Reviews

This was a fun movie to watch, and, since I was looking to be entertained, this did the job.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I really don't get some of the vitriol some people have for this movie. It never pretended to be as thought provoking as the wonderful Oppenheimer, nor did it go for the out-of-left-field (yet still fascinating) Everywhere Everything All at Once. Instead, it's a silly fish-out-of-water spy caper with some pretty cool twists in it that aren't overtly obvious.

Yes, some scenes go over the top, stretching the imagination including an inspired scene involving Bryce Dallas Howard's character, in an evening dress, skating through an oil slick on knife blades with a rifle to some amusingly perky music, for example, but that's what Hollywood does best. One of the things I really liked about this movie, was that the good sized list of well known actors seemed to be enjoying themselves in their roles. They had fun, and that made it better.

If Matthew Vaughn was striving to entertain, he succeeded here, IMO. Worth a watch.

The Americans is probably one of the most unique shows offered on television right now. The story about a couple of Soviet sleeper agents doing the dirty work of the USSR during the Cold War under the guise of an average American couple named Philip and Elizabeth Jennings is both riveting and at times, unpredictable and shocking, which keeps me coming back for more. What a breath of fresh air to have the male lead (Philip) played by the wonderful Matthew Rhys, be the more sympathetic and conflicted of the pair. You actually feel Philip's growing angst and distaste for some of the missions "The Center" sends them on, while he's on his own, unsanctioned journey of personal self discovery. Keri Russell, one of the best (in my opinion) understated actresses out there in tv, is a marvel as Elizabeth, who blindly drinks whatever party line KoolAid that her handlers in Moscow sell her to perform the mission and get it done, no matter what the cost is. She truly believes that The Center only wants peace and is trying to stop the big bad evil West from doing big bad evil stuff. In several situations, her character is outraged when a fellow Soviet is killed but shows no emotion of empathy when a non-Soviet, sometimes innocent bystander is killed. She has no compunction about killing a person outside of a mission because she didn't like they way he spoke to and hit on her daughter. Damn! I've never been drawn to a show so much where I disliked the main character so much (Elizabeth) yet couldn't wait to see what she was doing in the next episode. Messed up? Probably. But this is an excellent show where you don't have to like the characters in order to be fascinated by them. Keri Russell deserves and Emmy for her outstanding work.

Of the supporting cast and their characters, I really enjoy Noah Baumbach's cool and watchful Stan Beeman, the FBI agent who lives across the street, unknowingly from the Jennings' Soviet spies. He plays it cool and close to the vest but manages to convey more with an expression than some can with loads of dialogue. I keep wondering when he's going to pick up on some of the subtle red flags about his secretive neighbors and put two-and-two together. My other favorite is Costa Ronin's Lev, the Soviet counterpart to FBI agent Beeman, himself a committed member of his intelligence community who's trying to sift through all the BS to figure out what's right and what's propaganda. Like someone else stated, the show can move slowly at times but it's worth the patience to stick it out.

I do wish they'd spend less time on the Jennings' daughter Paige because her wide-eyed angst, her incessant nosiness and whining are starting to wear thin. This is meant as no disrespect to the talented actress playing her. Just wishing the writers would dial it back a bit. There's enough drama between Philip and Elizabeth to fill the hour. Keep Paige and Henry in smaller supporting roles.

I also wish the writers wouldn't make everyone at the FBI look so clueless and hapless while their enemies rarely mess up. I truly doubt they (the FBI) were so "in the dark" about this stuff when the real deal was (or may still be) happening as it's depicted here often. Nonetheless great show, worth investing the time into.

