March 14, 2008
A new rhyming review
(SDG)
SDG here with my new Seussian review of Horton Hears a Who (opening today).
My habit of reviewing Dr. Seuss adaptations in Seussian anapestic tetrameter began eight years ago with the Jim Carrey How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which I felt deserved to be trashed, if not in the good Doctor's own voice, at least in a reasonable facsimile thereof.
A couple of years later I continued the conceit with Scooby-Doo, this time writing to the tune of the well-known Scooby-Doo theme song. (This approach permitted only 24 lines in a very limited meter, so I cheated by adding line-by-line annotations. However, it did allow me to sing a review on the air.)
Then the following year I went back to Seussian verse for the Mike Myers The Cat in the Hat.
This time, though, my Horton review is a bit different from these previous efforts.
How?
Three ways: First, the first three were all of live-action films; this one's a computer-animated cartoon. Second, the earlier Seuss adaptations were both Universal; this one is 20th Century Fox.
Neither of those is the big difference, though (although the big difference is certainly impacted by the first, and possibly by the second).
So what's the big difference with this review?
IT'S POSITIVE. Never got to recommend a movie in verse before.
Enjoy!
Posted by SDG in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (16)
February 20, 2008
The Tripods are Coming
(Tim Jones)
Kewl! The Tripods,
the science fiction trilogy by John Christopher (real name Samuel
Youd), is one of the stories well known and oft quoted in our
household. My son even named his cat Ozzy, after the character
Ozymandias. We read the books and watched the BBC TV series until the
venerable VHS tape finally gave up the ghost a few years ago. We hadn't
given it much thought for a while, until my son found some video clips
on YouTube. It was fun rediscovering the series and covering old,
familiar ground. I'll have to look around and see if the series may be
found on DVD.
It occurred to me, after reading some comments on YouTube (always an intellectual treat) that the themes of the book could be interpreted as a slam at religion. I'd considered the idea before, but dismissed it, however... that was before Hitchens, Dawkins and Pullman labored to make the world safe for anti-religious bigotry, dragged it out of the closet and onto the New York Times Bestseller list.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the world has been conquered completely by aliens who travel around in gigantic tripods (okay, not terribly original, but consider it flattery to H.G. Wells) and the population are kept in line through the use of an electronic wire mesh "cap" that is stamped onto their cranium around the age of 16 (when young folk typically begin having serious rebellious thoughts) and that makes them content, docile and obedient to the tripods. The cap keeps them from thinking in certain ways, eliminates violent and deceitful thoughts, but also wonder and inventiveness. Human kind is restricted to about an 18th century level of technology. The heroes run away as their "capping day" draws near, in search of a secret enclave of human resistance, based on nothing but a rumor and a map picked up from a "vagrant" (a human whose capping has gone wrong, they are considered insane).
I never interpreted the story as anti-religious, and in fact saw the cap in much broader terms as the common tendency for the Spirit of the Age (any age) to become tyrannical and oppressive, or the readiness of people to give up thinking for themselves in exchange for the promise of peace and safety. These are human themes into which religion of one kind or another might figure... or not.
If the story was meant as a veiled anti-religious screed, it's odd that an unabashed religionist like myself would find so much in the story to relate to and delight in. To me, the Map could just as well represent Holy Scripture, the Resistance the Church, and the Cap atheistic materialism. I always assumed that once a person was capped, religious impulses would be the first thing to go.
I Googled around a bit and couldn't find any blatantly anti-religious sentiments attributable to to Mr. Youd (aka John Christopher), but I'd be interested to hear from someone who may know more.
Visit Tim Jones' blog, "Old World Swine"
Posted by Tim Jones in Books, Film and TV, Religion | Permalink | Comments (40)
February 05, 2008
Deal to End Writers' Strike Near?
(Jimmy Akin)
POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS FOR FANS OF TV SHOWS AND MOVIE PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN PUT ON HOLD OF LATE.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (20)
October 17, 2007
The Kind of Story that Vatican TV Really Should Not Do
(Jimmy Akin)
Okay, so they were having a bonfire in Poland on April 2 (which happens to be the anniversary of JP2's death) and a guy snapped pictures of the flames and later, after looking at the pictures back home, decided that one looks like John Paul II and must be some kind of manifestation from beyond the grave and Vatican TV does a story on it, complete with an endorsement from a Polish priest saying that's what it is.
This is the kind of story that Vatican TV really shouldn't do.
Even if they ran the story with all kinds of disclaimers, those disclaimers won't make it through into the popular media. The mere fact that Vatican News Service is carrying this story will be taken as indicating that the Vatican supports this interpretation of the bondfire image.
This is bad because it strains credulity enough to have saintly images appearing in tortillas an pieces of toast and on the sides of buildings. Finding one in an image of something as dynamic and as constantly-changing-in-shape as fire is completely beyond the bounds. If you take enough pictures of any bonfire, you'll be able to find such images in it.
And then there is the fact that fire isn't exactly the most . . . er . . . traditional symbol of what it's like in heaven. I mean, if you want a message that JP2 is in heaven rather than . . . one of the hotter regions . . . is a bonfire the best place for such a message?
This is just superstition, and the Vatican News Service abetted it, wittingly or unwittingly.
GET THE STORY.
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (49)
October 05, 2007
The Nattering Nabobs of Know-Nothingism
(Jimmy Akin)
I have never seen an episode of ABC TV's The View.
Until Rosie O'Donnell got in trouble on it, I hadn't even heard of the program, though it's apparently been on for more than ten years.
From reading about the show and seeing clips of it, I have, however, come to hold a very low opinion of it.
What I have seen and read about the show leads me to the conclusion that it is shallow and bubble-headed and frequently shameful, embarrassing, and even disgusting. In other words, it swings between the two extremes of insipid, inconsequential fluff, often with prurient undertones, to completely idiotic attempts to take on serious subjects by a group of commentators who don't have the first clue what they're talking about.
Since the commentators are also all women, the show is clearly aimed at a female audience, and if I were a woman, I'd be insulted that ABC thinks this is the kind of junk that I'd be interested in.
The show also seems to deliberately stir up controversy in order to attract ratings by hiring sick puppies like Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg (note that it's Barbara Walters in the clip who first introduces a disgusting suggestion, which Goldberg then amplifies and makes even worse; there's plenty of sick puppyism to go around on this show).
So it comes as no surprise that, if this pack of intellectual mendicants (not in the good sense, in which Dominicans are intellectual mendicants) were to choose to take on the subject of Archbishop Raymond Burke's statement that he would deny Rudy Giuliani Holy Communion that they'd make more errors than you could shake a stick at.
And they did.
Reading the following transcript of part of yesterday's show (which sure sounds authentic, though I haven't been able to verify that yet, so caveat emptor,though I have partial confirmation from another source) is like playing one of those "How many things can you find wrong in this picture?" games.
Man, is it painful!
ABC--and its owner, the Disney corporation--should be ashamed of itself that it's putting out this kind of offensive and brainless twaddle.
Since the hosts of The View obviously don't have a clue, ABC should get one and cancel the show.
Transcript below the fold (CHT to the reader who e-mailed).
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back. I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but, you know, often times when our politicians are running, you know, the Church gets a little aggravated with that because there’s quite a few of them have different pasts and sometimes the Church wants them to be more perfect.
JOY BEHAR: When you say “the Church” which church are you talking about?
GOLDBERG: Well, it’s, it’s all churches seem to have all kinds of problems with all kinds of candidates. But this particular problem comes when Archbishop Raymond Burke says no communication --
BEHAR: No communion, communion.
GOLDBERG: No communion for Giuliani.
BEHAR: Holy communion on Sunday.
GOLDBERG: Yes, holy communion, you know what holy communion is. For the Catholic Church, you go in on Sunday, you've confessed everything on Friday or Saturday, you're clear, they give you the host, they say you're cool.
BEHAR: Then you get drunk and go out and have fun.
