And you think your parents are nuts!

Movie Review: Meet the Parents (2000)

Watched this comedy gem again and it still holds up. Stiller plays his usual hapless nice guy but this time he's stuck with the unfortunate name of Gaylord Focker. His fiance's father, played magnificently by Robert Deniro, is a former CIA man who likes to keep everyone on a very tight leash. Focker can't help but put his foot in his mouth and cause accidents wherever he goes. You feel sorry for the poor schmuch despite the fact that it is often his own stupid decisions that cause the havoc. Owen Wilson is hilarious in his too short appearance as the perfect ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately all of the actresses have basically throw away roles. They are even upstaged by Jinx the cat. 9/10

Movie Review: Meet the Fockers (2004)

I was far less impressed with the sequel. This time everyone gets to meet the Focker family and they have to been crazier than Deniro and company of course. The Fockers are played by Dustin Hoffman, a stay at home dad, and Barbra Streisand as a sex therapist. These 2 are quite good and it's revealed in one of the DVD's extras that they have been good friends in real life since before their careers took off. The jokes in this movie are just too obvious and in the end aren't really funny. They are forced to throw in a wacky uber-Southern cop to try and wring some laughs out of this. Wilson is also thrown into the mix at the end for no good reason and even he isn't funny. While this movie isn't Highlander 2 bad, its worth avoiding. 6/10

TV Review: Desperate Housewives Season 1 (2004)

Yukiko and I have been watching this on NHK 2's 海外ドラマseries. The first season was very good, a clever mix of comedy and mystery. It's also nice to see the women taking the strongest roles in a series. Most of the series' plots have been cleared up by the finale though so I wonder where the show will go in season 2. A new family that's obviously hiding something has just moved into the neighbourhood but is this enough to sustain another 24 episodes?

Book Review: Bad Twin - Gary Troup

This is the book written by a fictional character from the TV series 'Lost'. The author, Gary Troup, is supposed to be a passenger on the doomed flight from Australia. His manuscript for the novel 'Bad Twin' is found by some of the other characters and they are seen reading it in the show. The story itself is just your standard detective story. The detective is hired to find a missing twin that by all accounts is bad. His quest takes him to Key West, Cuba and Australia before he learns the truth. The links to the story in 'Lost' are pretty thin. The twins are members of the Widmore family. They work in the same building as the Hanso Foundation. That's about it. Although I don't see even that means anything because the story, even in the world of 'Lost' is only fictional. The most interesting tidbit I found was that Troup dedicated the novel to a stewardess for Oceanic Airlines called Cindy that he fell in love with. This is the same stewardess that is seen in the pilot of 'Lost' giving Jack his bottles of booze and chasing Charlie down the length of the plane. She may also have been one of the survivors from the tail section that was later abducted, but I'd have to watch it again to be sure. All in all, unless you're a big fan of 'Lost' I'd give this book a pass.

Super duper ladies

Movie Review: Catwoman (2004)

I'll give Halle Berry credit for accepting her razzie award for 'Catwoman' in person. She really took it in stride. This movie was just plain awful. The only slightly interesting thing about the whole movie is Berry's Catwoman outfit, a sexy little leather suit that shows off more than it covers. Berry plays a meek advertising company artist who is unwittingly drawn into a criminal conspiracy. One dark and stormy night she is supposed to have a meeting with her boss at some shady looking factory on the outskirts of town. Her boss doesn't show up so she decides to go looking for and begins openning every door she can find despite the multitude of signs saying 'do not enter' or 'danger' or whatever. Seems reasonable doesn't it? She just happens to stumble onto a murder in progress and is left for dead by the villain. By the way, the villain is a woman with tough skin (caused by toxic makeup) played by Sharon Stone. Yep, tough skin, that's her super power. Anyways, Berry dies but is somehow brought back to life by a bunch of stray cats milling around and presumably peeing all over her. She now has the power of a cat, which seems to include super strength, agility, the power to scale walls and fight like Bruce Lee. Because all cats are great fighters aren't they? The director, someone named Pitof, adds a lot of funk and R&B music which really does nothing for the film. A colossal failure across the board. 2/10

