Get Smart

Now this was more like it!

A comedy film of an old TV show that's actually funny, as opposed to being made to look funny in the trailer by a studio desperate to get re-coop money out of another disastrous investment on their part.

Steve Carell is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors. Not comedy actors, just actors. He's been great in everything I've seen him in. Get Smart sees him take on the "comedy new secret-agent film" and does it so well, he's practically re-written the rules on how to do it. Way better than Johnny English (which I loved).

The script is written so that you don't need to know anything about the TV show, which was good because other than the iconic theme tune and the bit about walking down the corridor with the huge automatic doors to get to the phone booth-elevator, I knew nothing.

Other than that, I'm not going to tell you anything except it's very funny, it's got some amazing action pieces* and it's a great way to spend an afternoon. Well worth 110 minutes of anyone's time.

Score: A
It has the hallmark of a good comedy in my eyes: I was laughing even though there were very few people in the cinema at the time. (Well, it was 12.20 on a Sunday after all.)

OQ:
Maxwell Smart: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Trivia: When the project was in development in 1998, Jim Carrey was attached to star. All I can say is thank god it was delayed.

*Like James Bond worthy.

Stargate: Continuum

The second in Stargate SG-1's direct to DVD movies. The show jumped to DVD movies when their primary source of funding for the show dried up in season 10, which was surprising because they were still getting very good ratings. Deciding to take a chance and rely on their fan following, the show jumped formats.

The first DVD movie "The Ark of Truth" fairly neatly tied up the cliffhanger of the Ori threat. I loved that movie, as it had everything I wanted from Stargate; battles, race against time, character interaction, the works.

Continuum returns to the old protagonist; the system lords, and the last of the big threats; Ba'al, played wonderfully by Cliff Simon. With all his clones dead and his symbiote about to be extracted from his body, Ba'al has an intricate revenge plot set in motion against SG-1, the Jaffa, the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri.

This is a more adult version of Stargate. No! Not like that. It's a bit grittier and with the DVD release they can get away with more profanity. Daniel Jackson even says 'shit'.

Overall, it's good but not quite as good as The Ark of Truth. While it doesn't actively try to scramble your brain with time travel maguffins in the way Bender's Big Score did, it still relies on time travel too much for the premise and conclusion, and frankly Stargate has done better time travel stories in the series. The main difference here is that since there's a longer running time, you get to see how the crew try to adapt to the altered timeline. This is not filler, it's important to the plot, but it is the main difference between this film and the TV show episodes. And that's the problem, because in the final solution (while satisfying) they rely on a plot that they already used in the TV show, and used to better effect.

The banter between the characters is also more subdued because they spend a lot of time apart from each other, which is a shame as it was one of the things I loved about the show.

It was nice though to see Don S. Davis again as General Hammond, in what turned out to be his last appearance.

Score: B
Good, but Ark of Truth was better.

OQ:
Major General Hank Landry: I take it that in your timeline you're not a discredited whackjob living on the fringes of society?
Dr. Daniel Jackson: That really depends on who you ask.

Trivia: The film is dedicated to the memory of Paul McCann, 32, and Anthony Huntrod, 20, of the HMS Tireless, who died in an accident during the filming of the arctic scenes of ‘Stargate: Continuum’.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

In order to make this film, Guillermo del Toro turned down Halo (2009), I Am Legend (2007), One Missed Call (2008), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). And it certainly shows in the cinematography, the wonderful world he has created and the attention to detail. Detail such as the damaged mask of Kroenen from the first film can be seen in a glass case at the BPRD headquarters.

Raging gun battles, bullet time, cameos from famous "retired" actors. These are just some of the things you won't find in Hellboy 2.

OK, your basic plot:
Man, having in ancient times broken a pact with the elves and other magical creatures is nearly wiped out by a mechanical indestructible golden army controlled by a crown worn by the elf king. When he saw how devastating the army was, the king ordered the army to be hidden and broke the crown into three pieces. One he gave to the humans as a gesture of good faith, the others he kept for himself. Now, one half of Bros, sorry Prince Nuada wants to awaken the army and wage war on human-kind. Guess who has to stop him?