,,,it's not a horrible movie but I don't understand the growing hype either. I went to see this no expectations except some decent musical entertainment and...I don't know. What's good? Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are charming (to me) as the leads, the aspiring actress/playwright and the true-to-old-school Jazz musician. The songs are okay. Nothing tremendously memorable but I did like the "City Of Stars" tune that Gosling sings on the pier (and later duets on again with Stone). The other stuff? The dancing was cute but not fantastic. The actors did the best they could and God knows they did better than I ever could but they looked a little uncomfortable doing it, like they were counting out the steps in their heads. What wasn't so great? The premise was fine but it's nothing new and the film had a LOT of slow areas where I kind of felt bored. Like the writers added what they thought was clever dialogue but actually came across as "filler" to make up some time in the movie. While some people didn't like the planetarium/fantasy dance scene, I thought that was one of the better, old Hollywood type scenes in this film. Nice little twist as the film draws toward it's conclusion and it wasn't dumbed down with a ton of explanations, as if the audience were clueless, that made up for the dry spots earlier on. So, it's not a bad film or anything but again, I don't understand the Oscar build up on this because there seem to be other films with more to offer out there. To each their own, I guess.

...there are some serious holes in story line. The premise, about a "climate refugee", Aaron/Ben (Sean Teale, very good in the role) trying to infiltrate the "super corporation", SPIGA, who is one of the major controlling forces in the US, is interesting and engrossing. He comes from nothing and manages to make the right (underworld) connections that allow him to do this risky feat as a sort of "mole" on the inside, who is using his position to locate a former friend/first love (played by Denyse Tontz) who's disappeared from the slums and off the map it seems.

Teale is flanked by some notable talent, like Julia Ormond as the upper echelon corporate heavy who's also, by chance, his mother in law. Dennis Haysbert lends menace as Ormond's fellow company baddie who acts as the enforcer. Allison Miller, as Ben's wife Laura, is perhaps the most sympathetic character to me, as a doctor born to the upper class who actually has a conscience where the less fortunate are concerned and struggles with it on a daily basis. Again, cool plot about what could happen when corporations take over after governments crumble and privatization and the almighty buck rule. That's the good.

I had issue with two things in particular. The first is how seemingly easy it was for Aaron/Ben to infiltrate the Spiga corporation. Wouldn't a highly technologically sound company like that have better vetting methods for people coming in? The other "Huh?" moment came when the show mentioned that 90 percent of the world fell victim to climate change and that the heartlands of the US were dust bowls while coastal cities like New York and Seattle were flooded, yet Canada, which is paraded as the place so many are trying to flee to is somehow immune to this? No mention of any disaster or upheaval or famine or whatever else the rest of the planet seems to be enduring. The show touts Winnipeg as some chosen place to flee to but, why wouldn't that area fall victim to the same climate hazards experienced in the lands to the south of it? No food shortage? No corporations making a play for dominance? Did the big oil companies there just disappear and not make a play like the mega corps did in most other companies? Did climate change suddenly stop at the borders? When France and Spain are mentioned as desert lands, it's hard to believe that wouldn't be the same for almost everywhere within similar latitudes, including Canada, where, by the way, privatization of certain govt. functions is already in effect, like in transportation systems, for instance. Also hard to believe that Ottawa would still be stably governed by the Prime Minister while most other nations bag out to private industry mega corps. No hate here for Canada, people, that's my family up there so I'm just making an observation or two so please chill. It's the holes in an otherwise interesting show that might need some more fact checking or at least better explanations for the curious folks who like a little science out here.

First of all, the cat (or cats) in the role of "Mr. Fuzzypants" was endearing and comical. The movie has a simple story line: a self absorbed millionaire businessman, played by Kevin Spacey, is simply too, well, self absorbed and into the ultimate profit to pay attention to his pre-teen daughter or grown son so he finds himself transformed into a feisty feline at the suggested hands of Christoper Walken's quirky and mysterious pet store owner.

Spacey-as-the-cat goes through some growing pains emotionally, getting into a lot of trouble and learning not to be a jerk to his neglected wife (Jennifer Garner) or his decent kids. There's some good acting support from Cheryl Hines as his ex-wife (the first one) who's also the mother of his grown son (Robbie Amell). Mark Consuelos is on hand as the figurative mustache twirling villain who wants to undermine his boss and steal the company.