GOLDBERG: Yeah, you’re done. But because of Rudy's stance on abortion, he says he can not give him communion and he is persisting in a very serious sin. When asked if the Archbishop would deny those pro-death penalty, pre-emptive war, he says it's a little more complicated in that case.
BEHAR: Because they're adults and they've committed some crimes, they feel that, that's a legitimate reason to kill someone.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I always had an issue with priests denying communion. I remember someone in my family went through a divorce. Unless she got her marriage anulled, she wasn't allowed to receive communion. Her ex-husband wouldn't give her an anullment. He wouldn’t show up for the anullment. So, then she was shamed, in other words, for not being --
BEHAR: Ex-communicated, yeah.
HASSELBECK: -pretty much not able to walk down and receive what is to be the most intimate, you know, part of the week with God and taking Jesus into your body.
BEHAR: What about Giuliani? He's been divorced three times at least.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: Has he had communion prior to this? Have they been giving him– is this an everyday thing?
GOLDBERG: I assume in other churches he wasn't having an issue or we would have heard about it.
BEHAR: Well, they don't exactly interview you when you’re at the rail. The priest doesn't say how many times have you been divorced? They don’t do that.
GOLDBERG: But if the archbishop is making that much noise, I assume that this is not the kind of story that would disappear. We would have heard something because it happened with John Kerry, didn't it?
BEHAR: Well, you know, just, just speak to the anullment problem. I remember when the Beatles were around, that you could, that you could buy an anullment. People used to buy anullments.
GOLDBERG: Yes
BEHAR: You know, the Kennedys and people like that could buy anullments, so it meant really nothing.
HASSELBECK: Our family didn't come from a lot of cash, so they weren’t buying an anullment.
BEHAR: Well, that's my point. So, I mean, it's not exactly the most moral position.
GOLDBERG: It's very strange that when, when the Catholic god, you know, because there are so many different gods. I'll refer to the Catholic god at the moment. It seems that the Catholic god always says judge lest ye be judged. And always says if I-
BEHAR: They always say that.
GOLDBERG: If you come to me, I'm the only one who can forgive you. It doesn’t matter what everyone else says. And yet a priest, the mouth piece to God, would say you can't --
BEHAR: There are amendments. Unless you do this. Unless you do that. (hand gesturing)
SHEPHERD: The priest has absolute say, because I don't know about Catholicism –
BEHAR: No the Pope does.
SHEPHERD: The Pope, okay.
HASSELBECK: No, the Pope does. The bishops are an extension of his, his abilities to say yeah or nay to certain things. There are a lot of rules in the Catholic, you know, Church.
SHEPHERD: So if he says I don't believe in abortion anymore, then he can take communion?
BEHAR: Well, the thing about is that Rudy Giuliani hasn't necessarily had an abortion himself. His wi- you know what I mean? His wife hasn't had one. I don't know if she has or not. He's not saying I'm going to get it or you should get it or you shouldn't get it. He's saying people should have the right to choose whether they want this or not. And that's his position is. The Church doesn't have that position.
[Applause]
SHEPHERD: But did they deny him for leaving his wife or cheating on his wife and marrying another woman?
BEHAR: No, no, no.
SHEPHERD: Why don't they deny him for that? Is that not a sin any more to leave your wife? Excuse my anger, but is that not a, not a --
BEHAR: It is a sin. But he wasn't running for president at the time, so there wasn't an issue.
HASSELBECK: I seems this archbishop needs a little pub. You know what I mean? He wanted a little publicity. He though slamming Giuliani would get him into the limelight.
BEHAR: You think that’s it?
HASSELBECK: Yeah, they’re all about it.
BEHAR: What about the vows of modesty? Don't they take that also?
HASSELBECK: Some don’t. You should see the jewelry they wear. They’re, you know.
SHEPHERD: Blinging! Bling, bling!
GOLDBERG: I just find it very interesting that, that, you know, it's like closing churches. I don't understand people who close churches because there’s so many, you know, folks that go to church. You know, it’s really a big deal for a lot of people. How can you live at the Vatican and say we have to close these churches because there's not enough money when we could, like, sell some stuff?
BEHAR: Well, the Catholic Church is, is in debt now for paying off a lot of the pedophile cases and they have to close all these churches.
GOLDBERG: There's a lot of stuff they could be selling.
HASSELBECK: And they were handing out communion to all those men who were molesting all the boys out there and they didn’t have a problem giving them communion.
BEHAR: We were all raised Catholic here, so this is not some anti-Catholic rant that we're on. This is just factual information.
GOLDBERG: No, I’m a little bit on a rant. No you’re right.
BEHAR: You can rant. But I was raised -- I had communion every Sunday. I received my communion, my confirmation, all nine yards. My daughter’s been baptized, just in case, you know?
GOLDBERG: You are so funny.
BEHAR: And so this is just- these are facts about the Church right now that people have to either live with or reject.
HASSELBECK: That's one area. That's the Catholic Church. There are many other divisions of Christianity.
SHEPHERD: If you’re a Christian, you can do communion if you sin.
GOLDBERG: Not in the Catholic Church.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (100)
September 26, 2007
On GodTube
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to the reader who e-mailed!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (62)
August 02, 2007
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
(Jimmy Akin)
In the mail today (well, yesterday by when you read this), I got the direct-to-DVD movie Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, which is the first in a planned series of new Babylon 5 stories on DVD.
It's 72 minutes long and consists of two stories that occur simultaneously and interlock to some degree.
I won't give major spoilers here, but here are a few brief comments.
Both stories are set in 2271, ten years after the events of the first Babylon 5 TV series finished. The first story focuses on Captain Lochley, who is still in command of Babylon 5,and the second focuses on John Sheridan, who is still president of the Interstellar Alliance. Also skulking around is Galen the technomage, but these three are the only regular characters featured in the movie (other past cast members are planned to appear in future DVDs).
The CGI in the video is much improved over where it was ten years ago, when B5 was on the air (basically, CGI was at the stage that video games are now; this DVD may give you an idea of where video games will be in a few years).
The two stories are focused on questions (which is normal for how Joe Straczynski writes). The Lochley story focuses on a theological question, and the Sheridan story focuses on a moral one. (Actually, they both have moral questions, but the first is predicated on a theological question in addition.)
Br. Theo and the other Dominicans apparently aren't on Babylon 5 any more, so they aren't there to help Lochley wrestle with the theological issue that is thrust forward. (Oh, BTW, the pope is a man again.) Early on in this story there is a conversation which, when I heard it, I thought, "Joe's atheism is showing through." I thought it was an interesting conversation, but I was still disappointed. I did suspect, though, that he might be setting us up for a larger issue, and that was true in spades! I won't say where this goes, but this has to be the most intensely theological thing that Straczynski has done on the show, and it ends in a way that is definitely respectful of religion.
The moral question at the heart of the Sheridan story is a variant of one that has been hashed over quite a number of times in science fiction, but it's still a well-told tale with a nice resolution.
There are weak spots in the writing (e.g., the climax of the Lochley story is too talky and Sheridan says some things to an ISN reporter that no president trying to foster interplanetary relations would say to a reporter in a million years--BTW the reporter is Teryl Rothery or "Dr. Janet Frazier" from SG-1), as there often are with JMS's writing, but the overall is interesting, entertaining, and it will definitely please the majority of B5 fans. (You can never please all fans, of any series, no matter what you do.)
There are also a lot of nice individual lines (JMS specializes in those), and a number of nice little touches that will please fans who know the background of the series.
GET THE STORIES.
NOTE: Please do not give significant spoilers in the combox (or I'll delete them). In the future, after folks have had a chance to watch the DVD, I may come back to this and discuss the theological and moral questions the stories pose.
P.S. The featurettes are very nice. The memorial tributes to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs are touching, and the Straczynski Diaries are hilarious.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (16)
June 05, 2007
Adam, Eve, & The Big Apple?
(Jimmy Akin)
THIS COULD BE EITHER CUTE OR REALLY, REALLY BAD.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (19)
May 18, 2007
Michael & Us
(Jimmy Akin)
Michael Moore is, well, not my favorite person.
