Sarah Connor Kicks Butt In Season Two Premiere

Tonight's second season opener of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was pretty damn fine, indeed! This show waxed and waned for me a bit in its inaugural season, but ended strong with a good mix of action and the "small stuff" like John Connor getting to meet his father (as a little boy). The finale back in May left me feeling that they'd have to up the ante in the second season, and if tonight's episode is any indication: they're going to! While the series can be uneven at times, there are clearly some good writers on staff who know how to tell a compelling story. They seem to get that they're going to have to stop telling us how great a leader John Conner is in the future and start showing us how he gets there, in the present. Tonight's scene with Cameron, and the gun, was a great example of the latter. Instincts like that don't come along every day! And just who exactly do we really think offed the reprehensible Sarkissian? Was it Sarah (who Derek had claimed in Season One didn't have it in her to kill people), or was it maybe John's first kill?

The first season finale had a very exciting climactic scene that was dubbed over with the great Johnny Cash, singing "The Man Comes Around," echoing Agent Ellison's earlier remarks about the Book of Revelations. Tonight, bookending that was an opening montage put to the music of a female performer who I didn't recognize, foreshadowing both the literal house-burning that was about to happen as well as the extended family's figurative house (of unified purpose) that would melt down as a result of Cameron's new situation. It's not exactly Alan Moore- or Grant Morrison-subtle, but it's still pretty high-brow by mainstream TV standards. And it shows a willingness to experiment a bit with their form that goes against the norm for action-based series. I continue to hold out high hopes for this somewhat-brainy gasoline-powered show...

Review: Courage Under Fire

How much should we really expect of our military personnel, when they're caught in a life-threatening crisis? That's the central question of Courage Under Fire, the 1996 film starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Matt Damon, Michael Moriarty and Lou Diamond Phillips.

One of two characters put under the microscope for how they reacted while literally under fire is Colonel Nat Serling (Denzel Washington), who was commanding a platoon of tanks during a Desert Storm invasion of Iraq when an enemy tank inserted itself into their midst. As the Yanks started taking fire from within their own ranks, Serling gave the order to blast what he thought was the T-72 responsible for the attack... only to discover moments later that he'd actually shelled one of the American vehicles, killing his own officer and friend.

He'd been up for promotion going into that battle, but that's the last thing on his mind as he returns home months later, haunted by memories of his gaffe and the price that was paid for it. Rather than being bumped up to General, though, (is that what's above Colonel in U.S. Army rank?) he's given the demeaning task of investigating another officer, Captain Walden, who's being considered for the Medal of Honour. What makes this more than a routine assignment, though, are three things: Serling soon learns that Captain Walden's first name is Karen, meaning that she'd be the first woman to ever receive the honour; she's being considered for the award because of her actions during an attempted rescue during another point of Operation: Desert Storm, but some questions exist as to how she actually comported herself during the crisis (painfully reminding the Colonel of his own mistake under similar circumstances); and the medal, if awarded, will be given posthumously, as Capt Walden (played by Meg Ryan) died during the rescue. That last point means that Serling can't interview Walden herself, but instead has to rely solely on the testimony of others who were there.

The parallels between Serling's situation, as he drifts further and further away from his wife and children thanks to the guilt that he's not able to deal with, and the emerging tale of just what happened to the helicopter that Capt Walden was piloting, are perhaps a shade heavy-handed in parts. Overall, though, Courage Under Fire is an engrossing study of human bravery and weakness, with very good performances by Washington and Ryan, the latter of whom is naturally only seen via flashbacks. That limitation, along with the fact that we get to know her through the sometimes-contradictory accounts of others, leaves us with an unfinished set of feelings toward Ryan's Capt Walden, which seems appropriate in such a Rashomon-like approach to her story-within-a-story.

Among the other cast members, a very young Matt Damon plays one of Walden's copter-mates, and he delivers the goods in a final scene that requires more range than we usually see out of Damon. Phillips is appropriately slimy as another member of the crew, and Moriarty seems a bit off throughout as Serling's superior officer, General Hershberg, but by the end of it you come to realize why. Scott Glenn has a small but pivotal role as a reporter who starts off as Serling's nemesis before evolving into something much more interesting.