Movie Review: Elektra (2005)I'm not all that familiar with the character of Elektra. All I know is that she is an assassin and used to appear in Daredevil comics. She also appeared briefly in the horrible 'Daredevil' movie. What made anyone think she deserved a movie of her own I'll never know. Jennifer Garner plays the cool killer here. She is completely wooden and emotionless, perhaps that is the way the character is supposed to be but I didn't give two shakes of a stick about what happened to her. She has a young sidekick played by Kirsten Prout, who despite being from my hometown of Vancouver, was just awful. Annoying, annoying, annoying. I guess she got the role because the actress practices Tae Kwon Do in real life. There is also an old mentor figure played by Terence Stamp called Stick, a blind martial arts teacher. I didn't buy his character for a second. They battle a bunch of super baddies with various weird powers. When they die they mysteriously turn into dust so I'm not sure what they are supposed to be. It was funny to see former K-1 fighter Bob Sapp as the evil strongman. He gets taken out by a falling tree which he didn't see. It's a little strange because he is the one who knocked down the tree in the first place. This movie falls flat on it's face because of it's poor story. With all the great unproduced screenplays floating around out there it's sad to see junk like this getting made. 4/10

TV Review: The Tick - Animated (1994)

Finally, a good review. Based on an independent comic book by Ben Edlund, this series is about the adventures of a nigh indestructible, nigh mentally incompetent super hero called the Tick and his regular Joe Sixpack sidekick, Arthur. They battle outrageous villains such as Chairface Chippendale, who has a chair for his head, and Dinosaur Neil, a simple paleontologist who is transformed into a rampaging dinosaur. This is one of the best super hero spoofs out there.

Dogs, Coolers and Minds

Movie Review: Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

This is a great heist-gone-wrong movie. Pacino plays the leader of a small band of ill prepared crooks who plan to rob a bank in broad daylight. They are supposed to in and out in only 10 minutes. They end up getting stuck there for over 10 hours as everything goes to hell. After the cops show up and the media and crowds of people aren't far behind. The film takes on a political stance as Pacino's character revels in the spotlight, making incediary speeches to the cheering crowds. "Attica! Attica!" I'm sure it was quite powerful when the film first came out. It's great to see Pacino's character pulling all the strings as he jaunts around in the street as hundreds of police and snipers can do nothing but watch. Pacino is great, as is John Cazale as the both pathetic yet frightening Sal. I liked everything about this movie until it's revealed that Pacino is robbing the bank to pay for his boyfriend's sex change operation. That was a little too weird and unecessary I think. However it's all supposed to be based on a true story which makes it all the stranger. 8/10

Movie Review: The Cooler (2003)

William H Macy and Maria Bello star in this clever casino movie. Macy is a 'cooler', someone with the ability to project bad luck onto anyone who might be on a streak. The thing is, his bad luck is permanent. He's unlucky in love and life, a broken shell of a man. He's forced to work for an old-school casino boss played perfectly by Alec Baldwin because he owes him money. He's also got Baldwin to thank for his shattered kneecap. Macy's luck begins to change when he falls in love with a cocktail waitress played Bello. As his bad luck disappears so does his ability to pass it onto others. This doesn't impress his boss too much. 8/10

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Another movie from the mind and pen of Charlie Kaufman. Just like his previous hits 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation' this one is a mind blower. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet play an eccentric couple who've both had enough of each other and decided to have their partner wiped from their memories using a new futuristic technology. Things don't go exactly as planned however as it seems some things can't be truly erased. Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood have nice supporting roles as 2 staff members you'd never want involved in any sort of delicate prodecure as a memory wipe. 10/10

TV Review: 30 Days - Season 2 (2006)

From producer Morgan Spurlock (the 'Super-Size Me' guy) we get another season of people experiencing a new way of life for 30 days. I found season 2 to be a lot stronger than season 1. There were some real life changing experiences here. Such as the legal Cuban immigrant who is so strongly against letting in illegal immigrants that he arms himself and patrols the US-Mexican border. He lives with a family of illegal immigrants for a month and gets to see things from their point of view. He's pretty adamant in his ideas until he crosses the border over into Mexico to see his host family's old home. It's nothing but a bunch of brick walls next to a ditch. Not even any walls. It's very moving.
Other episodes include; an American worker going to India to meet the people who his old job was outsourced to; a pro choicer lives with a rabid group of pro lifers; an atheist lives with a family of devout Christians; and Spurlocks spends a month in jail.

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 6: The Uncertain Path - Jude Watson

Obi-Wan finds himself in over his head when the planet he just helped free is on the brink of civil war again. The altruistic group of youngsters he was helping have changed since coming to power. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon finds himself embroiled in a string of thefts within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.