BUT I WAS STUNNED TO READ THIS ACCOUNT OF HOW HE GOES ABOUT HIS FILMMAKING.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (27)
May 16, 2007
Where Are the Anti-Communist Movies?
(Jimmy Akin)
That's the question being asked by David Boaz over at TCS Daily.
He notes that there have, actually, been some anti-Communist movies, but not nearly as many as there have been anti-Nazi movies, and the Communists killed far more people than the Nazis, thus creating innumerable dramatic human situations that could be illuminated through film.
I've got two thoughts on why there haven't been as many anti-Communist movies:
1) Hollywood tends to the left of the political spectrum. It's cultural/political ethos is socialistic to begin with, and there is less of a desire on filmmakers' parts to go after Communists than people (like Nazis) that they perceive to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum (though, in actuality, the Nazi party was the National Socialist party).
2) The Cold War never got hot. What made Naziism so riveting and enduring an evil in film is the fact that a whole generation of Americans went off to fight it. Communism was a looming menace, but since we and the Russians (or the Chinese) never squared off in an actual world war, that looming menace never turned into the generation-defining experience that World War II was. If Stalin massacred more civilians than Hitler did (let's suppose; I haven't checked the numbers), we never had to fight Stalin, and that kept him from becoming an archtypal villain equivalent to Hitler in cultural stature. (Though he has clearly been the first runner-up in that category.)
So those are my theories.
What're yours?
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (156)
April 26, 2007
Kryptonite Found In Serbia!
(Jimmy Akin)
It's true!
NOTE: Fortunately, it seems to be white kryptonite, which is only deadly to plants, so our planet's Kryptonian defender seems to be safe. . . . for the moment!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (3)
April 17, 2007
Whoa, Momma!
(Jimmy Akin)
Every few years one network or another has a period when they're doing really entertaining cartoons. Back in the '90s, Nickelodeon had such a run when they were first doing Rugrats (before they got stale) and Doug. Then it was kind of slim pickins until they came up with SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly Oddparents (though Hey, Arnold! and The Wild Thornberrys could be good).
Kids WB (back when they were around) also had such a run with Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain, Freakazoid, and Earthworm Jim.
And Cartoon Network had one with Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd, n Eddy.
I don't know what it is, but these runs of good cartoons always seem to peter out after a couple three years and then you just have to wait until someone else starts doing good TV animation again.
Filling the gap between such little golden ages is, of course, why God created DVDs, but man hasn't been doing his part up to now: The vast majority of these cartoons have never been released on DVD! (Yet another crime against the humanities!)
I was delighted to learn, therefore, that though it's not yet out on DVD the first season of Johnny Bravo has been released on iTunes!
WOO-HOO!
I downloaded it immediately.
My guess is that they're testing the waters to see how well it does before possibly putting it out on DVD--or at least expanding the number of whole-season releases of Cartoon Network's classic toons.
For those who may not know, Johnny Bravo is the biggest, dumbest, most narcissistic, body-building blond Elvis-clone that the world has ever seen.
The first season of the show also includes the immortal episode "Bravo Doobie Doo," in which Johnny meets the Mystery Inc. gang from Scooby Doo, and we get a double-franchise satire.
There are some really funny bits in that one.
A favorite moment: Velma's glasses are knocked off in a chase scene, and she's groping around on the floor for them saying, "My glasses! My glasses! I CAN'T SEE without my glasses!" then the camera pans over and we see that Johnny's ever-present shades have been knocked off, too, and he's crying, "My glasses! My glasses! I CAN'T BE SEEN without my glasses!"
Classic!
Amazing what you can do with the passive voice.
I just hope they release the rest of the series.
I can't wait to watch the episode where Johnny runs for mayor against a ham sandwich and the ham sandwich is ahead in the polls.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (53)
April 04, 2007
The Chronicles Of IncrediKid!
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
I wanted to share this movie I made. Its a family film, 5 minutes in length and was my first attempt for "On The lot" by Steven Spielberg. My oldest son loved filming it, so if you have a chance take a look. Its a general audience film. Thanks again and God Bless.
I did indeed take a look at the fim, and thought folks (especially parents!) would get a big kick out of it. I'd love to embed it here on the blog, but unfortunately Mr. Spielberg doesn't seem to have gotten with the YouTube generation yet, so . . .
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (23)
March 28, 2007
BSG Season 4 + Interim Movie
(Jimmy Akin)
There are a couple of spoiler-containing interviews with Ron Moore that folks interested in a look at what season 4 of BSG and the interim movie will contain might want to take a look at.
Note that the second contains a single bad word. (And no, it's not *rak.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (5)
March 27, 2007
Galactica Season Finale
(Jimmy Akin)
WDYT?
(Spoiler zone in the combox!)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (80)
March 05, 2007
Sold-out Silence: Manhattan Monk Movie Mania!
(SDG)
This weekend I went back to see INTO GREAT SILENCE a second time at the one venue it is currently playing, NYC's Film Forum Theater.
I went with my 12-year-old daughter Sarah, who watched Papa's two-minute plug for the film on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" this past Thursday, and wanted to see it.
The screening was sold out.
Luckily I had bought tickets online, or we wouldn't have got in. After an hour getting to the theater, turning around and going home would have been no fun. There weren't two seats to be had together; I had to ask another patron if he would change seats so that I could sit with Sarah. (She loved the film, BTW.)
Apparently, that sold-out screening was indicative of a strong opening weekend; a contact at Zeitgeist tells me the film did very well in NYC (I don't have numbers yet). So, this is good news for all of you who are hoping that the film will come to a theater near you, since art-house theater owners look to the NY opening of a film like this when deciding whether to book the film.
A number of readers have asked what they can do if the movie isn't currently scheduled to play near them. Answer: Contact your local art-house/alternative theater owner(s) and ask them to book the film! The more interested patrons theater owners hear from, the more likely they are to book the film. And if it does come anywhere near you, make sure people who would enjoy it know about it.
Of course if you truly live in the sticks where there isn't an art-house theater for three hours, you're probably out of luck, but then you already knew that anyway.
P.S. Chicago-area readers: Note that the Music Box Theatre has moved up the film's week-long run by a week, from a start date of April 6 to a start date of March 30!
WHERE AND WHEN (slightly updated!)
Posted by SDG in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (12)
February 13, 2007
A Novel Idea
(Tim Jones)
Over at Catholic Exchange, Terry Mattingly tells us about a new graphic novel / movie project from the creator of Earthworm Jim (left), Doug TenNapel.
Along with exploring the creative process that TenNapel employs, Mattingly describes how Creature Tech moved from a picture story on paper to a real , fer-sure Hollywood movie;
"The key moment came when the blogger called "Moriarty" posted the following at the Ain't It Cool (aintitcool.com) site for film insiders: "There's no doubt. It's weird . . . It's also very funny, profoundly sweet and heartfelt, touching in a strange way, and serious about concepts like faith and family without being in any way preachy or corny.
"Simply put, Creature Tech is the best American animated film since The Iron Giant . . . Better than anything from any studio . . . It's a movie that just happens to be in print."
Within minutes, studios started calling his agent. Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox won the bidding war and early work began on a live-action movie"
I want to see it already, just based on the sketchy (heh) description in Mattingly's article. TenNapel deals with the creative problems that face Christian artists in an apparently organic, sensible and honest way. Of the current state of the entertainment biz from a Christian perspective, he states;
"People want a quick fix. Christians are going to have to learn that art isn't automatically good if it's made by Christians. And Hollywood will have to learn that art isn't automatically bad if it's made by Christians."
I did not grow up reading comics much, and am not that familiar with the graphic novel genre, but I hope to read Creature Tech before the movie comes out. Any graphic novel fans out there who might be able to give me some confirmation on the worthiness of this one? It sounds tasty.
Posted by Tim Jones in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (23)
January 09, 2007
Once More Unto The Gate?
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to the reader who e-mailed
EXCERPTS:
A third television series in the hit Stargate franchise is now in development, GateWorld has learned.
