature films, such as 1990′s, “Mr. Destiny“
The same Air Force footage used in the film can be seen in the classic Kubrick film, “Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb“, starring Peter Sellars, also from 1964

Holiday Movie List: 2011 Edition

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Doug Luberts

He’s got ‘em on the list — he’s got ‘em on the list;
And they’ll none of ‘em be missed — they’ll none of ‘em be missed.

The Holiday Movie Season has kicked off, and is in full gear, so I thought I’d start compiling a list of what I’ve seen and liked. I’m putting these in alphabetical order,

Hugo

Absolutely Magnificient. All the stuff you hear about this being a masterpiece is absolutely true.

I wasn’t really prepared for a “kids” movie from Scorsese, let alone his first 3D offering. Frankly, I was a little worried about how Scorsese’s typically dark, NYC-centric view would translate into a fantasy genre film about an orphan growing up in a train station in Paris, and was pleasantly surprised, no, blown away, but this film. Forget “Raging Bull” and “Good Fellas”, “Hugo” is Scorsese’s masterwork.

Also, not a huge fan of 3D heretofore, but the stereo work in this here is equally mind-blowing. The visual style of this film reminds me of a pop-up book, and the high-stylized look of the film is enhanced with the 3D rendition. (Even Jim Cameron is saying this is be best use of 3D in a film to date.

The Muppet Movie

There’s been a lot of talk about the Muppet Movie, Jason Segel, and the complete non-involvement of Frank Oz, and some of the other Henson Company stalwarts, casting doubts as to whether Segel and company could deliver a product worthy of the Henson Muppet Legacy.

… and all of it is crap as far as I’m concerned.

I was completely enchanted by this movie. No, it’s not your ’80s Henson fare, but it is a love letter to the legacy that Henson and Company built, that gives the rich history of the Muppets due reverence, but also taking a fresh approach that will give Kermit, Piggy, and the rest, a new lease on live in the 21st Century. In fact, I think it’s actually better than any of the original Muppet features.

Make no mistake, this is a WONDERFUL film.

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

Best Harold and Kumar flick yet … If you are into Harold and Kumar movies, which I am.

There’s no shortage of sick, twisted, off-the-wall humor in the latest installment, and it was non-stop laughter. NPH kills as usual.

You may never be able to see Jean Shepherd’s “A Christmas Story” in the same light, but as a huge Shep fan, I found the hommage enjoyable.

The film also made me more than just a bit homesick for NYC at this time of year. Christmas in New York City is magic.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I wasn’t too sure about including this one, but it’s definitely worth catching.

My main issues are that they’ve sort of removed the Conan Doyle from Sherlock and Watson, and turned it into a British Steampunk version of “The Wild Wild West” (The original TV show, not the dreadful remake with Will Smith.)

That said, “The Wild Wild West” was insanely great Steampunk decades before anyone thought of establishing it as a genre, so I guess I can’t complain too much about the new Sherlock Holmes, as it is decent Steampunk. I’m just more of a traditionalist where Holmes is concerned, and find Steven Moffett’s TV adaptation, Sherlock, to be far closer to Conan Doyle’s sensibilities, even in a thoroughly modern re-think.

Anyway, it’s good fun, and Downey is a genius…Even if his character plays to me more like Artemus Gordon than Sherlock Holmes.

The Artist

The Artist is a delightful movie…Mostly a silent film, presented in black and white, it’s a riches to rags, boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, girl-gets-boy back in the end story. It’s a simple tale, told in beautiful, silvery, visual detail.

I don’t see this as the Oscar contender that many folks are talking about…But it’s a wonderful film, and something that everyone who isn’t totally affected by a Millennial Attention Deficit Disorder should go and see (you have to pay attention to this one, you can’t just listen along …)

If there are Oscars to be handed out for this film, no one is more deserving than Uggie, the dog … He pretty much steals the show, and is the coolest canine on four paws. I would like this dog for my personal best friend. We would totally hang.

The Descendants

The Descendants is kind of an odd movie, and not real holiday fare by any means, but I’m including it because it is a good film, and one that will be talked about quite a bit during Awards Season, as it’s already been nominated for 11 Golden Globes.

Directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, and the brilliant, Election), there’s a basic family drama premise…The wife of a Hawaiian Lawyer/Real Estate Mogul, played by George Clooney, has a boating accident, is pronounced brain-dead, and he proceeds to deal with breaking the news to his two rebellious daughters, families, and friends, while finding out his wife had been hiding many things from him, and may not have been the woman he thought he knew … But …

There’s are the usual assortment of twists and turns, including a lot of humor, most of it of the bitingly dark and ironic kind. In a way this movie has a kind of Hawaiian-ized “Five Easy Pieces vibe to it at times, except not at all (and if anyone reading this blog sees this movie and gets what I mean, that will make two of us.)

I respect this film more than I like it, but it was worth the investment in time.

