Change Your Image
JayArfur
Reviews
The Middleman (2008)
Short but sweet
If there is one thing that makes me want to kick a cat it's when I find out a TV show that I've fallen in love with has been cancelled in its first year. Lucky for me and the cat I don't own any pets. Animal cruelty aside, it is very frustrating when a TV network cuts short something as wonderfully odd and brilliant as The Middleman.
Based on the graphic novels by Javier Grillo-Marxuach it's the story of Wendy Watson, played by Natalie Morales, a young attractive artist who finds herself working for The Middleman (Matt Keeslar) a square-jawed all-American hero who saves the world on a daily basis from supernatural forces while not even uttering a curse word.
Taking in elements of Men in Black, The X-Files and a host of other past sci-fi classics, it manages to be a light-hearted entertaining comedy drama. While clearly a low budget show – most of the set pieces are played off camera; it rarely feels cheap and if anything, that's part of the joke.
There is great re-watch value too, with each episode filled with in-jokes, nods to other sci-fi references and the obligatory Wilhelm scream. In the current climate of TV channels that are filled with near identical crime or medical dramas with Brits playing Americans, spending most of their 43 minutes sarcastically mouthing off to a group of near identical supporting cast members, it seems crazy to let something as original as The Middleman join the likes of Firefly, Wonderfalls, Odyssey 5 and American Gothic as one season gems. We should however at least be grateful for the few fine episodes made.
Fanboys (2009)
Nostalgia, ain't what it used to be...
1999, a time when downloading trailers and booking tickets online was a long and drawn out process. Star Wars fans across the world were counting down the weeks, days, hours and minutes before Phantom Menace was released to us all.
Fanboys is a comedy road movie about a varied group of geeks, who trek across America to catch a glimpse of the work print for Episode 1 locked deep within Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Along the way they meet an assortment of characters most of which will be familiar to fans of both Wars and Trek.
While there are some funny moments it does seem to miss the point of what it is to truly be a fan of sci-fi and not a specific series of films or TV show. Star Trek fans suffer the worst with Seth Rogan (in one of three roles) making followers of Roddenberry's universe sad losers with big teeth who are never too far away from their tri-corder or batleth. It also pokes nostalgic fun at the period. But while there are chuckles to be had from this there aren't many belly laughs. Kevin Smith's cameo highlights the fact that he was making funnier Star Wars references in his films a long, long time ago before Jar Jar Binks ruined almost everything.
Rumours of re-shoots, tinkering from Harvey Weinstein and a much delayed release does appear to have affected the final product. It wants to be the next American Pie but it's too tame to be a true gross-out comedy and it's not even as sweet natured as that film was back in 1999. It contains enough in-jokes to keep other Fanboys happy but I doubt it will find many fans who don't still own lightsabres and Storm Trooper helmets.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Bad Boys In Blue
If you've seen the trailer for the latest offering from Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright you shouldn't require a detailed description of Hot Fuzz's plot.
If not, then I guess it can be summed up as this: The best Police Officer in London (Simon Pegg) is transferred to a sleepy English village partnered with a local action movie obsessed cop (Nick Frost) who are both thrown into a murder mystery and then all hell breaks loose.
I'm a HUGE fan of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and the other various works of Wright, Pegg and Frost which meant that I've been looking forward to seeing this film for a very, very long time.
My expectations for this little flick were quite possibly too high. I had to ask myself if it was possible to have a film as laugh out loud funny as Shaun within 2 years.
Thankfully I wasn't in the least bit disappointed.
Hot Fuzz is a fantastic action comedy movie with an outstanding cast from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost right down to the old lady who gets kicked in the face. Timothy Dalton is worth a mention for his spot on performance as a devious supermarket manager.
Yes it's true that the trailer has given away some good jokes and set pieces but within the fast paced 2 hour running time I lost count of the various one liners, visual gags and physical pratfalls.
The direction is slick and frantic with editing that even Tony Scott would find fast.