A production source informs GateWorld that the new series is in the concept phase, and is being actively worked on by the Vancouver creatives behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. No concept for the show has yet been revealed.
The third TV series is also not likely to be rushed into production for a 2007 premiere in order to replace SG-1, which takes its final bow with 10 new episodes this spring. Instead, a premiere in 2008 or later is more likely at this point.
Meanwhile, SG-1 will continue with two movies, presumably direct-to-DVD, currently aiming for a fall 2007 release.
MORE ON THE SG-1 MOVIES HERE. (SPOILERS)
AND HERE. (THIS ONE IS ALSO SPOILER-LITE.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (19)
January 08, 2007
BSG Predictions Scorecard
(Jimmy Akin)
In the gap between Battlestar Galactica seasons 2 and 3, I wrote:
One of my favorite things to do when watching or reading a story is to predict where it's going and then seeing if I'm right or not.
So let's see how I do with my predictions for BSG season 3. . . .
The predictions I made concerned the first half of season 3, and now that episode 311 (the half-way episode in the 20 episode season) has aired, I thought it'd be appropriate to evaluate my plot prognostications. Let's divide them into predictions that have been CONFIRMED, PARTIALLY CONFIRMED, UNCONFIRMED, and DISCONFIRMED.
(Post continues in the down-below part of this post)
SPOILER WARNING!
What follows will be my best guess at how to score the predictions. Some are harder than others since, looking back on them, they were presented as disjunctions (either this OR that will happen). I'm not sure how to handle that, but in logic if either half of a disjunction is true then the disjunction as a whole is true, so I guess I'll take my cues from that and score such predictions as confirmed. You might wish to score these a different way.
Here goes:
Look for one of two things to happen early in season 3: Either the Cylons withdraw and the Colonials realize they need to get back to looking for Earth or the Cylons don't withdraw and the Colonials flee after conducting a brief resistance campaign.
1) CONFIRMED. The Cylons didn't withdraw. A resistance movement began in the webisodes that were shown in the run-up to the season 3 premier. The resistance was seen in the webisodes, and in episodes 301-303, and then in episode 304 the "Second Exodus" of the colonists took place and they started looking for Earth again.
Baltar: Since he built his presidential campaign around settlement on New Caprica against warnings that this wasn't safe--and since those warnings have now proven true--his presidency is toast. Expect him to be ejected from office early in the season
2) CONFIRMED: Happened in episode 304 when the Second Exodus began.
and replaced (most likely) by Laura Roslin, though possibly by. . . .
3) PARTIALLY CONFIRMED: Laura didn't immediately follow Baltar as president, but she was returned to office by the end of episode 305.
Tom Zarek: The next time the presidency of the Colonies is challenged, it'll probably be by Tom Zarek, who (according to the podcast) became vice president but then had a falling out with Baltar early in his presidency. They're supposed to establish this on-screen in season 3, and the result of it will be that Zarek has been able to establish himself as a statesman (via the vice presidency) and distanced himself from Baltar's corruption, leaving him a credible presidential contender. They may pull the trigger on this one early in season 3 or they may hold off till season 4 since we just went through a presidential election.
4) CONFIRMED: Zarek was Baltar's immediate successor, as established in episode 305.
Caprica Six: Now that Caprica Six and Baltar are confronted with the real life, flesh-and-blood (or flesh-and-whatever) versions of each other, expect the two of them to have an uneasy relationship (possibly preceded by a passionate one). For the last two years, the two of them have been living with idealized, fantasy versions of each other in their heads, and when fantasy collides with reality, drama happens.
5) CONFIRMED: Caprica Six and Baltar had an increasingly rocky relationship until, in episode 305 it is revealed that Six is the deciding vote among the Cylons as to whether Baltar should even be kept alive.
The Boomers: I've got a problem here since we now have two versions of Boomer in proximity to each other. How do I refer to them? Both have been on Caprica and on Galactica, so "Caprica Boomer" and "Galactica Boomer" won't work. Let's call the one who had the baby Baby Boomer and the one who didn't have the baby The Adama Shooter Boomer.
Where is Baby Boomer right now? We didn't see her at the end of season 2. We know that she wasn't with the hybrid baby because we saw that Maya still had the baby in her care. They also can't (or shouldn't) let Baby Boomer run around loose on New Caprica because she'd get revenge killed by the Colonials. So she must be in detention/protective custody somewhere, most likely on the Galactica.
6) CONFIRMED: As was revealed in episode 301, Baby Boomer (now "Athena") was held aboard the Galactica in the interim.
But since The Adama Shooter Boomer knows that she's with the fleet, finding her other self and making sure of her welfare will be a BIG concern of hers.
7) UNCONFIRMED: We never saw The Adama Shooter Boomer inquiring about the fate of her sister copy. It could have happened in a scene we haven't been shown--and likely did, since it would be natural for one to ask about the fate of a copy of herself that she knew was with the colonial fleet. But since we didn't see it (and may never see it), this goes in the unconfirmed category.
An even BIGGER concern will be finding the hybrid baby, who is the great hope of Cylonkind.
8) CONFIRMED: Number Three (D'Anna Beers/Lucy Lawless) took an extraordinary interest in finding the hybrid baby (Hera), and it was finding the baby that kept her from setting off the nuke at the end of episode 304.
In fact, notice in that scene where Numbers Six, Five, and Eight confront Baltar that it's Sharon who is the most aggressive, telling Baltar that humans won't be hurt if they don't resist? My guess is that she's the one most worked up because she's desperate to find the baby.
9) UNCONFIRMED: They never showed us what happened on the other half of this scene.
In fact, the whole current occupation (after the Cylons just made a big show of withdrawing from Caprica and abandoning their quest to replace humanity) is almost certainly driven by the need to find the baby.
10) DISCONFIRMED: At least apparently. The motives stated for the Cylon occupation of New Caprica (i.e., learning to live together) had nothing to do with the baby.
Chief Tyrol and Callie: They're going to have problems. Despite the fact that Callie forgave the Chief for beating the snot out of her when he was awoken from a nightmare, that's not the kind of thing that can just be forgiven with no longer-term dramatic repercussions. Maybe his nightmares come back. Maybe he becomes morbidly afraid of hurting her and their baby. Maybe he slips and beats her up again. Maybe they do something really interesting by having Callie start holding the original beating incident over him. They're going to do something with this. You just can't have an incident that dramatic happen between two characters and then have it vanish into the mist and never get referred to again.
11) UNCONFIRMED: We didn't see them have problems in the first half of season 3, but I still suspect that they will later, for the reasons stated above.
Apollo: Apollo has become the commander of the Pegasus, gotten a little overweigh, hooked up with Duella, and reconciled with his father. Expect two of those (the fat and the reconciliation with his father) to go away in the first half of season 3.
12) CONFIRMED (as to the fat): He was back to normal weight by episode 306.
The dramatically logical thing for him to do is to put Apollo back into conflict with his father now that they're commanding the two battlestars. Lee's also in command of the better battlestar. Conflict between them may erupt as soon as they start trying to figure out how to help the Colonials--or they may hold that off a bit until they get the Colonists off the planet.
13) CONFIRMED (as to the relationship with his father): The two were drawn into conflict over how to rescue the colonists and Lee broke his father's orders regarding what to do with the Pegasus in episode 304.
Starbuck: Expect her new husband to die in the first half of season 3. The guy is an impediment to exploring the romantic tension between her and Apollo, so he won't be around long. He's already sick. Expect him to get sicker or die in some other way.
14) PARTIALLY CONFIRMED: Starbuck's husband, Anders, didn't die, but their marriage definitely hit the rocks by episode 305, and the romantic tension between her and Apollo came dramatically into focus in episode 309.
Incidentally, how about the twist in episode 311 where Starbuck and Apollo are put at odds by the fact that Starbuck views marriage as a sacrament and won't divorce (but will cheat), while Apollo won't cheat but will divorce (he did have a non-religious upbringing from what we know, after all). I'm sure this exact kind of crazy, insane, sinful situation has happened in the real world on more occasions than we'd first suppose.
