Two Ladies & Their TVs

We love our shows so much we created a blog for it.

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We went to the 5:30 showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I don't think I'll do a linear review of it; just whatever pops into my head.  I'll try not to spoil things, either, til the other Lady sees it.

Being an avid reader of the series, and having read GoF more times than I can count, there are so many details from the story stuck in my head.  Therefore it's pretty jarring to view the movie, for the opening scenes seemed quite disjointed.  There was so much missing that I felt almost as if I were viewing the on-screen version of Cliff Notes.  The Quidditch World Cup wasn't so bad, as I found alot of that boring (no sports fan here, real or imaginary) in the book, but the absence of the Dursleys as well as the Weasleys' house were a bit missed.  After arriving at Hogwarts, the movie moved more seamlessly, and although the beginning of the movie delivers the beginning of the darkness and the scares, like I said, too disjointed.

Let's talk about the f/x.  They are terrific.  I've never found them lacking in these movies, and although there were a ton more in GoF than in the previous installments, they were just as good: the dragons (including the little ones), the Dark Mark, the merpeople, Moody's first DotDA class... no disappointment there.

The movie's rated PG-13 for good reason.  Like Daniel Radcliffe says, each movie is darker than the previous, and this one lives up to the ominous nature of the book.  I jumped quite a few times in my seat.  The scariest part for me was the third task.  That is one hedge maze I'd NEVER go into.  And although I know all about the Unforgivable Curses, I was extremely tense during Moody's demonstration of them.

Now we're up to the acting.  Since the movie had to whittle the story down to just concentrate on the TriWizard Tournament, it's much more action-packed, and we all know that in most movies, acting has to fall by the wayside a bit.  There just wasn't as much acting here, so I can't really say if the kids have grown in their skills.  DR seems to be able to cry better, but Emma Watson still does that annoying thing where she inhales before each sentence.  She did better in the third film, so perhaps she's lost some mad skilz.  Brendan Gleeson was terrific, as he is in everything he's been in (although in this house, he's best known for his role in 28 Days Later), and Moody is, even for those who haven't read the books, a memorable character.  I'm sad to say Alan Rickman/Snape wasn't in it much, but there's one satisfying and hilarious scene that more than makes up for his lack of screen time.

Emotional Impact: I've never cried twice during these movies.  I don't think I've ever bawled before.  This one... I teared up once, and cried once.  In fact, I had to offer a tissue to OD right next to me during that same scene.  It's horrible, it's so sad, and if you've read the book you can probably figure out when I had the tears rolling down my face.

Now, I couldn't review this movie without mentioning that which lurks behind all the stories, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, could I?  About Voldemort, I will say this much, because I was very careful not to spoil myself on this, so I won't spoil anyone else: I was... surprised.  His mannerisms were not what I had envisioned.  And there you go.

Mike Newell did a terrific job here.  There wasn't a doubt before this that he's an excellent director (he, in fact, was offered The Sorcerer's Stone but turned it down), but that he can go from a powerhouse character-driven piece like Donnie Brasco to this is a real testament to his talents.  To get away from comparisons to the book, the movie is a great one-- they really do keep getting better.  Hollywood, take note: that's how sequels are supposed to be.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Posted by: athenawj at 06:46 | link | comments (3)
special occasions

Lost: "The Other 48 Days" / L&O

Lost

Wow.  Even the death of a pretty person last week doesn't compare with this week's episode, in which we find out just what happened to the "Tailies" (people at the end of the plane who survived and crashed on the other side of the island).  Although the "extended episode" advanced little in terms of the "Lost" plot we're used to, I dare say it is one of the best, if not the best, episode of this season. 

The format of a condensed, quick and dirty version is very effective.  We finally get a glimpse of why Ana-Lucia, the much-hated shooter/killer of the ex-Lost regular, was so trigger-happy.  The Tailies apparently have gone through a horrifying 48 days and discovered much of what took the Fronties a season to "find out."  I say this in quotes because it's not that the Tailies have any more answers, it's that they have gone through more a lot more quickly. 

They had run-ins with the Others on day 9 (?) when the Others took a whole bunch of them.  The Others had attempted to take more on other occasions, but the Tailies actually managed to kill some of them.  The identity of The Others are not any more clearer at this point.  What we do know is that (SPOILER alert) Goodwin infiltrated the Tailies and pretended to be one of the crash survivors just as Ethan had been able to do so...until gets himself killed by a survivor.

