Steven Spielberg - Photo by Brian Bowen SmithCBS is back in business with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, ordering 13 episodes of the serialized drama Extant. Under the Dome is also a result of their partnership, and while Extant isn’t another story of a small town trapped under a weird see-through dome, it is the tale of an astronaut returning to earth after a year in space.
The network’s planning to air Extant next summer. Mickey Fisher wrote the script and is serving as an executive producer along with Steven Spielberg, Greg Walker, Brooklyn Weaver, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank.
“Extant is a very original concept with layers of humanity, mystery and surprise that reveal itself throughout the script,” stated Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment, announcing the series. “Our partnership with Amblin for Under the Dome showed that viewers respond to high-quality event programming in the summer. We look forward to building on that with Extant and offering CBS audiences another high-concept, unique event for summer television.”
The Plot:
Extant is a futuristic thriller about a female astronaut trying to reconnect with her family when she returns after a year in outer space. Her experiences lead to events that ultimately will change the course of human history.
“The only thing that has the power to save our home is the Golden Fleece,” says Mr. D (Stanley Tucci) to the entire community of Camp Half-Blood which is under attack from powerful dark forces in the action/fantasy sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
The protective force field that was created by the God Zeus after the sacrifice of his daughter to save others so many years ago is under attack and breaking down. Without it, everyone in Camp Half-Blood will be at the mercy of all those terrible creatures trying to kill them including Cyclopes, mystical giant bulls, and Luke (Jake Abel), son of Zeus. Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) discovers the only hope for their world is the mythical Golden Fleece which has special healing powers and should be able to heal the magical tree which generates the force field.
So, Annabeth, along with her best friends Percy (Logan Lerman), son of Poseidon, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), and newcomer Tyson (Douglas Smith) – Percy’s half-brother – begin a journey headed for where it’s believed the Golden Fleece was lost…the Sea of Monsters, known to mortals as the Bermuda Triangle.
Perhaps one of the worst sequels to come along in years, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is an uninspired fantasy/adventure film that suffers from terrible dialogue, an unoriginal plot, and pathetic special effects.
Lerman delivers a walk-through performance, seeming bored as he says his terrible lines and delivers the opening monologue. He also has zero chemistry with any of the cast.
Alexandra Daddario spends most of the film wide-eyed and worrying about Percy or yelling to him for help whenever a threat appears. It seems that she, along with the director and writers of the movie, forgot her character in the first film was a tough warrior. She also has no chemistry with any of her cast mates, especially Lerman, something that becomes painfully obvious anytime the two have a scene together or, worse yet, hug each other. That action feels incredibly forced and uncomfortable.
The CGI special effects in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters are so deplorable they make the stop-motion effects in the 1950s Sinbad films and 1981’s Clash of the Titans look cutting-edge in comparison. The 3D effects in the film are, of course, pointless and not even worth mentioning.
With two horrible films now made based on these popular young readers’ books, here’s hoping that any other effort to bring more of Percy Jackson’s adventures to the big screen end up getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
GRADE: D-
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters opens in theaters on August 7, 2013 and is rated PG for fantasy action violence, some scary images and mild language.
Ridley Scott reunites with his Prometheus star Michael Fassbender, Vanilla Sky‘s Cameron Diaz & Penelope Cruz are back together, and offscreen married couple Cruz and Javier Bardem are all featured in this official trailer for The Counselor. Scripted by Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor is being released on October 25, 2013 by 20th Century Fox and the studio’s just unveiled this new extended trailer for the thriller.
The Plot:
Legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott and Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) have joined forces in the motion picture thriller The Counselor, starring Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt. McCarthy, making his screenwriting debut and Scott interweave the author’s characteristic wit and dark humor with a nightmarish scenario, in which a respected lawyer’s one-time dalliance with an illegal business deal spirals out of control.
Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) punching him in the face – “That was for New York” – is just part of the abuse Loki (Tom Hiddleston) faces in this new trailer for Thor: The Dark World. Everyone seems to want a piece of Loki, however even he’s surprised when his brother (played by Chris Hemsworth) calls on him for help. The new just-released trailer also provides a glimpse of Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith, while showing off a little more of Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Darcy (Kat Dennings), Heimdall (Idris Elba), and Odin (Anthony Hopkins). And, oh yeah, there’s a bit of Chris Hemsworth shirtless which means the new trailer has a little something for everybody.
Thor: The Dark World arrives in theaters on November 8, 2013.
The Plot:
Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
I’m not a fan of either Manning brother (diehard Chargers fan here, thank you very much) and this video advertising football on your phone is about as Lonely Island as you can get without the actual presence of Andy Samberg. However, it’s also a train wreck it’s impossible to look away from. Eli and Peyton get down with their bad selves and it’s ridiculous and yet somehow mesmerizing. And now I’m going to have this dumb song stuck in my head all day.
