1. Given the site's current lovefest for the comedic stylings of
Alan Arkin (
here and
here), I thought I'd chime in about his best comedic role of all time:
The In-Laws, in which he plays a hapless dentist who gets swept into a world of intrigue and espionage by his daughter's fiance's father (played by the always wacky Peter Falk). He's brilliant and the movie is a classic -- please don't bother with the remake.
2. Speaking of Alan Arkin, he had a major role in
Get Smart, which I saw last weekend, but which I hesitated to write a review about. I hesitated because there was not all that much to say. Carrel did an OK job with the material, but wasn't really free to pursue his comedic strengths (see
The Office). He chose to do a minor Don Adams impression, becoming slightly nasal, and played the character in a realistic, rather than parodic, manner. The one bright spot was seeing
Anne Hathaway thriving in a non-chick movie. She was very good; brassy yet subtle. The movie's stunts, including a nice
Bond-esque skydiving scene, were actually pretty decent. No laugh out loud moments in the movie. And of course, Alan Arkin trucked along, despite the less-than-inspired writing.
3. What is the deal with VH1's
"I Love the New Millennium"? This is the latest in the deluge of these painful clip-based programs ("I Love the 80's", "Best Week Ever") in which semi-celebrities you've never heard of repeat catch phrases and sing one-hit wonders without adding anything interesting (Does anyone really care what Michael Ian Black thinks about
The Disorderlies?). First of all, isn't it essentially the same as "Best Week Ever," only vaguer with respect to time period? Second of all, do we need to reminisce about last year? The episode I saw discussed Winehouse's "Rehab" and the
Transformers movie,
as if we have had time to digest their cultural significance yet. This is the equivalent of
pop culture deja vu -- I call it
Contemporaneous Nostalgia. Soon we'll have "Remember the 2010's," in which we have to make stuff up to be nostalgic about.
4. Give
Burn Notice a chance. The second season begins on USA soon. It's about Michael Westin, a spy who gets "burned" (disavowed and cut off) by the CIA, and gets stuck in Miami dealing with his ex-girlfriend and mom and trying to figure out who burned him.
Top five reasons to watch: (1) it's both serial (he's trying to find out who burned him)
and episodic (he takes on "cases" to make money, like
Monk) so you get the best of both worlds; (2) Westin narrates the show with tips on how to be a spy, and they're as entertaining as they are useful; (3) For the boys who remember the early nineties,
Gabrielle Anwar plays an ex-IRA terrorist/former girlfriend; (4) For the boys who remember the eighties,
BRUCE CAMPBELL as Westin's best friend; (5) If you don't watch, it'll get cancelled and I won't be able to watch it anymore.
1. Given the site's current lovefest for the comedic stylings of Alan Arkin (here and here), I thought I'd chime in about his best comedic role of all time: The In-Laws, in which he plays a hapless dentist who gets swept into a world of intrigue and espionage by his daughter's fiance's father (played by the always wacky Peter Falk). He's brilliant and the movie is a classic -- please don't bother with the remake.
2. Speaking of Alan Arkin, he had a major role in Get Smart, which I saw last weekend, but which I hesitated to write a review about. I hesitated because there was not all that much to say. Carrel did an OK job with the material, but wasn't really free to pursue his comedic strengths (see The Office). He chose to do a minor Don Adams impression, becoming slightly nasal, and played the character in a realistic, rather than parodic, manner. The one bright spot was seeing Anne Hathaway thriving in a non-chick movie. She was very good; brassy yet subtle. The movie's stunts, including a nice Bond-esque skydiving scene, were actually pretty decent. No laugh out loud moments in the movie. And of course, Alan Arkin trucked along, despite the less-than-inspired writing.
3. What is the deal with VH1's "I Love the New Millennium"? This is the latest in the deluge of these painful clip-based programs ("I Love the 80's", "Best Week Ever") in which semi-celebrities you've never heard of repeat catch phrases and sing one-hit wonders without adding anything interesting (Does anyone really care what Michael Ian Black thinks about The Disorderlies?). First of all, isn't it essentially the same as "Best Week Ever," only vaguer with respect to time period? Second of all, do we need to reminisce about last year? The episode I saw discussed Winehouse's "Rehab" and the Transformers movie, as if we have had time to digest their cultural significance yet. This is the equivalent of pop culture deja vu -- I call it Contemporaneous Nostalgia. Soon we'll have "Remember the 2010's," in which we have to make stuff up to be nostalgic about.
4. Give Burn Notice a chance. The second season begins on USA soon. It's about Michael Westin, a spy who gets "burned" (disavowed and cut off) by the CIA, and gets stuck in Miami dealing with his ex-girlfriend and mom and trying to figure out who burned him. Top five reasons to watch: (1) it's both serial (he's trying to find out who burned him) and episodic (he takes on "cases" to make money, like Monk) so you get the best of both worlds; (2) Westin narrates the show with tips on how to be a spy, and they're as entertaining as they are useful; (3) For the boys who remember the early nineties, Gabrielle Anwar plays an ex-IRA terrorist/former girlfriend; (4) For the boys who remember the eighties, BRUCE CAMPBELL as Westin's best friend; (5) If you don't watch, it'll get cancelled and I won't be able to watch it anymore.
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