A little bit back, it was announced that David Fincher was going to direct the video for Justin Timberlake’s ”come-out-of-hiatus-because-JayZ-asked-me-to-song” Suit and Tie.
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is the latest of a multitude of films in the Universal Solider universe. Starting with science fiction film Universal Soldier in 1992, the series follows the life of Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) as a reanimated solider who breaks his mind control and goes after one time nemesis Andrew Scott (Dolf Lundgren). While a great example of mid 90′s action, it spawned several sequels that have had neither the budget nor the talent of the original. This latest attempt is no exception.
John (Scott Adkins) sees his wife and daughter killed in front of him. Waking from a coma months later, he is told that Luc Deveraux is the man responsible. Attempting to figure out who Deveraux is, why he killed his family and tracks him down has John putting together the pieces of his broken life. Interplaying this is Magnus (Andrei Arlovski) making dead just about everyone he meets, and then set on the trial of John. A few twists and turns, plus the inclusion of a dancer named Sarah (Mariah Bonner), finds the inevitable meeting between John and Deveraux, with a stop-off to visit Andrew Scott first.
Cartoonish action movies always follow a very simple formula of alternating between action and story in a regular and established pattern. It allows for enough story to explain the action while not being overly taxing on one’s willing suspense of disbelief. When a writer and director try to alter this basic construct, by either not having enough action, or by having an overly complex story, then the movie usually fails in its aim.
Such is the case with this film.
The story attempts to over explain certain concepts about why actions are being taken by some characters, yet fails to even provide a basis for motivation of others. From the moment we watch Deveraux kill John’s family, there is never an explanation why. There is never an explanation of why Magnus is sent after John. Deveraux stands around looking stoic while his ‘army’ gets drunk and fights with itself all day.
Director John Hyams brings to life the screenplay he, along with Doug Magnuson and Jon Greenhalgh co-wrote. While the concepts and are ideas are good, the production suffers on all levels from budgetary and talent constraints. Looking as if it were shot on home video, the sets are strikingly fake appearing as disjointed as the plot. The sound mostly works, but the generic soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable or unique. The inclusion of a flashing screen as device to show the alteration of mental state that was used throughout the film is quite long and taxes the viewers patience.
Overall a poorly made film that lacks a good story and underused the talents of the action stars on the billing. Although there were some well done fight scenes and action sequences, they are neither unique or original enough to warrant having to sit through the convoluted story to do so.
I really enjoyed the last episode. We only have two episodes left and it seems Aaron Sorkin is going in for his typically incredible end of season one cliffhanger. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that we already have a season two greenlit.
Check out the preview for the next episode above which has been named ‘The Blackout Part II: Mock Debate’.
Episode Synopsis: Will and the “News Night” staff stage a mock debate for a pair Republican Party officials. Mac has an epiphany during a power outage; Charlie vets the credibility of an NSA insider; Lisa (Kelen Coleman) goes off-script during an on-air interview; Neal goes undercover as an internet troll.
Written by Aaron Sorkin; directed by Alan Poul.
The Newsroom airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO
About the Show From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball, comes The Newsroom, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor (played by Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston), the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.
The show is trucking along nicely. Now that all the so-called critics have had their fill, the rest of us can enjoy what is shaping up to be a very promising and fun to watch first season. The preview for next episode is up we have Terry Crews and David Krumholtz guest-starring in what looks like another lively episode.
Check out the preview for the next episode above which has been named ‘Bullies’.
Episode Synopsis: Sloan subs for Elliot during the Japanese nuclear crisis following the March 2011 earthquake, but her harsh questioning of a Tokyo power-company representative could damage her credibility. Meanwhile, Will has a bout of insomnia that leads him to therapy, and he learns a lesson about bullying after his rude behavior in an interview.
The Newsroom airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO
About the Show From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball, comes The Newsroom, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor (played by Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston), the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.
The last few minutes of Episode 4 was some of the best stuff I have seen on television in a very long time and it is truly vintage Sorkin. The whole thing with the music from Coldplay to how the story came together. I am fully digging where the show is going and very glad that HBO is letting him do it.
Check out the preview for the next episode above which has been named ‘Amen’.