Seven minutes of pure Stephen Colbert madness. Joined by Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges, the Rockettes, Jimmy Fallon, Bryan Cranston, Jon Stewart, the America’s Got Talent gang, Matt Damon, and Henry Kissinger, Colbert didn’t let Daft Punk canceling from his show stop him from showing off the song of the summer: Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Colbert punches Laurie, gets Bridges to show off his moves down a flight of stairs, has Cranston in plaid on skates, and Damon shows up in his Matt Damon Booth while Colbert gets happy with “Get Lucky.”
PG-13 can often be the kiss of death for comedies. It limits the jokes to safe humor that simply doesn’t reflect real life most of the time. It can be done but let’s face it, most of the stuff the major studios are pumping out week after week is only meant to temporarily divert your attention; not much of it lingers in your memory banks.
Thankfully, We’re the Millers is rated R. Its humor can at times be crude, is often sexual, and is just what the doctor ordered amidst a heap of big budget summer movies all clamoring to proclaim their special effects better than their competition. And yes, I know it features Jennifer Aniston, but nothing’s perfect.
In the film, a small-time drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) is forced by his supplier (Ed Helms) to smuggle an RV full of marijuana from Mexico back to the United States. In order to avoid suspicion, he hires a makeshift wife (Jennifer Aniston), and kids (Will Poulter & Emma Roberts) and they become the Millers. Like any standard script, it all starts out well and then devolves as the lies and stakes get bigger and bigger. And while the plot progression could be predicted with the use of any screenwriting formula, it’s the collection of characters that makes the movie work.
I’ve always found Sudeikis’ everyman kind of humor appealing, and he capably carries the lead, with good performances from Aniston, Poulter, and Roberts. Poulter especially stands out as the naïve, good-hearted simpleton who has ensconced himself into this otherwise jaded ‘family’. His innocence is what allows the others’ actions to resonate comedically. Cameos by Thomas Lennon, Luis Guzmán, and Ken Marino also keep the laughs coming, though it’s Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn playing an actual set of RV enthusiasts who spend the most time with the Millers.
Director Rawson Marshall Thurber hasn’t made a comedic feature since Dodgeball in 2004, and that’s unfortunate considering how often I’ve re-watched that underrated film and how much I laughed at We’re the Millers. He seems to understand ensemble comedy quite well. The film does hit a few slow spots when they get to the expected character realizations about how much they enjoy their fake family but is otherwise fairly consistent in delivering some pretty good humor. I’ll have to see if this grows in my esteem upon repeated viewings once this hits the home market, but if you’re looking for a funny film in theaters right now, there’s no better choice … R-rated or otherwise.
GRADE: B-
We’re the Millers opens in theaters on August 7, 2013 and is rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity.
Sometimes I wish I’d remember certain adages that help people keep themselves out of trouble. In my case, after watching Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, I wrote a basically positive review and was looking forward to future installments. The film didn’t do so well at the box office and I figured the franchise died a quiet death. Oh well, life goes on.
And then a few months ago I was made aware that a sequel was indeed coming and I probably muttered something to the effect of “huh, whaddaya know”, filing it in the back of my mind that we’d see if this series could try to establish something truly interesting. Having now sat through Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, the answer is an unequivocal No. But for a franchise so easily equatable with Harry Potter, when you trade in director Chris Columbus for the guy whose best work includes Monkey Business, Hotel for Dogs, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I suppose this isn’t a result anyone should be surprised about.
The story picks up a short time after that last movie, with our hero Percy (the half-son of the Greek God Poseidon) and his friends continuing to train at the goofy camp in the woods that’s been set up for Demi-Gods, Satyrs, Centaurs and whatever else. The magical barrier that protects them in their camp is broken, and in order to fix it, a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece must be undertaken. Blah blah blah. I’d take more effort here, but I really want to just get this review over with.
After about the fifteen to twenty-minute mark, this movie deteriorates into a bland, lifeless exercise of bad CGI, nonsensical plot developments, new characters that fail to enrich the ensemble, and an entire collection of actors delivering unenthusiastic performances. For a brief second here or there, the Nathan Fillion and Stanley Tucci cameos add some life to the proceedings, but even their shtick outlasts its welcome. And not having read the books, I don’t know whether it’s the author or the screenwriter who’s responsible for not getting basic Greek mythology correct; this film has Kronos (lots of various spellings, don’t get huffy) vanquished into a God of War-esque Pandora’s Box awaiting reassembly and from what I can tell from some distracted Internet research, the series has him playing your basic Voldemort, coming back in some form time and time again. Ugh.
