Edge of Darkness (***)

EDGE OF DARKNESS

"Everything's illegal in Massachusetts."

** SPOILERS **

Just about everything Mel Gibson does in Edge of Darkness is illegal in Massachusetts. Older, craggier, and sadder, Mel plays a Boston police detective whose daughter, apple of his eye though they haven't seen eye to eye in years, is shotgunned down at his doorstep. Mel swears revenge, and gets it. Sounds like a simple story, like Taken, but unlike Liam Neeson's relatively straightforward "murder half of the Paris underworld to find my kidnapped daughter" actioner, Edge of Darkness plunges Mel into a labyrinthine investigation involving a shadowy corporation called Northmoor, which may or may not be supplying nuclear weapons to enemy nations (it does) with US Government complicity (it is), and who may or may not have been responsible for the execution of Mel's daughter and her tree-hugging hippie "terrorist" chums (they are). Edge of Darkness doesn't play like a taut, wind-up toy; Mel's bereaved cop pursues his investigation at a somber pace, driving around Boston and Western Massachusetts trying to track down his daughter's friends and associates while staving off a psychotic breakdown. To the filmmakers' credit, Mel's movements around the Boston area mostly make logistical sense, though the location of Northmoor headquarters seems to shift from Western Mass. to the North Shore halfway through the movie. The languid pace of Mel's detective work is rocked at regular intervals by stunningly shift, knock-you-out-of-your-chair, brutal bursts of bloody violence. My favorite ultraviolent moment was Mel staring down a car about to run him over and emptying his beretta until the driver is dead and the car careens into a river. When Mel pays a visit to Danny Huston, the "insane" head of Northmoor, to find out more about what his daughter did for a living, he finds Northmoor headquarters to be a vast, multi-acre complex "leased from the US Government" that even a James Bond villain would think is much too sprawling.  At this point, it becomes clear that whatever Northmoor and the US Government agents, including Ray Winstone, who liaison with Huston are up to, it's too big for Mel's weary Boston cop to take on. I did enjoy how the G-Men scolded Huston for his methods of disposing of his enemies (radioactive gas and poison milk) and the headaches he creates by acting like a diabolical comic book super villain.  The filmmakers also seemed to understand that the plot was too much for a lone cop wanting someone to pay for his daughter's murder to handle. (Maybe if Danny Glover were there too, but he's nowhere to be found, sadly. No way Murtaugh would sell his partner out like Mel's friend does here.)  Fortunately, Edge of Darkness follows the classic Mel Gibson action playbook of how to handle bad guys: "No way you live." When Mel's done with the heavies, Winstone even picks up Mel's slack and keeps the violence coming, blowing away all of the movie's loose ends. 

Smallville 9x10 - "Disciple"

ROLL CALL:

SUPERMAN! CHLOE SULLIVAN! LOIS LANE! TESS MERCER (absent this week) ZOD! THE GREEN ARROW!
Special DC Universe guest stars:
SPEEDY! and THE DARK ARCHER!

The Smallville press release touted the Dark Archer as a DC Comics character, but I've never heard of him. Then again, I'm not up on Green Arrow continuity, certainly not stuff that's been going on with him this last decade.

It's been weeks and weeks but Smallville's finally back with Lois and Clark sucking face, counting their PDAs, and Clark bailing on her whenever he Superhears a cry for help.

The Dark Archer, complete with comic book Green Arrow's facial hair but looking a lot like the Comedian from Watchmen otherwise, shoots Lois with an arrow, then goes after Chloe, and finally kidnaps Speedy.

We learn that Oliver was in some form of archer cult, with rules reminiscent of the Sith Lords. The Dark Archer (they said his name several times - was it Vortigen? No idea how to spell it) lives by the code "No Lovers, No Allies, No Disciples", but according to their wacky rules, when an archer is feelin' like he ain't the archer he used to be, his disciple's supposed to end his life. (Darth Sidious would probably crack up at that rule.) So Dark Archer came to Metropolis and messed with Oliver's life to get Oliver to end his. Huh?