More to come …

The Great American 4th of July Story

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Doug Luberts

For many people, mentioning the 4th of July holiday conjures images of parades, marching bands, family barbecues, and fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks.

Well, that’s what comes to the mind of most people. The first thing that comes to my warped mind when thinking about the 4th of July is listening to Jean Shepherd reading his classic tale of a Mid-Western 4th of July ritual gone horribly wrong, “Ludlow Kissell, and the Dago Bomb that Struck Back“.

The story originally appeared in Playboy Magazine, and was later part of Shep’s classic anthology, “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash“. The reading of this story on his radio show each year became one of my yearly 4th of July rituals…Yeah, I know that might sound strange, but a childhood filled with Jean Shepherd, Mel Brooks, and watching far too many sitcoms than is healthy for the well-being of any impressionable young mind, has made me the chronic wise-ass I am today. Go figure.

Enjoy, have a Happy 4th, and remember: the manufacturer assumes absolutely no responsibility for this device!

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Photo by SUNVALLEY SURF AND SKATE SHOP Some rights reserved .

Ned Stark and the 48 Laws of Power

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Doug Luberts

“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a Prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires”. - Nicolo Machiavelli

The season one finale of George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones” aired on HBO last night, ending with a handful of cliffhangers, and a clutch of baby dragons.

It is going to be a long year of anticipation until the next season airs (and hopefully Martin will have released the long-awaited next book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” saga in the meantime.)

A great number of viewers who had not read the books (yeah, shocker…I thought any nerd worth is pocket protector had read all four books at least twice by now) were shocked/dismayed/outraged by Ned Stark’s untimely beheading in the penultimate episode. Some even threatening to boycott the rest of the saga.

Okay, I’ll admit…When I got to that point in the book I was pretty much shocked. After all, Ned Stark was the hero, the main protagonist, the good guy…right? How could Martin just snuff him and continue to go on from there? Seems kind of like the ultimate reader/fan wank, no?

No. Not really.

The biggest realization I had after watching the series was just how much of a hero Ned Stark wasn’t. In fact, as Lord Varys points out in the dungeon prior to Stark’s execution, he was an utter fool, whose actions and steadfast adherence to an intractable moral code brought about civil war, chaos, and the death of thousands…Including the destruction of his own family.

Rather than rolling with the punches and, as Varys suggests, doing what is necessary to serve the peace and the greater good of the realm, Stark’s unwillingness to take, anything other than the moral high road was his complete undoing.

Sigh.

Poor old Ned just didn’t have the proper knowledge and social skills necessary to survive in the real (mythical) world of Westeros’ political machine. If he would have just been able to lay his hands on a copy of Robert Greene’s, “The 48 Laws of Power“, or even a dvd of “The Godfather” saga, he might just have been able to pull his cookies out of the fire.

Greene’s book draws upon a wealth of stategic and political theory from throughout history, including the ideas of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and even Casanova, to create a how-to guide for acquiring and maintaining power in your interactions with others. All of this wisdom is condensed into the 48 Laws which can only be viewed as a guiding light for courtiers, politicians, would-be dictators and despots of all kinds.

If one looks at a few of these laws, it’s easy to see just where Ned Stark went astray, and why:

Law #1 – Never Outshine the Master: Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

Okay, so he and King Robert the Loud and Libidinous were buddies BITD…That’s no reason for Ned to presume that he could throw his own moralsuperiority in Robert’s face. So Robert wants to murder the teenage Daenerys Targaryen before she can assert her claim to the throne. He’s the King, and he can damn well murder who he likes if he thinks it will avert war and catastrophe (I think Seal Team Six would have come in handy here.)

Ned’s behaviour with Robert, not to mention all the verbal sparring with the Queen, was the beginning of his downfall.

Law #2 – Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies: Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

E.g., Lord Peter Baelish. You meet a guy who is a pimp, has a life-long thing for your wife, and got his ass kicked by your older brother in a duel. He tells you not to trust him, and you do. You’d think that after Baelish lured him to one of his brothels and Jaime showed up with his personal army Ned might have gotten a clue. What does a guy have to do, hold a dagger to your throat while you’re surrounded by the King’s Guard with swords drawn?

Oh, yeah…right.

Law 3 – Conceal your Intentions: Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Ned Stark was about as subtle as a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. How about when he told Circe he knew that she and her brother, Sir Jaime, had been playing “Hide the Godswood” and had produced all of her children that way. He might as well have sliced his own throat open right then and there.

Law 14 -Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy: Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.

Yes, indirect questions, not, “Hey Littlefinger, Circe has been banging her brother for years, and all her kids are Jaime’s bastards”.

Law 15 – Crush your Enemy Totally: All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Playing his hand with Circe, and telling her to get the hell out of Dodge was stupid. He should have rallied the troops, called her on the carpet in front of forces loyal to the King (or his little brother), and gotten her and her illegitimate offspring offed.

