The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I’m a week behind on recapping the latest VB installment, but since last night’s episode was a repeat of the season premiere it’s all good.  So without any further preamble, let’s get into it.

The formula for “Self-Medication” is vintage Venture - some intense action (particularly during the cold open), and some further exploration of the larger theme of failure that permeates the entire VB universe.  And by the time we’re done, some major characters find themselves at a crossroads.

First up is good ol’ Doc, who nearly meets a gruesome end at the hands of a newly emboldened and energized Monarch (how can you not love a device called a ‘scarionette’??).  Rusty is literally saved by the bell, when a fortunately timed therapy appointment triggers a new Guild clause (the Mental Health Arch Exclusion) and leaves the Monarch with a case of villain blue balls.  Rusty’s issues are deep and varied, as fans know by now, but I have to say that the scene of little Rusty sharing his anxieties with Jonas Sr. was one of the more pathetic moments in series history.

…keep digging Venture Bros. wrapup: “Self-Medication”

OK, so not every episode can be a stone classic.  I said last week that I like the more self-contained Venture Bros. episodes and I stick by that.  But this one felt a little disjointed until the last few minutes.  Maybe it’s Doc Hammer’s approach to the source material.  Don’t get me wrong though, there were plenty of good moments and laughs.

Maybe part of the problem is that with three separate storylines to focus on (Sgt. Hatred and Rusty trying to save the boys, the boys contending with a grief-stricken Henchman 21, and the Monarch in desperate need of some Benadryl), there was simply too much ground to cover.  I’m not sure what I would’ve cut, but I think the Hatred/Rusty bit felt the most flat.  After earning some redemption in my eyes over the course of the season, Sgt. Hatred was probably the weakest link this episode.

The cold open has 21 talking directly about 24′s death (it was a car intentional) for one of the few times this season, and it also revealed the newfound respect he’s earned from his fellow henchmen.  Hell, even the Monarch is singing his praises for increasing the efficiency of his operation (I guess he’s like a Six Sigma black belt of villainy).   But then we see that 21′s grief has morphed into something bordering on insanity, as he still carries on the same inane discussions he had with 24 – only now he’s talking to 24′s burned skull.  Yikes.

…keep digging Venture Bros. wrapup: “Return to Malice”

If it accomplishes nothing else as a film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince provides plenty of grist for the mill of debate over the pitfalls of translating literature to the big screen.  Because I think how you feel about this movie will hinge in large part upon your expectations of its fidelity to the source material.  So let’s get this right out of the way, in case you’re one of the dozen or so people who haven’t seen the movie or read J.K. Rowling’s book – this film is more of an interpretation of the sixth Harry Potter novel than a straight adaptation.

I took a rather forgiving approach to the omissions, additions, and changes made by screenwriter Steve Kloves but even I must admit to some puzzlement over some of his decisions.  For the sake of brevity I’ll mention just a few – having Dumbledore meet Harry at a Muggle train station rather than at the Dursley household, and leaving Harry free to help Dumbledore as he faced death but seemingly unwilling to do so.  I could go on, but there enough alterations (some pointless, some understandable) present throughout the entire movie that keeping track of them became impossible.

…keep digging GFS at the Movies: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Star Trek brand was about as interesting and relevant as…well, let’s just say I can’t have been the only one who left Gene Roddenberry’s creation for dead after their last outings on the big screen and the boob tube.  Turns out it just needed a bit of a breather (not to mention some fresh creative blood).

Putting aside painful cliches like “set phasers for stunning!” or “Star Trek will now live long and prosper”, I’ll just say that J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek takes its place among the greatest realizations of Roddenberry’s franchise in any medium.  The film succeeded on nearly every level possible, not the least of which was making it resonate with longtime fans – who, let’s face it, are probably the most fanatical and detail-obsessed of any fictional franchise – as well as curious newcomers.

…keep digging GFS at the Movies: Star Trek

Having recently read the magnificent spy epic The Company for the third or fourth time, I decided it was finally time to explore some of Robert Littell’s other works.  So for no particular reason I picked his 1990 novel, The Once and Future Spy (which Mrs. Suit informs me is a King Arthur reference).

While TO&FS is not nearly as engrossing or rewarding as The Company, it was fun and engaging nonetheless.  Without giving too much of the plot away, the basic story goes like this: A CIA operative named Wanamaker is running an operation (code name Stufftingle) that may or may not be officially sanctioned by the agency, but is confounded by a leak.  To find and stop the leak he brings in a retired and somewhat disgraced former Naval Intelligence officer, one Admiral J. Pepper Toothacher (yes, that’s the name they stick with) and his chauffeur/assistant/math whiz Huxstep.