Anyway, Oliver didn't kill Dark Archer; he just shot him in the shoulder. The funny thing is Clark flung himself at Superspeed in the way of the three arrows meant for Speedy that Oliver decided to take, but Clark did nothing to stop the arrow Oliver shot back at Dark Archer. Then Oliver pointed out after the fact that he aimed for the shoulder and it wasn't a kill shot. It seemed like Clark was surprised to hear it. Did Clark not block Oliver's arrow on purpose so he'd be surprised how it would turn out - and so he could yell at Oliver about "NO KILLING!" again?

Poor Speedy got caught in the middle of her mentor and employer's weird cult past. First Oliver almost strangled her after she tried to get the drop on him in sparring, then Oliver yells at her and tells her to get lost, then she gets kidnapped and brought to a hedge maze in Coast City by Dark Archer. I forgot she didn't know Oliver was Green Arrow, but she does now. Is she interested in archery? Seemed like Oliver was teaching her Filipino stick fighting. I thought they were suddenly writing Speedy off the show, but she looks like she's gonna stick around some more. Good. I like Speedy.

Meanwhile, Zod still wants his powers, wants Clark to help the Kandorians to get their powers, and refuses to drop this matter. Zod decides to introduce himself to Lois in the hospital and drop off a medallion with the symbol of Rao. At first Lois seemed skeptical of Zod, but much later, Lois acted like she thought Zod was all right and was surprised Clark was suspicious of Zod.

Then we find out that there's a Book of Rao Jor-El hid on Earth and Zod needs it to complete the Solar Tower. Then we see the Tower is pretty much built. That was pretty damn fast.

Oh, Chloe said that after Oliver got off the island he was marooned on in his backstory, he disappeared "for like a year" and presumably joined the archer cult. But later on Oliver says the Dark Archer "raised him like a son". Raised him in a year? I forget how old Oliver was when he was on the island according to Smallville continuity. Didn't he meet Tess there, or am I mixing backstories? Times like these I wish I had Smallville on Blu-ray.

Next week, at long last, Smallville: Absolute Justice! Absolutely.

The Soloist (**1/2)

THE SOLOIST

Robert Downey Jr. is on the roll of his career but in between Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes is The Soloist. Based on a true story, Downey plays an LA Times columnist who encounters Jamie Foxx, a mentally ill homeless man who was once a musical prodigy.  Along with discovering Foxx's life story and explaining how he flunked out of Julliard and ended up on the streets of LA, The Soloist also tries to shed some light on the plight of the homeless in Los Angeles. Much of the story takes place in a slum area reminiscent of "Hamsterdam" in season 3 of The Wire. Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), The Soloist never seems clear about  what we're supposed to feel about the homeless, in general, and Foxx, specifically, besides basic pity.  The film tries to explain Foxx's schizophrenia but that somehow made Foxx's character less interesting. The flashbacks involving how Foxx fell in love with music as a boy were more compelling than the adult Foxx's plight. Downey, meanwhile, goes through a character arc where, during a quiet third act moment with his long-suffering editor and former lover Catherine Keener, he literally spells out what his character learns during the movie.  He then finds Foxx and spells it all out to him personally. One can tell everyone in The Soloist was fishing for Oscars, but they had a faulty rod.

Into the Wild (***)

INTO THE WILD

Into the Wild is a good movie. The direction by Sean Penn, the cinematography, the screenplay, the music by Pearl Jam, and the performances by Emile Hirsch, Jenna Malone, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Hal Holbrook, and Kristen Stewart are all very fine. The problem with Into the Wild is that it's a good movie about a complete idiot. Into the Wild tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who abandoned society because he hates his parents to backpack across America, eventually ending up in Alaska after a year and a half.  Along the way he has some amazing adventures, sees breathtaking natural wonders, and meets both interesting and not-very-interesting hippies, tramps, and hobos, most of whom try to talk some sense into him about his life's ambition. Instead of listening to any of them, or any form of common sense, McCandless doggedly pursues this romantic idea he has of living in the wild as an FU to society. He doesn't last very long and in the end F's himself. Despite the very best efforts of the filmmakers to make McCandless' journey deep, meaningful and inspirational, this is a story of a young man throwing away his life. He "learns truths" along the way, the most "profound" of which dawns on him as he starves to death after eating poison berries. Fat lot of good any of those truths do him dead in a bus in the middle of Alaska. It's a damn shame.

