Masterpiece Classic is done for the season

Sadly, Masterpiece Classic is over and Mystery is starting up for the summer; I don't watch that third of MT so I have to wait for the fall and Masterpiece Contemporary to start.

Classic finished with a bang, that is the bombs of WWII London. Small Island was the story of the Empire, the colonial experience, the wartime and postwar experience, and gender roles in Britain. Jamaican colonists served the mother country during the war and a few fell in love with British women, lonely without their husbands. Such was the story of Queenie, who fell in love with a Jamaican soldier. After becoming pregnant by him and realizing her husband left her, she takes in two Jamaican newlyweds as boarders. Hortense and Gilbert are proud people but face the harsh reality that the Yanks introduced racism in Britain and it's not going away. In the end, Queenie's husband returned in shame, but Queenie vows to work on her marriage and gives her baby to Hortense and Gilbert, who start a bountiful life together.

Masterpiece had a darker, twentieth century focus this year, as promised. Return to Cranford failed to capture the magic of its predecessor, but was a warm story nonetheless. Emma continued with the nineteenth century, and according to rumors is the last Austen story to get a treatment in a while. I loved it. The 39 Steps was ok, but not good. I skipped Sharpe, having not seen the previous installments. The Diary of Anne Frank was another wonderful story, and was aptly followed by the WWII drama Small Island. No long series this time; Emma was three installments and Small Island two, but other than that, we weren't treated to the 5 parters that made Masterpiece a name for itself.

The Best of the This Season:

1) Emma

2) The Diary of Anne Frank

3) Small Island

4) Return to Cranford

5) The 39 Steps

Sharpe, didn't watch; Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were repeats.

I don't mind the modern series but I'm hoping for more period pieces come next winter/spring.

Track of the Week

"Rain On Me" by Cheryl Cole from the album 3 Words

Cheryl Cole returns to our blog this week with Rain On Me, the rumored 4th single from her debut album. Cheryl's voice isn't the best but she really belts it out on this song. I thought I'd offer up a more upbeat ballad than Change from last week. Rain On Me has a buoyant beat and an uplifting melody with lyrics that are reminiscent of Madonna's Rain, though without the overt sexual connotation. No video yet, so here's the song.

Other songs I'm enjoying at the moment are the epic "Outta My Head" and "I Got You" by the indomitable Leona Lewis, the fun-time song "Let's Get Crazy" by Miley Cyrus, and the rocking "Wrong Baby Wrong" by Martina McBride. I'm thoroughly sick of "Telephone" by Lady GaGa and Beyonce, and it's disgusting protect placement advertisement, er, music video. I'm over Ke$ha: "Tik Tok," "Blah Blah Blah," "Your Love is My Drug" and "Kiss and Tell," while fun electro-pop, are really the anthems of a culture I'm not too keen on. Christina Aguilera released "Not Myself Tonight," earning 'you copied GaGa' cries, but the song is just so bad to earn any comparison to anything other than a rubbish heap. Her froggish vocals are no match for the beats. Speaking of GaGa, she promises her 2010 release will be her best yet. While I am excited for new music, I'm over her whole 'grateful to the fans' persona and weirdness, she's someone I don't admire as a person, but I like her tunes. Kylie announced the June release of her new single, "All the Lovers" produced by the maverick behind Madonna's comeback album Confession on a Dance Floor, and the album is to follow in July. I'm over the moon. I've heard Coldplay has tackboards up in a studio whittling down which tracks to put on their new album, and Britney is 70% done with recording her seventh, according to some record label person on twitter. Meanwhile, the Queen is not recording any material, at all, despite rumors to the contrary. Give it to her to wait years to release something new, let's hope it's a right proper album and not pandering to a market that already changed like the last one. Let her enjoy her Kaballah-water AC in the meantime.

The Mothman Cometh: A True Story

Mothman is a Sci-Fi-Horror film about Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Local legend has it that settlers fought an Indian chief, Cornstalk, whose last act of retribution was to summon evil and turn into Mothman, basically a moth-like grim reaper. Fast forward to today and six friends are yanking one of their little brother under water, just to tease him. But he drowns and they cover it up by bashing his head in, one by one. Being a righteous daemon, the mothman cometh only when evil-doers get away with gruesome acts. In gory twists and turns, the mothman enters our world through mirrors (his version of portals include rear-view mirrors, drivers beware) and pick of the six friends.

Mothman is satisfying in that the six friends were so wicked that it was great seeing them get their just desserts. The Mothman CGI wasn't horrid like most of Syfy Channel's effects, and the gore was delightful, especially a line of guts sliding down a trailer. The acting wasn't exactly award-winning but it served its purpose. On the other hand, the costume department left something to be desired, the film was shot in an odd yellow hue, and Frank (the creepy old man character) was ridiculously deceiving.

Better yet, the Mothman Myth is real. So is Point Pleasant. So is the sightings and bridge accident of 1967. This adds a dimension of realism to the film, and an eeriness. Citizens of Point Pleasant still insist Mothman is real. Just as in the film, Point Pleasant commemorates Mothman at the yearly Mothman festival.

Mothman is worth the gore and CGI; the added layer of true elements makes the film worth a watch.

American Zombie

American Zombie is the story of the zombie community in Los Angeles. A mockumentary, comedy, and issues film, American Zombie slightly humorously follows several fictional zombies, or revenants as they prefer to be called. I didn't know that this film was actually supposed to be a statement about racism or civil rights going into it, but that became clear as the film progressed.

