WORD

outlier [out-lahy-er] n. 1. a person or thing that lies outside 2. a person residing outside the place of his or her business, duty, etc 3. Geology. a part of a formation left detached through the removal of surrounding parts by erosion

BIRTHDAY

Jonathan Swift (1667), Mark Twain (1835), Lord Frederick Cavendish (1836), Richard Crenna (1926), Robert Guillaume (1927), Dick Clark (1929), G. Gordon Liddy (1930), Abbie Hoffman (1936), Ridley Scott (1937), Terrence Malick (1943), David Mamet (1947), Mandy Patinkin (1952), Billy Idol (1955), Bo Jackson (1962), Ben Stiller (1965), Clay Aiken (1978), Gael García Bernal (1978)

STANDPOINT

Several years ago, when the reality-television craze began kicking its ugly way into our living rooms, I boldly declared, “This won’t last. It’s a fad. It’ll go away.”

Man, was I wrong.

It has lasted. It’s not a fad. And it refuses to go away. As a matter of fact, it’s continuing to grow. From what I can tell, it’s also making society as a whole dumber. So, of course, that fascinates me.

First off, let me say I don’t think all reality-television is bad. Some of it’s actually worthwhile. Top Chef, The Amazing Race, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Those are some I’ve watched without becoming agitated. And that’s inasmuch as those shows are chronicling individuals doing things I can’t (or won’t) do.

For example, Top Chef. I’ve worked in the restaurtant business for almost two decades, in both the front- and back-of-the-house. I’m no chef, but I know my way around a kitchen. Basically, I can make food people like, but not necessarily rave about. So, when I watch Top Chef, I’m entertained because I’m watching individuals do something I can’t, something I find extraordinary. To me, that’s interesting.

In contrast, when I view programs like Big Brother, The Real World, or The Real Housewives of Atlanta, all I see are a group of unexceptional individuals supposedly living lives we’re expected to perceive as somehow “real.” But it’s not at all. Just a collection of nitwits trying to outsmart one another while simultaneously positioning themselves for more camera time.

From the little I’ve seen of Big Brother, it’s never failed to confuse me. Besides the participants, none of which I feed redeemable, and the events, few of which aren’t orchestrated, being actual, what the fuck is so real about it? The answer is exactly none of it. Everyone in the house has a motive. The producers stage events that, without prodding, would never come about. All the footage gets edited to death so the true sequence is lost. To me, that’s uninteresting.

What truly sucks about all of this is that I’m apparently squarely in the minority. I’m relatively sure most of us find things capable of bothering us daily. Also, I was under the impression watching television was supposed to be fun and less bothersome than our daily routines.

If I’m wrong about all this, I’ll accept it. But, before you start popping off on how I’m completely wrong about reality television, I need you to answer the following question: If these shows are so enjoyable, why is it every single conversation I’ve ever heard about them is basically a discussion on which character is more annoying and why?

QUOTATION

This is what politics is to me: Somebody tells you all the trees on your street have a disease. One side says give them food and water and everything will be fine. One side says chop them down and burn them so they don’t infect another street. That’s politics. And I’m going, Who says they’re diseased? And how does this sickness manifest itself? And is this outside of a natural cycle? And who said this again? And when were they on the street? But we just have people who shout, “Chop it down and burn it” or “Give it food and water,” and there’s your two choices. Sorry, I’m not a believer. → John Malkovich

TUNE

MewithoutYou is a band from Philadelphia. That’s here. In Pennsylvania. I’ve heard them mentioned from time-to-time, and I think I may have seen the band live once but that might be entirely untrue. In any case, I was recently introduced to the video for “The Fox, The Crow and The Cookie,” and, to put it mildly, it’s pretty fuckin’ great. The song is solid but the whole concept and execution of the video is pretty unique and remarkable.  

CALLIMAUFRY

→ OK, so the whole Tiger Woods car accident thing. I have two questions. (1) Where was Woods going at 2:25am, the morning after Thanksgiving. (2) Why did the wife, after hearing the accident, decide to head out to investigate with a golf club? Woods is going to live to golf another day. He’s fine and that’s great. Truly. Still, everyone’s going to want to discover what really went down. The truth is no one besides Woods and his wife are ever going to know what happened. And, so far, it appears they’re not going to tell. Sadly, for everyone who’s dying to know, it’s bound to become one of those events marked for countless decades of endless speculation. When you’re a billionnaire, you can crash your car and not be expected to give some valid explanation.

→ Rush Limbaugh is America’s most influential conservative. Still, who cares?

→ No post tomorrow. If you’ve a problem with that, you’ll need to get in line behind my good friend Joe Taylor, who I’ve started affectionately calling “Boss-Man.” OK, I only did it once, but I plan on doing it again real soon.

‘Three Rivers’ atingiu sua maior audiência! A CBS renovou cedo a série, e agora começa a colher os frutos. As chances de uma temporada completa são poucas, mas o episódio desta semana teve um crescimento de 11%, atraindo 8.5 milhões de telespectadores e fazendo 2.0 pontos na demo qualificada 18-49. O episódio teve participação do excelente e problemático ator, Mandy Patinkin.

‘Cold Case’ também foi bem e atingiu sua melhor audiência desde outubro: 9.2 milhões de telespectadores e 2.1 pontos na demo – um crescimento de 24% em relação ao episódio da semana passada, que por sua vez, foi o menos assistido da temporada até aqui. ‘Amazing Race’ abriu a noite da emissora com 11.6 milhões e 3.2 pontos, queda de 8%.

Quarta colocada na demo qualificada, a CBS não foi a única emissora a crescer ontem a noite: O Sunday Night Football na NBC ganhou a noite com ótimos números: 19.1 milhões e 7.5 pontos.

A ABC finalmente mandou muito bem em tudo: ‘Extreme Makeover’ (11.6 milhões e 3.6 pontos) subiu 20%, ‘Desperate Housewives’ (14.4 milhões e 4.9 pontos) subiu 11% para sua maior audiência em seis semanas, e ‘Brothers & Sisters’ (10.2 milhões e 3.2 pontos) que subiu 10% e atingiu sua melhor audiência em sete meses.

Já a Fox, segunda colocada na demo, não foi tão bem: dois de seus shows atingiram suas piores audiências na temporada: ‘The Cleveland Show’ (7 milhões e 3.3 pontos) e ‘American Dad’ (6 milhões e 2.9 pontos). Vale lembrar que ‘Cleveland’ vem sendo sacrificada pela emissora, sendo exibida em um horário diferente de onde estreou muito bem. A emissora também exibiu ‘Family Guy’ (8.3 milhões e 4.1 pontos) e ‘The Simpsons’ (9 milhões e 4.2 pontos).

I don’t usually get into TV shows that are on before midnight, but it seems like when i actually do, those shows get the boot. Right now the only show that I watch regularly are True Blood, which is entertaining.

My previous favorites were canceled in there second season; Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me( both created my Bryan Fuller). I miss these shows, and I wish they would get picked up by another station.

Just in case you are not familiar with either show, here’s the run down:

Pushing Daisies: Is about a man named Ned, who can bring the dead back to life for one minute by touching them. He has to touch them again before one minute is up, or else some one will die in their place.

It sounds odd, but it was a great show, with excellent performances by, Lee Pace(Ned), Anna Friel(Chuck), Chi McBride(Emerson), Kristin Chenoweth(Olive), Ellen Greene (Vivian), and Swoosie Kurtz (Lily).

Dead Like Me: An unhappy girl is killed by a toilet seat from a space station. After finding out she is dead she is assigned a job as a grim reaper. She has to reap a certain quota of lives before she well be able to “pass on”.

