Monday, March 30, 2009

The sun always shines on...



Sadly I could not find a nothing video for today. There were a few nearly nothings, but nothing truly nothing-like that would truly waste your time for having watched it.

Instead I will thrill you with tales of my television watching.

Now that Battlestar Galactica is wrapped up and we are only getting a little taste of Caprica with a DVD kickoff later in April (the series is starting sometime in 2010 from what I gather) the great hope for something new to fill the cathode dream machine was Dollhouse. For those not entirely in the know Dollhouse is the new series from Joss Whedon, producer and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly.

It stars Eliza Dushku as Echo, a young woman whose identity and personality has been "wiped," creating of her a blank slate that can be imprinted with any combination of attributes desired by a client who hires her. She is referred to as a "Doll," one of many offered up by the "Dollhouse." This company is a bit of a grey ghost, and their "actives" are rented out to the very wealthy for tasks that range from hostage negotiation to being straight-up playthings. So there's that. Because it's a Whedon show there are several backstories slowly simmering behind the action.

There is, for instance, the wildcard FBI agent (played by Battlestar alum Tahmoh Penikett) who is the only one outside who seems to believe the Dollhouse exists, and an ex-Doll called Alpha who malfunctioned and is at large, seemingly with his sights set on Echo and with some super-ninja programming in place.

I admit to being overly onboard to Whedon projects (I have all the seasons of Buffy, Angel and Firefly on DVD, for example), but after seven episodes I'm getting a little worried. He seems to be aiming closer to the center... and the unfortunate whiff of Alias hangs fragrantly in the air. The trademark irony and sardonic wit is dialed way down on this one... as is the team dynamic that informed all of his previous work. And the backstory is parceled out very sparingly, leaving unfortunately ho-hum lead stories to fill the time.

Dushku is doing ok, but the character is a little problematic. What might seem like a dream job, being able to play a new role every week, is undercut by the fact that, at the root she has no character at all. That element is well played, but hard to get behind as an audience straining to build a relationship with her. Whedon seems to be building on some grander statement about identity and will, but that has only been made rather obliquely so far.

The other characters have the job of advancing the arc, and that has it's high and low points. Harry Lennix plays Echo's "handler" Langton. His job is to oversee and return her at the end of her assigned task. He plays the outsider... our viewpoint into the situation... and someone not entirely invested in the company, which works fairly well. The aforementioned FBI agent, Ballard, is a little stereotypically misunderstood and lone wolf-y. Though he is starting to flesh out a little. Whereas the head of security character Laurence Dominic is barely two-dimensional... he is a company man, and not much else at this point. Olivia Williams plays the oh-so-properly British Miss Dewitt... sort of the Giles to the Dolls I suppose, but she too remains underdeveloped. Finally there is Fran Kranz as Topher, who is the youthful wisecracking genius brain chemist and computer nerd who programs the Dolls. He is the "zany" character, a Xander/Andrew (from the Buffyverse) composite here to provide "magic" solutions and comic relief to the precedings... and he's very very very annoying. What made Xander and Andrew work was their outsider status and struggles to gain a place in the world. Topher is already "in" so his quirks are more like an overextended SNL Tech Support sketch.

When Firefly met its premature demise one of the story threads Whedon confessed to have been running in the background was the "Blue Sunshine" corporation, ostensibly a company concerned with the manufacture of junk food and soft drinks. Here he is developing the notion of a corporation that may or may not be evil running another service which may or may not be immoral with someone on the inside trying to undermine things to an end that also remains unrevealed. It's a whole lot of opaque to deal with.

So... I'm going to stay with it and hope for the best. If it goes balls up I'll go back to Life (which I've gotten behind on watching and so have been putting off catching up until the season is over). Otherwise there's always reading, right?

In related news this was linked on IMDB, sadly.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Spring Horrors. Recommendations.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately... and still pretty stuck in the horror genre... hoping to find some hidden gems. Here are three recommendations for things either just released or soon to be.

Splinter
Released April 14, 2009.

A couple on a less than idyllic camping trip are carjacked by another couple trying to get out of the country. They come into contact with a bizarre plantlike virus that culminates in a standoff at an isolated gas station. A little derivative, but the characters are not nearly as predictable as the majority of horror film clones.

Trailer:



Dorothy Mills
Released February 10, 2009.

The promo posters make this seem like it's another possessed girl movie, but that's a little misleading... not entirely... but... anyway. A psychiatrist from Dublin is travels to a small island where a teenage girl had assaulted a baby left in her care to babysit. She's given the task to determine how prosecution of the girl should be handled. There are definite echoes of Wicker Man and Straw Dogs as the outsider is not exactly welcome with open arms. And the girl, Dorothy Mills, well there's something a little more complicated going on than just bad behaviour. Great performances, especially by the spooky Jenn Murray in the title role. The "revealing all" moment near the end of the movie stretches belief's suspension a little, but overall solid and creepy.

Trailer:


There doesn't appear to be an English language trailer online anywhere.

The Burrowers

Released April 21

A horror western. Why aren't there more of these? When two families sharing a patch of land are attacked leaving some dead and others abducted a search/rescue party sets off with the assumption that Indians are the culprits. The party is under the command of a narrow minded Army Seargent who's mind is made up despite conflicting evidence. Eventually a smaller party including Coffey, an Irish settler engaged to one of the abductees, Walnut, an emancipated slave and army cook fed up with the Sgt and a couple of roughneck frontiersmen splits off to follow a trail that hints something other than Natives might be behind the kidnapping. This works well because the filmmakers are careful to get the Western part right before introducing the horror elements. They also manage the difficult feat of creating tension in the unlikely wide open prairie.

Trailer:

Today's Nothing Video. It may be angry. I'm Not Sure.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Nothing and Everything... or Something.

Hey kids look: It's nothing video day!!!



To offset the nothing videos here is a something video from someone cool I stumbled across last week. I think I may have a new favourite nerd. Sorry Anthony Edwards :(

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Day after Monday is not officially Nothing Video day... but, so what?

Sorry. I forgot this yesterday.



In anyone wants to take a crack at translation.