Jackass 3D

I was about to start this review with the complaint that Jackass 3D relied a little too much on the poo, vomit, and scrotum  gags. And then I realized how dumb that would sound. After all, isn’t that what Jackass is all about?

Instead, what I’ll say is this: the latest installment of the tv/movie franchise feels a little like a restaurant franchise. No one goes to Applebee’s because the food is great. They go because, though the food is mediocre at best, it’s always the same. When you order that tray of Baby Back Ribs, you know exactly what you’re getting. And when you watch a Jackass movie, you know you’re in for a lot of farting, shitting, pissing, punching, and laughing.

To be honest, I didn’t expect either of the first two Jackass movies to be good. I was pleasantly surprised. More than that, I laughed my ass off. But the creativity abundant in the first two movies is lacking in the third. The ratio of silly and funny to gross and painful is off this time around. I know this is patently unAmerican of me to say, but sometimes enough is enough when it comes to people taking hits to the nards.

Maybe what’s really missing from Jackass 3D is enthusiasm. I can’t say I blame them. I don’t think I could be too enthusiastic about taking a T-ball to the family jewels, and I don’t even have family jewels. Then again, the silly skits like Party Boy and Werewolves in London require no organ damage and, in my opinion, were funnier anyway.

Documentary December – Winnebago Man

Jack Rebney is the Winnebago Man – an oddly eloquent yet obscenity laced orator that rose to Youtube fame for the outtakes of an early 1980′s Winnebago promotional video that featured him losing his shit repeatedly and swearing up a damn storm. (My personal favorite quote is “My mind is just a piece of shit this morning.”) As a truly eccentric character – he has lived in the woods alone for the past 15 years – with a flair for hilarious dialogue, he is a kickass subject for a documentary. Director Ben Steinbauer, however, took this great subject and made a merely OK documentary.

First of all, take a look at the original video:

The movie begins with Steinbauer following in the footsteps of “throw it together” documentary filmmakers like Nick Broomfield that essentially make a movie about themselves trying to make a movie. They run down leads and try to get interviews. The narrative follows the filmmaker’s journey rather than the subject’s journey, and the story is told to the audience by the director via lots of voice over rather than letting the footage show us the subject and their story. In this case, Steinbauer talks about his personal history with the Winnebago Man video, which actually dates back to the pre-Youtube era of funny videos being spread via hand copied VHS tapes. He then details his early efforts in finding Rebney and setting up an interview with him. In an already very short movie (less than 90 minutes), this is fluff, and there’s an annoying “golly gee, funny videos make everyone happy” quality to the early voice over segments to make it a little worse.

TV Casualties Rating: out of 5

Run Time: 85 minutes

Directed by: Ben Steinbauer

Starring: Jack Rebney

Theatrical Release: 07/09/10

DVD Release: 11/02/10

Production Budget: N/A

Domestic Gross: $181K

Metacritic Score: 71/100

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%

As the film progresses, we meet Rebney and he’s exactly the same guy we’ve seen on youtube – sure, he’s older, in his mid to late 70′s, but just as intense, quick-witted and foul-mouthed as he was that day in the Winnebago 20 odd years ago. And here’s the film’s real flaw – we ultimately don’t see a ton of footage of Rebney just being himself. Steinbauer fights with him about talking about his childhood and opening up to people, which Rebney has no interest in. Rebney is extremely skeptical of Youtube and his so-called fanbase, whom he misunderstands and assumes to be laughing at him rather than being amused by his turns of filthy phrase.

Rebney’s dream is to write books about politics and philosophy. He agrees to work on Steinbauer’s project merely for the chance to spread his ideas. Winnebago Man reveals almost none of the content of his message and all the footage is condensed into showing him being defensive about “opening up to people.” Without revealing the ending, the “opening up” storyline does pay off in a satisfying way, and I did feel like Rebney was changed by the experience of making this documentary. Still, I wanted to know Rebney better, not in a superficial “what was your childhood like?” way, but in an adult “what are you genuinely passionate about today?” way. Instead I got a Rebney reduced to a hermit caricature to fit Steinbauer’s sappy ode to the power of funny videos. Golly gee, that’s swell.