Really Really miss this show, and once again we are now missing out on fantastic performances by: Ellen Muth (Georgia), Callum Blue(Mason), Jasmine Guy(Roxy), Mandy Patinkin(Rube), and Laura Harris(Daisy).

Come on Networks, pick up this shows! Please

~Nicole

MAGIA, ESPADA Y FANTASÍA (IV)

Las cosas como son: la película ha envejecido lo suyo desde aquel lejano 1987 de su estreno. Pero quienes la vieron en su momento y se encontraban en la frontera entre la infancia y la adolescencia, o incluso en ésta, la recuerdan como parte de aquel periodo, como quizá el último cuento de hadas que se tragaron sin sentirse ridículos o estúpidos. Lamentablemente, hay que echar mano de memoria y de nostalgia para que esas sensaciones negativas no se recuperen súbitamente ante un visionado del mismo film a edad ya madura. Pero dejando la puerta abierta a los recuerdos es posible que el espectador pueda reencontrarse con aquél que fue un día y que era capaz no sólo de ver cosas como ésta, sino de disfrutarlas.

Rob Reiner, director discreto (es autor de eso llamado El presidente y Miss Wade) con algunos notables puntos a su favor (Cuenta conmigo, Cuando Harry encontró a Sally, Algunos hombres buenos y, sobre todo, Misery), se encumbró a finales de los ochenta gracias a esta amable fábula de aventuras de capa y espada en un mundo mágico conectado con la realidad a través de la lectura que un abuelo (Peter Falk) hace a su nieto enfermo (Fred Savage, aquel niño imbécil de la serie Aquellos maravillosos años), de una historia contenida en uno de sus libros favoritos, con el fin de ayudarle a sobrellevar la convalecencia y apartarlo de los incipientes videojuegos. Esa historia entre leída e inventada (según el anciano percibe de reojo el interés creciente o decreciente del chaval en lo que le cuenta) que el abuelo va relatando al muchacho nos traslada el legendario reino de Florin, en el que gobierna el malvado tirano príncipe Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) con ayuda del malévolo Vizzini (Wallace Shawn). Humperdinck, maloso que es, rapta a la bellísima Buttercup (tacita de mantequilla, interpretada por Robin Wright Penn mucho antes de ser Penn) para convertirla en su prometida, lo cual no gusta nada a la muchacha ni al campesino humilde del que estaba enamorada (Cary Elwes). Éste, con ayuda de un aventurero español, Íñigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) y de un gigante de manazas enormes (quien escribe siempre ha pensado las vueltas que podría dar la cabeza de cualquier mortal tras recibir un bofetón de semejante explanada llena de dedos) luchan contra los malos para rescatar a la joven y para que Íñigo logre vengar la muerte de su padre (“Hola. Mi nombre es Íñigo Montoya. Tu mataste a mi padre. Prepárate a morir.”).

Película de carácter indudablemente juvenil, destaca sobre la mayoría de los productos de su género por varias notas características que la diferencian favorablemente. En primer lugar, su estética colorista, dinámica, de hermosos paisajes, de escenografías de cartón piedra, de dirección artística al servicio de la fantasía con efectos especiales que van desde lo estimable (para 1987) a lo deliberadamente cutre, que hace que la cinta sea la traducción más acertada, incluso hasta la fecha, de los clásicos de dibujos animados de Disney al cine de carne y hueso. En segundo lugar, la música compuesta por Mark Knopfler, hoy en día un tanto anticuada por su producción demasiado ochentera, pero uno de los trabajos más recordados de su autor en solitario. En tercer lugar, la ironía: es una película que, como los buenos cuentos infantiles, consigue contar historias violentas y truculentas, sórdidos episodios de brujas y gigantes, de ogros y pérfidos y crueles príncipes, con un tono ligero, casual, en el que, en este caso, abunda el humor, tanto en la estrafalaria caracterización de algunos personajes, incluido el héroe, más bien atípico, como en la brillantez de ciertos diálogos, que pueden ofrecer a un tiempo frases lapidarias y gracietas de cierto mérito. A este respecto, conviene recordar que el guión es obra de William Goldman (autor igualmente de guiones como Harper, Dos hombres y un destino, El carnaval de las águilas, Todos los hombres del presidente, la propia Misery, Chaplin, Poder absoluto, El indomable Will Hunting o Corazones en Atlántida), y que adaptó su propia novela.

Pero sobre todo si destaca por algo esta película por encima de otras fábulas juveniles es por el amor al cine de aventuras que destila, a los tiempos de Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn o Gene Kelly, a clásicos como Robín de los bosques, El zorro, El capitán Blood, El corsario negro o El pirata. Tanto la construcciòn de la historia, en particular de algunas secuencias, como las coreografías de los duelos a espada remiten directamente a aquel tiempo dorado del cine de aventuras, desconocido por supuesto para quienes en los ochenta eran (éramos) unos críos de la edad de Fred Savage. A ese gusto por el cine clásico de aventuras que rememora hay que añadir la defensa que supone del libro como concepto, como puerta abierta a la fantasía, como vehículo de ocio que tantos y tan buenos ratos puede ofrecer. Esta película, junto con otras del mismo estilo (sobre todo La historia interminable, sobre el libro de Michael Ende), ha hecho mucho por el acercamiento de buena parte de los jóvenes de los ochenta al mundo de los libros en un tiempo en que las maquinitas de botoncitos made in Japan avecinaban lo que iba a venir en décadas posteriores.

Nostalgia a raudales, humor, duelos a espada, acrobacias, sorpresas, peligros, criaturas extraordinarias, buena música, alguna que otra interpretación curiosa y/o aceptable (Billy Crystal, sobre todo, pero también Christopher Guest, Peter Cook o Carol Kane), fantasía, emoción, gente feliz que come perdices y malos que pagan sus fechorías: una vuelta a la infancia, a la ingenuidad, a la magia de los cuentos leídos a la luz de la mesita de noche por una voz cálida que nunca olvidaremos.

I better state my objections right up front on this one. Shoulder pads appear to be back and four little dessert squares (no matter how divine) will not fit on a napkin smaller than my palm. Other than that I really have only good things—make that glowing things—to say about Saturday night’s ARTrageous celebration of the renovated and just reopened theater at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

I went with my daughter, Lizabeth, a high school theatre arts student studying for an onstage career. She got the front row seat. I sat farther back so we could compare notes. Turns out Liz’s seat required infinitely more self-control. After sharing that she’s been a bit under the weather, the evening’s star entertainer gleefully threw her tissue (and I don’t mean a clean one) into the audience.

Did you catch that clue? Ask your tween son or daughter who recently appeared on the Fox television hit Glee and they’ll know in a heartbeat: the incomparable Kristin Chenoweth, known to many as the original Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. She’s also done West Wing and Pushing Daisies proud. Then there’s her Emmy. And her Tony. And oodles of other awards. (You can learn about all things Chenoweth at www.kristin-chenoweth.com.)

“You could probably get three dollars for that thing on e-Bay,” Chenoweth told the man who scooped up the truly one of a kind souvenir. Liz—I’m proud of you for not making a run for it. Let’s send Chenoweth a clean tissue and a Sharpie and see if we can get it back with an autograph, sans snot. After hearing Chenoweth’s soulful rendition of “Taylor the Latte Boy” I suspect we ought to send her a Starbucks gift card too. She’s got it bad for the espresso. I like that in a woman.

The fun began well before the lush yellow curtain opened and the giant red velvet bow marking the ribbon cutting ceremony was cut. From the moment we approached the new theater on wide pedestrian paths that meander along spacious lawns at the Scottsdale Civic Center, we were surrounded by festive sights and sounds.