One of the clever bits of storytelling that impressed me was the way in which the final resolution of the tank battle that opens the film is held back until late in the proceedings, but is done in such a way as to make you think that you've already seen everything there is to see (when, in fact, you should have realized that you hadn't). There's also a nifty little "reveal" about what happened with the helicopter crew that I didn't see coming at all.

I didn't know what to expect from this 12-year-old offering, but it definitely provided solid entertainment, a compelling story, some good performances, and a few moving moments.

Rating: *** 1/2

Review: Mirrors

Keifer Sutherland plays Ben Carson, a New York City Detective currently on sick leave after an "incident" a year earlier that still threatens his career and his shakey marriage.

Determined to get his life back together, he takes a job as a security guard at an old burned out department store. Why would an abandoned building require security? Who knows? Only in New York!!

Before long he realizes that something is inhabiting this building which is riddled with mirrors. And not long after that, horror ensues as the mirrors, both in the building, and elsewhere (where ever reflections exist, in fact) begin attacking the people closest to him.

Of course, everyone thinks he's lost his mind completely (he is on leave after all because of mental issues associated with the "incident").

But the detective in Ben prevails as he solves the mystery that existed for decades and cost the lives of many. He figured out what the mirrors wanted (or rather, what was accessing our world through the mirrors).

In the final "battle", I started to get a little annoyed. It seemed contrived and kind of silly. However, at the VERY end of the movie we were handed a bit of a twist that I wasn't expecting. Maybe it was predictable and I just didn't pick up on it right away, but I remember saying to myself, "...that's kind of cool..."

It was indeed entertaining for those that like horror movies. And as far as I was concerned, it was far better than "The Ruins" which I had seen earlier this year.

Rating: ***

Review: Disturbia

A strong start, a sag in the middle and a very suspenseful finish... that's the arc of Disturbia in a nutshell.

Shia LeBeouf plays troubled 17-year-old Kale, who a year earlier survived a personal tragedy that he's yet to come to terms with. As a result of that event, his behaviour has been on a downward spiral, culminating in his lashing out at his Spanish teacher during class. That particular misstep - not his first! - lands him in court and gets the young man sentenced to 3 months of house arrest. As such, he can't go further than his own yard without risking jail time. Cabin fever soon leads to voyeurism, and before long he's convinced, in true Rear Window fashion, that one of his neighbours is a serial killer. And there you have the setup for Disturbia, similarly in a nutshell.

Parts of the movie require a good helping of disbelief suspension - like when one person who's been acting terrified suddenly decides to pull a prank! - but the first several minutes and the last hour or so make up for the occasional goofiness in the plot. When Kale's first learning to deal with his home-incarceration, I found him pretty hard to take (as I'm sure we're supposed to). LaBeouf hits all of his standard notes, as his acting repertoire seems to consist of: smart ass comments, a heart of gold that takes awhile to reveal itself, and a willingness to risk it all in the name of love at some point (here, the objects of his affection are neighbour Ashley, played by Sarah Roemer, and his struggling mother, a still-pretty-hot Carrie Anne Moss). Prior to the extended climax, Kale's big moment comes when he confesses to Ashley that he has, indeed, been spying on her from his bedroom... but what he says about what he's seen of her shows that he's done the exact opposite of objectifying her, and in the process he wins her over (and us, too, I suppose).

Besides the places where your common sense is assaulted, there are also aspects of the story that just never seem to pay off completely. One character who had all the earmarks of being introduced to play a significant role later, for example, then simply serves to become another victim of the killer (accomplishing nothing in the process). Similarly, I expected some sort of closure on the trauma that opens the film, but nothing in the resolution of the main plot really echoes back to it. I think a defter hand on the screenplay could've tightened it up just a bit, and transformed this into a really first-rate thriller.

David Morse is appropriately creepy as the shady neighbour, although I wish I wasn't always seeing him in roles that are quite this dark! Moss is also fine as Kale's mother, given that she doesn't really have all that much to work with. Aaron Yu, as best-friend Ronnie, provides some of the funniest moments, but also a few of the least believable.