Quarantine (**)

QUARANTINE

** SPOILERS, BUT DO YOU REALLY CARE IF I SPOIL QUARANTINE? **

The most upsetting part about Quarantine is that it started off well. A comely reporter (Jennifer Carpenter) and The World's Most Dedicated Camera Man (Steve Harris) are sent to do a piece on a local LA fire department, interview the fire fighters, and tag along as they're sent out on a call.  There's some expected sexual flirtation between the reporter and the firefighters, mainly Jay Hernandez, and the behind the scenes at a fire station was interesting. It's a very good first act, a nice set up that could have gone into any manner of interesting directions. Instead, they get called into an apartment building full of zombies. The denizens of the apartment building, comprised of familiar faces and character actors from lots of different movies and TV shows, are all infected by some mutated form of rabies that turn them into zombies. Rabies! Before long, everyone is quarantined into the apartment building and are left to fend for themselves as everyone infected with the super rabies get zombified. To their credit, the actors heroically work their asses off to sell the terror. Meanwhile the movie gets bleaker and more pointless as it continues.  The single camera verite-style cinematography, done well at first, goes beyond Cloverfield-level ludicrousness. Camera man Harris keeps the camera running long past the point of believability. As the zombies keep popping in and out of frame, Harris still makes sure to get a close up of each one as he's running for his life in terror. Quarantine hammered home its most important lesson: Even if zombies are chasing you up the stairs and into smaller and smaller spaces, don't drop the camera. Whatever you do - Do not drop the fucking camera! Once it's dropped, it's all over.

Free Bird

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get."

Last night, Conan O'Brien ended his all-too-brief stint on The Tonight Show with a joyous celebration. It was a wonderful show. Honest, real, heartfelt, surprising, and of course, very, very funny. It was amazing television, and an amazing celebration of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. It marked both an end that came much too soon to Conan's era of The Tonight Show and an end to a career Conan had with NBC that lasted over twenty years.

How Conan chose to go out - having the time of his life performing "Free Bird" on guitar with Will Farrell, Billy Gibbons, Beck, Max Weinberg, and friends - is something I'll probably never forget.  The performance, and indeed, his entire final show, including guests Tom Hanks (the man who coined "Coco"), Steve Carell, Neil Young, and his video package of moments from the last seven months set to Cheap Trick's "Surrender," was some of the best television I've ever seen.

When Conan briefly put comedy aside and spoke his classy, heartfelt final words to the audience, it really stuck. Thanking NBC for the last 20 years and his fans for their outpouring of support over the last two weeks, Conan urged young people to not be cynical, work hard, and be kind.  

Conan hosting The Tonight Show infused the venerable franchise with youth, vitality, innovation, silliness, and a sense of potential for the future.  On a personal note, though it was only for seven months, it meant a great deal to me to have a Tonight Show that I could call my own; one that spoke to the generation I'm a part of the way Johnny Carson symbolized his generation and David Letterman did the generation that followed. I'm glad I can say I watched every episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien without fail. Conan O'Brien is my Johnny Carson.

Conan will be all right. Can't wait for his return and to join him in once again having a lot of fun on television.

His closing remarks on The Tonight Show:

Before we end this rodeo, a few things need to be said. There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can’t say about NBC.  To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want. And what I want to say is this: between my time at Saturday Night Live, the Late Night show, and my brief run here on The Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over 20 years.  Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we’re going to go our separate ways.  But this company has been my home for most of my adult life.  I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.

Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.

And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the Internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.

To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.  As proof, let’s make an amazing thing happen right now.

"To Be Continued..."

Parks and Recreation 2x14 - "Leslie's House"

I never realized we'd never seen Leslie's house until this episode. For some reason, when she was planning her dinner party, I just assumed it would take place in Ann's house.

I get impatient during episodes now waiting for April to visit Andy at the shoeshine place. April's smooth winning Andy back from her "betrayment" of him was excellent. (I also liked her facial mocking of Leslie's attempt at speaking Spanish.)

I miss Officer Dave, but Justin was a really good choice of a character 180 degrees from Dave as a Leslie love interest.

I also loved the Leslie logic of getting a government form that proves her party was a success. And the metaphor of Justin being a white stallion and Tom being a little brown pony. And Ron pressuring Leslie into five courses and then bringing deviled eggs.

You know who would have been a really interesting party guest? Councilman Dexhart.