These are just 5 out of the 48 Laws of Power that could have saved Ned’s ass…If he would have known about them.

More to the point though, as regrettable as it may be, without Ned’s death, the resulting war, with all of its twists, turns, and adventures, would never have taken place, and there wouldn’t be five books telling those stories. Ned’s fall was essential to telling the story and, in fact, George R.R. Martin’s willingness to take a perfectly viable character, endear him to the audience, and then kill them off in a shocking, and totally unexpected manner is what makes The Song of Ice and Fire such a great collection of tales.

As for “The 48 Laws of Power“, we can only assume that they were present, in some form, long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, and they served as the basis for the Sith school of philosophy…Which would account for why the Sith were so much better equipped to run a galactic empire than the Jedi.

But that’s an entirely different story.

Bobby Fischer Against the World

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Doug Luberts

Director Liz Garbus’ documentary, Bobby Fischer Against the World, debuted this week on HBO, after garnering critical acclaim at The Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

The film ostensibly sets out to depict the life of the chess prodigy from from his earliest days as a club player in New York City, to his victory in the 1972 FIDE World Championship match against Boris Spassky that established Fischer as a household name, to his degeneration into mental illness and paranoid delusions in later life that brought him to a tragic, and untimely, end.

It is a riveting film, it is an engrossing film, and it is a compelling film. It is also a very one-sided portrayal of a troubled genius that chooses to focus, almost exclusively, on the eccentricities in Bobby Fischer’s character, and the mental illness that, going unchecked, came to dominate his life in his later years after winning the World Championship. It is a film that diminishes what Bobby Fischer achieved, both in terms of his own accomplishments and how he served as an inspiration to a generation of chess players that lead to a renaissance in American chess, paving the way for a national movement in scholastic chess programs that exists today.

While Garbus interviews a number of chess notables from Fischer’s peers, and other experts, the film’s narrative point of view steers away from the more positive side of Fischer’s nature and accomplishments.

There is no debating that Fischer, in his final years, was an extremely disturbed individual. The opinions he was allowed to express on Philippine radio where heinous, and clearly the product of a mind that had long been in need of psychiatric care. A mind fueled by paranoid delusions, raging anti-semitism, and bitterness towards the American Government for pursuing him as a fugitive. (That fugitive status coming after Fischer chose to ignore State Department demand that he not travel to Yugoslavia to play in a re-match against Boris Spassky in 1992.) At the same time it is rather sad to see such an otherwise remarkable life characterized solely in terms of the negative aspects of his later years.

There is so much that could be said/written/filmed about the whole Fischer phenomenon of the early ’70s, that it could easily provide enough material for a feature-length film. Garbus makes little attempt to reconcile the two sides of Fischer’s life in her documentary, choosing instead to focus almost exclusively on the darker, and more provocative side.

While it is said that, in the long run, there is no such thing as bad publicity there is still a lot more that could be written, said, and filmed, about Bobby Fischer’s life than was presented in “Bobby Fischer Against the World“.

At the top of this post is a short video with Chess Master and noted chess teacher, Bruce Pandolfini, who has been a fixture on the New York City chess scene since the ’60s. As as a member of the Marshall Chess Club, Bruce had occasion to know Bobby very well. Pandolfini paints another picture of Bobby Fischer, one whose love for the game drove him to greatness, and inspired countless others to follow in his path.

Another interesting look at Bobby Fischer can been seen in the YouTube video, A Very Different Bobby Bobby Fischer. The Fischer seen here, in an interview with Dick Cavett, is far from the completely under-socialized nebbish portrayed in the film.

All of that aside, ”Bobby Fischer Against the World” is well worth watching, especially for those who only have a vague idea of what chess is all about, or may not have experienced those turbulent times of the Cold War and the ’70s.

Photo: Tal (USSR) against Fischer (USA), 1960 Chess Olympiad, Leipzig, Germany – by Karpouzi, Licensed under Creative Commons.

“Thor”, and some new Netflix watchables

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Doug Luberts

Here’s a probably too-late-to-be-useful not-review of “Thor“, but first …

Lots o’ cool stuff coming to Netflix Streaming these days. They just announced a deal with Miramax today that will have a host of new titles, including my favorite flick of the ’90s, “Pulp Fiction”, streaming to your TV.

A couple of cool items on Netflix right now:

“Kick-Ass“

If you haven’t seen it, in which case I’m wondering if you spent the last year in a coma, or being held in suspended animation in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, it’s a great, fun, flick. A tale about the adventures of a wanna-be superhero, the film draws a lot of its win via a show-stealing performance from Chloe Moretz, as the incredibly bad-ass, and hilariously potty-mouthed, Hit Girl.