The Newsroom airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO
About the Show From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball, comes The Newsroom, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor (played by Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston), the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.
Aaron Sorkin returns to the small screen after a couple of big years at the movies where he won an Oscar for best screenplay for The Social Network and only followed that up with one of the best pure baseball dramas in Moneyball.
His previous outing on television resulted in the mixed bag that was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the dramedy following the behind-the-scenes shenanigans and inner workings of a Saturday Night Live type of weekly sketch comedy show. We had characters worthy of our investment there as well as the snappy dialogue we’ve come to expect from Sorkin, but the show was often self-serious and heavy handed. You could never shake the feeling that what Sorkin really wanted was a train set where he could unleash his ideas, opinions and social critiques into an engaging polemic about show biz, society, and modern living.
But what Studio 60 left us with was an over-the-top production that just couldn’t pull off any number of the multitude of things it was trying to do, such as incorporating network politics into a show about comedians. Perhaps that show also didn’t work because it proved that on the sidelines far away from the spotlight, comedians aren’t exactly funny or interesting people, just a pack of rats like the rest of us.
With The Newsroom, Sorkin finally has a train set more in tune with his global vision and imaginative reach (a train set with little nods to newsrooms of the past in Network and Broadcast News). A show that gets into the world of those prime-time cable news programs that blend actuality with social commentary. You know where to find them and if you’re a news junkie you probably play favorites, pledging allegiance either to MSNBC, CNN or FOX. The fictional network here is ACN and its ratings star is Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, who is seen as the Jay Leno of cable news hosts with his brand of daily coverage of current events that never rocks the boat, just as Leno’s comedy on The Tonight Show is inoffensive and safe.
But all of that changes in a heartbeat after McAvoy appears on a panel at a university town hall talk featuring partisan politicos seated on either side of him in an event having something to do with current events, society, and American life in general. This is where the first episode of the The Newsroom begins as we focus in on a quietly agitated Daniels having to put up with a Democrat and a Republican straight out of central casting, squawking their usual talking points instead of actually listening to each other.
In a Q&A at the event, a student asks the panel to tell her “in one sentence or less” why America is great and that’s when Daniels punches out a brilliant and sobering monologue about where the country stands today. He owns the questioner but not without being condescending to her, as well. The footage goes viral and now the Daniels character is facing a crisis at work with his executive producer and practically his entire news team being lifted to go work with a former staffer who is going to fill the daily 10 pm slot.
Daniels’ performance here as the affable, former idealist-cum-cynic Will McAvoy, coupled with the intelligent writing of creator Aaron Sorkin should make The Newsroom somewhat of a hit on HBO that caters to the Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert crowds. Sam Waterston is excellent as the cable news division head, a drunk who wears a bow tie who’s been in the news biz since time immemorial. Emily Mortimer stars as the new exec-producer and McAvoy’s ex-girlfriend, and gosh is she good here, radiating intelligence and stubbornness right back at the Daniels character. One of the best sequences in the nearly 75 minute opening episode is her trying to convince him to take his show into a new direction.
The stage is set for us to revel in McAvoy’s evolution as an everyday cable news host who finally starts to inject himself into the show instead of just reading the news as usual, and there are already the beginnings of romantic threads in the narrative. For current events junkies, the use of the BP oil spill here is put to good use and the show should have fun ticking off one big news story after another every week.
But for all its many strengths that make it a good, classy, snappy show, I wonder if even this canvas is too small for Aaron Sorkin. In that big opening monologue, was it just me or were you imagining Jeff Daniels as President McAvoy giving that speech? Following the inner workings of a cable newsroom is a better canvas for Sorkin than Studio 60, but when the oil spill stuff is revealed we realize that from this vantage point we’re considering huge issues from the point of view of folks who get to cover those issues whereas the characters in The West Wing get to have a real impact on those issues. I wonder why Sorkin simply just doesn’t go back to the White House. Seems that’s where he’s a natural fit, exploring topical ideas in an environment with characters meant to hash these things over but who, at the end of the day, get to make policy for the entire country. And that’s where Sorkin’s heart seems to lie, even if he’s distracting himself in a newsroom with this, his brand new toy.
Nonetheless, it’s a welcome return to television for Aaron Sorkin. Glad he’s back.