The Tailies also managed to discover a hatch-like bunker with the Dharma symbol on it, and find electricity, a Bible, and a glass eye inside.  The mystery surrounding the cryptic message on the radio when Boone and Locke tried to use it - "We're the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815!" "WE are the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815?!" - is revealed.

For whatever reason, the Tailies didn't exactly end up with a group of people who function as well as the Fronties.  Instead of getting a natural, mostly-rational leader like Jack, they get Ana-Lucia.  Also for whatever reason, the Tailies weren't as shielded from the brute forces of the island as much as the Fronties were.

A lot of Christian/religious references in this episode.  Next week we get to find out the consequences of the clash between two groups.

L&O

I must admit that because I was reeling from "Lost," I wasn't really paying attention to this episode even if I should have - immigrants and all.  From what I can tell, it is ripped from the headlines - one where over 10 illegal immigrants basically cooked to death in a transport truck on their way to the US via the desert.  Since "Lost" was an extended episode, I missed the first 5 minutes of the show completely and that just spiralled from there...  From what I can gather a group called the "Countrymen" is involved with possibly trying to get rid of these illegal immigrants, though the twist again (somewhat clichéd) involved someone using/manipulating another person into killing for "the cause" when it's really about personal gains/vendetta. 

Things that stood out -

The scene with Arthur Branch at the very end, where he dines in a restaurant, an obviously Latino waiter asks him if he wants more wine, and Arthur replies with "Si," is blatantly there for a reason.  You don't know if the waiter is legal or illegal, but it's obvious that the immigrants make up a vital part of our society, and most people (like Arthur) interact or even use their services without thinking.

Which makes the deportation of the immigrant woman even more compelling - she did not have to testify for the prosecutor as a witness, but she chose to do the right thing and ends up getting separated from her husband, mother, and children who are all in this country.  Dammit.  If you want to use people to help ferret out crime - or in general, to do the jobs that no one else in society wants to do - at least  have the decency to give her some sort of immunity or waiver from deportation.

Next week: McCoy gets shot!

Posted by: merserene at 05:50 | link | comments
it s all drama

Is this what happens when I had to miss Arrested Development for working on a paper? :(

Posted by: merserene at 10:58 | link | comments (1)

ER: "Dream House"

Although ER isn't up to snuff like it used to be, it's better than last season, but I'm not going to do a full-on review of last night's ep, instead concentrating on one storyline that seems to have wrapped up last night.

Dr. Pratt (played by Mekhi Phifer) grew up not knowing his father.  Recently his father came back into his life; I don't remember how now, but after he realized who Pratt was, he tried to form a relationship with him.  Pratt, understandably, was resistant.  Last night, Pratt found out that his father had tried to come back after getting out of prison, but Pratt's mother wouldn't let him.  After she died when Greg was five or six, Pratt's father tried again, but found out that Pratt had moved out of state and in with his cousins, so he gave up; went back to the new family he had and started a life with them.  After reading a bunch of letters exchanged between his parents, Pratt asked why his mother had lied, and why his father hadn't tried harder to see him.  IIRC, his answer was that he didn't want to mess things up with his new family.

I thought that it was going to end with the standard dramatic flair; Pratt would forgive his father, and they would start anew.  Pratt in fact did forgive his father, gave him a hug, and told him that he'd heard everything he'd said.  But he basically said it wasn't enough.  His father hadn't been there for him, and it was too late to start a relationship.  And he walked away.

I imagine quite a few people would think Pratt was in the wrong, especially after his father had cleaned up his own life, stayed true to his second family, tried so hard to bring Pratt into his life, etc.  Back when I used to watch daytime talk shows (eons ago, it seems), I'd see these reunited parents and children and wonder how they could do it: sob and laugh and hold hands after decades of not knowing a thing about each other; talk about how they were going to get to know each other.  Perhaps the two sides of these situations are extreme: you either want to desperately love each other or you have a case of extreme indifference.  Neither is wrong, they're both natural, but at the same time, I'm not inclined to buy the first scenario.  A lifetime of hurt is difficult to wipe out;  Pratt was crying last night, and there was no way a new start with his father could rectify what he'd done to Pratt.  I think he finally realized that, and perhaps he also realized that it might have been best if Pratt and he had never met again, because knowing it all, knowing that his father hadn't tried hard enough, ended up hurting Pratt more.  And here's some extreme postulating: perhaps he finally knows that it's the parents that should be the ones to deal with the repercussions of their choices in life, not the children.  Many times that's hard to avoid, and of course there are situations that affect the whole family and cannot be avoided at all and are not for selfish reasons, but in this case, it could have.  I agree with Pratt; his father should have tried harder.