“Sherlock“, Season One

A modern re-imagining of Conan-Doyle’s detective, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a young, brilliant, and unbelievably eccentric Holmes (“I’m not a psychopath, I’m a high-functioning sociopath; do your research”.) This 3-parter aired late last year on PBS Masterpiece. It was pretty much a universal hit, and a second series is filming now.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Sorkin’s failed, semi-autobiographical, series about a recovering coke addict/TV Producer (Bradley Whitford) getting back on his feet with a new TV show, and an old production partner (Matthew Perry.) It’s smart, it’s funny, and is a must-see for anyone who works, or wants to work, in the Entertainment Industry. It also one season before NBC pulled the plug. I totally ❤ the Christmas show, featuring a mind-bending brass version of “O, Holy Night” performed by a bunch of Katrina survivors, as well as Whitford’s running attempts at trying to ❤ Amanda Peet’s character.

Now, on to “Thor” …

I loved Thor. Thor was brilliant (mostly), and the seemingly strange decision to have Kenneth Branagh direct the film was an added bit of brilliance on the part of the studio.

Branagh seemed like an odd choice to direct a comic book adaptation like “Thor”, until you take into consideration his early efforts at adapting and directing Shakespeare for the screen, particularly his instant-classic “Henry V” … The worlds of Asgard and 15th Century England really have a lot in common, and Branagh knows how bring these worlds, and their inhabitants, to life.

The cast is great, the script well written, and Patrick Doyle’s score is regal without being over-the-top.

Doyle and Branagh’s working relationship goes back to “Henry V”, where wrote an amazing score, including the breathtaking “Non Nobis Domini”, for the epic 4-minute tracking shot that Shakespeare only WISHED he could have written. None of this has anything to do with “Thor”, exactly, but I’m a huge fan of Branagh’s “Henry V”, which is the Shakespearean equivalent of “The Godfather”, and will refer to it at the drop of a hat.

The film looks amazing, and the visualization of everything from the powers of Mjolnir to Asgaard were brilliantly executed. (I had some serious doubts about Hollywood’s ability to create a Rainbow Bridge that didn’t look like something out of Rainbow Brite or My Little Pony, but, like every other aspect of the film’s visual treatment, it was stunning.)

Visually, the only downside of the film is the crappy 3D conversion process (I wouldn’t have wasted the money, but it was the only screening available that night.) The stereo effect is barely noticeable, except in the closing credit sequence, and doesn’t make the trade off in image brightness and clarity worth it. See the 2D version instead, if you haven’t already.

There were a couple of WTF moments in the film … Such as Thor’s sudden evolution from a self-absorbed jerk to a selfless hero of the people in what amounts to a New York minute, but I guess there is only so much story you can cram into an action/adventure huge VFX summer tentpole, and the action adventure wins.

Likewise the chemistry between Natalie Portman’s character, scientist Jane Foster, and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, developed almost instantly (well, okay … This IS Natalie Portman we’re talking about, but still…)

And then there’s Kat Dennings character, who is to Jane what Dawn was to Buffy. (“Get out!, Get Out!!, GET OUT!!!”)

The story will be a bit different from the one fans of the original comic will remember. Thor’s secret identity of “Donald Blake” evolved in a completely different way in the original telling. Likewise, the new spin of the Asgardians being an advanced race of beings, as opposed to true gods, is different, but maybe more believable to a 21st Century audience.

Marvel keeps delivering on the best comic book-inspired movies ever, and the build towards Joss Whedon’s “Avengers” promises to bring quite a payoff.

Also, stay until the credits are over … It’s worth it.

Weekend Entertainment Roundup: Movies to see and avoid.

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Doug Luberts

Finally caught up on what’s in the theaters today, and have two movie recommends and one rant:

Scream 4

The latest installment in the Kevin Williamson/Wes Craven slasher series.

Is it great? Hells no. Is it watchable? Yep.

We know the schtick … A lot of self-referential jokes about the slasher flick genre and its stereotypes in a film that goes on to break all the established rules and conventions while turning pretty girls into fillet o’ Hollywood Starlet.

The good … Emma Roberts has a break-out performance in this movie, and clearly establishes her place in the Roberts family acting heritage. She’s got massive acting chops and uses them. The film also features a list of ingenue eye-candy that will guarantee to draw guys from 14 to the grave.

The not-so-good: Phoned-in performances from David Arquette and Courteney Cox.

Look, this isn’t Truffaut … It’s a decent date-night flick that will have your honey clinging to your armpit for about 90 minutes (so please groom yourselves accordingly because, like, eew …)

Hanna

I really wanted to like this film a lot. Great cast, interesting story. Competently-enough directed, and with great production values, especially in the cinematography department.

The writing, on the other hand, is kind of bipolar. The movie takes forever to get going, and then bursts into periods of manic action before lapsing back into a coma for 10-15 minutes.

Worth seeing, but … Meh.