Pulsating music and lights. Fast-paced video art projected on a lovely smooth exterior wall of the theater. Sculptures old and new. Beautiful people young and old. Even roving artists donning Nick Cave “Soundsuits,” which left me feeling we may well have witnessed the birth of the southwestern version of Rio’s Carnival. (To really get a feel for it check out www.smoca.org for pictures of the Cave creations that so beautifully tied everything together.)

When we entered the theater, it literally took my breath away. Organic lines. Rich colors. Glowing light.

Lizabeth was especially impressed with students from the Scottsdale Community College dance department, who served as a sort of moving exhibit as they danced individually throughout the theater while guests were buzzing about the venue’s changes and getting seated for the concert. Liz has studied with their theatre arts department but this was our first entrée into SCC dance. (It won’t be our last!)

Our family enjoyed plenty of special moments in the original theater. We saw Jennifer perform during Dance Theater West recitals. We took Lizabeth to see Mandy Patinkin when she used to fall asleep each night listening to his “Kidults” CD. (I’m still mourning the loss of Patinkin and Chicago Hope with its powerful themes of losing a child and living with mental illness.)

During Lizabeth’s decade of classical ballet training, we took her to see Mikhail Baryshnikov at this theater, sitting close enough to see beads of sweat dancing across his brow. When she studied violin (another decade long pursuit for the real artist in our family), James took Liz to see Joshua Bell.

One thing about this venue remains unchanged—the incredible diversity of top notch performers who make their way to its stage. (And don’t even get me started on the daytime attractions at Scottsdale Civic Center—like flowers beds and swans perfect for family photography fun, and a gift shop brimming with unique and affordable gifts that make it a joy to shop for teacher gifts.)

Still, on this night, I felt we had been transported to another place.

It was BIG—still intimate size-wise, but something so substantial that it really took me quite some time to take it all in. I wanted to flip open my phone and send my husband just one simple message—OMG—but somehow that seemed tacky. I just didn’t have the words for it.

When Chenoweth’s petite feet first peeked out from behind the curtain, they were dripping with sparkles. Like a disco ball might look if only it could get some respect. Her strapless hot pink dress shone beautifully against the backdrop of three puddled cream-colored curtains and a delicate chandelier. Even her elbows were sexy.

Chenoweth raved over and over again about the beauty of the space. “And the acoustics are awesome,” she shouted. As she sang, the theater was otherwise bathed in silence. The audience was rapt. Except for the gentleman bouncing with the beat just one row ahead of me. I liked his style too.

This “new” venue—the Virginia G. Piper Theater at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts—really is a remarkable place. Exquisite. Breathtaking. Soul-stirring. Treat yourself to a night on the town. This theater will not disappoint. You can learn about upcoming shows at www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org.

If you happen to bump into Chenoweth someday at Starbucks, pretty please ask her where she gets her fancy footwear…

Lynn

Coming soon: ASU Gammage welcomes The Phantom of the Opera. Celebrating Halloween while enjoying the arts.

Not having heard of The Princess Bride – book or film – until last year, suddenly it was everywhere. I don’t know where I’d been hiding to miss the film twenty years ago, but I did. William Goldman’s novel, well I don’t know. The book turned up on my doorstep last summer, and it looked good. I was going to read it. Then I wasn’t, since I had no time. And then something – I forget what – made me read it anyway.

After that I heard of the film from just about everyone. My impression was that it wasn’t just a marvellous film, but it was better than the book. Maybe I got it wrong. We finally watched the film the other day, and it was really funny and entertaining, and reasonably well done from the book. But, I don’t happen to feel that it beats the book in any way.

The book is fantastic, with lots of humour and background that is lost in the film. On the other hand, the film still has some of the very funny lines from the book, which could easily have been got rid of. Quite good too, that many of the actors are, or were, less well known. It’s more fun to have minor actors, plus brief appearances by some more famous names.

Billy Crystal as an old man was good. Mel Smith and Peter Cook each have a small part. Peter Falk was very Peter Falk-ish, and even I recognised Robin Wright Penn. However, for all that the pirates and crooks looked familiar, I haven’t seen them in anything else.

Nice swashbuckler with humour, but I recommend the novel.

Après cette touche d’humour pitoyable, passons à la première info.

Invités chez Jimmy Fallon pour la promo de leur prochaine “série documentaire” Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut) (j’en reparlerai prochainement), les Monty Pythons ont un peu foutu le bazar. Dès le début, John Cleese a enlevé une chaise, Terry Gilliam a donc dû s’asseoir par terre. Est venue ensuite une bataille d’eau au mug, puis la fausse rumeur, lancée par John. Michael Palin manquant à l’appel ce jour-là, John a plaisanté en disant qu’il était mort plus tôt dans la matinée.

Albert Dupontel, lui aussi en promotion pour son film Le Vilain, n’a pas été très aimable mercredi. Laurent Bignolas, qui le recevait en duplex dans son émission 18:30 Aujourd’hui sur France 3, a présenté le film et s’est très vite excusé de ne pas avoir eu le temps de voir le film. Seulement Albert l’a visiblement très mal pris, puisqu’il s’est contenté de réponses laconiques et est parti en disant “Je mérite mon salaire, ce qui n’est pas votre cas si vous ne voyez pas les films (…) C’est votre boulot de voir les films avant d’inviter les gens. Je vous remercie infiniment de votre accueil”
Surpris, Laurent Bignolas n’a réagi qu’un peu plus tard en taclant l’acteur : “Puisque Albert Dupontel a eu la gentillesse de nous laisser du temps pour parler de vrais sujets et bien je vais vous parler du monde”
J’apprécie beaucoup Albert Dupontel, mais là je pense qu’il pousse un peu le bouchon. Laurent Bignolas est un journaliste qu’on peut sans hésitation qualifié d’”occupé”, et il n’est pas une journaliste ciné, donc je ne pense pas que ce soit sa priorité. Pour qu’il le dise d’emblée, c’est que ce n’est pas dans ses habitudes, donc je trouve qu’Albert a exagéré et j’espère qu’il ne continuera pas sur cette voie, qui le mènera très probablement vers Imbu City. Merde. Tss. Non mais.

Mandy Patinkin a beau avoir quitté Criminal Minds (Esprits Criminels) quelque peu brusquement, CBS ne lui en veut apparemment pas plus que ça. L’acteur fera bientôt une apparition dans la toute nouvelle série Three Rivers et retrouvera donc l’univers hospitalier (son premier rôle régulier a été dans Chicago Hope).
Personnellement, j’ai le fol espoir qu’il reviendra dans Criminal Minds. Il a aussi joué dans Dead Like Me.

Alien Nation 1988 Movie Poster

 

Alien Nation is a 1988 science fiction film written by Rockne S. O’Bannon and directed by Graham Baker. It stars James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp, Leslie Bevis and Kevyn Major Howard.

Tagline: Prepare Yourself.

The following year, the film’s plot concept was used as the basis for a television series of the same name, which premiered in 1989 and ran for a single season. A comic book series and book series were started when it looked like it might never return to television. Finally in 1994, the first of five television movies was produced as a continuation of the series.

Syfy is planning a new Alien Nation television series.