There are a couple of oddities. For a start Doug Jones who played and voice Abe Sapien in the first movie but was subsequently overdubbed by David Hyde Pierce has been allowed to voice Abe this time, except that now he has to do so while impersonating David Hyde Pierce. And there is that huge plothole to worry about. The script has to tip-toe around its edges the whole time.

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PLOTHOLE: Princess Nuala (Nuada's twin sister) has the third part of the crown. They are linked together, hurt one and you injure them both. When King Balor orders Buada's death for stealing the human's part of the crown, he is also ordering the death of Nuala as well since she will die along with Nuada. She says she is at peace with this decision. Yet only at the end of the film when Nuada is about to kill Hellboy does Nuala realise that if she kills herself, then she defeats Nuada. Presumably because if she realised this earlier, you'd have a much shorter film.

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Having said that the film is very enjoyable. Seth MacFarlane was a particular joy as the voice of Johann Krauss. The fights are very well staged, the sets are impressive and the story is quite good. It's let down a little by the characterisation in places, but it's more than made up for by being fun to watch.

I think overall the film suffers from the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull syndrome; removing the Nazis as the bad guys may not have been the best idea.

Score: B-
For the plothole. It's a stunning and beautiful film.

OQ: Industible, my ass.

Trivia:

From the Bureau of Spelling and Punctuation: When Johann speaks German it is generally nonsense, and sometimes the grammar is incorrect.

From the "Ha! Bet'cha regret that now, don't ya?" file: Revolution Studios was originally set to produce this sequel but had to pull out once Sony decided they no longer wanted to fund Revolution Studios. Sony put the rights up for sale since they felt Hellboy wasn't a profitable franchise for them. Universal felt differently and bought the rights to make the sequel immediately.

And from the "Sweet Lord, you need to get out and get a life" file: Hellboy is shown watching "Howdy Doody" (1954) on Christmas Eve 1955. Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday that year, and "Howdy Doody" aired Monday-Friday.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

After the disaster that was Attack of the Clones' ending*, Star Wars fans were clamouring for more action. This was promptly delivered in a short animated series. Very short. Each episode was exactly three minutes long, which most fans said was precisely 27 minutes too short. The whole season end to end is about an hour long. And then the only channel to show the series did so by replacing certain advert breaks with the episodes, so it because very difficult to watch the whole thing in the right order.

The series was intended to bridge the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. It was highly stylised, very expressive and created by the same people who brought us Samurai Jack. Each character had been recreated in such a way as to be unique, but still very recognisable. There were two seasons of this (or three if you're American and rejigged it).

After Revenge of the Sith, Lucasarts gave up on making episodes 7, 8 & 9 and decided to embark on a series of TV shows**, one life action and one animated. Clone Wars is a film intended to kick off that animated series.

All of which leads to a film which if you haven't seen the animated series, would lead you to look at it and say "What the fluff was that?" The characters are 3D versions of the original cell animated series characters, so they're not as detailed as you would expect from a feature film, but are about par with a TV show.

There is some attempt to provide a little more back story, but it is brushed aside and relegated to wherever explosions aren't taking place, which is a limited amount of real estate. Anakin has an apprentice; Ahsoka Tano (about the only "new" character in the entire movie). However since so much of what is about to come has already been on the big screen, it becomes hard to care about a lot of the characters or become concerned for their safety. "She can't die because she's in the next film." "He can't die, because he gets killed in the next film." "She can't die because she got killed in the series." "He won't get shot because he's in the next film." And so on... In fact, there's only really one character who could possibly be in real danger throughout the entire film. Which kind of spoils it for me, I'm sorry to say.