And now for the rant …

Arthur

The 1981 version of “Arthur” is, to my mind, a cinematic treasure. It is one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. A movie that was certainly greater than the sum of its parts, even though its parts were pretty damn impressive.

To me, “Arthur” was to the romantic comedy in the early ’80s what “Citizen Kane” was to dramatic narratives in the ’30s … It redefined the genre, although, unlike “Kane”, it was a box office hit from day one.

The film featured an outstanding cast headed by the genius of Dudley Moore in the title role, along with Sir John Gielgud, as Arthur’s butler and surrogate father, Hobson, as well as Geraldine Page, as the iron-fisted matriarch of the Bach family, Arthur’s grandmother Martha. Every one of these actors a bona fide legend and master of their craft. All three of these performances were positively awe-inspiring.

Back that up with a brilliant script from Writer/Director Steve Gordon, and a score from Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer-Sager, Chris Cross, and Peter Allen that, along with the cast, lifted, the entire film to a sublime level.

The film played in theaters for close to three years from its opening, and it re-defined the rom-com genre that had pretty much lost its fizzle in the late ’70s.

When I heard that the film was being remade, the only thing came to mind was, “Why?”

To borrow a quote from Neve Campbell’s character in “Scream 4″, “The first rule about making a sequel is: Don’t fuck with the original” … And there was no better illustration of this rule than when the studio decided to follow the ’81 film with the release of “Arthur 2: On the Rocks”, which was a total dud, despite the best efforts of the original cast. You can’t always trap lightening in a bottle.

There was absolutely nothing, well almost absolutely nothing, that could stand to be improved by re-making this film. It was a remake that could never, ever, hope to come close to matching the ground-breaking originality of the 1981 film. At least that was my expectation, and the new version of “Arthur” met that expectation.

“Arthur” is a complete and total travesty.

Russell Brand is an excellent comedic actor in his own right. He was absolutely brilliant in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, and his stand-up act is scathingly, and equally, brilliant. He is, however, no Dudley Moore, and that’s the crux of the problem in his portrayal.

Brand approaches the character with such obvious reverence for Moore’s Arthur Bach, that from the outset he appears to be attempting to channel the dead actor in what may have been envisioned as an homage, but plays out more like a bad impersonation.

The only time Brand shines is when he is playing material that is unique to the remake, such as Arthur’s sharing at an AA meeting. Without Moore’s performance looming over him, he delivers a very engaging performance … One that is unfortunately limited to about three scenes in the film.

The same could be said for Helen Mirren in the gender-bended role of Hobson, who is now Arthur’s Nanny and surrogate mother. Dame Helen is a fine actress, who showcased her considerable comedic skills in the role of a retired contract killer in last year’s “Red”. But the material she is given in this film is nowhere near the quality of the script that Sir John Gielgud had to work with in the original, nor does she have the dour attitude or capacity for droll, ironic, wit that Gielgud had … Because she isn’t an old English gentleman, and the gender switch just flat-out doesn’t work.

And this could also be said of the revamped role of Arthur’s mother, which replaced the Geraldine Page role from the original. Although the role has been made so insignificant in this version that it’s hardly worth mentioning.

The entire film is an awkward re-hash that misses its mark by miles, and just doesn’t have the level of wit, or heart, that the Moore version has.

The one shining exception to this is Greta Gerwig in the role of Naomi Quinn, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who Arthur falls in love with, but must forsake to marry Susan Johnson (soullessly played by Jennifer Garner), or lose his inheritance and the family fortune.

Gerwig is the sweetheart of Indie Cinema, whose portrayal of the neurotic-but-lovable Florence Marr in last year’s “Greenberg” single-handedly saved the movie from being just another shitty, obtuse, Ben Stiller flick.

Gerwig is a breath of fresh air and charm in a movie that otherwise lays there like a breakfast of yesterday’s bagels and lox.

She is bright, engaging, and utterly adorable in a totally not-Hollywood sort of way. In fact, if I could get in a time machine and go back to change the 1981 movie, I would grab Greta Gerwig and replace her in the Liza Minnelli role (which is the one thing in the original film I never got to begin with … I never understood Minnelli’s charm or appeal.)

This film is another pathetic effort from the Hollywood Big-Money Machine to make a safe bet guaranteed to pay dividends. You see, according to the Hollywood Suits, there is no more sure-fire way to box office gold than to take a classic film and remake it into some gutted shadow of the original, because audiences are too damn dumb to accept and embrace an original idea.

Sorry if I forgot the <sarcasm> tags.

So … If you were at all inclined to see this film, do yourself a favor and find the original on Netflix, or the VOD source of your choice, order some Chinese, and watch it with someone you love, or would like to love. It’s the best date flick around.

</rant>

Also up for viewage this weekend:

“A Game of Thrones” – HBO, starting Sunday, 4/17 George R.R. Martin’s Swords and Sorcery saga comes to HBO
“The Borgias” – Showtime, Sundays. The story of a notorious pope, his wife, three kids, and assorted mistresses. Good, family-oriented, stuff.

