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Special Unit 2 (2001)
Stepping Stone for Katz, Middling Show for Fans
What a difference a decade makes. I never saw this show when it was on UPN in 2001-02. So, I can take a much better perspective.
The show was average at best. It had its good moments and not-so-good moments. However, the show was mainly a developing ground for creator Evan Katz, who would learn from it and go on to create, produce and write the classic "24."
Good parts: great special effects and a good supporting cast, namely Danny Woodburn as Carl the Gnome, always trying to pull off the big heist while not violating parole; Jonathan Togo in his first acting gig and a few years before becoming Ryan Wolfe on 141 episodes and counting of "CSI: Miami", and Pauley Perrette, already a seasoned veteran but is interesting here as Alice Kramer, with blonde bobbed hair, slinky outfits and bare skin with not a single tattoo.
Bad parts: Clichéd characters. Michael Landes' Det. Nick O'Malley is a man with the cliché itchy trigger finger who lost his last partner and hasn't gotten past it. Alexondra Lee's Det. Kate Benson is a beautiful cop with a lot of repressed sexual feelings. Richard Gant as Captain Page was one of the most stilted characters I've seen on TV in a long time as the token black cop who stays in the office.
In brief, Special Unit 2 is a section of the Chicago Police Department that handles supernatural incidents. For its part, it stayed away from vampires but every other supernatural being was fair game.
Detectives O'Malley and Benson are the two main characters, sort of Mulder and Sculley. Alas, Landres and Lee didn't have anywhere near the chemistry of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny.
The show had its moments, such as in the pilot where SU2 had to save Chicago from gargoyles using the citizens as food. The acting was strong, the effects were above average and there was even some suspense.
Seeing Togo as a geek with a pip-squeaky voice is a trip and Perrette as anything but Abby Sciuto is almost mind-bending. Woodburn was always comical at the right time, except when playing against Gant's woodenness.
UPN didn't have a big budget for the show and cast the best people it could get. Like the fledgling WB, it was struggling against the Big Four. Low budgets have been sci-fi shows' greatest threats.
Katz had a great story and had written all of the episodes. What he did not have were great actors who could believably pull off the lead characters. Due to budget constraints, he had to take what the show could afford.
Landres went on to the kind of episodic TV guest shots one uses to pay the bills, while Lee disappeared from TV after a guest spot on "CSI" in 2006. From today's 20/20 hindsight point of view, it might have been better for Togo and Perrette to play the leads. Now, they would have made quite the mismatched pair.
They weren't cast in the lead, though. Landres and Lee were and they could not bring it off. Their own interactions seemed forced. Landres conveyed no authority. Lee seemed uncomfortable in the role.
"SU2" aired for one full season and a few shows of a second season before UPN pulled the plug. The network allegedly had to call it quits because both it and Katz found the concept of the show very appealing. Unfortunately, the concept was almost identical to "Bureau 13," a role- playing game and series of novels by Nick Pollotta in 1991 centered around a secret unit of the FBI that investigates paranormal and supernatural criminals.
Chris Carter acknowledged the material when he created "X Files" and Steven Spielberg did the same when he came up with "Men in Black." For some reason, UPN and Katz didn't nor would they respond to Pollotta's calls.
UPN pulled the plug on the show, perhaps sensing that it would not win a plagiarism lawsuit.
Too bad for people all the way around.
The Lost Missile (1958)
A time-line even Jack Bauer couldn't keep
This had all the makings of a very good film -- good actors (Robert Loggia, Ellen Parker), a good plot (mysterious missile from space threatens to burn up the planet) and lots of stock footage (if the Air Force had film of jets firing rockets, it was used). Unfortunately, it is ruined by too much melodrama and an impossible time-line.
The movie concerns a missile from space that is attacked by the Soviets and inadvertently diverted into a low atmospheric orbit. At under five miles and at a speed in excess of 4,000 miles, it emits an exhaust of a million degrees, burning up everything on the ground, including glaciers, Distant Early Warning (DEW) line bases and Eskimos.
Every attempt at destroying the missile fails.
The first flaws in this film appear early on. While we don't expect much from low-budget films, some things can't be forgotten -- like a little research. For instance, both the Soviets and the US fire anti-ballistic missiles that home in on the missile with unerring accuracy. However, the first successful ABM tests weren't done until March of 1961 by the Russians.
There is too much melodrama. Dr. Loring (Loggia) and his assistant Joan Woods (Ellen Parker) play their romance with about as much wood as a log cabin. Parker's character cries and boo-hoos at Loggia's sacrifice like she was at a screen test. Loggia is about as heroic as a bored businessman. A scientist (Phillip Pine) hams it up so much he makes William Shatner look like a thespian. A bus driver continually spits out end-of-the-world crap in scene after scene. The only good actor is the film narrator, played by veteran character actor Lawrence Dobkins ("Naked City").
All of this could be overlooked if it wasn't for the time-line. After the missile's info is sent to DC, the Pentagon brings in a group of scientists. A general (Larry Kerr) announces that the missile will hit New York City in 63 minutes. After this, there are discussions by scientists and there is a deadly lull as word is sought from ambassadors to see if the missile is an attack from the Russians and if a response is necessary.
