Reviews

This is an amazing series. Creepy, atmospheric, populated by interesting characters and a very intricate plot that unfolds bit by bit. Great performances, especially by Scott Glenn and Sissy Spacek. One of the best King-inspired shows ever.

Prometheus stole fire from the gods to grant to humans, and for his crime he was sentenced to have his liver devoured over and over for all eternity.

If you keep that in mind, you'll get a lot more out of Prometheus, Ridley Scott's much-anticipated return to the world he created in 1979's Alien.

Originally billed (and still very much recognizable as) a prequel to that classic sci-fi horror film, Prometheus is a lavishly produced, beautifully filmed and well-acted movie. It has outstanding performances from Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and (barely recognizable) Guy Pearce.

Archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) have discovered ancient pictograms all over the world showing alien figures pointing to a star pattern, a pattern recognizable in a distant area of space, possibly a map leading to the creators of the human race. With funding from the Weyland Corporation, they mount an expedition to that region, to seek out these beings, and maybe learn the origin of mankind itself. What could possibly go wrong?

Ridley Scott is still very much the great filmmaker we remember, able to keep you glued to your seat and biting your nails as the plot unfolds. The first half of the movie really lives up to your expectation, building suspense and then reaching a point where you really feel like it's about to take off into serious horror.

But that's exactly the moment where the movie spins off its axis, with disparate plot threads falling off into unexplored plot holes, and the thrill ride screeching to a halt so the movie can pontificate.

The problem is that the film, as written by John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, although a chronological prequel to Alien, doesn't feel like a sci-fi movie, rarely feels like a horror movie, and is dissimilar in tone to Alien in almost every way. Scott, Spaihts, and Lindelof have given us mythology where once we had menace, gods in place of our favorite monsters, and turned one of our favorite thrill rides into a somber meditation on mortality, sacrifice, and selfishness. The movie suffers from a slow pace and an anti-climactic finish, and lets its desire to retell Greek myth overwhelm its natural function to make a cool as hell movie. It's good, but it's not as good as you want it to be.

But there's always hope. Hell, maybe James Cameron will direct Prometheus 2.

Game over, man. Game over. (See more of my reviews at clarketaculargeek.wordpress.com)

Ever see the Tom Cruise movie Risky Business? Yeah, me too. Great fun, isn't it? But did you ever get to the end and think, "No way." Yeah, me too. Ever wonder what might happen if a party really did go out of control like that? Yeah...me too...

Currently grabbing headlines for it's inspiration of a string of costly (and, in one recent case, deadly) teen parties, Project X attempts to answer that question. Three high school kids decide to throw a giant, "epic" party to capture some fame, propel themselves to legendary status at their school, and hopefully get laid.

Produced by Todd Phillips and directed by Nima Nourizadeh, the film continues in the tradition of other Phillips films (such as The Hangover) by throwing the most despicable behavior in the universe on screen and using it as fodder for laughs. Unlike The Hangover, the laughs don't come nearly as often, which is far more unforgivable than anything done by its characters.

If you can choke down the stupidity, the teen sex, the drug abuse, the abuse of animals, and the never-ending cavalcade of absolute and unbridled misogyny, Project X does have its cinematic rewards. It is mildly funny, in its over the top zeal. And it does cause jaw dropping reactions as the scale of the chaos is pumped up past the point of no return and into the stratosphere. Plus, the found footage filmmaking method gives it an extreme verisimilitude (for the most part), resulting in a feeling that you are seeing something insane actually happening in this suburban neighborhood.

But the really egregious error the movie makes is in trying to spoon feed you some Pablum and make you think everything's okay. That's not the answer we wanted, and it's not even an answer that makes any sense. It's what one kid deplores in the movie as "bitching out", and though the movie expects its protagonists to be better than that, it has no problem doing it itself, leaving you to go home feeling cheated and unfulfilled.

Screw it, just rent Risky Business and watch that instead. At least you'll laugh more.

Rating: 2/5 Recommendation: Wait for cable. And read more of my reviews at clarketaculargeek.wordpress.com!

