October 2008 - Movie Famous

Movie Famous

follow this blog

7 followers

126 daily readers

rank of 862

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Movie Famous - October 2008

Retro Review- Buffy, season 6, episode 7 'Once More, With Feeling'

October 31st 2008 04:33

Retro Review- Buffy season 6, episode 7 'Once More, With Feeling'

Thank God for DVD. One can delve into programmes they haven't explored in several years. Or get into ones they never caught in their first run(I still need to get the Firefly DVD box).

Season 6 of Buffy is the textbook definition of polarisation. There is simply no middle ground. Fans either loved it for its noticeably darker edge, and greater instrospective character focus (I'm in this camp, by the way). Or they loathed it for its lack of humour, and the depression of all the characters.

But even the naysayers can agree that the musical episode Once More, With Feeling was a marvellous hour of television. Whenever series creator Joss Whedon does an episode based upon a gimmick (like the dialogue free 'Hush'; the dream episode 'Restless', or the music free 'The Body') the gimmick doesn't define the episode. Rather, the plot serves the characters, not vice versa.

The songs in OMWF are all wonderful, and they actually advance the characters and the story. That's one of the many things I loved about this (much-missed) show. Even standalone eps like OMWF have subtle links to the ongoing seasonal arc. All of the songs reflect the inner turmoil of the character's psyches (Buffy's ennui with life; Xander's fear and insecurity about his upcoming nuptials; Giles' need to leave Sunnydale and let his Slayer fight her own battles; Tara's love for Willow). The latter is tragic, considering what happens in the very next episode 'Tabula Rasa', and in the succeeding episodes of Season 6.

The cast are surprisingly quite good singers. Everyone gets their little moment to shine (even Alyson Hannigan, who by her own admission cannot sing, but gets the hillarious line 'I think this line's mostly filler!'). Sarah Michelle Gellar carries much of the singing weight of the episode, with several numbers to her credit (Going Through The Motions, I've Got A Theory, Walk Through The Fire, and Something to Sing About). James Marsters gets a nice little slice of rock-balladry, whilst Anthony Head gets to show off his singing talents with the lovely 'Standing'. Amber Benson is very impressive, too. Michelle Trachtenberg doesn't get to sing much, but gets a nice ballet number (I had a bit of a crush on her when the episode originally aired in '02. Oh, shut up! She's only three years younger than me!)

Wonderful stuff, and one of the highlights of an already bloody brilliant show. OMWF has everything. Drama, humour, romance, action. During the more emotional moments, such as the finale in Sweet's lair, with Buffy's admission to her friends that she was yanked out of heaven, I found myself weeping. And I'm a guy! That's the effect this show had (and still has) on me.

Joss, you're one of the good ones, mate.

Vote

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AdamW - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The Simpsons Movie- review

October 8th 2008 00:58

Review- The Simpsons Movie

After sitting through the long-awaited cinematic debut of America’s favourite yellow animated family (the programme has only been astonishingly running non-stop for the past 20 years, accumulatively producing over 400 episodes) the other night, my thoughts are much the same as Homer’s. ‘Why pay to see something at the cinema when you can watch it at home for free?’ , he opines at the opening credits. Indeed.

Why on earth did they not make this film in 1997, at the height of Simpsonmania (for lack of a better term)? Or in 1990? My issue with the film is not that it isn’t funny (it has its moments of comedy gold), rather that it does not quite deliver anything that feels more epic than what we are used to on television. After seeing the film, I was left with a sense of incompleteness. Did this story really justify a feature length? It could have been done in twenty minutes as an episode of the show.

One thing that the movie gets right is returning the focus to the core Simpson family. Over the past several seasons, the series has expanded its scope to exploring the lives of the other denizens of Springfield. Back in the early 90s, the Simpsons was a touching slice-of-life drama in primetime, dealing with real-life issues, and was a family ensemble piece, which just happened to be animated. Over the years, the animation process may have improved significantly, but the scripts have degenerated into a weekly farce of Homer making an incompetent retarded fool of himself. Incidentally, I am old enough to remember the days when the show mainly situated the stories around Bart, not Homer (I was 8 in 1990 when the show first aired here in Australia. Bart was older than me, then. Now he’s 16 years younger than me, and still in the fourth grade!)

It is a terrible shame that we have to fondly recall the glory days in the past tense, when episodes like ‘Lisa’s First Word’, ‘Bart Gets An F’ and ‘Lisa The Vegetarian’ were the rule, not the exception. The movie does feel like a modern Simpsons episode, moreso than a classic one, unfortunately. I was hoping that the return of most of the original writing staff would assist matters, but alas, the movie abounds with scatological humour, Homer farce, and lowest common denominator jokes.

Most of the supporting cast hardly get a word in edgeways, though I found myself impressed with the cameo appearances from nearly every character in the show’s 400 episode lineage.

The guest spot from Tom Hanks was welcome, though I did expect a few more celebrity cameos in such an ‘event’ movie as this. The appearance by Green Day was amusing, especially their ‘Titanic’-esque continuing to play their violins as their barge sinks into the Springfield Lake. The Disney movie parody was great, and ‘Grand Theft Walrus’ was awesome! I do wonder why they chose to make the US President Arnold Schwartzenegger, though, when The Simpsons already has an apt Ahnuld facsimile in the form of one Rainier (McBain) Wolfcastle. Big Arnie even looked like McBain with a different haircut in this movie.

The villain should have been Sideshow Bob (played to malevolent brilliance on several occasions by the wonderful Kelsey ‘Frasier Crane’ Grammer). I hear Grammer recorded a cameo as Bob for the picture, but was omitted from the final cut. I think the evil EPA agent should have been Bob in the script all along, trying to settle the score one last time with Bart and with Springfield. Oh, and by the way, the Irish boy Colin sounds about as Irish as I do (I lived in the UK for over six years, and never heard a single Irish person speak like that). In fact, his character borders on a racial stereotype.

The movie wasn’t too bad, but it also pales into insignificance next to some of the series finest offerings. If this script aired as a standard episode, would you even bat an eyelid? Would it even be considered a standout episode?

The project, alas, in many ways reeks of ill-timing. As I said earlier, it should have entered production at least a decade ago, when the programme still seemed fresh, relevant, and at the zeitgeist of pop culture. A time when it could still surprise us. Nowadays, The Simpsons is well past its prime, and is regarded by many critics and fans as having worn out its welcome years ago. The show ceased being appointment viewing for me around the 10th season, and this is coming from an old-school fan who never missed an episode, and could quote entire sketches verbatim. I tend to forget it’s even on these days, and don’t too much mind when I do miss several new episodes. The movie is in some respects too little, too late. Would I like it more if I was 10 again? Possibly. But I do think the halcyon days of seasons 4 through to about 8, when the show could basically do no wrong are gone, never to return. Groening will probably continue to milk the cash cow for a few more seasons, wringing as many dollars as he can from fans. There’ll probably be a few movie sequels (judging from the remarkable financial success of this picture). And there’s still records to be broken. The Simpsons has become the longest running American cartoon of all time (surpassing Scooby Doo and The Flintstones in that regard), and the longest running US sitcom, live or animated, of all time. Groening will make more episodes until he beats Gunsmoke’s record of longest running American TV show, at least.

Me, I think the movie doesn’t do anything that new or exciting, and breaks no new ground. Still, it could have been much worse. Simpsons hasn’t had any execrable spinoffs, ala ‘Joanie Loves Chachi’ or ‘Joey’ yet. Thank goodness for small mercies. Though I should stop there. Groening and his net spies may be checking for ideas…

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AdamW - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

9 Posts

20 Posts

7 Posts