I loved this film, it is at the very least an equal to the mighty Shaun of the Dead and best it's the greatest British action movie in the last 10 years (that doesn't feature Bond, James Bond).
I guarantee you won't be disappointed (*) See this film where it belongs on the BIG Screen.
And if you're reading this when the film is out on DVD just make sure it's on the largest screen possible and you've got all your friends round too.
(* = Not a guarantee)
Dead Clever: The Life and Crimes of Julie Bottomley (2007)
An Acquired Taste
I've not been the biggest fan of ITV1 for a while.
Aside from the excellent return of Cracker and Prime Suspect last year there has been a steady amount of poorly scripted, badly acted one off dramas from the channel.
Which meant I wasn't expecting a lot from Dead Clever. But after checking the credits of the writer and director, which includes the excellent Shameless I figured I'd give ITV1 just one more chance.
I'm kinda glad I did.
The TV movie is about how a man, Ian played by Dean Lennox Kelly, in 1994 is convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 15 years in prison when in fact his wife, Julie (Suranne Jones), set him up. She disappeared for 10 years until an unexpected meeting with her old school friend, Sarah (Helen Baxendale). The two women then find themselves involved in a relationship that takes a few twists and turns along the way.
I say kinda, because while it was yet another soap star led ITV1 one-off, Suranne Jones wasn't as bad as other ex-soap stars I've seen before (Nigel Harman in The Outsiders springs to mind). Helen Baxendale was good (her accent wasn't) and Dean Lennox Kelly is always reliable.
Visually it was well polished without being too showy and the script was tight enough to keep everything moving at a decent pace.
Labelling this as a black comedy was a bit of a mistake however. It had an element of The War of the Roses but wasn't as dark or twisted as Danny Devito's 1989 film was.
The last act does have a scene reminiscent of Mr & Mrs Smith and comes from almost out of nowhere. I couldn't help but chuckle at its silliness.
This isn't a slice of real life, it's a tongue in cheek silly little TV movie with 2D characters. It's not going to win any awards but as a post New Years Eve switch your brain off piece of comedy drama it was perfectly acceptable.
I'm not sure if it'll ever re-surface on TV or DVD, but it you're fed up with reality singing contests or Ant & Dec then you could do worse than watch this.....probably...
The Outsiders (2006)
Not an original idea in sight
When looking at trailers for this ITV Drama it was clearly an attempt at turning Nigel Harman (yet another ex-soap star jumping to ITV) into a Jason Bourne like character. Hell, it even had Brian Cox in it! I thought I'd give it a go. How bad could it be I thought...
But within 5 minutes of watching the programme it was clear that Jason Bourne wasn't the writer's only influence. As noted by others The Da Vinci Code was one of them. The list of rips-offs....or homages continued with Out Of Sight (and Don't Look Now), Alias, the list seemed to go on and on.
It's okay to be like another film or TV show, but at least try to do something different.
The Outsiders was a mess, the plot was all over the place, the characters were two dimensional and totally in-consistent. One minute Anna Madeley our attractive female lead seemed to be in total control of the situation, the next she was the new girl at the office wa-a-a-y in over her head....
The villains weren't anything special.
The few action set pieces were fumbled by the director.
Dialogue was turgid.
The tone was all over the place, was it meant to be a bit tongue in cheek or was it meant to be a down and dirty action thriller? It wasn't either.
It was a below average Sunday tea-time show put in a post-watershed time slot for no good reason.
Even the shows title made no sense.
The real annoyance was that only a few days ago ITV1 broadcast a new one-off special of Cracker. Which was 2 hours of TV gold. Proof that ITV can still (occasionally) do good drama.
In a world where shows like 24, CSI and The Shield exist there isn't any excuse for shows like The Outsiders to reach our screens.
I very much doubt it'll be turned into a full series, but if it does it really needs some re-tooling. Getting new writers would be job one.
Avoid, avoid, avoid. Instead put on the DVD of one of the Bourne films.