Change Your Image
sgsilver
Reviews
24 (2001)
Logan and Palmer, Arab-Americans, and other thoughts (spoilers)
SPOILERS
The fourth season is the tightest script so far, and I'm enjoying it. However, there are a few things that are bothering me and I find hard to rack up to the "suspension of disbelief" that is required to watch the show.
First, let's take VP Logan, now President. He calls ex-President Palmer in to help him in a crisis. To put it in perspective, let's imagine that Bush is incapacitated and Cheney takes over, and during a national crisis he calls in Bill Clinton to come assist him. Sound plausible? Let's remember that Palmer decided not to run for reelection late into his reelection campaign because of a scandal, which allowed the opposition party to take the White House. Then-VP Logan hires the former Chief of Staff to President Palmer, a different political party, to serve as his own Chief of Staff. Sorry, but this is completely out of the realm of plausibility, even for a show such as "24". I also had a problem in the second season with the way his VP and members of his own cabinet removed and reinstated Palmer so quickly -- totally unbelievable, and really detracts from the story.
In addition, Arabs aren't viewed in much of a positive light in this story, as in season 2. We have two naturalized Arab-Americans -- with their son, no less -- with no criminal record operating a terrorist cell in their middle-class neighborhood. Most of the terrorists are of Arab descent. There are two token Arabs that are thrown in to defend their store and give a little patriotic speech -- probably in response to criticism of the show's portrayal of Arabs. In season 3, we had Latin Americans involved in a drug/crime ring. So I think the argument that the show tends to rely sometimes on common stereotypes can be made.
I do have problems with much of the dialog sounding very forced and simplistic, and a problem with the fact that during a national crisis, folks at CTU have time to talk about their personal relationships -- it is almost watching a "daytime drama" at times. However, I do think season four overall is tighter than the other seasons, so I eagerly await the last few episodes to see how it is all pulled together.
The Hot Chick (2002)
Not only a horrible movie, but an offensive one at that
There are plenty of horrible comedies out there, but I have seen few that have so many stereotypes of minorities than this one. We have the Asian woman who speaks poor English and works at a nail salon in the mall; we have the old black man who's a bathroom attendant; we have the black woman who's a fortune teller; we have Rob Schneider pretending to be a jalapeno-eating Mexican gardener named "Taquito"; we have the black guy who's hot for the overweight girl with a big butt... shall I continue, or do you get the point? The movie itself is horrible -- I didn't find myself laughing at all, but just shaking my head and such an overused "switching bodies" plot and angry that we still are seeing movies in 2002 with the same old minority stereotypes. Really offensive.
Finding Forrester (2000)
A good, but flawed film
The film is a good film, but not a great film. The plot is rather formulaic and predictable, and it many ways is a typical coming-of-age film about a troubled boy with special talents who finds a mentor that is troubled in many ways himself. (I am curious as to why there are so few coming-of-age films about troubled young women finding female mentors -- does Hollywood believe that just boys are troubled and only male mentors can help them?) However, in this film, the boy is an African-American going to a private, white school in New York on a basketball scholarship. More importantly, he is a talented writer who finds a mentor in a reclusive writer and alumni of the school (Connery). The boy comes into conflict with the expectations set for him as a low-income black student in a high-income white school, and this conflict is explored in much of the film.
However, this conflict is not explored enough, in my opinion. This film could have been an interesting and poignant exploration of the immense challenges African-American children have in breaking out of the confines of poverty, violence, and low expectations that prevents them of obtaining an equal opportunity in education. However, the film falls short in this area, which was disappointing in that this would have made the film much stronger.
That being said, the acting was excellent, and there were some real gems in this movie that made it worth seeing. It doesn't reach its potential, though, and instead comes across at times as trite and cliché, with characters that are rather shallow and not fully explored. A good movie, nonetheless, but one that was not all that it could have been.
The Pledge (2001)
Promising film that does not deliver
I found this film to have some very interesting possibilities that were never fully developed. The characters were not nearly as fully developed -- watching Jack Nicholson go fishing and tending a gas store is not character development. The film had many great ideas but did not take advantage of them, instead becoming a long, drawn-out film that leaves the viewer rather unsatisfied. The film starts out strong but simply lugs along rather clumsily; I was waiting for it to come together at the end, and it never did. There were more questions than answers about Nicholson's character, and I felt I knew less about him at the end than I did at the beginning. Even the excellent acting cannot save the heavily flawed script and directing. Overall a disappointing film.