The fictional zombies themselves are mildly funny. Judy, an asian zombie, tries the hardest to hold onto her human past. She collects cat statues, makes scrapbooks, works at an organic food company, and is searching for a human boyfriend. Lisa, by far the funniest, is a florist who specializes in funeral arrangements while pursuing her not-so-good art. Ivan, a dud of a character, is a teenager that happens to be a zombie. Joel (pronounced ho-el) is the founder of ZAG, Zombie Advocacy Group, which puts on Live Dead, a zombie Woodstock. What happens at Live Dead is the big twist of the film...

The film is told from the perspective of real life documentary filmmakers Grace Lee and John Solomon, who are parodying themselves. This is another theme of the movie that some viewers may find pretentious, in that American Zombie is something of a tongue-in-cheek diatribe on documentary film-making. Many reviews I've read have claimed it's boring, and that's a fair assessment but the humor is more quiet and not a goofy in-your-face attempt at garnering laughs. The other biggest complaint is that the last third of the film takes a serious turn, but that's the point and I didn't mind it. The events of Live Dead shift the documentary's focus both in the film and the film itself. Also, there is so much foreshadowing to the climax that I don't know why people didn't see it coming.

I recommend this film if you have nothing better to do, but thankfully it's not too long. It's a wee bit boring but there's some twists that make it possibly worthwhile in the end. Perhaps that was part of the point, in that some documentaries can be hideously boring (read: Food, Inc. Waste of time!)

Track of the Week

"Change" by Carrie Underwood from the album Play On

Carrie's voice is perfect and soaring. On this song, about how an everyday person can make extraordinary changes only if they're willing, Carrie belts out an inspirational song. The violin backing music doesn't overwhelm her, but instead bolsters up the already emotional tune.

Carrie preformed it on Idol Gives Back last night and it was a show-stopper. Carrie is blessed with such a beautiful voice. It's not a single, but I think it should be after "Undo It" inevitably tops the country chart. There's no video, so this is Carrie's performance from last night.

Country may be cliche, but songs like this prove that uplifting messages can transcend genres. Carrie is an angel.

Rant: Remakes, and to a lesser extent, 3D

BSG: the Best TV Show Ever (Why Remake It?)

I sadly discovered that Bryan Singer is set to direct a Battlestar Galactica movie. BSG was riveting and science fiction (and television) at its best. With series and season long story-arcs like the X-Files, BSG was done right because it focused on amazing, deep, well-developed characters and amazing, deep, well-developed storylines. The show basically was about what it took humans from worlds destroyed by the cylons to survive while being aggressively pursued; throw in a heavy amount of spiritual and technological themes and you have as a sublime a television show as you’d ever get. And the ending was mind-blowing and very academic too. The need for a movie that has nothing to do with the remake series is lost on me. Why remake something that’s already been remade so well that you can’t possibly surpass it? Even the original 70s series (fans of campy scifi with like it) was sued by George Lucas for being way too similar to Star Wars. And do we have to be subjected to the inevitable 3D!

And this year alone a remake of a new movie is being pumped out. In this case, it’s a remake of the upcoming (hopefully) romcom (of the year) The Back Up Plan. Starring Jennifer Aniston, The Switch is a romcom about a woman who gets artificially inseminated. Uh, hello, strong J-Lo! J-Lo’s starring in exactly the same plot in her movie. Next thing you know, Jennifer Aniston’s turkey baster is going to pop out at you in 3D. The only thing about the Switch is that it’s based on a short story by a Pultizer Prize winner, so it may be deeper than The Back Up Plan. Though I’m a fan of Jenn, I have to side with J-Lo in this one. (Soundtrack suggestion: use So Hard by the Dixie Chicks, a heartbreaking song about the Chicks’ struggle to get pregnant.)

To be fair, a good portion of movie goers and critics were lukewarm to Clash of the Titans. My personal enjoyment of the film aside, we didn’t really need a remake. The original is iconic and its effects hold up to today. The story was better executed in the original, and the addition of the mechanical owl gave the movie an R2D2-eque character.

What Hollywood needs is originality. I’m certainly not hating on remakes (Dawn of the Dead and My Bloody Valentine were great) but just calling for some freshness in Century City.

Peter and Vandy: An Adventure into Indie Land

I had been on a misanthropic kick toward hipsters as of late, so in an attempt to temper that I decided to plunge into their world by watching an indie flick that was recommended to me through Netflix Instant. "Peter and Vandy" is a very short film (just over an hour) that has earned comparisons to the more mainstream 500 Days of Summer. Instead of breaking up in the end like in 500 Days of Summer, Pete and Vandy wind up getting back together. I liked how optimistic the ending was because it was unpretentious.

Peter and Vandy was neither good nor bad. It was so realistic that it was deeply unsettling and there were many raw scenes juxtaposed with warmer ones. Peter and Vandy was a memory narrative similar to La Vie En Rose, in that it had non-linear narrative structure composed of Peter and Vandy's collective memory. The dialogue was all realistic, save in the artsy part when they drifting apart from each other figuratively and mentioned having to walk to stores in the opposite direction (Peter even says "I'd walk with you, but I have to go the other way.") Peter was selfish, and Vandy was a little too good, and together they were very "Manhattan-urban-trendy-mildly-counter-culture." That was the part that tested my chagrin, but in the spirit of my adventure in watching this film, I really worked hard to suspend my irritation and wound up going along with the gamut of emotions in this film.

It's a brief but too perfect look at people who can too neatly work out their problems. On the other hand, it's very realistic that it's actually disturbing but winds up nicely. I liked the movie but I'd sooner watch Twilight. I never lied, I'm a mainstream junkie!