37

A word to the wise: Never EVER order a video game off ebay, unless you wanna wait two fucking weeks for it to arrive.

36

I have spent much time (and a 20 page paper) discussing my love of 24, though after Tuesday night’s episode of The Shield, I feel it time to give that series its fair due.

About the same time I started watching 24, I picked up an interest in The Shield. For two years, they both aired on Tuesday nights, 24 at 8 and The Shield at 9. Those were great nights, as I would typically mix myself some Everclear drinks and have a complete blast watching televisions best and most intense dramas. On some occasions, The Shield would deliver even bigger thrills than 24, no easy task.

Last night, The Shield’s 5th season finale aired, and it was a complete knockout on every level. The series is effectively coming to a close, and scenarios that have been laid out since the first episode are coming to fruition. One of the corrupt Strike Team’s four members, Lem, is going to jail, victim of shady IA agent Jon Kavanaugh’s (Forrest Whitaker) investigation. Lem’s safety in prison is threatened by an old foe, and the Strike Team, including brutal leader Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and vicious second in command Shane Vendrell (Walt Goggins), work to smuggle him out of the country.

Ignore Detective Dutch Wagenbach’s eerily understandable manipulation of a pretty, young police officer; forget about the relentless mind games between Vic and Kavanaugh; pretend Officer Danielle Sofer didn’t just have Vic’s baby. The lonely and desperate conversation between Shane and Lem is suspenseful, jarring, symbolic, and utterly heart breaking. By the time it has concluded, you have witnessed something every bit as moving as anything ever put to television, and that includes 24.

Cop dramas are a dime a dozen on TV these days, but none come close to The Shield. If you are a fan of good serial storytelling, missing an episode of this daring, edgy, and shattering series is a crime that Vic Mackey himself would be reluctant to commit.

35

After a couple of discussions, I think it is necessary that I clarify a couple of things about my last post.

1. I did not mean to imply that I think Paramount should pull the South Park episode about Scientology and Tom Cruise. If Tom Cruise or anyone else is pressuring them not to air it, I think they should resist.

2. I do think it is wrong to automatically accuse Cruise of applying pressure not to air the episode again, because so far there is no evidence to support this theory.

3. If Cruise has in fact tried to have the episode pulled, he hasn't violated anyone's rights or done anything he could even get sued for, at least not plausibly.

4. Again, if Cruise has tried to have the episode pulled, who can blame him? If you were Paramount's biggest star, and they aired a TV show that ridiculed you, said you were secretly homosexual, and laughed at your religion, would you have the reserve not to try and do something about it?

34

Jim Emerson, the editor of rogerebert.com, posted a letter I wrote very hastily concerning the South Park/Tom Cruise situation.

It can be found here.

My letter isn't very well written, and Emerson disagrees completely, though I stand by my point. Funny how people get really angry when something they like comes under attack, but remain completely silent when, say, Dr. Laura gets run out of Paramount by GLAAD. It's why I've never gotten worked up when someone screams "Censorship!" or "First Amendment!"

33 - Sky High Review

Sky High is the newest film to tackle super-heroes, a topic that has become so common in film that it should soon be awarded its own genre. The characters are all original, so no ridiculously long running concepts have to be honored, but the film dives into comic book stereotypes with unusual candor.

Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) dreads his first dead of high school, but not for the reasons most kids do. His parents are the Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston), the world’s most famous super-heroes on an earth replete with meta-humans. Instead of one of the boring schools mere mortals attend, he’ll be going to Sky High, a flying fortress where all the super-heroes go.

The school’s selection and education process is one that would likely result in lawsuits, if it weren’t out of the legal jurisdiction of every court on earth. On the first day, the students are herded into a gym, where Bruce Campbell (or Sonic Boom, depending on how you choose to listen) demands a demonstration. Kids with useful powers such as flight or super strength get to be ‘heroes’, while those with less useful powers such as the ability to glow in the dark are discarded into the ‘hero support’ pile. The supporters are so disdained that Will had never even heard of his father’s sidekick, who ruefully notes "I suppose he doesn’t have time to sit around all day and look through scrapbooks that I made him." Will has yet to develop any powers, a shortcoming that will crush his father, who doesn’t know (let us hope Will never gets offered drugs).

Sky High makes good use of the material it has. I chuckled at a character named Warren Peace and liked how they covered nearly ever superhero power imaginable. Couldn’t more have been done, however? By the end, we are given the standard comic book plot, where Will saves the day, all the sidekicks get to use their nearly useless powers to prove their worth, and a PG rated kiss is exchanged.

With the exotic setting and dozens of possibilities posed by mixing teenagers imbued with godly powers, did the central problem need to be an attack by a goofy villain? I was much more interested in the rivalry between Will and a fire-wielding punk who’s fathers were arch enemies. What about learning not to abuse the astonishing gifts they have received? Unfortunately, the film skips most of this, more satisfied with the standard Disney plot.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid comparing Sky High to the animated The Incredibles. The latter sharply but respectfully satirizes comics while utilizing the material to make a visually dazzling family film with a good message. Sky High plays the comic cannon straight, in the process appealing to the same children that most of those dopey comics do, but leaving the adults with little more than gentle grins. Does the embrace of comic values make a great children’s flick? Yes, but will adults find themselves more than mildly entertained? Holy frijoles, Batman, no!

3 out of 5