V: The Final Ripoff?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Doug Luberts

When I first heard that ABC was re-booting the “V” franchise, I got to admit the fanboy in me lit up like a Christmas tree. I loved the original series back in the ’80s, along with its guinea pig swallowing villainess, and “Twilight Zone” inspired message that “To Serve Man” was, in fact, a cookbook. I mourned the show’s untimely passing in 1984, and was totally ready to see what a new take on the Visitors would look like with modern VFX, and a different spin.

The pilot that aired in 2009 was nothing short of amazing. It was a hard-edged allegory with a pretty clear point of view on terrorism, and government fear-mongering, lingering very close to the surface. A little too close, perhaps, for ABC Executives, who fired show creator Scott Peters before the first episode even aired. Show runner Jefferey Bell was soon to follow.

The regular season commenced under the leadership of Scott Rosenbaum, who in direct contrast with Peters and Bell seemed to have absolutely no point of view for the series beyond “Humans Good, Aliens Bad”. The initial run, which was interupted by a hiatus for the Winter Olympics, was mostly bland, and kind of wandered aimlessly to a season finale which, by and large, wasn’t bad. At any rate it was good enough to suggest that another season might not be the worst idea in the history of worst ideas, and was worth a shot.

Well, after watching the season finale Tuesday … Maybe not so much.

Morena Baccarin does justice to the evil Anna, but I must admit having a preference for the softer side she displayed as Inara, the hooker with the heart of gold, on "Firefly".

The second season moved forward with the Visitor’s queen lizard, Anna, played by Morena Baccarin, advancing her plot to have her daughter, Lisa (Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort), breed with the genetically-enhanced son of FBI Agent-cum-insurgent Fifth Column Leader Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) prior to taking over the World and anihilating the Human race.

At the same time Mitchell’s character is enacting her own plans to make matching pairs of lizard-skin boots out of Anna and her fellow aliens.

But wait, there’s more.

Down in the bowels of the mothership, Anna is secretly keeping her mother, and rightful queen of the Vs, Diana, in a dank and mildewey prison where she has been rotting for the last 15 years. To make it even more confusing, Diana is played by original “V” badass reptile-girl, who was also named Diana, Jane Badler.

Not confusing at all. No.

Anna apparently overthrew her mother while still in her teens, and told all the other reptiles that she had died while, no doubt choking on a guinea pig.

Badler was brought in mid-season as a ratings stunt. Her overacting, and withered look, give her performance more of an air of the aging Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson vintage), than a deposed monarch.

Why? One of the great mysteries of the season, as she seems little more than a feather-duster in ballroom drag.

Anna goes down to visit every now and then to exchange recriminations with her Mom and brag about how much better a job she’s doing at planning global domination than Diana ever did.

Diana, on the other hand, drones endlessly, and in a rather awe-inspiring fake quasi-British accent, about how Anna will never amount to anything.

You know, typical mother-daughter-alien-lizard crap. It’s sort of a sociopathic space alien version of “Gilmore Girls”, without all the funnies.

The mystery is, people go down there, they visit, they conspire, and by the end of the season it seems like half the damn ship should know she’s down there and done something about it already. But no. Nobody thinks to spring her until the season finale.

The mother-daughter-alien-lizard crap is complemented on the human side by Agent Evans constant struggle to keep her son out of Anna’s evil clutches, which translates into a lot of teen-angsty interchanges and an endless barrage of mother-son crap.

From Tyler’s perspective, Mom’s a total drag … He’s a teenager who just wants to go out and do all the normal teenager kind of stuff … Like flying space shuttles and sleeping with lizard girls (it is said that beauty is only skin deep, and in this case it’s quite true …). So what’s your damage, Mom?

Meanwhile, Agent Evans and the Fifth column, who have been colluding with queen-to-be Lisa, get her agree to kill her mother as part of a faux-kidnapping where Anna will be without her bodyguards. Anna conveniently see Lisa pulls the gun on her in a mirror, and turns on the waterworks while giving a heart-wrenching (not really) performance about how she loves Lisa, now understands the humans, and human emotions, and just wants to live in peace with all man-and-lizard-kind.

The insane part is that the dizzy little blonde falls for it! As she later tells Agent Evans, “My mother has really changed, I could see it in her eyes!”

Well, duh … Did she forget that all the Visitors wear special contacts to cover up their alien lizard eyes? WTF?

Meanwhile, back on the ship, Diana gets a couple of her old spawn to jailbreak her, and assembles all the Visitors to tell them she is back, and is their rightful queen and … That’s when Anna spears her through the back with her nine-foot long tail (and where do they keep those things … they never seem to have visible nine-foot-spear-tipped-tail lines showing through their skin suits), before turning to Lisa and proclaiming …

“Now that’s how you kill your Mother!”