The start of this film is a bit slow while we learn about Spacey's desire for "the tallest building ever" or something like that but it gets rolling once he visits Walken and gets turned into the kitty. It's pretty cool seeing both Spacey and Walken in something light and amusing like this, considering they usually play darker or often, villainous roles.

Cute movie, worth the trip to see. Don't expect anything Oscar- worthy or filled with tons of crap exploding at every turn because this isn't that film. Check it out if you have kids or if the kid inside you isn't too jaded or dead yet.

Subtitles aside, I like the even pace of this show. The perfectly cast Jonas Nay (Martin/Moritz) is an East German soldier more or less forced into spying on the West by his ice-queen aunt Leonora (the excellent, subtly villainous Maria Schrader) who holds Martin's mother's illness over his head as one of the bargaining chips. The spying he does is believable stuff (bugging rooms and so forth) and Nay does a wonderful job portraying a young soldier who is becoming increasingly conflicted over what he must do based on what he's told and not what he actually starts to see for himself. He's also perfectly cast and believable because he's not some glossy pretty boy...he looks like a soldier.

Some of the supporting characters, though, are written too two-dimensional for me. Through no fault of the actors portraying them, there's the dippy and annoying wife of General Edel, Ursula (Anna von Berg), who wouldn't have a clue if it hit her upside the head. She brushes off her (somewhat drunken) sister's claims on an incident and walks around like a stepford wife, baking kuchen and tortes and ignoring the world around her. Then there is the blustery American General Jackson, who's written like the cartoon character Yosemite Sam (he might as well shoot off his pistols every five minutes and call everyone a varmint...again, no disrespect to Errol Trotman-Harewood, who's doing the best he can with that stupid part). Martin's girlfriend Annett also grates on one's nerves because she's too goody-goody and unrealistic.

This show has promise but it would be better for me if they showed a more diverse belief amongst the German characters. Most of them fret a lot over peace and wring their hands, figuratively speaking as they are helpless children of divorce caught between two warring parents (the US and USSR). I suppose that's why I like the doofy general's kid with the crazy bowl-cut hair (Ludwig Trepte) because at least he believes in something, right or wrong and has the stones to act on it. That's the interesting stuff. I hope, if there is a second series, Sundance will carry it here because it's different. Check it out and don't be afraid of the subtitles.

For starters, "Downton Abbey" this is not. For some odd reason, a few critics out there expected another blockbuster PBS/BBC miniseries in the same vein as "D.A." but that rarely ever happens.

That being said, "Mr. Selfridge" is certainly a well-made tale about the titular character who's wonderfully played by Jeremy Piven. A few critics made comments of some kind or other, claiming that the actor was just playing his Ari character from Entourage with a different wardrobe or whatever but that's an unfair assessment, at least in my opinion. Piven plays Selfridge as a mercurial, ambitious man, driven to be a success, even at the expense of his sweet but frustrated wife Rose, played by a glowing Frances O'Conner. I liked how they showed Harry, flaws and all. You root for him, even when he's being a knob to his wife and family because Piven gives him a likability despite his often over-driven personality.

The series weaves in several other human interest stories, fleshing out the people that helped make Selfridge's the successful store it became (and still is today). I especially liked the stories surrounding shop girl Agnes, rising slowly but steadily from dirt poor to a senior position, all the while getting romanced by not one but two of her handsome fellow co-workers. The writers even give O'Conner's "Rose" a tempted storyline with a hot young painter when she starts to feel neglected by Harry and grows suspicious of his after hours activities (which tended to include popular chorus girl and reigning tart, Ellen Love). Good stuff.

The series did start off a bit slow in the first two hours but once it picked up steam and you knew who was who and what was going on, it really began to hold it's own. If you want Downton style drama, well, this series won't match it but the acting in Mr Selfridge is first rate and the character's stories will draw you in and keep you there. Another good one from the PBS/BBC juggernaut.