Also, expect Starbuck to cut her hair. The lengthy locks she was wearing at the end of season 2 are not compatible with her role as a resistance fighter and ace fighter pilot.
15) CONFIRMED: Happened in episode 306.
Adama: Unlike Starbuck, he gets to keep the mustache for a while. If he shaves it off too soon for no reason, it'll seem too gimmicky.
16) PARTIALLY CONFIRMED: He kept it for a while, but shaved it off at the end of episode 304, before Starbuck cut her hair.
So, to tally things up, I made 16 predictions by my count. Of those--using the scoring system described above--9 predictions (56%) were fully confirmed in the first half of the season, 3 predictions (19%) were partially confirmed, 3 predictions (19%) remain unconfirmed, and 1 prediction (6%) was disconfirmed.
If we split the difference between those fully or partially confirmed and those that weren't then 75% of my predictions were fully or partially confirmed and 25% were unconfirmed or disconfirmed.
You might want to use a different scoring system and rank the predictions differently, which is fine.
Whatever measure one uses, I'll stack that record up against the National Enquirer's psychics any day!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (11)
January 05, 2007
Top 10 Tech Bloopers
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to the reader who e-mailed
It's to a list of common situations in which movies and television misrepresent the usability of different technological interfaces. Watching these things has bugged me no end . . . like in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, where the group gets into a Klingon ship and manages to figure out how to fly the thing in a couple of minutes of fiddling with the controls? Never happen!
I was thus entirely in sympathy with the list when it includes items like these:
1. The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
Break into a company -- possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet -- and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you're a movie star.
The fact that all user interfaces are walk-up-and-use is probably the single most unrealistic aspect of how movies depict computers. In reality, we know all too well that even the smartest users have plenty of problems using even the best designs, let alone the degraded usability typically found in in-house MIS systems or industrial control rooms.
2. Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs
An even worse flaw is the assumption that time travelers from the past could use today's computer systems. In fact, they'd have no conception of any of modern technology's basic concepts, and so would be dramatically more stumped than the novice users we observe in user testing. Even someone who's never used Excel at least understands the general idea of computers and screens.
You might think that people coming from the future would have an easier time using our current systems, given their supposedly superior knowledge. Not true. Like our travelers from the past, they'd lack the conceptual model needed to make sense of the display options. For example, someone who's never seen a command line or typed a command would have a much harder time using DOS than someone who grew up in the DOS era.
If you were transported back in time to the Napoleonic wars and made captain of a British frigate, you'd have no clue how to sail the ship: You couldn't use a sextant and you wouldn't know the names of the different sails, so you couldn't order the sailors to rig the masts appropriately. However, even our sailing case would be easier than someone from the year 2207 having to operate a current computer: sailing ships are still around, and you likely know some of the basic concepts from watching pirate movies. In contrast, it's highly unlikely that anyone from 2207 would have ever seen Windows Vista screens.
3. The 3D UI
In Minority Report, the characters operate a complex information space by gesturing wildly in the space in front of their screens. As Tog found when filming Starfire, it's very tiring to keep your arms in the air while using a computer. Gestures do have their place, but not as the primary user interface for office systems.
Many user interfaces designed for the movies feature gestural input and 3D data visualizations. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list of 10 items. But, despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.
3D is for demos. 2D is for work.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (47)
December 28, 2006
This Is Not Captain Kirk
(Jimmy Akin)
It's Captain Chase.
Looks a lot like Kirk, tho, don't he?
Folks may know that there is currently a Star Trek XI in the works, and since J. J. Abrams is doing it, it may actually be the first exception to the "odd = bad, even = good" rule for Star Trek films, which has thus far been iron clad (at least if you understand it in a slightly more nuanced form of "odd = bad or at least less good than the most recent even, even = better than the most recent odd").
That's not the only Trek video project under consideration, though, as the illustration on the left shows.
Turns out that, now that Paramount has gritted its teeth and put out the Star Trek Animated Series from the 1970s on DVD (where's The Star Wars Holiday Special, George?), they're considering a new one modelled after the successful Star Wars: Clone Wars animations that were released to web/TV/and DVD.
Like Clone Wars, this Trek series is envisioned as being composed of short, more action-oriented chapters that are originally presented on the web but that form a larger story when strung together.
The setting for this story is described like this:
The setting is the year 2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of ‘Omega particle’ detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans, all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation.
The article then says:
The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show’s hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in. Relegated to border patrol, Chase is determined to bring the Federation (and a ship called Enterprise) back to the glory days of seeking out new life and new civilizations.
I don't know that this is distinctively bleak or un-Trek-like. We've had bleak Trek visions before, and it's generally been some of the most interesting things they've done with the franchise (e.g., the episode with the alternate timeline where the Federation was losing a war with the Klingons, the whole Dominion War cycle on DS9; and then there's the Borg). The happy, clappy "Gee whiz! Let's go explore the galaxy, kids!" material has been the worst and least interesting.
Then the article says something that mystifies me:
The parallels with the real world are obvious.
Huh? What the heck are they talking about?
The view is that to be relevant Trek cannot skirt around issues. Rossi explains: "couching big social issues in allegories so they are more palatable is kind of passé now. Today shows deal with these issues head on, so we decided to make the entire show an allegory. The premise is an allegory for the post-9/11 world we live in. A world of uncertainty and fear."
Excuse me, but when has mankind EVER not lived in a world of uncertainty and fear? 9/11 was not the introduction of original sin into the world. We've had division and secession and sneak attacks and invasions and assassinations and genocides and all kinds of nasty stuff like that for thousands of years. You're going to have to get a lot closer to what's going on today if you want me to see parallels to the modern world that are distinctive compared to what's been happening all throughout history.
Unless you're so George Bush-obsessed that you see every drama through the lens of the global war on terror, or unless you have no awareness of history at all, you're just not going to be seeing striking parallels to today lurking under every rock.
I suspect the bit about the show being "relevant" to today is just spin on the part of the producers to try and sell the series.
GET THE STORY.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (68)
December 04, 2006
No New B5 Today. New B5 Tomorrow.
(Jimmy Akin)
Or soon, anyway.
As folks may know, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales is now being produced as a series of direct-to-DVD mini-movies. The footage for the first pair is in the can. JMS writes:
As I write this, we have finished principal photography on "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales," coming in under budget and finishing a full day ahead of schedule.
This first DVD, entitled "Voices in the Dark," covers the same 72 hour period of time as Sheridan travels on board a Presidential Cruiser en route to Babylon 5 from Minbar for a celebration marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Interstellar Alliance. One part of the story follows Sheridan as he picks up an unexpected visitor on the edge of Centauri space, Prince Regent Dius Vintari, and a warning about what will come afterward delivered by the techno-mage, Galen. The other part of the story is set aboard Babylon 5, as Colonel Lochley summons a priest from Earth space to deal with a problem that may have dark supernatural overtones. The two parts of the greater story intersect at certain key plot and thematic points, so that they overlap and complement each other while telling separate, but simultaneous, stories.
READ MORE ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON AND LOOK AT THE FIRST-RELEASED PRODUCTION PHOTOS.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (9)
October 16, 2006
MST3K Revividus!
(Jimmy Akin)
It was a sad day, seven years ago now, when Sci-Fi cancelled Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I was watching when Mike and the bots signed off for the last time, the credits rolled, and the haunting Love Theme From MST3K played.
Sniff.
What a great show that was. I and my college buddies had been doing the same thing in our living rooms for years (in fact, I can still annoy people riffing movies we're watching on DVD), but this show did all the comedy work for you--so you don't have to!
The show is too cool an idea to remain forever dormant, and it may someday make a return to the airwaves (or at least the coaxial cables).
And now the digital millennium has brought the show back! . . . almost.
In an age when TV show producers are producing podcast commentaries that you can download and listen to as you watch their shows, Mike Nelson and his pals got the idea of cutting out that expensive middleman--the TV network--and bringing their mstings straight to you!
