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2008 Fall Video Roundup

1/6/08

"30 Rock", Season 1 (22 20-minute episodes)

People couldn't have done enough selling of "30 Rock" to me, but to be honest, being a huge Alec Baldwin fan (whether he badmouthed his kid or not) made this a show I was going to catch eventually.  The show's first season got off to a so-so start thanks to its not being sure which characters would give it legs; once they decided that it would be Jack Donaghy (Baldwin), Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Kenneth the NBC Page (Jack McBrayer) with bits & pieces from Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), the show got really good in its second half of the season.  Maybe my favorite random highlight?  The Source Awards episode, where Jack is talking with new pal Ridikolus (LL Cool J) after the two have completed a deal to feature & distribute Donaghy Estates Wine, making Jack a rich man...

Ridikolus:  What color do you want your plane to be?
Jack:  Clear...like Wonder Woman's.

You really can't beat good, random comedy like that.

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"The World Fastest Indian"

The irony of this film, starring Anthony Hopkins as real-life New Zealand speed enthusiast Burt Munro, is that it really isn't that fast at all; in fact, we don't get much in the way of Burt's testing of his 1920-something Indian-brand motorcycle until Burt eventually makes his way to Utah for the Bonneville speed trials in the late 1960s near the end of the movie.  In between meeting Burt and watching him make his way from home in NZ to the west coast before driving a beat-up used car to Utah, I was fighting off the snooze bar as Burt merrily makes his way through America, and I think that the film wanted to be more of a classic road trip film, but where "Into the Wild" works and this movie doesn't is that the characters that Burt meets aren't very interesting, and the different layers of Burt really aren't that different after all.  The result is a blah film that gets interesting only in its final 20 minutes.

Rating:  Rental

"Lost", Season One (24 45-minute episodes)

Even I will admit that I am coming in late on this one, but the price of love is high: my fiancée Meg watches "Lost", and with Season Four about to premiere, I am WAY behind since I've never watched the show before.  So, I rolled through the first season in about a week; having watched co-creator J.J. Abrams's last series, "Alias", flame out badly in its final three seasons, I was anxious to see if he could recapture the magic he had going in the first two seasons of "Alias" before it began to falter.

The short answer here?  I'm glad I watched this on DVD, because through the first four or five episodes, I would have bailed on this show if I had to wait to watch it from week to week; it just wouldn't have held my interest.  In DVD format, I rolled through the first eight episodes in two nights, so even though I was not thrilled with it, I kept hope alive as I made it through the final two-thirds of the season, which were much better than the first third.

I like the concept of the show (modern-day stuck-on-a-deserted-island), but I don't like the format of the show (telling the character's backstories in reverse/flashback); I love the Locke character and I love the Saeed character, but the rest of these castaways could all be murdered tomorrow and I wouldn't give a damn; I wish there was more involved with what's really happening on the island, not the lost relationship that Charlie had with his brother, or Jack's problems with his dad, etc.  And, I loved that one character finally asked the question that I was most intrigued about in the season one finale--how does Hugo still look as big as he did when he got to the island?  What's he eating to keep his weight up in a place where there's essentially nothing to eat, it's hot, he's walking all day and he is occasionally running from The Others?

Season One finished much better than it started (Walt gets snatched from the boat, while Locke & Co. blow the hatch), so I'm hoping this carries over into Season Two.  Don't worry--the first disc of that one just arrived today!

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.)