In any case, there are five books. We’ve now seen two adapted to the big screen. I can only hope it ends here but should Fox 2000 continue on, I hope they don’t split the last book into two in order to drag things out. Rather than making any improvement, Sea of Monsters is a full step back from the first movie. Unless Alfonso Cuarón is stepping into the director’s chair for the third one (a la Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban), you can definitely rate my expectations for the future of the franchise as low … very, very low.
And in case you weren’t completely sure, you can count this review as my warning to avoid the movie at all costs. At best, this is weekend afternoon basic cable TV material. You certainly don’t want to throw real money away at a theater on it. This August actually has a number of interesting movies being released, choose almost any of them first. Or if you have some sort of Logan Lerman fixation, just re-watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s better than either of the Percy Jackson movies in just about every single way possible.
GRADE: D+
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters opens in theaters on August 7, 2013 and is rated PG for fantasy action violence, some scary images and mild language.
Forget that it’s way too long and poorly paced, The Lone Ranger didn’t catch on with audiences because critics awarded it bad grades so says the film’s Lone Ranger. The box office performance also had nothing to do with a scattered story, Johnny Depp playing Tonto in a way which wasn’t exactly respectful of Native Americans, or the fact the film’s aggressively violent and tonally uneven.
In an interview with Yahoo!UK, Hammer said, “I’ll tell you, this is the deal with American critics. They’ve been gunning for our movie since it was shut down the first time. I think that’s probably when most of the critics wrote their initial reviews.” And Depp had this to say about the critics: “I think the reviews were probably written when they heard that Gore [Verbinski] and Jerry [Bruckheimer] and I were going to do The Lone Ranger.”
Really? Is it really the intention of the actors to place the full blame for the performance of their film at the feet of film critics? I’m a critic and there is absolutely no way I – nor my fellow critics – have that much power. If we did, studios would never hold advance screenings for the press. To blame a group of writers for The Lone Ranger‘s take at the box office is completely out of line. And not once in the interview (at least in the clips used by Yahoo!) do Hammer, Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, or Gore Verbinski take any responsibility for the film’s tepid reception in theaters.
I do however think it’s interesting that Bruckheimer says he believes critics were reviewing the budget and not the movie, and that the audience doesn’t care about the budget. If it is the fault of critics, then wouldn’t the audience that was supposedly influenced by these reviews realize the critics were rating the film based on how much money was spent bringing it to the screen and not on the merit of the actual final product, and thus not care about the review and go see the movie anyway? Simply put, the reason the film didn’t do well is because of the storyline and trailers. That’s what turned off potential ticket buyers – not critics.
“If you go back and read a lot of the negative reviews, most of them don’t actually have anything to do with the content of the movie but more what’s behind it. It’s gone to an unfortunate place with American critics where if you’re not as smart as Plato, you’re stupid,” said Hammer in the interview. So, let’s just briefly examine a handful of negative reviews posted on RottenTomatoes where it currently sits at a 28% rating to see what the critics who didn’t care for the movie had to say:
– “it’s predictable, derivative and at times quite spectacularly boring.” – Time Out
– “The fatal flaw in Jerry Bruckheimer’s monumentally monotonous production is that it forgets its duty to entertain.” – Rolling Stone
– “At one point the masked man gets his head dragged through horse manure. Watching The Lone Ranger, you know the feeling.” – Chicago Tribune
– “This attempt for another Pirates of the Caribbean-scaled series tries to have it too many ways tonally, resulting in a work that wobbles and thrashes all over the place.” – The Hollywood Reporter
– “It represents 2 1/2 of the longest hours on record, a jumbled botch that is so confused in its purpose and so charmless in its effect that it must be seen to be believed, but better yet, no. Don’t see it, don’t believe it, not unless a case of restless leg syndrome sounds like a fun time at the movies.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Ricky Gervais in a scene from Netflix’s 'Derek.' Photo credit: Netflix.
Ricky Gervais wrote, directed, executive produced, and stars in Derek, the new original series arriving on Netflix on September 12, 2013. And as with Netflix’s other original shows, all episodes of Derek will be available at the same time, feeding into our new binge-watching viewing habit.
The Plot:
Derek is a bittersweet 30-minute comedy-drama about a group of outsiders living on society’s margins. Derek Noakes (Gervais) is a tender, innocent man whose love for his job shines through. Working in a retirement home, Derek cares deeply for the old people, because they are kind and funny and tell him stories of what life used to be like.
Alongside him works Dougie (Karl Pilkington), his landlord who is one of life’s unlucky individuals; Kev (David Earl), a loveable train wreck; and Hannah (Kerry Godliman), a care worker in the home and Derek’s best friend. She is smart, witty and hard working, but unlucky in love, and, like Derek, always puts other people first. The uncaring outside world popping in and out will boil your blood and the residents inside will break your heart.
