Saturday, November 29, 2008

I Want My 88 (+ 20) Minutes Back

There was absolutely nothing worth watching on TV tonight, so I opted to spend $3.99 on a pay-per-view movie that looked interesting - 88 Minutes - starring a pretty good list of talented actors: Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, Neal McDonough and of course, Al Pacino.

What a horrid trainwreck of a movie pretending to be a major film release! One of the worst I have ever seen.

There are plenty of scathing reviews on IMDB about this film, so I'm not going to rehash the random plot and complete lack of coherent continuity. I just wonder what goes through the minds of supposedly talented people when they read the script (if there was one) and then actually try to put these scenes onto film. I guess a lot of the blame goes to the director, Jon Avnet. He's been around a while, mostly as a TV producer and director, but with a fairly decent list of credentials and credits. He must have forcefully avoided exhibiting any talent when directing this turkey. How could he have NOT seen what he was doing?

The totally goofy thing about this movie is how quickly it jumps from one dead-end plot device to the next. And someone's cell phone rings at least twice in every scene. It's almost as if they realized they had absolutely nothing going for them here, and decided to just try and divert the audience from following too closely. Everyone zips around from place to place with no particular reason, takes a few cell phone calls and then introduces a new suspect when it was obvious to me from almost the start who the bad guy really was. The scene in which Pacino almost gets run over by a firetruck is nothing but laughable.

Also laughable - but in a sad, sorry way - is what they do to Amy Brenneman's character. She is the ultra-efficient, absolutely perfect personal assistant to Pacino's character. Of course her fatal flaw - and the one that makes the whole plot fiasco possible - is that she is gay and allowed herself to be seduced by the psychopathic female killer. Of course! While they nap after wild sex in Pacino's office, the baddie is able to get everything necessary to torment Pacino. And when she comes clean to Pacino and admits what she's done, she begs for forgiveness. Pacino's response has got to go down as one of the worst lines ever in modern American cinema:

If I couldn't forgive you, I wouldn't deserve you.

GAG!

Whenever I watch a movie I truly hope it's going to be outstanding, and I go into it hoping upon hope that it will be thoroughly entertaining. I don't approach films cynically or looking for flaws, which is why it makes me so angry when something like this gets released. It's insulting.

The film's running time is 108 minutes. I kind of expected them to do a High Noon and make the length the same at the title and do it in real time. If they had just cut out a few of the cell phone red herring calls, they probably could have gotten rid of 20 minutes and made it 88. Might even have improved it!

I hope you don't get suckered into paying money to watch this mess. Everyone involved should issue an apology and promise never again to waste our time - or theirs - with such trash.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

SNL Fails - Again

I've criticized Saturday Night Live for what NBC and Lorne Michaels have allowed it to become - safe and formulaic. Each week it's the exact same words, the same order, the same segments at the exact same time. The show broke ground 30 years ago with how new and different it was. It shattered stereotypes. People called it "iconoclastic." Now its a formula that the powers that be seem to be afraid to break. Lately they won't even experiment with something fresh.

This was completely evident in last night's show (11/15/2008) in which Justin Timberlake made an appearance during Weekend Update. He was there saying something about being scheduled to be both the host and musical guest next week, but he has to cancel. So he was going to recap the show that would have been. He nailed it! He did the intro, the monologue, the "we've got a great show" line and everything in between to the "I had a great time" closing. Obviously he and some of the writers are aware of what a formula they have become. In around three minutes, Timberlake did an entire episode of the stale show Saturday Night Live has become. He was very funny and it was the highlight of the show. The clip is available on Hulu. Click here to watch it.



But the main reason I tuned in last night was because of all the non-stop hype this week about the show hiring two new cast members. With Amy Poehler out on maternity leave, apparently Michaels decided he needed a fill-in. Since he must feel Poehler's part would be extremely hard to replace, SNL went with two actresses instead of just one. And the NBC PR people outdid themselves with getting this story placed everywhere.

The two new cast members, Abby Elliott and Michaela Watkins, are apparently God's gift to comedy. Incredible credentials and even a direct connection to Poehler - as if comedy skills somehow rub off from one actor to another. Abby Elliott got the greater share of the hype because she's the daughter of former cast member Chris Elliott and the granddaughter of Bob Elliott of the Bob and Ray comedy team. Apparently she's great with impressions and her flaming red hair invites comparisons to Lucy. According to the press reports, Abby Elliott was going to take SNL to new height of hilarity!

So I watched...and watched...and watched...

I think I saw Watkins as a background extra in a skit about two firefighters trying to talk a suicide jumper down from a building. Maybe.

And Elliott did appear. She was the slate girl in a pretty funny sketch where three male backup dancers mess up a Beyonce music video. She steps in front of the camera with a marker slate and says:

Beyonce Single Ladies music video - take one.

They dance...Beyonce stops the filming. They talk. Elliott comes on again:

Beyonce Single Ladies music video - take two.

They dance...Beyonce stops the filming. They talk. Elliott comes on again:

Beyonce Single Ladies music video - take three.
They dance...Beyonce stops the filming They talk. End.

Wow...they sure put the incredible comedic talents of Abby Elliott to good use. So funny!

Once again, the hype and expectations that Saturday Night Live built up were totally undelivered. I certainly don't blame Elliott or Watkins, but if I was either of them I would be seriously wondering just what the heck NBC and SNL are up to. With all of the publicity, this should have been their moment to shine - to show America what they can do - to make us laugh. Something SNL has seemingly really forgotten how to do. Hey, but at least they aren't breaking format.