The leak, as it turns out, is another CIA operative named Silas Sibley (aka The Weeder), who has personal and convuluted reasons for interfering with Wanamaker’s operation.  But he quickly gets in over his head when the Admiral and Huxstep close in on him.  The bulk of the novel details The Weeder’s attempts to save his own hide while still trying to put a stop to Stufftingle.

Had Littell just left it at that, TO&FS would have been a serviceable (albeit unremarkable) work of spy fiction.  But he adds a story device that I rather enjoyed, although some may find it hackneyed.  Sibley, as it happens, is also a Revolutionary War buff.  And not just the war, but one participant in particular, whom he refers to as “Nate.”  Sibley, who claims to be Nate’s descendant, is obsessed with Nate’s life and the circumstances leading to his early death.

As such, the novel alternates between the present and Sibley’s accounts of Nate’s activities during the war.  Nate turns out to be Nathan Hale, widely regarded as America’s first spy.  As the two stories progress, the similarities between Hale and Sibley become more obvious.  The only question is whether the similarities are truth, coincidence, or merely the figment of Sibley’s overactive imagination.

So in truth, TO&FS is as much a work of historical fiction as it is spy fiction.  And for a lot of the book, I was much more interested in Nate’s story than in Sibley’s.  Littell incorporates enough historical fact into Nate’s life to lend it credibility, so the more fanciful portions seem plausible.  The book seems a bit forced toward the end, but wraps up fairly nicely.

So I can recommend this book easily, and look forward to exploring more of Littell’s catalog.

I caught a bit of GoldenEye over the weekend and was reminded of how much the 007 franchise was just going through the motions even long before Pierce Brosnan’s arrival.  Casino Royale went a long way toward restoring the vitality and enjoyment of watching James Bond, and it looks as if Quantum of Solace will continue that positive direction.

Don’t believe me?  Just watch the newest trailer:

See what I mean?  That shot of Bond falling through the glass ceiling at the 1:24 mark is awesome all by itself.  In conclusion – Daniel Craig owns this role and you know it.  But if he ever gets killed I’m fairly confident Judi Dench could kick some ass too.

The fact that a movie like Tropic Thunder not only exists but is doing well at the box office is refreshing for two reasons – first because we live in age of political correctness run amok, where works of mainstream art are neutered beyond recognition lest they offend anyone; and because it’s proof that genre spoofs don’t have to be nothing but an endless parade of tired and already dated sight gags and pop culture references (I’m looking at you Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, etc.).

Tropic Thunder is the type of film National Lampoon might have produced back in the day when they were culturally relevant and not resigned to making movies for sexually frustrated twentysomethings.  It was instead directed and co-written by Ben Stiller, who I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed with for the most part since his clever and short-lived TV show.  With this film, he has redeemed himself somewhat in my eyes (until the inevitable Meet the Parents 3 at least).

This movie-within-a-movie concerns the making of Tropic Thunder, a Vietnam War pic that is itself based on the memoir of Sgt. John “Four Leaf” Tayback (Nick Nolte).  It stars an unlikely cast featuring nearly washed up action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), intense Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), drug-addicted comedic actor Jeff “Fats” Portnoy (Jack Black), hip hop/commercial mogul Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and the fresh-faced but otherwise unremarkable Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel).

Filming quickly falls behind schedule, helped not in the least by petulant talent and a botched pyrotechnics shot that fondly recalls the opening of the Peter Sellers classic, The Party.  When the film’s producer profanely chews out greenhorn director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), Tayback convinces him that the only way to get things back on track is to immerse the pampered actors in a real jungle combat environment.

I won’t get into the plot any more than that, but you can probably guess that things predictable backfire on Cockburn.  From here, the movie becomes less a spoof and more a direct and broad comedy.  And while the main cast acquits themselves nicely, Tropic Thunder eventually (although perhaps not intentionally) becomes a vehicle for Robert Downey Jr., who displays some fine comedic chops as a way-too-serious actor who seems to be a goof on Russell Crowe.  Some of the movie’s funniest moments revolve around the touchy issue of a white actor taking the place of a black one (in this case, not through blackface but through skin pigmentation surgery).

But what actually drew me to the movie in the first place is the ridiculous controversy over its portrayal of people with “intellectual disabilities”.  And I’m here to tell you that while I can see where the protesters are coming from, they’re way out of line here.  It’s a damn comedy, and the scenes in question take up maybe about 10 minutes out of the whole film.  And while I may not use a line like “never go full retard” in Bible discussion group, I laughed hard at it anyway.

But with or without the controversy, I can highly recommend Tropic Thunder.  It’s not a comedy classic, but it’s still damn funny and manages the increasingly uncommon feat of being raunchy and clever at once.  Oh, and it features a cameo appearance that, if you haven’t heard about it yet, is totally unexpected and an ace bit of casting.  I won’t give it away here, but the actor’s name is listed in the tags for this post.  Yet another bit of redemption…