The result is RiffTrax, a service where Mike--together with Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbett (Sci-Fi's Crow "I'm Different!" T. Robot)--produce mp3 riff-laden commentaries that you can download and watch along with the corresponding DVD (sold separately).
They even have a few DVDs that contain the riff-track ON the DVD, including a version of one of the most-requested movies that they never got around to doing on the show: Plan 9 From Outer Space! I know I'm going to get that one.
I'm pleased as punch to see these guys (a) bringing back their hilarious movie commentaries and (b) finding a way to make some money again after all these years, so
CHECK IT OUT.
(CHT: Catholic Whiteboy)
Don't know what we're talking about? Missed out on all the fun?
Incidentally, Mike Nelson is an Evangelical who has a special interest in apologetics. I've exchanged e-mail with him before, and he seems like a real nice guy. Some of the other regulars from the show, such as Kevin Murphy and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) were Catholic, and Christian and Catholic themes often showed up in the commentaries (along with other, less mentionable material on occasion, but you know what Ludwig Wittgenstein said about things we can't talk about).
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (26)
October 12, 2006
In The Mail
(Jimmy Akin)
I just received a review copy of the DVD release of the A & E reality series "God or the Girl," which aired a piece back.
I didn't see it when it aired, but it got very good reviews and was widely perceived as a thoughtful, responsible look at the issue of vocations discernment (despite its rather sensationalistic title), as exemplified by the experiences of several young men trying to discern whether they might be called to the priesthood.
A lot of folks in the Catholic community praised it, and now A & E Home Video has it out on DVD, along with new bonus features that were not part of the original broadcast.
If you're interested but haven't seen it, or if you have seen it and would like to again, or if you'd like to give it as a present to a young man discerning his own vocation, be sure to
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (17)
October 06, 2006
New Galactica Tonight
(Jimmy Akin)
Well, the long wait is finally over. Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica begins tonight on Sci-Fi.
Galactica's at a new time (an hour earlier), so the lineup is as follows (Eastern & Pacific; your timezone may vary):
7:00 Heroes (a show I've only just discovered and don't know much about yet, but it's supposed to be good from what I hear)
8:00 Dr. Who (the 2nd ep of the 2nd season)
9:00 Galactica (2 hour season premier)
Events at the end of last season found the Colonials of Battlestar Galactica settled on a new homeworld, only to have the situation spoiled by the arrival of their evil robot enemies, the Cylons.
This sets up the beginning of season 3 as a "jumping-on point" for new viewers, so if you haven't tried the series yet, you might want to.
In the gap between seasons we had the webisodes about the resistance that forms between seasons 2 and 3, all of which are now online. (Minor bad language warning.)
There's also a recap of the story so far.
And after the end of season 2, I made a number of predictions about what would be coming up on the show.
LET'S SEE HOW WELL I DID.
I just hope that they stick with having backed off the sex, as they have of late.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (33)
September 29, 2006
Hello, Doctor
(Jimmy Akin)
The longest-running science fiction television series is--it seems hard to question---the BBC "programme" Dr. Who.
Fans of the series have followed The Doctor through all ten of his incarnations thus far, and tonight a new one begins for his American fans.
Yes, tonight on Sci-Fi the Doctor returns for another season and another incarnation of the famous time-travelling timelord.
The season debuts at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, from what I have been able to tell.
MORE DETAILS.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (15)
September 13, 2006
The Resistance
(Jimmy Akin)
When Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica ended, it was announced that the new season wouldn't be starting until October, which seemed a long way away.
Well, the time is almost upon us, and SciFi is now ramping up to the new season by releasing a set of ten webisodes that advance the story by bridging Seasons 2 and 3. (CHT to the reader who e-mailed!)
The webisodes are being released twice a week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday at noon Eastern, and they tell the story of the developing resistance movement, chafing under Cylon rule on New Caprica. In fact, the title of the webisode series seems to be "The Resistance."
Thus far, three webisodes have been released, so there are seven more to go.
YOU CAN VIEW THEM HERE.
(minor bad language warning.)
If you need a refresher on what's happened in the story so far or haven't yet watched BSG,
YOU CAN GET A 3-MINUTE VIDEO RECAP HERE (WHICH ALSO HAS A PREVIEW OF SEASON 3).
Incidentally, when Season 2 finished, I made some predictions about what would happen in Season 3.
LET'S SEE HOW ACCURATE I WAS.
This post of JimmyAkin.Org is brought to you by the letter "R," the number "5," and the word "webisode."
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (1)
August 30, 2006
Stargate X-Treme!
(Jimmy Akin)
I recently discovered that iTunes has this season's episodes of Stargate SG1 available for download, so when I realized that I'd missed the TV airing of the 200th episode, I thought, "Man, I don't want to wait for the DVDs on that one; I ought to download it!"
So I did.
WOW!
That has to be the most . . . what's the term? . . . psychedelic? . . . parody-filled? . . . loony? . . . oh, heck, I don't know. But it was the most SOMETHING episode ever.
The 200th episode--titled "200" (a number they give a meaning to within the episode itself)--is a sequel to the show's 100th episode, which was not titled "100" but "Wormhole X-Treme!", which hilariously parodied not only Stargate SG1 itself but also the way the cable TV industry works.
This time, they go beyond that, doing parodies of, well . . .
1) Stargate SG1 itself,
2) Stargate SG1 parodying itself as Wormhole X-Treme,
3) The TV industry,
4) The movie industry,
5) Detective shows
6) Stupid efforts to revamp shows to make them younger and hipper
7) Star Wars,
8) Star Trek,
9) Farscape,
10) The Wizard of Oz, and . . . and . . .
11) a parody of something that is so BIZARRE that I'm not even going to tell you what it is so that it won't spoil the surprise.
The last of these involves a re-envisioning of SG1's origin that, once again, has a tongue-in-cheek return of the absolute WORST, MOST HORRIBLE, OVER-THE-TOP line EVER written in Stargate history. It originally appeared in the pilot episode and was delivered by (then) Capt. Samantha Carter. The actress who plays her--Amanda Tapping--complained so much about the line that now whenever we see an alternate version of the team's origin (whether in another timeline or whatever) they bring back the line to mock how horrible it was.
They also (sorta) fulfill the promise to let us finally see the missing "Fifth Race," the Furlings--who we learned existed back in Season 1 and have never seen even though we're now in Season 10. (Personally, I'm disappointed with what they did on this one, though it was funny, and I hope they fix it before the end of the current--and last--season.)
This episode, for fans of the series, is simply amazing. The amount of parody crammed into it is stunning, and they even managed to pull off a thoughtful ending (pictured, believe it or not, above).
Now, for those of you who missed the episode and don't have iTunes . . . YouTube to the rescue!
This has to be one of the most heavily YouTubed TV episodes of a show ever, and--in fact--it seems you can watch the whole thing via YouTube:
PART ONE / PART TWO / PART THREE / PART FOUR / PART FIVE
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (19)
August 23, 2006
Well, This Isn't A Total Surprise
(Jimmy Akin)
FROM SCI-FI WIRE:
SG-1 Ends Run; Atlantis Back
SCI FI Channel confirmed that it will not renew its record-breaking original series Stargate SG-1 for another season, but will pick up its spinoff series Stargate Atlantis for a fourth year. SG-1 aired its 200th episode on Aug. 18, and the SF series is the longest-running SF show on American television.
SCI FI issued the following statement on Aug. 21: "SCI FI Channel is proud to be the network that brought Stargate SG-1 to its record-breaking 10th season. Ten seasons and 215 episodes is an astounding, Guinness World Record-setting accomplishment. Stargate is a worldwide phenomenon. Having achieved so much over the course of the past 10 years, SCI FI believes that the time is right to make this season their last on the channel. SCI FI is honored to have been part of the Stargate legacy for five years, and we look forward to continuing to explore the Stargate universe with our partners at MGM through a new season of Stargate Atlantis."