Grading 2010′s New Shows, Part 1

“Louie” – FX, Tuesday 11 PM

Synopsis: Part autobiographical, documentary style show about the life of Louis CK, a misanthropic middle aged divorced comedian, part surreal weirdness… interspersed with bits of real stand-up footage.
Our take: “Louie” is by far our favorite new show of the season. The stand-up alone makes it funnier than almost anything else on TV. Early on, the show struggled to mash together all of the elements, but as the season went on, it really started to come together. It seamlessly transitions from the profound and meaningful to purely absurd filth like nothing else we’ve ever seen.
Grade: A

“The Event” – NBC, Monday 9 PM

Synopsis: The first episode is not the event. The second episode is not the event.
Our take: They should have called this show The Lost V-Files. They’ve blended a lot of elements of “Lost”, “V“, and “The X-Files“, to create a sort of mediocre science fiction soup.  (Which, coincidentally, is one of Emeril’s least popular recipes.) There’s a lot of jumping back and forth in time, and most of the dramatic interest is derived from the writers not telling you exactly what’s going on. Their hope being that you’ll be curious to find out what’s going on. Despite its hamfisted effort, I was a little curious. “The Event” fails, however, at creating even one character worth rooting for, so I doubt I’ll be back for episode 3.
Grade: C

“No Ordinary Family” – ABC, Tuesday 8 PM

 

Synopsis: When a vacation to Brazil goes awry, and by “awry” I mean their plane crashes into a glowing river, one ordinary family develops super powers.
Our take: “No Ordinary Family” is not at all something I’d watch, but for what it’s going for – sort of a watered down “Modern Family” crossed with “Heroes” – I think it does a decent job. I’ll even admit to chuckling a few times. My only complaint is that Michael Chiklis was laying the cheesy kid’s movie dad stuff on a little thick. In the comedy scenes it worked well, but in the dramatic family scenes, it didn’t seem to fit.
Grade: B-

“Rubicon” – AMC, Sunday 9 PM

Synopsis: Will Travers cracks codes and analyzes government intelligence for a living. When his boss/father-in-law is killed, he’s sucked into a whirlwind of conspiracy and intrigue.
Our take: In fairness, the bar for AMC shows is extremely high. “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” are arguably two of the best shows on TV now and ever. But for me, the “Rubicon” intrigue is wearing a little thin with the turtle speed pace the show has set for its mystery. To illustrate the slowness, it was ten episodes before the two leads (Will and Katherine Rhumor) finally met up, so everything from episodes 2-9 was at best a baby step and at worst, irrelevant. The two most amusing characters, Miles, the nutty analyst and Kale Ingram, the dour boss, are almost distractions from the main plot. It’s good enough that I’ll keep watching, but the pace is frustrating.
Grade: B+

“Hawaii Five-O” – CBS, Monday 10 PM

Synopsis: Two cops with enormous capped teeth fight terror on the front lines… in the tropical paradise of Hawaii. Also Jin from “Lost” and Boomer from “Battlestar Galactica” are there.
Our take: I made it about ten or fifteen minutes before I had my fill of Alex O’Loughlin’s faux badassness. He’s still the guy from that J-Lo movie to me. For a network show, the action scenes were pretty impressive.
Grade: D

Pass or Fail: Grading NBC’s New Trailers Pt 1

Undercovers

As a fan of J.J. Abrams, I was looking forward to this one the most. Unfortunately, I was already saying “meh” at the 10 second mark. Too cheesy. Then I got to “sexspionage” and I kinda wanted to throw up.

Fail

Friends With Benefits

I was pleasantly surprised at the beginning, but less so as the trailer went on. I’m a fan of Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars, Party Down), not so much when it comes to Fran Kranz (Dollhouse), though a comedy should suit him better than a drama.

Pass

Outsourced

The lead actor is weak. The jokes are dumb – intentionally I’m sure, but dumb all the same.

Fail

Love Bites

The voice over (and hair) left me cringing. It seems to be going for a Sex and the City type vibe. Ugh. (Tim says: Having a penis, I was not even remotely interested. Lex says: Having a vagina, I was not even remotely interested.)

Fail

Perfect Couples

Despite myself, this one made me laugh. More than once.

Pass

Paul Reiser Show

I don’t even have to watch the trailer. The name says it all. I’d honestly prefer a remake of My Two Dads.

Fail

The Event

I’m not expecting a lot from this after being severely disappointed by both V and FlashForward, but the trailer piqued my interest which is all you can really hope for with a trailer.