Mandy Patinkin and James Caan

Trivia:

• The alien character played by Mandy Patinkin was originally going to be named George Jetson but Hanna-Barbera wouldn’t give the rights to the name. The decision to call his character ‘George’ in the movie was kept as an in-joke.
• Jerry Goldsmith’s synthetic and score was rejected early in post production for being “too weird” and replaced with music by Curt Sobel. Jerry Goldsmith’s rejected score was released in Spring 2005 as a Varese Sarabande CD Club Release limited to 3000 copies.
• The October 1987 draft of the screenplay credits a rewrite to James Cameron. He is not credited in the final film.
• The trailer shows a portion of a fight scene between George and Rudyard Kipling with a burning car in the background, meaning that in an earlier edit Kipling exits the car before it explodes (you see him regain consciousness at one point with a groan) and then fights with George. This would also explain why it is that Sykes compliments George on showing “some good moves back there”.
• When George is comforting the old woman a poster of former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard can be seen hanging next to the Pepsi cooler.

Amazon Specials

Make Up Department
  Janice Alexander … hair stylist
  David Anderson … alien makeup effects
  Grant Arndt … sculptor: Stan Winston Studios
  John Blake … alien makeup effects
  Roger Borelli … alien makeup effects
  Katalin Elek … makeup artist
  Zoltan … alien makeup applier
  Zoltan … makeup artist
  John Elliott … alien makeup applier
  John Elliott … makeup artist
  John M. Elliott Jr. … makeup co-department head
  Greg Figiel … alien makeup effects
  Steve Frakes … alien makeup effects
  Mark Garbarino … alien makeup effects
  Emilio M. Gonzales … alien makeup effects
  Jeff Kennemore … alien makeup effects
  Makio Kida … alien makeup effects
  Eryn Krueger … alien makeup effects
  Richard J. Landon … alien makeup effects
  Karen Mason … alien makeup effects
  Michael Mills … makeup artist
  Brian Penikas … alien makeup effects
  John Price … alien makeup effects
  Matt Rose … prosthetic painter
  Russell Seifert … alien makeup effects
  Michael Spatola … alien makeup effects
  Michiko Tagawa … alien makeup effects
  Mike Trcic … alien makeup effects
  Monty Westmore … makeup artist
  Kenny Myers … makeup artist (uncredited)

Alien Nation has been kicking around in my mind for awhile after the release of District 9 (a movie I have still yet to see, sadly) and I finally took a gander at the original source material (having seen this and that of the TV spinoff).  It’s 1991 (not so distant future?) and its been three years since a spacecraft full of enslaved aliens crash landed in the Mojave desert .  Now fully integrated into society, the “Newcomers” have normal jobs, families, and lives here on Earth, but still face hositility from a large portion of the population.  I smell a metaphor…

It’s no wonder Alien Nation led to so many spin-offs, the world is elaborate and interesting, while the plot of the film is essentially a pilot epsiode for Law & Order: ET.  James Caan as Det. Matt Sykes, your typical rough-around-the-edges cop, just lost his partner to a shoot out with a couple of Newcomers.  So guess who he gets as a new recruit?  You guessed it, Mandy Patinkin as George, a Newcomer and the first to be promoted to detective.  They’re a regular odd couple ready to solve a few crimes, but not without butting heads a few times!  OK, it’s not that corny, but Alien Nation sticks to the simple premise because it’s Sci-Fi elements are fresh.  It would barely be a Sci-Fi if there weren’t people dressed up as aliens walking around everywhere.

Caan and Patinkin have a great rapport, both men helping to teach the other of the diverse cultures.  That and they have to stop the evil William Harcourt (Terrance Stamp) from dealing alien drugs.  Bizzare, but it’s played the the right amount of seriousness that makes Alien Nation a worth while flick for any Sci-Fi or Crime Drama fans.

Seems like the perfect flick to either remake or take back to series Battlestar style, especially with the success of District 9.

Check it out on Netflix Watch Instantly  6/10

Rumor has it that Scarlett Johansson is heading to Broadway, set to star opposite Will & Grace star Sean Hayes in a revival of the Neil Simon musical Promises, Promises.

Also rumored – directors Harold Prince and Susan Stroman are set to collaborate on an upcoming Broadway musical called Paradise Found, an adaptation of the novel The Tale of the 1002nd Night. Mandy Patinkin is rumored to be under consideration as the Shah’s eunich.

“She is alive, or was an hour ago. If she is otherwise when I find her I shall be very put out.” ~~Prince Humperdinck

Giants and monsters and evil wayward kings, sword fights, gallant gentlmen on noble steeds, lovely damsels awaiting rescue, perfectly magical kisses and the prospect of love everlasting — it’s enough to put a person’s gag reflex to the ultimate test. But let not your esophagus revolt and your stomach turn, for “The Princess Bride” is not that sort of fairy tale. Not in the least. Oh, sure, Rob Reiner’s absurdly clever film about the courtship of Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright Penn) and lowly stablehand Westley (Cary Elwes) contains all these expected elements. But every single one of them gets a little tweak, a shot of sly wit that blasts off the dust and cobwebs of yore and makes “The Princess Bride” the kind of feisty creation that feels fresher and funnier with every viewing. 

So how, exactly, does this “Extreme Makeover: Fairy Tale Edition” play out? How can it enrapture and intrigue us in ways that don’t feel like a quirky rehash of “Cinderella”? For starters, there are the characters, who fill the standard roles but refuse to play to type. Princess Buttercup, though lovelorn, isn’t quite the garden-variety lady-in-distress. She’s got a mouth on her, a temper and a brain too — and she’s not shy about using them all. Westley’s neither a boorish Healthcliff nor a mindless Prince Charming. He’s more apt to shred his foes with ”you warhog-faced buffoon” than cry about lost love. There are sidekicks, but they do not serve merely as boring spacefillers; Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant) have enough issues to get Freud’s head spinning. And the villains, including Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) and Count Tyrone (Christopher Guest), spend as much time being droll – who but a perfect scoundrel could pull off “please consider me as an alternative to suicide”? – as they do plotting evil deeds. Everyone who shows up in “The Princess Bride” has a distinctive personality that’s just a shade left of center, just enough to subvert our expectations.

Based on William Goldman’s equally fantastic book, the story itself, though, supplies intrigue aplenty. “The Princess Bride” employs that story-within-a-story method, with a wiseacre grandfather (Peter Falk) reading to his sick young grandson (Fred Savage), who’s really worried there will be too much smooching and not enough sword fights. There’s plenty of both in the tale Grandpa reads, an entertaining yarn about Westley and Buttercup, lovers separated by his quest to seek fortune on the seas. Prince Humperdinck takes the heartbroken Buttercup as his bride-to-be (he has his own motives, and all of them are unsavory), but there are hiccups in the sneaky prince’s plot, not least of which is Buttercup’s kidnapping by Inigo, Fezzik and their shrill employer Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and the appearance of the mysterious Man in Black/Dread Pirate Roberts. Throw in an impending mawwage*, a life-sucking torture machine and a miracle man (Billy Crystal) with the power to rise the Nearly Dead, and you’ve got yourself a story so interwoven in its complexity that it makes “Syriana” seem like “Son-in-Law.”

By now we’ve covered what catapults “The Princess Bride” leaps and bounds above other fairy tales. Wa-hoo. But why does this movie deserve a place on our shelves and in our hearts? There’s no easy answer to that question. The script is full of piquant wit and infinitely quotable quips like “I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder” and “You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.” Maybe it’s because the likes of Patinkin’s damaged but resilient Inigo Montoya, set on avenging his father’s death, and Fezzik, a sad pariah plucked for a dreadful life of unemployment in Greenland, feel sweetly and surprisingly real to us. Or perhaps we return to “The Princess Bride” again and again because there’s some deep, primal, frightfully uncynical part of us that wants to believe in the happy ending, the world in balance, the magic.