More like, “Now that’s how you kill a franchise!” Talk about cheesy. Yikes.

Then she throws Lisa in the dungeon, but not before going down there to exchange some recriminations.

Like mother, like daughter, even in the lizard world.

The payoff to all of this is Anna, long suspecting her daughter had fallen prey to human emotion and was conspiring against her, hatched another queen egg that she had been conveniently keeping in storage, just in case, and used some new alien ageifying tech to make her hatch at full maturity. Anna has her dressed in a skin suit that looks exactly like Lisa, and sends her in to sleep with genetically-enhanced-Tyler, the son of Agent Evans, while Lisa watches, aghast, via video from her dungeon.

After they are done, Tyler barely has a chance to bask in the afterglow before Evil-Lisa-clone rips his throat out with her alien head-o’-fangs and drinks his blood.

Yeah, even aliens like a good meal after sex.

Elizabeth Mitchell's character always seems to have this bewildered look...I think she's having trouble following the plot too.

Next there is some business about, Amy, the half-human daughter of one of the lizards and her ability to stupify humanity with her brain (which is not unlike a metaphor for this show), even though only the Queen’s supposed to be able to do this on her subjects, and even she starts getting all nose-bleedy if she tries to do it on humans. The result is all of Humanity standing about staring up at the sky like a bunch of brain-dead zombies at a Grateful Dead concert, while being bathed in sunny god-rays in the middle of the night.

All of this is happening while Agent Evans, who we are led to believe has been exposed as a Fifth Column terrorist by the FBI, is taken into custody. We find out she is really being recruited by a super-secret government organization working from an underground high-tech compound somewhere under Manhattan Island. The leader of this organization is Lars Tremont, played by Mark Singer from the original series, whose shadowy organization has known about, and been tracking the visitors for years.

Sure, what the hell, let's bring back Mark Singer, after all, he did save the "Beast Master" movie from being a total ... Oh, wait. Nevermind.

So, basically, Agent Evans has been recruited by The Initiative, and if renewed, Season 3 will be Season 4 of Buffy, and where the hell is Maggie Walsh when you need her? And why does Mark Singer look like Quentin Travers? Is the Watcher’s Council somehow mixed up in this.

All of this comes at the end of a season where the plot has flowed as slowly as 30-weight oil in Antarctica during an ice storm. In short, ABC has taken a cutting-edge sci-fi thriller with a ton of potential and dumbed it down into a meandering series of encounter sessions on parent-child relations.

As much as I would have like to see this series succeed, it just doesn’t deserve to.

Here’s hoping that ABC will truly want to save Humanity, by killing the show now and sparing us from another season of “V”.

Favorite Films, 2009 Edition

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Doug Luberts

We’re still in that annoying time of year when everyone is putting together their best/worst lists for 2009. Never one to miss an opportunity for additional bloggage, I’m going to follow the herd and lay out my top 8 favorite films for 2009. Yes, you read right … Top 8. There just weren’t enough good films to motivate me to want to fight off all the rabid Twilight fans at the box office for the movie theater experience this year.

So here you have it:

1. Zombieland

This super-smart send-up of the zombie genre was my favorite film of the year, and a complete laugh riot. A great cast including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and (a very badass) Abigail Breslin all kicking zombie butt while trying to hold on to their brains. Bill Murray appears as himself in a short, but extremely memorable role.

2. Whip-It

Director Drew Barrymore really stepped out of the box with this Roller Derby/coming of age story starring Juno’s Ellen Page. Smart and funny.

3. Star Trek

J.J. Abrams brilliant re-boot of the Classic Trek that both preserves the integrity of the original series and opens up possibilities for a whole new world of Star Trek storylines. Awesome writing, directing, acting and VFX.

4. Sherlock Holmes

I loved Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining of the Sherlock Holmes-verse. Well written, visually stunning, with great direction and performances, I felt this film was the total experience that “Avatar” was not. While Downey’s Holmes seems more like a Victorian Tony Stark than Conan-Doyle’s character, it brings some comedy to a character who has had a tendency to come across a bit stiff in previous incarnations. I’m looking forward to the sequel.

5. James Cameron’s Avatar

Rarely does a big-budget, all-VFX-all-the-time, Hollywood tent pole live up to all the hype. Cameron takes immersive storytelling to a new place in creating this world and the creatures living in it. Better not to look at it as a VFX film, but an animated feature with occasional humans. As a film it is revolutionary.

So why is it so far down on my list? Story. While understanding JC keeps his stories simple and focuses on the visual telling of it, that didn’t put it in the same league as some of the other films on my list. Also, while the VFX were stunning, the humanoids just didn’t work for me. They were flawed just enough, relative to the photorealism of the environments in the film, to pull me out of the story time and again.