Pratt was kind to forgive his father.  But his father has to deal with Pratt not forgetting, and that's the way it should be.  So, I was pleased with the way the storyline ended.

***

And, of course, seems it wouldn't be a post of mine without a shallow thought: Luka was only on-screen for about thirty seconds.  Hrmph, not enough, TPTB.  Not pleased at all.

Posted by: athenawj at 04:42 | link | comments
it s all drama

L&O: SVU - "RAW"

I have a confession to make:  I didn't bother watching last week's SVU because there were rerun episodes of "Sex and the City" that were more interesting to me.  However, this week I was back at my SVU, and it was a good enough to make me want to review it individually.  (Bit o' cynicism here...)

I was partly intrigued by the fact this particular episode had a parental advisory for its content.  Teasers have been showing Marcia Gay Harden as a southerner who is extremely racist and shouting "white power!" while giving the 'Heil Hitler" sign.  Even if SVU has used much of racism as the themes of its episodes, I don't get tired of them.

A shooting on a public school playground.  3 kids shot - 1 African-American, 1 Jewish, and 1 who was an accidental collateral damage.  Turned out a white racist was responsible for the shooting.  He was linked to a gun shop owner who apparently had a white supremacy website and led a racial holy war to cleanse NY of its racial minorities.  Marcia Gay Harden was the "family friend" who spewed tons of racial slurs and prone to outbursts in the courtroom. 

As for the twists in the end - and there were several, some larger than others - Marcia Gay Harden was quite convincing as the undercover FBI agent.  I don't know for a fact if all undercover agents "act" so well but she could've fooled me into thinking that she was one of the racists.  Cody Kasch, who plays Kyle, the son of the white supremacist gun shop owner, almost seems to reprise his role on "Desperate Housewives" as an unbalanced teenager with major issues but without the racial element.  Kasch wasn't too bad, but the role didn't demand anything from him that he hadn't already worked on.  Still, I have to give him kudos for taking on a difficult role. 

Things of particular interest -

Munch got slapped!  We were wondering what the heck was up with Richard Belzer's inactivity in the series, but Munch got a lot more time here.  That came with the price of being slapped by Marcia Gay Harden.  Ouch.

Kids getting shot.  That was tough to watch.

Twists at the end (stop reading if you don't want to know!) - Casey getting semi-held hostage.  Kyle going on a rampage and shot just about everyone in the court room.  The defendant getting shot.  The judge taking bullets and apparently didn't make it.  Stabler getting shot in the elbow (!) (that must've HURT).  Maybe it was just me but Stabler's revelation at the hospital that Cathy had filed divorce papers a couple of weeks ago seemed a little much, at that moment.  The whole episode was so not about the cops personally, and they just had to stick that deStablerization tidbit in, didn't they?

This all leads to a FBI raid that turns up evidence against the couple who adopted the African-American kid who was shot at the beginning of the episode:  That they were actually racists who adopted the kid, but then passed on his photo and info to the defedant so he could be shot, then collecting the life insurance policy money.  For a minute there, I couldn't tell if the mother was crying because she felt guilty at getting caught, or if she had actually developed some affection towards her son, but then went along her husband's plan anyway.  For people who were "racists," I'm surprised they even put up with raising a black kid for 6 years.  They seem to me the ambivalent grey characters.

As for the people who were clearly white supremacists - even though this is TV drama, I still couldn't help but cringe every time a racial slur was uttered so easily.  I hope other people had the same reaction.  As "civilized society," and First Amendment aside, no one should be "conditioned" enough to tolerate such things.

Which brings me to the lawyer who represented the defendant - wasn't he Casey's law professor or something or other?  They really didn't portray him as a good guy, did they?  My gut instinct was to feel somewhat disgusted that he took the case perhaps to prove his legal prowess as a defender of the Constitution, but in all reality the society does need to have people who are willing to defend the exercise of free speech.  I guess I just wish the writers didn't make it so easy to dislike him.  They could've developed a character who had more depth, and thus invited you to think about the issue.  But I guess that's a little much for an hour show. 

All in all, I liked it.

Posted by: merserene at 10:46 | link | comments (4)
it s all drama