The two women with whom I watched Disturbia were literally squirming in their seats throughout the last third of the movie, and not from boredom! The tension during that portion of the story is very well done, and definitely reminds the older film fan of Hitchcock's Rear Window, while not being in that same class, overall, of course. It was definitely worth the couple of hours of my time that it took up, though.

Rating: ***

Journeyman Answers Provided

For those of you who, like my wife and I, got hooked on TV's Journeyman last season, only to have it unceremoniously canceled out from under you in a Drive-like fashion, there is this. It may provide some small amount of closure for you (personally, I haven't even read the whole thing yet... but I'm sure my wife will!)

Cloverfield

I finally got around to watching this movie recently. I'm happy to report that I enjoyed it. I was worried that I might not enjoy it based on the hype leading up to its release.

For those that know me, I like the idea of our protagonists being up against an enemy that you just can't beat. That's what made the Borg on Star Trek: TNG so appealing to me.

So here we have a big monster destroying New York and at the same time dumping mini monsters in the street to "share the destruction". It was kind of cool to watch.

And taking a page from "The Blair Witch Project" in the camera work made it more real for me.

The ending kind of left me wanting more, or should I say....SOME! But I guess it was done like that on purpose.

All in all, an enjoyable flick for those that like monster movies.

Rating: ***

Review: V For Vendetta

Seeing The Dark Knight twice in the past two weeks made me hungry for more comic-based movie fare, and so we watched V For Vendetta on DVD this evening. I'd seen the film at the theatre when it came out in 2005 and have owned the DVD for awhile now, but hadn't gotten around to re-watching it until tonight.

As anyone who's seen my favourite comic stories of all time would know, V For Vendetta - the comic series - rates pretty high up there with me. In fact, the only work of that sort that I like better is Watchmen, which is also now in the process of being movie-ized even as we speak. Because of this, I'm probably harder on the film version of VFV than I maybe should be, but there you go. The reality is that the source material that the Wachowski brothers and James McTeigue drew on in creating V For Vendetta - the film - is among the most intricate, dense and rewarding to be found in the "four colour medium." Given that, I'd say that what they put on the screen was a reasonable, though certainly not outstanding, distillation.

The scene that devastates me, every time I read the comic or (now) watch the film, is the one where Evey emerges from captivity. I wrote about how that revelation moves me elsewhere:

"But the shocker in that story, the one that put the whole tale in a different perspective for me, happened when Evey was released from her prison and wandered upstairs to find that her captor and tormentor had been V all along. The gravitas this turn of events lent to the larger canvas of VFV was incredible, for me at least. We knew full well how much V cared for Evey, so seeing the lengths he'd go to in order to, in his words, remove her blinders, was shocking and revelatory. I can still remember the sensation of reading those pages for the first time, realizing what had happened, and having tears run down my cheeks as it sunk in and everything changed. Definitely one of the most powerful scenes in comics history that I can think of."

And for their inclusion of that scene, as well as how beautifully they pulled it off - and all that leads up to it - I have to give the film-makers full credit. That aspect of the story works, and works well. Also effective are the shots of V doing his thing, and the progression of his relationship with Evey throughout.

Where the movie version fails, it seems to me, is in its choices to deviate from the blueprint laid out by the Alan Moore/David Lloyd comic. And I don't mean that simply from a purist point-of-view, although I'm sure it must seem that way. Rather, I think that our suspension of disbelief, which Moore is a master at playing with but never betraying, gets stretched past the breaking point with some of the coincidences and pleasantries that are introduced into the silver screen script. Having Evey work at the TV studio that V uses to broadcast his message, turning the citizens of London into V-wannabes, and even the plot near the end to turn one of the insiders against the "high chancellor" are all examples of Hollywood writing stomping all over something much better than that. Moore's story is full of ambiguous greys, unanswered questions and unsolvable mysteries... which I suppose someone decided just wouldn't be palatable to a movie-going audience.

What I think V For Vendetta accomplishes, though, is perhaps this: it may cause people to seek out the graphic novel upon which it was based ("Illustrated by David Lloyd," as the credits tell us, because Moore demanded that his name be removed from the film). If that happens, then those lucky souls will find a superior masterpiece that was only hinted at by this passably entertaining flick. And that's not a terrible outcome, indeed.

Rating: ***