Add to this a strange mix of voice casting. Only about half the actors in Revenge of the Sith reprised their roles for this. Most of the "classics" are present; Ian Abercrombie as Palpatine and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Christopher Lee is back to play Dooku because frankly, who else could? Even Samuel L. Jackson comes back to play Mace Windu, though his part is small. And the voices for Jabba and Yoda are very good. Even the guy now doing the voices of the clone troopers is so close that I didn't realise it was a different actor. But Amidala, Anakin, and Obi-Wan have all been re-cast, for obvious reasons. And while the replacements do an able job, they just aren't quite right. Because they have so much screen time, little differences in the voices soon become annoying. Particularly when you realise that this man is imitating Ewan McGregor channelling Alec Guinness. And never being one to shy away from giving someone a kick when they're down, we're shown that once again an inanimate object (in this case a render-farm) can out act Hayden Christensen. I really wish that were a joke, but the animated character manages to emote more than Hayden did in the whole of episode 3.

Score: C Average, and watchable, but nothing special.

OQ: I hate Hutts...

Trivia:

• The official Star Wars website announced that the film will lead the way for a television series will debut in the fall of '08. The TV series will air on Cartoon Network, TNT, as well as CTV in Canada.
• This film will be the first animated ‘Star Wars’ feature film in theatres.
• This film will also be the first 'Star Wars' film not to be released by 20th Century Fox (Warner Bros. Pictures will handle distribution on behalf of Lucasfilm Ltd.).
• This will also be the first "Star Wars" film that won't have Frank Oz providing the voice of Yoda. Tom Kane provides the voice.
• The first Star Wars film not to have John Williams composing the music.
• This is the first ‘Star Wars’ film not to open in the month of May.

*Disaster in that the audience wanted to see the actual clone wars, but George for some reason decided to gloss over them almost entirely, so you see how they start and how they end and that's about it.

**Most Star Wars fans were instantly terrified by this announcement because Lucasarts have attempted two TV series before; Ewoks and the now non-canon Droids. Ewoks was truly dreadful and Droids, while entertaining was essentially The Littlest Hobo, except with droids. And in space. And now it's totally irrelevant as the story-line it followed no longer fits within the revised story-line set out in episodes 1-3.

You Don't Mess With The Zohan

I was going to launch into a scathing attack on this film, but a funny thing happened on the way to the review...

I realised I'd rather enjoyed this.

Most Adam Sandler films I can take or leave. Happy Gilmore is probably my favourite and while this film isn't that memorable, it is certainly funny in places and well written. The physical gags are pretty good as are a lot of Sandler's lines.

Gets a tad preachy towards the end and has the usual slushy ending, as you'd expect.

Score: C Enjoyable and quite funny in places.

OQ: OK! I have your mother one more time and we go!

Trivia:

• Co-writer Robert Smigel revealed that the movie was mostly written in the year 2000, but it was delayed after 9/11 due to the terrorist themes in the film.
• Adam Sandler's character Zohan was loosely based off of a real-life hairstylist named Nezi Arbib in Solana Beach of San Diego, California. Sandler and the film crew came to the stylist (who was in fact a former Israeli soldier turned stylist) in order for Sandler himself to learn different hairstyling techniques and mannerisms.
• Throughout the film, Zohan and other Israeli characters use various Hebrew words and phrases. These include, but are not limited to, Aba - Father; Ima - Mother; B'seder - Okay; and Faygelah - Homosexual.
• Sandler's longtime friend and former college roommate, Eric Lamonsoff, who was previously mentioned in both The Wedding Singer (1998) and Click (2006/I), makes his debut film appearance as Hamdi's Passenger.
• Most of the guns used by the Zohan and the terrorists in the film are weapons manufactured by Israeli Military Industries (such as the Uzi submachine gun, Galil assault rifle, and the Jericho 941 and Desert Eagle handguns).
• The Arabic text on The Phantom's head band spells SH-B-H, or 'Shabbah'.
• Adam Sandler's daughter, Sadie, and wife, Jackie, make an appearance at the end of the movie. His daughter is seen taking a "Goat Ride", while his wife holds onto her.