The film shows the military being fully scrambled. Civil Defense people leave work and go to their stations. Eight million people scramble to fallout shelters while school buses pick up millions of kids (and we get to see the whitest New York City I've ever seen, though watching 50's sci-fi films made it seems like this was the standard). The press is kept in the dark for tens of minutes. Then, incredibly, a man at the Pentagon announces that the missile will hit Ottawa, Canada in 51 minutes! All of the aforementioned action happened in 12 minutes! Then, to add fuel to the fire, Loggia somehow thinks of a way to stop the alien missile. He slowly produces a caseload of plutonium, loads it in a jeep and takes it from DC to a distant missile base to put it atop a missile. Along the way, he is knocked off the road by a wild driver, breaks down and then is carjacked. He finally gets the plutonium back and drives to the base to arm the missile. Again, all this in the same 63-minute time frame.
The movie also irks the viewer by making it seem as if Ottawa might be saved, only to show men, women and children get roasted. The missile is then said to have five minutes to reach New York. Loggia is still driving to the base (4 more miles to go). He gets to the base and arms the missile, a two-minute countdown is then announced. All within five minutes. The boroughs of New York should have been at least scorched.
By the way, the missile is destroyed if you haven't guessed. The ABM warhead destroys it with a massive plutonium-based nuclear blast. Five seconds later, the blast dissipates and all is clear. Yeah, they caused a nuclear blast equivalent to 100 Hiroshimas on the outskirts of New York City and nothing happens.
The film had all the elements necessary to be a good B film, but wasted them. Loggia played his character so lamely you didn't care that he sacrificed himself in the end. You didn't care about the other characters, not even the smarmy scientist played by Pine. The tension that should have moved the film along just wasn't physically possible in the time-line allowed (it still wouldn't be today, not even with Jack Bauer).
This film is very difficult to find. As far as I know, it hasn't been re-issued on any medium and for good reason. I don't know if the film meant to be or if it was standard practice, but there's a scene where the government sends all of the best scientists, military men and businessmen into deep shelters, saying they're too valuable to lose. There isn't a single woman or minority in the bunch. Hari Rhodes is the only black man in the film and he gets a brief bit playing a piano. It was worse than "27 Days" where an alien gives five Earthlings the chance to either save or destroy the planet and he doesn't include any blacks or Hispanics.
I saw this on a special Sci-fi night on Turner Classic Movies and I don't expect it to show up again. If you do find a copy of this somewhere, you might want to put it up on Amazon.com.
Appurushido: Ekusu makina (2007)
A second chance for a first impression
It's rare in the movie industry for someone to get a second chance to correct a huge mistake. Director Shinji Aramaki and writer Masamune Shirow get the chance (courtesy of legendary director/producer John Woo) to correct their mistakes.
Both corroborated on "Appleseed" but the much-hyped film suffered from ordinary animation and a rather pedestrian plot line. There was also an inordinate amount of blood and the character of Hitomi came across as goofy and far too light.
This time around, Aramaki and Shirow have crafted a much better plot and have amped up the animation through CG. Though not as good as the CG/animation mix in "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence," it's better than the original. The only problem is that CG still looks too smooth, as if the skin is made of porcelain, limiting the full range of emotions.
The story, of course, centers around the elite police unit known as ES.W.A.T. and their efforts to combat terrorism in Olympus, one of the cities that popped up after a worldwide non-nuclear war wiped out half of humanity. The new cities, of which Olympus is the most advanced, are controlled by bioroids, who are genetically bred without the negative human emotions that generally cause most wars.
As you can imagine, if people are trying to wipe out the World Trade Organization, they're naturally going to hate Olympus. Two of the most experienced ES.W.A.T. members are Deunan Knute and her lover/partner Briareos, though "lover" is a stretch since he's more and more a cyborg with each hospital stay. Deunan is much more spry in this version, demonstrating some nifty acrobatics that you know John Woo had a hand in recommending.
The leaders of Olympus want to convince the world to unite all of their communications satellites in a bid to get the edge on terrorists. Ironically, this conference takes place during a mysterious terrorist attack that sends Olympus' human and cyborg population into a rage against the police.
The story interweaves a personal storyline as Briareos' latest injury forces the department to send Deunan a new partner. Because of the bioroid technology that uses the best DNA available, Deunan's partner is Tereus, a replica of Briareos before he became a cyborg. This causes natural angst, especially when it seems that the mysterious force turning people against the government might be affecting ES.W.A.T.'s cyborgs.
Though we see plenty of shots of Deunan and Briareos in action, we get to see the rest of the ES.W.A.T. and the Olympus police in action, especially in the last third of the movie when all hell breaks loose in the city, thanks to the very system of uniting the satellites that was supposed to stop terrorism and bring peace. Some of the scenes are quite jarring, but without the blood. The action scenes move smoothly and the shooting of the guns and explosions are much better than one might expect from CG.
The characters are fleshed out better, especially Deunan's and Briareos' turbulent love affair (of which we get to see some background finally). Hitomi's character doesn't get enough time on screen, but when she is seen, she is more mature than the gibbering, drunken idiot of the first film. The costumes are spectacular and Woo brought in actual costume designers for many of the styles.
The DVD is slim on features, but does have commentary from Woo, Aramaki and Shirow, as well as a "making of" featurette on the CG technology. It does offer several languages, as well as subtitles.
Ai Kobayashi repeats her role as the voice of Deunan, but Koichi Yamadera (Togusa in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies and TV series) takes over Briareos. Yuji Kishi (Yamadera's co-star in "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex") is excellent as Tereus, though he needed more screen time.
Overall, this film is light years better than the original. Shirow and Aramaki make the most of their second chance and so should you.