And if there are a few Rodents of Unusual Size thrown in? Well, that just sweetens the deal.

*It’s what brings us togevuh today.

Here are two of the best movie fights of all time, and not coincidentally they both involve swords. The first is from the great ‘The Princess Bride‘ and the second is from the (also) great ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘. I don’t know which I like more. The fight between Inigo and Westley is humorous and well-done, but Michelle Yeoh vs. Ziyi Zhang (even if we don’t consider ZZ is one of the most beautiful women ever) is pure cinematic gold. You be the judge.

Inigo Montoya and Westley fence on the Cliffs of Insanity in "The Princess Bride".

(Rob Reiner, 1987)

September 10, 2009

by Joel Crary

“The Princess Bride” started a curious tendency of mine to hold my breath at certain points in movies when characters are deprived of oxygen. Buttercup (Robin Wright Penn) accidentally steps into a patch of lightning sand in the Fire Swamp and disappears for about 40 seconds. I can’t remember the last time I watched this scene while inhaling and exhaling normally. When Westley (Cary Elwes) emerges from the sand with Buttercup clinging to his neck, I gasp for air along with them as they roll about in dirt and ash on the forest floor, coughing their lungs out, trying to shake the horror loose.

“The Princess Bride” was among the first DVDs I owned after my parents gave me a DVD player as a graduation present. Though the transfer of the original MGM release has its issues, there was no contest in the quality of the film versus the old VHS copy my family had taped from the First Choice movie network in the late 1980’s. I count it among my early exposure to the benefits of viewing films at their original theatrical aspect ratios rather than the standard framing of films for television screens. It’s a movie I adored as a kid. I’ve seen it so many times, I now spend as much time with a direct eye on the sets and locales as I do on the characters.

It contains one of my favourite film scenes of all time, in which Westley goes sword to sword against hired Spaniard Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin). Everything about this scene works perfectly – the rocky terrain, the back-and-forth rhythm of the duel in both swordplay and language, the painted sunset backdrops that take just enough reality out of the scene without making it seem overly cartoonish or surreal. The way that Patinkin instantly brings his character to life in the imagination with a measured and humble monologue, detailing how his father was slaughtered by a six-fingered man. If Westley were this man, Inigo’s seething anger would bring an apocalyptic tone to their duel; as he is not, the two men battle while quibbling humourously over whose technique is superior.

This is counterbalanced with Inigo’s final confrontation with Count Tyrone Rugen, played by Christopher Guest, known more recently for his directing prowess rather than his vastly underrated abilities as a character actor. Here, he channels Vincent Price yet leaves even that figure’s few traces of humanity at the portcullis. Their duel is as brutal as the earlier is skillful. We see the blades enter the men, the blood pooling onto their clothing from the open wounds. Deranged with pain and frustration, Inigo utters what has now become a classic phrase, a mantra that has kept him from drinking himself to death over his greatest moment of loss: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” We see his face jerk slightly as the blade makes its final plunge. Justice has been served.

My experiences as a fascinated watcher of this film go back a long way. I still remember lines my mother laughed at on early viewings, more often than not delivered by the egocentric and verbose Vizzini. He’s played by Wallace Shawn, who doesn’t need a lot of makeup to fit this world. Nor does Fezzik, the towering man mountain played by former WWF wrestler Andre the Giant. These actors are recognizably left of center in a child’s eyes, contributing to the fantasy in a way that special effects can’t.

Descriptions of the film point at its status as a storybook story, a fairy tale with a twist of sharp postmodern humour. It’s based on the book by William Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay and whose work as a screenwriter has seen him awarded Oscars for films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men”. His story is wholly original, told with a zest for putting recognizable character types (the princess, the hero, the freak, etc.) into one death-defying situation after the next. Director Rob Reiner keeps everything at a very contained octave, never relying too greatly on effects wizardry. There is not a single identifiable shot of the characters swashbuckling in front of a blue screen, a technique that so many other films of the period opted for.

Everything is played out in breathtaking locales and inventive sound stage constructs. The first half of the narrative flows symphonically thanks to the set of goals put in place by Westley’s quest. Buttercup is kidnapped, a masked man dressed in black tracks down the kidnappers, battles them one by one and each in a unique way, rescues Buttercup and eludes Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) and his men until they are finally caught upon exiting the Fire Swamp. Over the course of these events, Westley’s true identity is revealed, though even a child would understand that the masked man pursuing Buttercup is the only man she’ll ever love.

Fairy tales are like that. However, fairy tales rarely jump their own tracks as often as “The Princess Bride” does. When the albino hisses at Westley in the Pit of Despair, we don’t expect him to cough and reveal a matter-of-fact tone to his voice, obstructed by phlegm – natural to an adult’s perception of such a creature, but unexpected considering the shine the movie takes to a child’s imagination. The film is full of moments such as this, pulling us away from the fantastic when it becomes a little too “out there”, grounding the situations with humour so that an adult can’t possibly complain about the lack of realism.

As a kid, I recognized that humour, too. The film brought me to realize how unlike life a story can be, yet how fantastic a story can make life seem. Goldman keeps returning to the little boy (Fred Savage) listening to his grandfather (Peter Falk) tell the story. The boy’s vocal observations break up the parts he dislikes, creating the impression that the parts that proceed without interruption have him grabbing the sheets in amazement. “The Princess Bride” believes that our imaginations remain fertile ground for wonder in spite of the distractions of cynicism later on in life. Not a bad belief to keep around.

According to the New York Post, Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin (Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, The Wild Party, The Secret Garden, Falsettos) is looking to take on the role of Georges in the transfer of La Cage Aux Folles.

Harvey Fierstein, who wrote the book for the musical, said of casting the role: “I can think of 20 people who could play Georges, and Mandy is right at the top of that list. First of all, he’ll sing those songs beautifully. Second, he’s a great actor. And third, I know how much he values his family, and that is what La Cage is really about—family.”

Casting is still unofficial … but we can only hope Mandy will be returning to the Great White Way!

Television Without Pity recently published an item on the “worst of the best”, choosing the worst episodes of great shows including Veronica Mars, House m.d., The Sopranos, and The West Wing.  Even the most consistently good shows have their missteps, those episodes that fail to live up to expectations or, Tv gods forbid, ones so bad you wonder how the episodes ever made it past the writers room.  We console ourselves with those truly great hours of television that we can watch over and over again, including such classics as How I Met Your Mother’s “Slap Bet”, or Doctor Who’s “Blink”, but what about those entirely forgettable, or worse, memorable for all the wrong reasons, episodes?

Television Without Pity’s comprehensive list covers many of the obvious television missteps, from the “Jack’s tats” episode of Lost (titled “Strangers in a Strange Land”) with guest star Bai Ling, to the preachy Veronica Mars episode “Un-American Graffiti” with its messages about bigotry and underage drinking.  I don’t actually think any Dexter episode has been bad enough to land on one of these lists, but I can see the reasoning behind sticking second season finale “The British Invasion” there, and I was glad to know that I wasn’t the only one disappointed by the Doctor Who Easter special “Planet of the Dead”.  I do, however, have a few additions to their list.  Here are some of my picks for worst of the best:

Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episodes: “The Zeppo” and “Beer Bad”

Buffy steps down he evolutionary chain in "Beer Bad"

TWoP included Buffy in its list, but chose the poltergeist-inspired sex episode “Where the Wild Things Are” instead.  It’s certainly a worthy choice, as I really can’t remember anything happening in this episode beyond crawling vines, Buffy and Riley having a lot of sex, and a girl hacking off her hair in a closet, but here are a few other possibilities.

