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2005 Winter Video Roundup

1/12/05

"Alias", Season 3 (24 45-minute episodes)

Thanks to a TiVo malfunction, I missed the season opener last year of the third campaign of "Alias", so I decided I would just skip the whole season and watch it all on DVD.  This turned out to be a good move, because I have now officially fallen in love with watching all of one series in the course of one week's time.  JJ Abrams, the creator and exec producer of "Alias", made a good move with the third season by jumping two years ahead and giving Sydney (Jennifer Garner) a case of what-the-fuck-happened-to-my-life-isitis to fantastic effect.  As a result, her old husband-to-be/government partner Vaughn (Michael Vartan) has gone off thinking Sydney was dead, he's got a wife (Melissa George) that may or may not be working for the bad guys, and a sister (Mia Maestro) through a secret union from years ago.  Plus, the producers finally realized that they should NOT have Sydney kickbox every bad guy she comes in contact with and instead shoot nearly everyone, so finally, "Alias" becomes a full-blown action show in addition to a costume drama, thanks to Sydney's constant undercover work.  The acting is as good as it ever was, they finally minimized (but didn't eliminate) all of that "X-Files"-style backstory with the relics and the spooky mystical powers bullshit, and gave us more great guest-star work in Djimon Hounsou, Vivica A. Fox and (the big shocker) Isabella Rossellini.  Season 3 might be my favorite of the show's run...unfortunately, you still have to see seasons 1 and 2 to get all of what is going on.

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"24", Season 3 (24 45-minute episodes)

Just like what happened with "Alias", I missed one episode of "24" last year and decided to just wait for the DVD.  As such, I got a thrill ride that gave the first season of "24"--still my favorite single-season of TV ever--a solid run for its money.  Thanks to a bio-terrorism plot and Mexicans that get in super-agent Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) way, "24" used its normal gimmick of having something huge happen every hour to maximum efficiency.  And, for my money, the show killed off more major characters over the course of this season than any other show ever filmed; even including the bad guys that you knew were gonna get it (this time around played by the always-reliable Joaquim de Alameda and Paul Blackthorne), the good guys were dropping left and right all season long.  The action was solid and the main subplot featuring an extortion attempt on the President (Dennis Haysbert) was actually interesting this time around.  My favorite thing about "24", though--and you notice this more when you try to watch 24 episodes on six DVDs in less than two weeks--is that in each episode, someone at CTU always breaks at least one major rule or protocol, which makes someone else at CTU say the line "You KNOW that breaks every rule in the book...do it anyway" like clockwork.  Clockwork!  There's got to be a website where someone lists all of the rules that Bauer and his partner break in the course of this one season, because it was hilarious each time someone stood around shocked that Bauer had broken the rules again, only to let him off the hook.  Now that's comedy!

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"The Wire", Season 1 (13 hour-long episodes)

Dave Bell told me that I HAD to watch the HBO show "The Wire", and since I haven't had HBO for a lot of that time, I decided to watch the whole first season at once on DVD.  Damn, this is good stuff.  As solid a drama as it is--the first season follows Baltimore cops as they try to pin major drug trafficking on local kingpin Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris)--I was surprised by how funny a show it was, especially in the relationship between Det. Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) and Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce), as well as some of the banter between the cops assembled for the Barksdale case as they use extensive wire-tapping to learn more about the bad guys' operation.  As profane as a cop show can get, "The Wire" takes full advantage of a "Law and Order"-style format on cable TV, complete with wall-to-wall profanity, the occasional sex scene and a random shootout here and there for good measure.  I've already added Season 2 to my Queue on Netflix!

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"Before Sunset"

I saw the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy drama "Before Sunrise" so long ago that I didn't even remember what happened at the end...so, thankfully, in the sequel to the original, our principals Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) give us details on what happened almost nine years ago and live out a real-time reunion after not seeing each other for a looonnnnggggg time.  The format plays out beautifully; playing out over about 80 minutes, we get caught up with our leads as they walk around Paris in the late afternoon, taking in a couple of major sights but mostly just chatting in front of a fantastic venue.  The conversation--which feels impromptu, because it's flowing so fast--was fairly well planned out, thanks to scripting and long rehearsals by the leads and writer/director Richard Linklater ("Dazed and Confused", "School of Rock").  For me, "Before Sunset" was almost too chatty; it would have been nice if the film had even been five minutes longer, allowing for more pauses or even a bathroom break, to see the characters reflecting on the situation that has brought them together again.  The film has a great ending, and the performances are cool...my friend Wendy thought that Hawke looked awful, as I thought Delpy looked not-so-hot herself...but, part of that was due to some flashback shots of the twosome in the original, and man, time is flying by fast.  I'm excited to see what folks think of me in nine years...

Rating:  Matinee

 

Comments?  Drop me a line at justin@bellviewmovies.com.

 

Bellview Rating System:

"Opening Weekend":  This is the highest rating a movie can receive.  Reserved for movies that exhibit the highest level of acting, plot, character development, setting...or Salma Hayek.  Not necessarily in that order. 

"$X.XX Show":  This price changes each year due to the inflation of movie prices; currently, it is the $9.50 Show.  While not technically perfect, this is a movie that will still entertain you at a very high level.  "Undercover Brother" falls into this category; it's no "Casablanca", but you'll have a great time watching.  The $9.50 Show won't win any Oscars, but you'll be quoting lines from the thing for ages (see "Office Space"). 

"Matinee":  An average movie that merits no more than a $6.50 viewing at your local theater.  Seeing it for less than $9.50 will make you feel a lot better about yourself.  A movie like "Blue Crush" fits this category; you leave the theater saying "That wasn't too bad...man, did you see that Lakers game last night?" 

"Rental":  This rating indicates a movie that you see in the previews and say to your friend, "I'll be sure to miss that one."  Mostly forgettable, you couldn't lose too much by going to Hollywood Video and paying $3 to watch it with your sig other, but you would only do that if the video store was out of copies of "Ronin."  If you can, see this movie for free.  This is what your TV Guide would give "one and a half stars." 

"Hard Vice":  This rating is the bottom of the barrel.  A movie that only six other human beings have witnessed, this is the worst movie I have ever seen.  A Shannon Tweed "thriller," it is so bad as to be funny during almost every one of its 84 minutes, and includes the worst ending ever put into a movie.  Marginally worse than "Cabin Boy", "The Avengers" or "Leonard, Part 6", this rating means that you should avoid this movie at all costs, or no costs, EVEN IF YOU CAN SEE IT FOR FREE!  (Warning:  strong profanity will be used in all reviews of "Hard Vice"-rated movies.)