TV Reports

Dexter-I watched the entire series.  Some of it was okay.  Most of it wasn't.  I never got behind the idea of a cold blooded murderer being the hero of the show.  I found Michael Hall's 'Dexter' to be unlikable at best and repellent most of the time.  As the show went on I grew tired of their attempts to make me like him and all the attempts to justify his murders.  The lesser of two evils is still evil.  Also, I hated most all the other characters, especially the character of his sister Debra.  At no point did I ever remotely like her and I actively rooted for her to get bumped off, too bad it took 95 episodes for it to happen.  The only things I liked about this show were some of the females.  I loved Nikki Walters, Aimee Garcia, Julie Benz, Julia Stiles, Molly Parker (although she was wasted in such a small role), Katia Winter, Jaime Murray, Liza Lapria, and the absolutely delicious Yvonne Strahovski. Other things that annoyed me about this show were the plot lines they never developed and the characters they introduced but quickly shuffled off.  I tried to like this one, honestly, I did.  But in the end, it just didn't do it for me.  (Netflix)

The Brief-I quite liked the Alan Davies show about British lawyers.  Davies character was smart and mostly honest but he was also just flawed enough to keep me interested.  This show is well acted, well written, and well shot.  (Acorn TV)

The Last Detective-Peter Davison plays a sad sack British policeman who's one step above a uniformed beat cop and who is hated and or marginalized by his superiors.  But somehow he manages to solve murders and save the day.  This not your usual police procedural, it's quirky even by British standards, but it's definitely worth watching. (Acorn TV)

Short Poppies-Seven eccentric New Zealanders are featured in a mock documentary and they're all played by Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords fame.  It's a sweetly funny effort by all involved.  And Darby makes an unsettlingly attractive woman.  (Netflix)

A very special Monkey movie review

I saw this film the other night and I invited David Mamet over to discuss this filmed adaptation of his play.
Dr. Monkey Hussein Monkerstein: Welcome to my blog Mr. Mamet.
David Mamet: Thanks. Your...
Dr. MHM: Blog. That's right.
Mamet: Right. Right. Blog.
Dr. MHM: Let me say that I thought the film was a wildly funny over the top black comedy.
Mamet: You thought...
DR. MHM: Yes.
Mamet: The thinking on your part was...
Dr. MHM: Yes.
Mamet: Film. Funny.
DR. MHM: Yep.
Mamet: Yes. Film. Your blog. Yes.
Dr. MHM: This might go on forever...
Mamet: This? What?
Dr. MHM: Us, speaking in...
Mamet: Mametian ellipses? Speaking...
DR. MHM: Holy fucking fuck yes. Take a break Davey boy and let me show some pictures from the film.

Julia Stiles never looked cuter than she does in this film. Too bad her character gets murdered.

Bai Ling loves to show her small boobs off. Thank goodness she didn't sing in this role, she only danced "seductively."
Mena Suvari looks like she's 12. I'm sorry but she does.

Mamet: You didn't show a picture of my wife. She's in this movie too.

Dr. MHM: Yes. Your wife...

Mamet: You were saying.

Dr. MHM: Yeah. I'm just saying.

Mamet: And that's all? I mean, you were showing pictures one second and saying things the next. Yes.

Dr. MHM: Holy shit, you've sucked me back in to speaking like people do in your films.

Mamet: Speaking.

Dr. MHM: Okay, that 's it. You've got to go. We've almost wasted this entire post and we didn't discuss this film much.

Mamet: My...(fault)...really. Yes. (Loooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggg pause) Yes. Mine. The fault lies with me. Yes. Certainly. Yes.

Dr. MHM: Okay that's it Mamet. You shut your face while I tell everyone about this film.

Mamet:

Dr. MHM: This movie is based on the play of the same name and it's about one man's descent into all the circles of hell in one night, although they changed it a bit for this movie adaptation. Bill Macy leaves his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon, aka David Mamet's wife) and he decides to get some strange and start his life over. During his quest for strange he runs afoul of many hookers, strippers, pimps, three card Monte dealers, kills Julia Stiles, gets sent to prison, and ends up in a cell with a big black man who makes him be his bitch. This film is all about white guilt, resentment towards black men, and living the urban nightmare. Maybe if I had seen it when it was a play when it premiered back in the 1970's it might not have struck me as such a false and over wrought production, but I didn't. I saw it now and times are very different than when it was written and hearing white male characters call blacks the 'n' word made me recoil in horror. Then I just stopped taking it so seriously and I decided that this film as it is is nothing more than a way over the top black comedy. And despite all the acting talent assembled in it and the fact that Mamet...