“The Zeppo” is, in my opinion, the black mark on my favourite season of the show.  I have some bias here as this is a Xander-centric episode and I’ve never been a fan of the character, but I found the third-season episode, which sees Xander getting a car and spending a harrowing night away from the scoobies, very dull.  This is one of those episodes I rarely re-watch and could wipe from my DVD set without a second thought.

However, the Buffy episode that is truly the worst of the best is the universally loathed “Beer Bad”.  I’d love to know how this was pitched in the writers room and the response it received.  Did it really seem like a good idea on paper?  The episode features Buffy, still hurting from Parker’s rejection after they slept together,  getting drunk with four college boys and waking up the next morning to more than a hangover.  The beer turns them all into Neanderthals and the boys begin a fire that Buffy saves Parker from.  In the episode’s only good moment, Neanderthal Buffy beats him with a club when he apologizes for his actions.

Show: Lost
Episode: The Kate-centric episodes (including “Eggtown” and “Whatever the Case May Be”)

Evangeline Lily plays ex-con Kate Austen in Lost.

Since the beginning I’ve had a few issues with Lost.  Plotlines and monsters were introduced only to be forgotten about or never explained and more new characters than should ever be on a supposedly deserted island kept coming out of the woodwork.  The main problem though was consistency and much of this depended on the character who was featured in the episode.  So I came to dread the Kate episodes, preparing for what was bound to be a dreary hour.  As an ex-convict, Kate should really be more interesting than she is.  Instead I find her to be the dullest character on the island, and her episodes about retrieving toy planes, miraculously not being convicted of murder, and being unable to choose between Sawyer and Jack do nothing for me.

Show: How I Met Your Mother
Episode: “The Best Burger in New York”

Regis Philbin guest stars on How I Met Your Mother

Many shows rely on, or become famous for, their stunt-casting.  Some of them genuinely aren’t that funny without that “special guest star”, but How I Met Your Mother is a genuinely funny sitcom with great characters and some wonderful writing.  It really doesn’t need cameos by Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias and, in this episode, Regis Philbin, to be hilarious.  The episode revolves around the quest to find a burger place Marshall ate in eight years earlier that served “the best burger in New York” but it just doesn’t have the same sparkle or the heart of other episodes.  The repeating joke of Robin’s burger being the last to arrive isn’t all that amusing, and descriptions of just how good the various burgers taste are only funny for so long.  That said, this is my no means a terrible half hour of television, it just doesn’t live up to the comedy and heart of other episodes.

Lily: This burger is so good, its like Christmas in my mouth. Meat Christmas.
Ted: Its like an angel from heaven landed in the kitchen of McClaren’s… where the chef killed it and ran it through the meat grinder.
Barney: I love this burger so much I want to sew my ass shut.

Show: Torchwood
Episode: “Cyberwoman”

Ianto's girlfriend Lisa in Cyberwoman

Let’s face it, Torchwood didn’t exactly start out as high art.  During the first season the show was campy, tried a little too hard to convince us that it was the darker adult cousin of Doctor Who, and went out of its way to show the fluidity of human sexuality.  It also routinely borrowed and twisted plots from Angel, including having the female lead wake up nine months pregnant by a demon/alien and using an alien/demon who stays alive through sexual intercourse that destroys their partner.

Still, the first season had some good episodes, it’s just that “Cyberwoman” was not one of them.  The first episode focused on mysterious tea boy Ianto Jones revealed that he had been keeping his girlfriend Lisa, partially converted during the Cyberman Invasion (which occurred during the Doctor Who episodes “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday”), in the Torchwood Hub basement in hopes of curing her.  Her Cyberman programming soon takes over though and Captain Jack tries to feed her to the resident pterodactyl.  Really the fact that Jack sprays Lisa with special barbeque sauce to help the pterodactyl identify its prey speaks for itself.

Show: Star Trek Voyager
Episode: “Threshold”

Janeway and Paris go through some... changes in "Threshold"

Not even the writers defend this episode of Star Trek Voyager, which co-executive producer Brannon Braga called a “royal, steaming stinker”.  It has even been unofficially erased from canon by fans and the production staff.

In “Threshold”, Tom Paris takes on a mission to break the Warp 10 barrier in a shuttlecraft.  However he begins experiencing symptoms upon his return and rapidly mutates into a new form of life.  Paris escapes his planned treatment, kidnaps Captain Janeway, and steals the shuttlecraft.  Here’s where we get to the bad part because the cast of Voyager track the shuttle only to find two amphibious creatures and their three offspring(!)  Luckily there is enough human DNA remaining for the ships’ Doctor to reverse the mutation and restore them to normal.  Lizard mating?  This is another one that speaks for itself.

Show: Dead Like Me
Episode: Dead Like Me: Life After Death movie

George faces off against new leader Cameron.

I absolutely love Dead Like Me and it is certainly at the top of my “gone but not forgotten” list of shows cancelled before their time.  The show, which followed the unlife of Georgia Lass after she is hit by a flying toilet seat and becomes a grim reaper, was full of colour, thoughtful, and found the humour in death to great success.  Its cancellation after just two seasons, and for no apparent reason, was disappointing but fans found hope in the news that there would be a direct-to-DVD movie.

I’m glad I read the reviews about the film before watching it or I would have been sorely disappointed.  It isn’t that the movie is bad, so much as it just isn’t the Dead Like Me we knew and loved.  The role of Daisy Adair was recast, as Laura Harris was committed to another project, and replacement Sarah Wynter always felt “off” to me.  At that time Mandy Patinkin was starring in Criminal Minds and his lead reaper Rube Sofer was replaced with a new character, played by Lost star Henry Ian Cusick.  I enjoyed the subplot with George’s sister Reggie, which answered the question left open in the show’s series finale about whether or not Reggie had recognized her sister in the graveyard, but the movie just didn’t have the same feel as the series.  The real pity is that Harris’ show Woman’s Murder Club was cancelled that year and Patinkin famously departed Criminal Minds.  If the movie had been delayed, the whole cast could have reunited.

And one for the road…

Although I’ve seen most of Star Trek: The Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager, I haven’t seen more than one episode of the original series and don’t have a strong desire to do so.  I haven’t included episodes generally regarded to be poor unless I have seen them myself but this is my one exception to the rule.  ”Spock’s Brain” seems to have the same universal loathing in fans of the original series that “Beer Bad” inspires in Buffy fans.  The synopsis seems to be that aliens steal Spock’s brain and that the episode is, according to this site, “the most sexist hour of television that I’ve ever seen.”

But wait – there’s more!  It’s featured on a website called the agony booth under the “Worst of Trek” title, and a website featuring fan created Star Trek motivational posters has one just for the episode which says the following:

Spock’s Brain

Look, not every episode can be “City on the Edge of Forever,” okay?

I’m sure my list will continue to grow as I discover new shows and as my favourites misstep but these are my “worst of the best” so far.  I’d love to hear other ideas though, feel free to let me know some of your “worst of the best” television episodes!

1. The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries is a Disney movie aimed toward a teenage crowd, but having females from pre-school to old age, adoring the movie.  It’s about a regular, sort-of misfit girl, Mia, played by Anne Hathaway, who finds out her father who passed away, was actually Prince of a country named Genovia.  Her grandmother, played by Julia Andrews, is not blood lineage and therefore cannot remain Queen for much longer.  Now Mia must make the decision to become Princess of this country or go about her life in San Francisco.  She undergoes a major transformation, changing from geek to glamour, fighting to remain her true self, and falling in love at the same time.

2. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement  

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Now that she is graduated from college, and living in Genovia as Princess, Mia discovers another obsticle in becoming queen.  In order to become Queen she must get married.  And let’s not forget the gorgeous Chris Pine, that keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for his character, Nicholas Devereaux, and Anne Hathaway’s character, Princess Mia, to fall in love, despite his uncle’s plot to try and take over her throne.

3. Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted

Based on Gail Carson Levine’s award winning novel, this is the story of Ella, a young woman who was given a “gift” of obedience by a fairy named Lucinda. Anything anyone tells her to do, she must obey. When her mother passes away, Ella is cared for by her thoughtless and greedy father who remarries a loathsome woman with two treacherous daughters. This modern-day, fantasy Cinderella features fairies, ogres and elves…as well as a hero in the guise of Prince Charmont, whom Ella falls in love with. Unlike Cinderella though, Ella must depend on herself and her intelligence to get her through her troubles and find Lucinda in order for her “curse” to be broken! The film stars lovely Anne Hathaway as Ella and the sexy Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont.

 4. Enchanted

Enchanted

A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City in a story about a fairytale princess who is sent to our world by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer. It’s a storybook view of romance meets the real world.  The tunes are catchy, and what woman wouldn’t want to watch Patrick Dempsey?

5. What A Girl Wants

What A Girl Wants

Daphne(Amanda Bynes), a free-spirited American 17-year-old raised by her equally free-spirited mother (Kelly Preston), learns that her father, (Colin Firth), is a wealthy British politician running for office. Although she is eager to find him, she realizes it could cause a scandal and cost him the election.  She must attempt to fit in with the social requirements demanded of her, while also getting to know her father, dealing with his territorial potential wife and step daughter, maintaining her own self-identity, and managing to find love at the same time.  Meanwhile her parents try to rekindle their lost love for each other.

6. The Prince & Me

The Prince & Me

The movie chronicles the story of Paige Morgan ( Julia Stiles) and Eddie (Luke Mably), who meet at college.  Eddie happens to be the prince of Denmark, and right when Paige is falling in love with him discovers this. They have a romance with predictable ups and downs that end happily. Paige graduates and goes on to medical school, while Prince Edward declares that he will wait until she is able to marry him.  This one is geared for an older audience more so than most of the movies listed here.

7. The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride

A classic film, for all ages, that will never be forgotten. The viewer, is transported to a place out of time–to Florin, a kingdom in the ultimate imaginary land, complete with dashing heroes, cowardly princes, rhyming giants, shrieking eels, rodents of unusual size, fancy swordfights, and yes…even some kissing. The lovely Buttercup (Robin Wright) learns that “As you wish” really means “I love you” when she falls for her charming farmhand, Westley (Cary Elwes). While trying to seek his fortune, however, Westley disappears at sea, an apparent victim of the Dread Pirate Roberts, who takes no prisoners. A few years later, Buttercup, engaged to the oily Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), is kidnapped by an oddball trio of rogues–brains, Vizzini (Wallace Shawn); brawn, Fezzik (André the Giant); and sword, Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin in a standout performance). As they sail away toward the Cliffs of Insanity, they notice the pursuit of a man in black…and the adventure begins.

>>The next three if you’re not already familiar with the plots, you should be ashamed of yourself.  I’ll give a quick synopsis anyways.  Three classic Disney movies that shape fairytales for most of the other movies (had to include some Disney Princess movies somewhere):

8. The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid

Dreaming of life on the land as a human being, a young mermaid princess makes a bargain with a sea witch in order to win the heart of a prince (whom she is love with), only to discover that the witch has a bigger agenda and must save her father’s kingdom in a race against time itself.

P.s. I’m sure every girl at some point after watching this movie tried combing their hair with a fork.

 9. The Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast

Belle is a girl who is dissatisfied with life in a small provincial French town, constantly trying to fend off the misplaced “affections” of conceited Gaston. The Beast is a prince who was placed under a spell because he could not love. A wrong turn taken by Maurice, Belle’s father, causes the two to meet, deal with each other, and fall in love, despite appearances, turning Beast into Prince again.
 
P.S. on this one….Belle made the gold dress famous.

10. Cinderella

Cinderella

Let’s not forget about the classic fairytale, rags to riches, happy-ending, Prince Charming, love story.  Cinderella. Cinderella is a young woman forced to work as a servant for her horrible stepmothers and two stepsisters. The King invites every eligible maiden to attend to a ball for the Prince returning home, and he shall pick one of them to become his bride. The stepmothers forbid her from going and she is forced to stay at home. Her fairy godmother appears and turns a pumpkin and mice into a beautiful horse and Carriage with footmen. She then turns Cinderella’s rag dress into a beautiful ball gown. She then goes to the ball and dances all night with the Prince. She has to flee at midnight as that is when the fairy godmothers spell will end. The prince doesn’t even get hername but is sure that she is the one who he will marry. He finds her when the glass slipper that she left behind is a perfect fit.  Cinderella and Prince Charming end up falling in love and they live happily ever after.

- Every woman still dreams about her “happily ever after”, so swooning over movies like these are a result of the fact that they still touch the core of her childhood dreams of being a Princess and finding Prince Charming.

Summaries courtesy of Wikipedia.com, IMDb.com, RottenTomatoes.com, AllWatchers.com & the writer of this post.

First of all, apologies for lack of posts.  The cruel system which dictates I work for a living means I’ve had less time than usual.  But I am still here, reading all your lovely comments and beginning all sorts of post which will one day make it to the web.  This one started as a quick scribble before work, but I’m determined to finish it….

In a format I’ve stolen from one of the favourites on my blogroll, I thought I’d do a comparison of two movies sharing a similar format, sparked by a recent discussion on the comments of this post.

Stardust and The Princess Bride are essentially doing the same thing.  They take the typical children’s fairytale and turn it on its head so that nothing is quite as you expect it.  Princess Bride definitely does this more knowingly, almost aiming directly at adults, while Stardust follws the growing trend of family films with parent-oriented humour (following on from Toy Story and Shrek)

Unlike the two Rosses, I’m not really going for an out and out which film is better debate here, especially since the fact that I’ve just watched Princess Bride means its much clearer in my mind….(but I have a feeling I might be leaning that way anyway.)  Instead I’m hoping to convince you to go and watch them especially if you may have dismissed them as kids films.  Stardust you’ve more than likely heard of, as with any Hollywood release it did the promo circuit, but Princess Bride had to work harder to earn its cult status.  (Although, if you ever watch those 100 Best *insert adjective* Movie countdowns, they always find some way to include it somewhere in the top 30.)

The strength of both films is in their comedy.  Stardust has genius comic turns from Robert DeNiro and a cast of pretty much every British comic actor wandering past the studio at the time (Julian Rhind-Tutt, David Walliams, Ricky Gervais etc).  As I’ve mentioned, DeNiro’s performance (I’m not gonna ruin it) pretty much changed my life.  You’ll never look at him the same again , but The Princess Bride just has the edge I think, counting Peter Cook, Billy Crystal, Peter Falk, Mel Smith and Andre the Giant amongst its fantastic ensemble cast.  Princess Bride is endlessly quotable (“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!”) and as has been demonstrated, contains some classic scenes.  In fact, I’d go as far as to argue that Stardust refernces its predecessor, with a remarkabley similar “mostly dead” scene at the end and yet another ferocious Pirate Captain who isn’t all he seems.  I say references rather than “steals from” because Stardust is almost a remake in everything but plot , which in itself isn’t too far away from Princess Bride (despite being based on a novel).  This isn’t a criticism though, more films like The Princess Bride should be made, and if they’re going to be done as well as Stardust then I’m all for it, even if they do borrow the odd idea.

