Hooray for the Flu!
February 14th, 2008
Enjoy the short reviews of flicks that got me through it…
By Fred Richardson
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
Vince Vaughn decided to do a 30-day regional tour of the U.S. featuring four up-and-coming comics, film the whole thing and make a movie out of it. Not a bad idea, but it just never really clicks. I suspect we’d get a better film if it was either a concert film or documentary, but instead we get mash-up of both with neither really satisfying. It’s not bad, it’s just not terribly good. About half-way through, the laughs pick up a bit and near the end there’s enough funny to make one want to see more from the featured comics. I say catch the thing on video and hope for extra performance footage. 60/100
New TV Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Having seen the first four episodes of Fox’s hour long ongoing continuation of the Terminator series, I have to admit that it’s not half a bad as I’d feared. In fact, it’s fairly good. It doesn’t come anywhere near the first two films, but so far it’s at least as good as part 3. Lena Headey (300) does a passable Linda Hamilton and just might make the title character her own if given the chance. Thomas Dekker seems closer to T3’s Nick Stahl than T2’s Edward Furlong in his portrayal of John Connor. Then there’s Summer Glau (“Firefly”) as terminatrix, Cameron Phillips, my call for a probable standout as the series progresses. Set after the events in the second film, the show takes place in an alternate timeline wherein the third film hasn’t happened, and according to Executive Producer Josh Friedman, it won’t. This opens up lots of possibilities for the show to go places we don’t expect and already there have been hints of some fairly interesting twists in the future. Here’s hoping a planned fourth movie (with Batman’s Christian Bale as John C.) can proceed and exist on it’s own without causing problems for the show. The show isn’t perfect, but it’s better than average mainstream fare. 70/100 for now, but the future numbers are not set.
Video Games Conan (X-Box 360)
Success breeds imitation in just about every medium, but seldom does the copy come anywhere near the original. Conan is obviously heavily influenced by the great PS2 game “God of War.” But of course one can make the case that GofW was influenced by the various incarnations of Conan, most notably the Frank Frazetta artwork of the 60s. But the fantasy setting and adult tone of the games aren’t the only ways the games mirror one another. The gameplay mechanic is almost identical, with weapon power-ups and learned magic allowing Conan to face progressively tougher opponents from level to level. There are puzzles, but not terribly hard ones. There are bosses, but with a little work you’ll beat them. Ultimately this is a decent, if not original, game. I recommend it if you’re a fan of the character or really love the genre, but grab it used or wait for the price to hit the $20-30 range. 58/100
DVD Releases of reviewed films
February 18th:
Michael Clayton One of my top movies of 2007. 92/100
American Gangster A decent enough effort but I expected better from those involved. 77/100
February 25th
Beowulf Not sure about the 3-D version being included on the disc or not. So on the movie only- 75/100
30 Days of Night Sometimes vampire sucking isn’t a good thing. 60/100
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