6. District 9

This film raised a lot of buzz for being a low-budget, high-quality, VFX flick featuring a cast of unknowns (well, unless you’re South African.) The real story though was the story. Original, different, not an “American” film, but a great story told well.

7. Law Abiding Citizen

This is a straight-up revenge flick that makes Walking Tall (the original Walking Tall, not that bullshit remake with The Rock) look like Little Red Riding Hood. Gerard Butler’s a former government agency “brain” who’s family is killed in front of him by a bunch of, well, murderous thugs. Things go from bad to badass when the prosecutor, played by Jamie Fox cuts a plea deal with one of the murderers in exchange for his testimony against the other guys. This drive’s Butler’s character over the top, and a rain of terror commences against the system. This film is a wild roller-coaster ride.

8. Taken

Not a lot to say here … A bunch of Albanian’s kidnapping young women tourists in Paris for trafficking as sex slaves make the mistake of pissing-off ex-CIA agent Liam Neeson by grabbing his kid. He proceeds to tear Paris apart following a trail of crime and corruption, and leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Very violent, very bloody, and a helluva good potboiler. If nothing else 2009 was a great year for revenge flicks.

If you were expecting to find Lesbian Vampire Killers on the list, sorry … I didn’t see it. But the poster looked like it would grab some attention, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing it on Blu-Ray. If it ever comes out on Blu-Ray.

Inglourious Basterds – Am I the only person who has issues with this film?

Posted on December 18, 2009 by Doug Luberts

There’s something that’s been bugging me about “Inglorious Basterds” since it first came out. It bugged the crap out of me when Tarentino came to speak at work a few weeks ago, and I just saw a tweet about the film that sort of opened up the question for me again.

I’m really interested in hearing from other people as to whether there are those out there who share my concerns about the film, or if I’m just the proverbial lone voice crying in the wilderness.

Let’s get something straight here first … I really love Tarentino flicks. I’ve seen “Pulp Fiction” more times than I can count, own it on two, soon to be three, types of media, and can pretty much recite long parts of it from memory.

“The path of the righteous man …”

Likewise the “Kill Bill” movies. I love these films … It’s like visual mind candy and more fun than just about anything that doesn’t involve a feather boa and the theme from “A Summer Place” ($1 to Joss Whedon.)

I’ve got a big problem with “Inglorious Basterds” though, and I’m not sure if it’s just my bleeding heart, former Democratic-but-becoming-more-Libertarian-by-the-day, sensibilities getting in the way of another badass Tarentino flick. So I’m laying it out there and asking for commentary.

I hate “Inglorious Basterds”. Flat-out.

It’s not that it’s a bad movie, or the writing or acting sucks … And the blonde French chick who owns the movie theatre is about as gorgeous as Tarentino ingenues get. All of that stuff is Quentin at his genre-flick, let’s objectify the hot chick and make everyone drool-loving best.

It’s all about the morality of the thing.

In the shadow of Abu Gharib, and discussions of whether or not waterboarding is torture, and whether or not the United States practices, or allows 3rd party providers, to engage in torture on our behalf, we have a film that is basically the feel-good film of the year about a platoon of U.S. Soldiers committing terrorist acts and atrocities behind enemy lines.

Look, war sucks. The Nazis sucked … and Adolph Hitler sucked beyond just about anyone else in the last 100 years, but I don’t find this film acceptable just because it was about a bunch of Jewish American Soldiers getting revenge on Nazis.

The behaviour expressed in this film should be reviled. Period. End-of-case. It represents the U.S. sinking to the level of the enemy and becoming that which we despise.

Noam Chomsky would say we’ve been there for a long time … I’m not going to get into that right now.

What I’d like to get into is some debate about this film.

What do you think? Am I overreacting to just another over-the-top Tarentino flick, or is there a bigger picture we need to be paying attention to?

Talk to me, people. I really need some help here.

That Thing Tom Hanks Do!

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Doug Luberts

Over the years I’ve had this really strange relationship with Tom Hanks. No dudes, I’m straight, okay? And get your minds out of the friggin’ gutter. This is an audience/performer kind of thing that’s strange because, while I’m not necessarily a Tom Hanks fan, his films are at the top of my favorites lists in a number of genres.

It probably took a while for me to recognize Hanks as a major talent because I just never really liked most of his early work … Bosom Buddies (1980), Splash (1984), Big (1988), weren’t projects I could get into. It wasn’t until Sleepless in Seattle (1993) that I really started warming to his films. Tom’s work with Nora Ephron and Meg Ryan will be the topic of another article, but I just wanted to reference the work where I really started feeling a connection with his acting talents.

In the years since then he’s done some amazing, and incredibly diverse, work in films such as Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994) and The Green Mile (1999) to name but a few.

My favorite of Tom Hanks’ contributions to the Cinema came in the form of a sweet little packaged confection that he wrote and directed in 1996, called That Thing You Do!

Continue reading “That Thing Tom Hanks Do!” »

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