Mamet: Yes. Me.

DR. MHM: ...adapted the script from his own play, the whole thing wasn't very good. In fact, it kind of stank.

Mamet: But my wife...

DR. MHM: Yes. She looked cute in it.

Mamet: Thanks. She stays in shape. She has to. It's in our pre nup.

Dr. MHM: Okay folks, I'm going to stuff a rag in Mamet's mouth now. Avoid this film if at all possible, unless you like campy urban melodrama that's way over the line.

Two for Tuesday times 2

Here's four quick reviews of films I've seen recently here at Monkey Central.  

Rendition is a very good film with some plot twists you never see coming.  It's a timely topical film that will remain timely and topical as long as anyone is being oppressed by dictatorial regimes and as long as any nation allows torture.  Everyone in it gives convincing believable performances, especially good turns are given by Meryl Streep who plays against type and by our favorite gal from Memphis ever Ms. Witherspoon.  The mini documentary in the extras about the two men who were sucked into our forced rendition program is especially enlightening and well worth the rental or purchase price of this DVD alone.  I highly recommend this film.

We caught this on one of our local PBS stations a few weeks ago.  It is one of those end of the world movies that used to give me nightmares when I was a kid.  Seeing it now almost 50 years after it was made, the film holds up surprisingly well.  It's still a scary and cautionary tale that needs to be repeated over and over again until the rich white guys in power finally do something about making sure we are nuclear weapon free forever.  

The other thing I noticed about this film was that back in the late '50's they did not give a shit about big time Hollywood actors doing credible accents.  Anthony Perkins and Ava Gardner, who by the way was one hell of a beautiful woman, are supposed to be Aussies in this film but neither so much as attempts an Aussie accent.  Fred Astaire is supposed to be British in this film and his accent is as American as apple pie.  The non use of accents detracted a bit from my enjoyment of this film but not enough to make me hate it.  

I hope to one day read the Nevil Shute novel this was based on one day.  

I watched half of this and then I turned it off.  I like the occasional horror film and the odd slasher pic but this was not either of those.  This movie was torture porn.  Ick.  With all the horror and torture our government is meting out in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and odds knows where else I just could not stomach this one.  But oddly enough I'm going to watch Saw 3 and 4 one of these days.

I'm not a huge shoot 'em up action movie guy but I've been a huge fan of these Bourne movies since day one.  It's probably because I was a huge fan of Robert Ludlum's novels, but not the ones they came out with after he died.  These movies finally got the whole Ludlum thing right.  They are fast paced, action and intrigue filled, and they have good performances by everyone in them.  

This latest edition of the Bourne movies is no different.  I quite liked it despite the fact that it was clunky in a few places and the set up for the showdown with Albert Finney was kind of laughable, Finney is told to get out before Bourne can get him but in James Bond villain style he scoffs at the idea of not facing down his nemesis.  As soon as Finney says no to running away from Bourne I turned to Sparky and I said, "I'll kill you Mr. Bond after I torture you."

But even with the odd hiccup or two, I loved this movie.  Who would have thought Matt Damon could kick so much ass and look so convincing doing it?  But as good as Damon, Joan Allen, and Paddy Considine were in this, the star of this movie was Julia Stiles hair do.  I'm not exaggerating, and I don't usually notice these things but this time I did, when I say that she sports the best looking hair do in the history of cinema in this movie.  It was perfect for her head shape, her face, and for her coloring.  And don't get me started on how good the highlights in her hair looked.  But just I was crushing hard on Ms. Stiles and her perfect do, they made her character go and dye her hair and cut it so she could escape the clutches of the evil bastards in the CIA.  They made up for it later when they used Ms. Stiles in one of the last scenes of the film.  

And yes, they left the possibility of making another Bourne film wide open.  I'm betting that in the next one Damon and Stiles hook up and they call it, "The Bourne Pregnancy."