John Carter is based on "A Princess of Mars", the first in a series of tales of the adventures of John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs (who also notably created Tarzan). The series is of the high adventure variety of science fantasy, where you check your disbelief at the door and just go with the fun. Star Wars, Avatar, and many other successful science fantasy films owe something to Burroughs, and unfortunately those films beat Carter to the punch, so audiences may feel they are seeing something derivative of those franchises. And, in the production sense at least, they may be right.

Carter is at its best when the action is fast and the fun is light, with laughs mixed in with the punches and swordplay. A well crafted intro gives us an idea of who Captain John Carter is and what makes him an unlikely hero. Sadly, once transported to Mars (known by its inhabitants as Barsoom) the plot falls to tedium, with few action scenes separated by never-ending and never convincing "romance" between Carter and Dejah, the titular Princess of Burroughs' tale. The two (Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins) are so bad every scene between them is like a prompt to check your watch. Each of Carter and Dejah's tedious conversation is like hearing a weird conversation between a crappy Batman and Hamlet's Ophelia. The dialogue doesn't help; billboards don't have words this stiff.

The supporting cast is good enough to make an effort at saving the film. Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Mark Strong, and even Willem Dafoe are all present and doing their best. But it's Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston who practically makes the film's opening all on his own. Unfortunately, these terrific performers are used to little effect, and the film suffers for it.

Production design for the film is a mixed bag. Visual effects are astounding, but costume design is weak. So in some scenes you have ridiculous looking actors boring you in front of beautiful backdrops or in incredible set pieces. Sound design is not good, and the score is downright pitiful. As much as the movie wants to be Star Wars, it just can't match Lucas' ability in that film to pull together the best of everyone at their jobs, creating a movie that looks and sounds gorgeous and works well together. Carter is more piecemeal, with a good quality here and a ruinous disaster there, a hodgepodge of the best and worst Disney could muster. Director Andrew Stanton, known primarily for his work on fantastic Pixar productions like Wall-E and Finding Nemo, surely gets the blame here. Though I've loved his animated features, not all directors of animation are ready for live action (as proved only recently by Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).

As a throwaway popcorn muncher for the kids, this movie might prove a winner. The simple inch-deep characters and the generic comedy/action certainly seemed fun enough as long as you're not looking for more. But my warning to adults who decide to take the kids is to expect to be bored, and endure a long dark two hours of the soul.

Rating: 2.5/5 Recommendation: Wait for cable. See my other reviews at clarketaculargeek.wordpress.com

Awake is the story of Michael Britten, a police detective who is in a terrible car crash which has claimed at least one of his family. The premise of the show is that Michael does not know which one, his wife or his son, died in the crash. His mind has split into two realities, one in which his wife survived, and other in which his son did.

The pilot episode was very well made and engrossing. The two realities make for tricky and complicated television viewing: each has different police cases. and different character dynamics for Michael to navigate. There also seem to be links between the two worlds, as if Michael's mind is using one world to solve the problems of the other, but which is real and which the illusion is not known. I really enjoyed the different twists and turns, especially in the psychiatry scenes where Michael discusses his dilemma with two different psychiatrists, each with similar yet opposed theories about each other.

The show has an excellent cast. Jason Isaacs (probably best known to American audiences as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series) is brilliant as the tortured lead. Laura Allen (The 4400) is likewise very sympathetic as his wife. Wilmer Valderrama (That 70s Show) gets a chance to flex his dramatic muscles as Michael's partner in one world, while Steve Harris (The Practice) is a very different partner in the other. Lastly, Cherry Jones and BD Wong both excel as Michael's dueling psychiatrists.

One thing the show needs is an injection of a bit of action, or something to lighten the tragedy a bit. Dealing as it does with loss and grief and fractured psyches, it's a bit heavy, and will need something to keep an audience entertained along with the intrigue. It also has the unfortunate problem of hanging its hat on something extremely unlikely: that a cop who has admitted to no longer having a grip on reality would be allowed to keep doing his job. (This problem, however, hasn't stopped House from having a successful run, so...)

Overall I thought Awake was well-made and well-acted, with a strong story and very interesting twist that made it even more enjoyable. It's a welcome addition to my list of shows to watch. Rating: 3.5/5 Recommendation: Watch it!