Pass

Ranking the New Shows: #6 – Nurse Jackie

In an early, draft of this list, we had Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” ranked as high as #2, but over time it slid down to#6.

The show: “Nurse Jackie“

Synopsis: A Vicodin addicted nurse tries to balance a hectic work life with a messy love life

Debuted: June 9th, 2009

Our take: I started out really enthusiastic about Nurse Jackie, but by the end of the season my interest had petered out. The way the characters were first introduced was great- nursing student Zoey hovers awkwardly until Jackie snaps. Jackie manipulates her boyfriend into giving her drugs without him realizing that’s all she’s interested in.  And then the show seemed to be dragging it’s feet, which is bad news when your episodes are only half an hour long. The half hour format in itself is an odd fit- I think they were going for a Weeds-style dark dramedy, but a lot of the humor after the first few episodes didn’t work.

For the first few episodes, Nurse Jackie was “gray”- she was snorting pain killers and unabashedly using her boyfriend to get more (behind her husband’s back, of course), and you’re not really sure how you feel about all of this. Mid-season Jackie becomes almost two separate characters- in some scenes she’s clearly written so the audience is with her. In others we’re meant to be against her. There’s something ballsy about putting a character out there that you’re not entirely sure how the audience will react to, and I feel like the writers of “Nurse Jackie” lost their nerve. They write to manipulate, knowing how the audience will react to every scene. A better and more consistent “gray” character can be found in Mad Men’s Don Draper.

What it would need to do to keep me watching: Bring sassy, cynical, verging on angry Jackie back, and let us decide whether or not we’re disgusted or not by her behavior. Oh yeah, and leave the weird slapstick comedy moments out.

Ranking the New Shows: #7 – Eastbound and Down

Danny McBride’s HBO comedy, “Eastbound & Down,” comes in at #7.  Of the 3 half hour comedies in our top 10, this is easily the foulest.

The show: “Eastbound & Down“
Synopsis: Former professional baseball star returns home in shame to teach a high school gym class before mounting his comeback attempt.
Debuted: February 15th, 2009
Our take: There are fairly consistent laughs, mostly coming from McBride and his trusty sidekick Stevie (Steve Little).   The show is largely adlibbed, which winds up being a gift and a curse.  When it works, it’s pretty much hilarious and completely unique.  The problem arises in that it misses just as often, and it comes off as lazy and uninspired.  There are stretches where it seems like no one is trying.  There are also scenes where it seems like the actors are fighting each other for attention, hamming it up to be the funniest one in the scene and those fall really flat as well.  We were also a little disappointed in the way that former “Deadwood” star John Hawkes was used (or should we say wasn’t used?)

What it would need to do to keep me watching: The first season was only 6 episodes.  It’s hard to imagine where the show will go from this point.  It almost has to change directions to some degree, so that could be interesting.  If it showed a little more discipline, it could be one of our highest rated.

Ranking the New Shows: #8 – True Blood

Crap! Fall is here and we’ve falling behind on our rankings.  Let’s try to speed this up.
“True Blood” is up at number 8. The show is incredibly faithful to the whole vampire thing… and by that I mean it sucks.

The show: “True Blood“
Synopsis: Girl bangs vampire.
Debuted: September 7th, 2008
Our take: It’s a good thing for HBO’s “True Blood” that I ranked these shows before the second season came out. While the show’s Nielsen ratings have doubled from last year, they lost at least two viewers in the TV Casualties screening room.

I gave the show 14 or 15 episodes before I threw in the towel. Looking back, the pilot struck me as mediocre, especially considering the talent behind the series. From that point, the series went downhill quickly. I was such a big fan of Alan Ball’s “Six Feet Under” that when I first heard about HBO developing this series, I ran out and read all of the books it’s based on.  I haven’t hated a show this much since “Nip/Tuck,” and I might hate this one more because I had so much invested in it.