Stargate SG-1, developed for television by executive producers Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate. SG-1, which originally starred Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge, began on Showtime, then moved to SCI FI after five seasons. The current cast includes Tapping, Shanks and Judge and newcomers Ben Browder, Claudia Black and Beau Bridges. It airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT [SOURCE].
CHT to the reader who e-mailed.
I'm sorry to see SG1 go, but it's quality hasn't been as high the last few years. I'm impressed with how well they did after Richard Dean Anderson MacGuyvered his way out of the program. The introduction this season of Vala (sp?) as a regular character was a breath of fresh air, but SG1 hasn't been able to motivate me to tune in each week for some time (couldn't compete with square dancing), so I've been catching reruns and plan on watching the last couple of seasons complete on DVD.
I'm glad that they're keeping Atlantis around, though I don't think that show has ever equalled SG1 when the latter was at its peak. The writing has always seemed muted, somehow, though I love the character Rodney MacKay (sp?). Perhaps with SG1 off the air, Atlantis will take off and grow the way DS9 did once TNG and B5 were off the air. The departure of the latter two shows gave DS9 the ability to cut loose and spread its wings without cramping other series, and perhaps with the whole Stargate universe to itself now, Atlantis will be able to tell stories without having to worry about stepping on SG1's toes.
I'd be interested to see what the ratings have been for SG1 vs. Atlantis. I suspect that SG1's are higher, but this wasn't purely a ratings-based situation. The SG1 writers have been having a hard time making do, between franchise aging and the departure of major cast members. It does make creative sense to end the series before its scraping the bottom of the barrel (which I personally don't think it's at; I can imagine sci-fi a LOT worse than the current season of SG1).
There's also something that the above press-release doesn't mention:
This is a repositioning of where the network is putting its money. A cable network only has so much money to devote to developing new proramming, and there are only so many serieses that Sci-Fi can produce at a given time. So a major reason SG1 is being put out to pasture is to make way for a new series: Caprica. The Battlestar Galactica franchise has been so successful (it WAS able to get me to tune in weekly last season) that the network is wanting more in that mold. So what we're watching is a pirouette between the two franchises, with the young, dynamic Galactica series taking the lead over the still-watchable but somewhat-worn-around-the-edges Stargate franchise.
It would be impolitic to say such things in a press release announcing the end of SG1, though.
Wouldn't sit well with Stargate fans to say "We can't produce an extra new series each week, so SG1 is going away to allow us to do Caprica."
That wasn't the only reason for the decision, of course. The ones mentioned above were, too, and ratings decline certainly was as well. But Caprica's arrival no doubt played a role.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (14)
July 20, 2006
Kudos To Mr. Siegel
(Jimmy Akin)
Why?
Because he walked out of a disgusting Kevin Smith film in protest.
EXCERPTS:
DON'T joke about women, donkeys and bestiality if you expect Joel Siegel to watch your movie. That's what director Kevin Smith found out when the pun-loving "Good Morning America" film critic stormed out of a press screening of Smith's "Clerks II," which opens Friday - an act that's sparked a vicious war of words between the two.
"Time to go!" roared Siegel to his fellow critics. "First movie I've walked out of in 30 [bleeping] years!" His tirade came 40 minutes into the long-awaited Weinstein Company sequel to Smith's 1994 cult classic about two foul-mouthed Long Island convenience store clerks who razz customers and goof off.
GET THE STORY (WARNING: Disgusting subject matter clinically discussed.)
Shame on Kevin Smith, too, for his disgraceful and BLEEP-filled response to Mr. Siegel.
And for making such disgusting trash to begin with.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (58)
July 19, 2006
YEE-HAW!!!
(Jimmy Akin)
Just got these in the mail, and I can't wait to watch them (though at the moment I'm still making my way through the new Doctor Who season that was just released).
For those of you who missed it, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was a 1993 TV series that blended two of my favorite things . . . the Old West and science-fiction. Two great things that go great together (sometimes . . . like this time . . . or Firefly).
(It also blended in some of my other favorite things, like humor and action and romance and whiskers on kittens and brown paper packages tied up with string . . . well, maybe not the last couple.)
I didn't see the series when it was on the air (because Fox's advertisements for it make it look a lot more salacious than it actually is), but I discovered it in reruns on TNT and really enjoyed it.
Unlike many of the series on the air back then, it had a definite story arc spanning the entire season (I just love big story arcs) with significant character evolution a surprises as the story evolves. In fact, the main character, Brisco County Jr. (played by Bruce Campbell) starts the series as an ex-Harvard law professor turned bounty hunter to being the agent of 19th century robber barons who want him to track down the gang that killed his father to being a secret agent for the government.
Along the way we run across mysterious orbs from the future that give people superpowers (or kill them), evil robots, neurotic outlaws, a 19th century version of Elvis, Comet the Wonder Horse, and a bunch of anachronistic humor (before Hercules and Xena made it popular)--all of it fitting into a single, overarching Wild West saga.
And then there's the show's great theme music, which just makes you feel like it's a warm, hopeful new day on the range, where anything can happen . . . and will.
Unfortunately, Fox aired the show in the Friday Night Death Slot and it didn't get picked up for a second season.
Fortunately, the show's creators did a rousing two-part season finale that tied up all the outstanding plot threads, so it works well as a season-long miniseries.
It took Warner Brothers FOREVER (13 years!) to release it on DVD, but now that it's out you can
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (9)
July 18, 2006
In The Mail
(Jimmy Akin)
I'm now working my way through
THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON OF THE NEW DOCTOR WHO SHOW.
For those who are keeping score, this is the first and only season to feature the ninth incarnation of the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston).
I've seen some of the episodes in the series, though I also missed a bunch because they conflicted with square dancing, and I'd be too tired to stay up to watch the repeats on Sci-Fi.
Like most Americans (or at least, most Americans who know about Doctor Who), I was introduced to the character when he was being played by Tom Baker (the fourth doctor) and the show was running on PBS stations across the country.
I have to say that, in the main, I like what I've seen of this series, though there are things I don't.
I like the fact that there is an overall story arc to the series and the fact that they try to deal with the impact of time travel on the ordinary life of the Doctor's main companion (Rose Tyler). Her mom and her boyfriend and her deceased father are significant characters in the series, and it's nice to see what the effects would be on those close to a person if that person suddenly started jaunting about time.
I also like Eccleston's portrayal of the doctor. He has a kind of enthusiastic optimism that he uses to hide an inner crushing grief, and the way that these two play off of each other is interesting.
Interestingly, Eccleston (who is a native of Lancashire) is one of the few doctors allowed to speak with a non-BBC accent, leading to one of my favorite lines in the episodes I've seen. When Rose has explained to a 21st century woman that the Doctor is an extraterrestrial, the woman asks, "Then why does your friend talk like he's from the North?" to which Rose replies, "Lots of planets have a North!"
Still, if you're a dyed-in-the-woolen-scarf Tom Bakerite, you might want to check out the other, recently-released complete Doctor Who season with its own season-spanning storyline,
THE COMPLETE KEY TO TIME SERIES.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (11)
July 14, 2006
Cool Things In Pirates Of The Caribbean 2
(Jimmy Akin)
So I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last Saturday (actually, before my pre-written post on it went up) and I thought it really rocked.
It had a bunch of cool stuff in it, some of which I can't say because it would be too much of a spoiler, but here are some isolated snippets of cool things that won't give away the plot.
COOL THINGS IN PRACTES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2:
1) Johnny Depp's performance.
2) The way the crewman finishes the line "The captain is acting strange."
3) Davy Jones (SDG's really right on this one; Davy Jones has the potential to rival Jabba the Hutt as an iconic image, which is why I'm not posting a picture of him; I don't want to spoil his entrance)
4) The make-up effects for Davy Jones's men.
5) In particular the conch-headed man, and especially what he does in his very last appearance in the film.
6) The island escape sequence. MAN, THIS TOTALLY ROCKS! I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING LIKE THIS EVER BEING FILMED BEFORE.