The characters are what make these films great.  I’m not sure that Yvaine and Dunstan will become quite as iconic as Inigo and Fezzik, but making a film that stands up in comparison to The Princess Bride isn’t easy, so points to Matthew Vaughan and Co.  The older film is a classic, and is quite probably the better film (I’m reserving judgement until I watch Stardust again) but both should be on your “to watch” list (preferably on the same day )

Two Tony Award winners in one night; almost more than a show queen can handle – ‘almost’ I said.

Diva #1: Patti LuPone, Tony Award winner; for Evita (1987) and Mamma Rose in Gypsy (2009). This ‘broad’ is a tough act; tough on herself and tough on her audience. She has immense discipline and her performance is totally focused but she demands respect and attention in return, and does not suffer fools gladly. She has been known to stop a show, in more ways than one: most famously during her run in Gypsy on Broadway, to demand that the person taking photographs of her be removed from the audience. The poor fan was ushered out while enduring a withering tirade, the entire event was of course recorded, naturally enough, on a ‘cell’ phone and immediately posted on Youtube. LuPone has spent over thirty years perfecting her craft, appearing on stage, TV and in the movies, gathering critical and popular acclaim along the way.

Divo #2: Mandy Patinkin, Tony Award winner for Che Guevara in Evita (1987) opposite La LuPone, is… a tough act. His career has spanned four decades; appearing on Broadway, in film and on television, this guy has the chops to give ‘she who must not be photographed’ a run for her money.

This was not La LuPone’s first visit to Sydney, having taken over the role of Eva Peron in 1981 for the Australian production of Evita, from Jennifer Murphy, and then again appearing during the Sydney Festival in 1999. Mr. Patinkin has performed here twice before in a Yiddish concert and also a Broadway compendium show.

On the bare stage of The State Theatre, save for a piano, bass and thirty one ghost lights standing like sentinels across the stage, two plain wooden chairs and a side table for water, this is the sum total of the set dressing. You are left with the impression that this is going to be a bare bones master class in the art of musical theatre and not just the usual cabaret show, where the performers revel in glories of shows past, singing their hits and telling backstage anecdotes. This is a ‘theatrical piece’ according to LuPone, a show about relationships; between a man and a woman. LuPone and Patinkin devote a lot of time to build mood and create an experience, it’s as if you have crept into the rehearsal room to watch them act out scenes from some of the great (and not so great) shows of American theatre.

The show builds on the theme that no matter how hard we try we can never really escape from ourself or our need for love. Each song chosen, nicely feeds into the next and builds the story; even ‘Don’t cry For Me Argentina’ somehow fits.

Patinkin is an extremely mannered performer and he seemed at times to be channelling Al Jolson; however when you match this persona with the right song then a lot is forgiven. He really hit his stride in ‘The God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues’ from Follies and ‘Franklin Shepard, Inc’ from Merrily We Roll Along. It’s as if Patinkin is struggling to suppress his own personality and at times his body is contorted in a kind of vaudevillian marionette. His vocal range also seems to have become even more mannered in the last few years and when he travels from chest into head voice, again it’s as if some caricature has taken over.

LuPone on the other hand commands the stage with her stillness. She stands centre stage at the close of the first act to perform ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ from Evita and with just the smallest of gestures she recreates the power of Eva Peron, but it is in ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ that we see the full range of not only of her voice but her talent as an actress.

This is actually a small show and deserves a much more intimate theatre than The State. The subtlety of some of the performance is easily lost in the towering proscenium arch and three level auditorium. The first act sound was muddied with lyric and dialogue lost in the mixing booth, this was mostly remedied for the second.

The show was directed and co-written by Patinkin with pianist/musical director, Paul Ford, accompanied on bass by Andrew Shaw and choreography by Anne Reinking, nothing is left to distract you from the voices of these two Broadway legends.

Don’t tell anyone but secretly and quietly I really wanted a cabaret show with a bigger brassy band and showstopper after showstopper.

I recently went through the the entire series of Dead Like Me, including the movie. (You’ll notice that general sentence a lot, which tells you what I do all day.)

How She Died

Dead Like Me is a dark comedy following Georgia Lass, an unambitious eighteen-year-old who rarely smiles and is going nowhere in life. In the first episode, George dies. More specifically she is hit by a space debris–a toilet seat–that fell from a Russian space station. You may wonder where the show can go when the main character dies, but though Lost executives turned down this idea for Jack Shepherd, this is a situation where the death was necessary, as it introduces us to the mythology of the show. Instead of moving on to an after life, George is relegated to the undead role of Grim Reaper. Her job is to collect the souls of people right before they die so that they do not feel any pain when the death occurs and then guide the soul into the afterlife.

George is slowly but surely trained in the ways of a Reaper by a merry band of reapers:

Rubin, the father of the family who doles out post it notes with the time and place where the reaping will be

Roxy, the tough mother figure with a fiery temper who works as a meter maid (later a police officer)

Mason, the teenage rebel who goofs off and has a weakness for sex, drugs, alcohol, and law breaking

Betty, the spirited wild-child who disappears midway through the first season

Daisy, the devious starlet who likes to scheme to make money with minimum effort

And the rules are for the most part well-established in this show (excluding the movie, which seems to decide it can ignore all of the rules for no good reason). George slowly but surely learns the rules and the consequences of their job, though that doesn’t keep her from fighting her position as a Reaper wherever she can.

The most mundane thing in life declaring the end of someone's life.

There’s a catch to being a Reaper though. Two actually. The first- No paycheck. Hardly seems fair, but there it is. So everything they get is either taken from the dead or earned through side jobs, which is how George ends up at Happy Time, a temp agency where she worked for a single day before her death. As a reaper, George appears different to the world and goes by the name Millie. The second- you don’t actually know who you are going to reap, you need to figure it out yourself. The post its only provide the first initial and last name, which has led to complications on more than one occasion.

Meanwhile, George’s family has to deal with the loss. George’s inept mother, emotionally confused father, and STRANGE sister all grieve in their own ways. (I say strange because what other way is there to describe a girl who steals toilet seats and lies to the neighbors saying her mother won’t let her go to the bathroom?) Though Georgia can never come home and reveal herself to her family (there are rules and consequences preventing that) George still looks in on the family she cared little about during her first life. She occasionally leaves small tokens of comfort for the family she can’t be a part of and tries to take pieces back with her whenever she can.

Part of the show’s charm is that it is so different than anything out there and it didn’t run for long enough to “jump the shark” (though the movie managed to do that all on its own). The writers are creative, developing not just a unique lifestyle but also unique phrases that make the plotline feel all encompassing. Everything but the movie are posted on hulu and if you’re looking for something to watch, this is definitely a good option. The most unfortunate thing about the show is it got canceled before we could learn everything there was to know about this world and before we could see George finish growing up and move on.

Own the complete series: Dead Like Me: The Complete Collection

I was watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding the other day. Anyway, I was watching the part where Nikki and Angelo are fighting. It reminded me of my best guy friend, who I’ll call Bob. It reminded me of us because we fight like we were brother and sister. Plus he can infuriate me and B-Shawty, you know why. I won’t really get into how but I know that he cares for me like a sister. Anyway, other people who have seen us interact have also said that we fight like we’re an old married couple like Miracle Max and Valerie from The Princess Bride. I think what it is is that we’ve known each other long and well enough to know what ticks each other off and what buttons to push, etc.

Je ne sais pas pourquoi mais depuis ce matin, j’ai cette réplique de The Princess Bride en tête. Du coup, je repense à Mandy Patinkin, et ça me donne envie de revoir des épisode de Dead Like Me.