What it would need to do to keep me watching: There’s so much wrong with “True Blood” that I can’t imagine it surviving any of the surgical removals I’d recommend. Mainly Anna Paquin. I can’t recall encountering a more obnoxious, irrational, and just plain dumb main character in any book, show, or movie.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Steak Knife” & “Pupil”, 7/20 & 7/27

I must have gotten through with the firm talking-to I gave Nurse Jackie last time around, because things are finally starting to happen. On the romantic front, Eddie tries to give Jackie a bracelet in honor of their one-year anniversary. It doesn’t play out so well- Jackie clearly doesn’t remember the anniversary, nor does she seem to really want to even acknowledge it. This leads to Jackie and Eddie’s first fight, and Eddie lets her have it, suggesting she only shows interest in him when he’s giving her drugs. This is the first real conflict in the show and the first time anyone has confronted Jackie about anything. So far, it’s one of the most compelling moments of the season.

The plot thickens further when Eddie discovers that Jackie has a daughter (of course we know she has two AND a husband…) after Coop flaps those gossipy lips of his. So far it’s a non-issue, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a can of worms in the Eddie-Jackie storyline in coming weeks. I do find it a liiiiiittle bit unbelievable that someone would be able to do such a stellar job of keeping her family a secret from most of her coworkers, but hey, it’s tv. If it’s well written, I’ll buy almost anything.

There’s more development with the side characters, as well- Mrs. Akalitus finds an abandoned baby in the ER and instead of turning it over to child services, stays the night in her office with it. Zoey, after watching a show about pupils on tv, discovers that one of the temp nurses is on drugs (irony!!), and Dr. O’Hara has a bit of a meltdown over her personal life.

After a mid-season slump, it looks to me like Nurse Jackie is finding it’s groove.

Ranking the New Shows: #9 – Fringe

Of all of Fox’s recent attempts at the science fiction genre, “Fringe” looks like the most likely to succeed. It made number 9 on our list of best new shows.

The show: “Fringe”
Synopsis: Remember the “The X-Files“?
Debuted: September 9th, 2008
Our take: “The X-Files“ plus insane doctor equals awesome. Some of the time. John Noble carries this show as the mad scientist Walter Bishop. His absurd comments and non sequiturs add an element of quirky comedy to what would otherwise be a crappy cop drama with aliens and monsters. Not only does he make me laugh out loud several times an episode, but the show relies on him to deliver huge chunks of exposition to sell the “scientific” explanation of the disease/monster/wereporcupine of the week to the audience (with little help from the script).
This leads me to the main problem, which is that the story of the week element is extremely formulaic. And the formula is a pretty mediocre one. Even if I suspend belief to swallow the week’s pseudo-scientific disaster, the reactions of the characters and their subsequent solutions are much too cozy for me to buy. (How many times are they going to download images from a dead person’s brain or shove Olivia back into the Sensory Deprivation Chamber?) The season long story arc has compelling aspects but gets buried, and the suspense in general is lacking.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: I’ll keep watching for John Noble, and I do see some potential in the show as a whole, but I’ll never be a devoted fan until they invest more in the long term plot.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Tiny Bubbles” 6/13/09

In this week’s episode, Paula, a former friend and coworker of Jackie’s returns to the hospital. She’s dying of cancer and has been given only a week or so to live. With little more than a *wink wink*, she convinces Jackie (and the rest of the staff) to help her euthanize herself.

The issue of euthanasia is handled with such nonchalance, that I wonder if we’re supposed to believe that in the “Nurse Jackie” world, this is a common occurrence. The writers are apparently aware of this snafu, so they have Eddie the Pharmacist rebuke Zoey the Nursing Student for suggesting it’s some sort of “rite of passage”. Well excuuuuuse me, princess! It’s a little contradictory for the euthanasia plan to come together so quickly and then insist that this doesn’t normally happen.

Also on this week’s agenda is the revelation that Coop’s parents are lesbians. Despite the fact that two more-than-capable actresses were cast as Coop’s Two Moms (Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz), I’m more than a little afraid that we’re in for some poorly handled mommy-melodrama in the weeks to come.

This week really highlights “Nurse Jackie’s” main flaw- a lack of dramatic (or any) focus. The writers continue to inch away from the love-triangle/addiction plot introduced in the pilot and bog everything down with subplots that are not particularly compelling. On top of that, the humor is a lot less sharp. Last week, there was some way over-the-top slapstick (which I didn’t like either). This week, I don’t think I laughed once.

“Nurse Jackie” is at the halfway point in it’s first season. It’s gone downhill after a promising start, but I’m hoping it can recapture some of the excitement of the first two episodes as the season concludes.

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