7) The "Jack-kabob"
8) The schlorp / shlub sound effects when the suckers on various tentacles are doing things.
9) The unusual "eye makeup"
10) The way that Jack and Elizabeth's prophecies about each other come true.
11) The "Hello, beastie" moment.
12) The three-way swordfight.
13) The "rolling climax"
14) The humorous cliffhanger.
Don't know what I'm talking about?
BTW, if the theaters are even half as hectic this weekend as they were last (when the film was selling out right and left), buy your tickes online or over the phone and make a point of showing up a little early.
If you have seen the film, feel free to share your own cool things in the movie. (SPOILERS OKAY since it'll be in the combox.)
BTW, next summer's final part of the Pirates trilogy may not be the end of the series.
JOHNNY DEPP HAS INDICATED HE'D BE INTERESTED IN PLAYING THE PART AGAIN.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (59)
July 10, 2006
Dead Man's Chest
(Jimmy Akin)
The Pirates of the Caribbean turned out to be the surprise summer hit of 2003 and left the newly-minted fans of the franchise wanting more.
They got a little more later that year when the pirates returned for a brief, cameo appearance to wipe out an orc army at the endmiddle (beginning? it's hard to tell with a sixteen hour film) of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
They should have been in that film for longer than they were, but Aragorn foolishly released Captain Jack Sparrow from his oath before Sauron had been thoroughly defeated.
But now the pirates are back for another installment of their own franchise!
It instantly became THE BIGGEST OPENER IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY.
And STEVE GREYDANUS'S REVIEW has me anxious to see it!
Here's a taste (EXCERPTS):
[L]ike Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dead Man’s Chest takes the kinds of things that others have done before, and then does them so inventively that it becomes the new standard.
The sequel takes the slapstick swashbuckling to a completely new level, evoking the ingenuity and physical comedy of a Buster Keaton or Jackie Chan set piece, crossed with the Rube Goldberg logic of a Chuck Jones cartoon.
A slight but distinct spiritual vibe runs through Dead Man’s Chest, particularly in regard to an uneasy awareness of judgment after death. “Do you fear death?” Jones asks the sailors of a ship he has taken as he offers them a Faustian choice between death and eternal service on his ship. “Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different? Why not postpone the judgment?” Most of the sailors accept this Faustian bargain, though one sane soul demurs (“I’ll take my chances”) and is quickly dispatched.
In a comic variation on the theme, one of the formerly cursed pirates from the first film has taken a new interest in spiritual matters. “We’re not immortal any more — we got to take care of our immortal souls,” he warns his companion while leafing intently through his Bible.
The other eyes him dubiously. “You know you can’t read…”
But the first is undeterred: “It’s the Bible — you get credit for trying!”
Many have been comparing Dead Man's Chest to The Empire Strikes Back in that it is (a) reportedly really good and (b) has a cliffhanger ending meant to spring us into a third film.
That film--Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End--is due out next summer.
I haven't seen an actual in-theater movie in I don't know how long (maybe a year or two), but I'm going to see this one.
See you at the movies!
INFO ON WHAT THAT WHOLE "DEAD MAN'S CHEST" THING IS ABOUT.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (70)
July 05, 2006
Bryce Zabel Comments
(Jimmy Akin)
Last week I did a post on the proposal to reboot the Star Trek universe that Bryce Zabel and Joe Straczynski wrote and sent to Paramount.
The post generated a number of comments in the combox, as well as a comment via e-mail from Bryce Zabel himself (who gave permission to use his name). He writes:
Thanks for the mention in your blog... you must have a very popular one because I got a lot of referrals. I also agree with the comments that a reboot, for those who freak out at the exact word, could simply be to tell the Star Trek story in an existing alt.universe. Anyway, all best to you, Jimmy...
I think that Bryce's point (and that of other commenters) is a good one about presenting a rebooted Star Trek universe as an alternate timeline.
If a reboot ever goes forward, it might even be possible to deflect some concern by fans by showing the point of divergence for the two timelines or having them interact with each other in some way (via an interdimensional gateway or a timeline jumping means like in that great episode where Worf was jumping timelines accidentally). This would show the fans that all of their favorite, beloved stories were still "real" and still "existed out there"--just not in the timeline or universe that was in focus in the reboot.
As I mentioned in last week's post, Mr. Zabel runs his own blog, and he frequently discusses matters of the television and movie industry, including science fiction and related genres, so be sure to
If you'd like to know more about the man himself,
HIS BIO ON IMDB IS ALSO QUITE INFORMATIVE
AND HERE'S INFO ON HIS SERIES DARK SKIES.
Thanks for stopping by, Bryce! Hope to see you around the cyberspace!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (4)
June 30, 2006
Star Trek: Reboot The Universe
(Jimmy Akin)
Yesterday I did a couple of posts about efforts by fans and now, possibly, by J. J. Abrams, to re-cast the characters of the original Star Trek series in order to allow new stories to be told about them more easily.
I did so to build up to this:
A PROPOSAL BY JOE STRACZYNSKI AND BRYCE ZABEL FOR THEIR VISION OF HOW STAR TREK SHOULD BE REJUVENATED.
(CHT to the readre who e-mailed!)
They sent this proposal to Paramount back in 2004 and . . . well . . . nothing came of it. But it's an interesting proposal.
Basically, they propose rebooting the Star Trek universe so that the writers won't be boxed in by all the massive continuity recent Star Trek writers have been burdened with. Giving the universe a fresh start would allow them to take the exciting, interesting things about the series that made it popular, without having to be constrained in the stories they can tell by all the material that later followed.
It would also let them re-cast the characters so that we could have new stories involving Kirk, Spock, and McCoy--the triumvirate at the heart of the original series.
The basic idea was to offer another take on the original five-year mission--this time giving it a definite story arc and retelling classic tales in a new way, while supplementing them with entirely new stories.
What they had in mind is quite interesting--putting a significant mystery at the heart of the series in a way that would tie it toghether. They write:
As noted above and as established in television history, Kirk was the youngest starship captain in the Federation...but what led to this? We know that the Enterprise was sent out to explore where no human had gone before...but if you stop and think about it for a moment, isn’t that an odd assignment...to take one of the finest ships in the fleet, give it to the youngest captain in the Federation, and tell them to just go drive around and see what they can find?
It’s peculiar...until you allow for the possibility that they were looking for something specific...something they had to keep a secret even from the rest of the crew.
The series treatment gives you a pretty good idea of what Straczynski and Zabel intended the secret to be, and it would have been interesting to see them get the chance to do it.
I found reading the series treatment quite interesting from a literary perspective. Not only did they have to do a lot of salesmanship as part of their attempt to convince network execs to give them a chance, they also spent a surprising amount of time explaining the concept of a reboot and how it would work. I guess studio execs in 2004 couldn't be expected to be familiar with such concepts and had to be given a "let me lead you by the hand" explanation. (Probably not a bad idea. JMS tells horror stories about his initial attempts to get studio execs to understand the idea of Babylon 5 having rotational gravity.) Now you could just point to Battlestar Galactica, tho.
On his blog, where Dark Skies creator Bryce Zabel posted the treatment, he indicated that they also held back a lot of what they had in mind from the treatment, indicating that they had in mind a reboot somewhat like the Battlestar Galactica reboot that Ron Moore did, which would have resulted in a much grittier, edgier, and (frankly) interesting series than the kind of clean-as-a-whistle, formal, polyester kind of series that we got in Voyager (for example).
He also mentions that he's had a whole new set of thoughts about how Star Trek could be revived since the 2004 proposal.
So be sure to
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Film and TV | Permalink | Comments (38)
June 29, 2006
Star Trek XI
(Jimmy Akin)
Ever since Star Trek Enterprise went and got itself cancelled (due to the bad decisions of its producers, such as not focusing on the Earth-Romulan War, and despite the much better fourth season that came too late to save it), Star Trek fans have had no new Star Trek to watch--except for fan productions like Star Trek New Voyages.
Now it looks like they may.