Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Dads - pilot episode
The pilot episode of DADS could almost play like a satire of every bad Fox sitcom from the mid-1990s if its creators were cleverer. Instead, it just seems a continuation of that brain-dead legacy. Do “audiences” really still hoot and howl when an attractive actress enters a scene wearing a “sexy” getup? Perhaps due to network standards, its misogyny and racism do not raise offense, but shrugs, the show is impish rather than transgressive. What it never is is funny.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Telenovela Watch - summer novelas
A couple of my recent columns covering most of the telenovelas that have debuted in the United States this summer are available here and here.
The one gem is SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO on MundoFox, a Colombian telenovela based on an early 1990s telenovela that seems utterly modern – a serious, complex look at devastatingly sad, lonely people. It’s the best telenovela of the year so far.
Telemundo’s DAMA Y OBRERO started well, but deteriorated into a mess. While the novela does not work, its lead actress Ana Layevska is doing some fantastic work. It is depressing seeing an actress with this much to offer slumming at Telemundo in parts frankly beneath her talent; one hopes she’ll one day get a juicy role where she can really stretch and show what she’s got.
Telemundo’s MARIDO EN ALQUILER is the best of their current lineup. Its lead actress, Sonya Smith, is badly miscast, but she’s so good, the telenovela mostly works anyway. It seems to exist on two realities – one side has solid, grounded performances. On the other side, there is some appalling cartoon acting from Martiza Rodríguez, Daniela Navarro, and Alba Roversi that keep this novela from ever becoming more than just decent. It’s hard to believe the same directors can be responsible for such a contrast in the quality of performances.
Televisa’s LA TEMPESTAD on Univision, while not the horror show we were rumored to be getting based on the press in Mexico, isn’t very good either. The central problem is the green leading lady, Ximena Navarrete – a spectacular blunder to cast a complete newcomer, especially as leading man William Levy is best as a reactor - he needs to be able to bounce off of somebody else’s energy. But Navarrete gives nothing, her inadequacies especially show up opposite a fine actress like Nora Salinas. Laura Carmine, an actress who proved capable of giving subtle, sensitive performances in QUIÉN ERES TU?, overacts fiercely here, but is enormously entertaining and strangely moving in what is ostensibly a spoiled villainess role. LA TEMPESTAD at least has enormous camp value which puts it a step above the rest of the duds making up the network’s current prime time lineup.
Finally, there is the thriller SANTA DIABLA on Telemundo. Telemundo execs were boasting in recent Variety articles about how their telenovelas, being produced in Miami, better reflected American life – and then they unleash this telenovela which shows not even the slightest understanding of the American legal system. The surprises and revelations in this novela come quick, but they aren’t grounded in anything substantive, so they seem like cheats. It is better looking and better produced than Telemundo's other two current novelas, and Carlos Ponce is an amusing villain - his unappealing screen presence finally put to good use; but its protagonists, Gaby Espino and Aarón Díaz, are ultimately weaker and less interesting than Layevska and José Luis Reséndez on DAMA or Sonya Smith and Juan Soler on MARIDO.
The one gem is SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO on MundoFox, a Colombian telenovela based on an early 1990s telenovela that seems utterly modern – a serious, complex look at devastatingly sad, lonely people. It’s the best telenovela of the year so far.
Telemundo’s DAMA Y OBRERO started well, but deteriorated into a mess. While the novela does not work, its lead actress Ana Layevska is doing some fantastic work. It is depressing seeing an actress with this much to offer slumming at Telemundo in parts frankly beneath her talent; one hopes she’ll one day get a juicy role where she can really stretch and show what she’s got.
Telemundo’s MARIDO EN ALQUILER is the best of their current lineup. Its lead actress, Sonya Smith, is badly miscast, but she’s so good, the telenovela mostly works anyway. It seems to exist on two realities – one side has solid, grounded performances. On the other side, there is some appalling cartoon acting from Martiza Rodríguez, Daniela Navarro, and Alba Roversi that keep this novela from ever becoming more than just decent. It’s hard to believe the same directors can be responsible for such a contrast in the quality of performances.
Televisa’s LA TEMPESTAD on Univision, while not the horror show we were rumored to be getting based on the press in Mexico, isn’t very good either. The central problem is the green leading lady, Ximena Navarrete – a spectacular blunder to cast a complete newcomer, especially as leading man William Levy is best as a reactor - he needs to be able to bounce off of somebody else’s energy. But Navarrete gives nothing, her inadequacies especially show up opposite a fine actress like Nora Salinas. Laura Carmine, an actress who proved capable of giving subtle, sensitive performances in QUIÉN ERES TU?, overacts fiercely here, but is enormously entertaining and strangely moving in what is ostensibly a spoiled villainess role. LA TEMPESTAD at least has enormous camp value which puts it a step above the rest of the duds making up the network’s current prime time lineup.
Finally, there is the thriller SANTA DIABLA on Telemundo. Telemundo execs were boasting in recent Variety articles about how their telenovelas, being produced in Miami, better reflected American life – and then they unleash this telenovela which shows not even the slightest understanding of the American legal system. The surprises and revelations in this novela come quick, but they aren’t grounded in anything substantive, so they seem like cheats. It is better looking and better produced than Telemundo's other two current novelas, and Carlos Ponce is an amusing villain - his unappealing screen presence finally put to good use; but its protagonists, Gaby Espino and Aarón Díaz, are ultimately weaker and less interesting than Layevska and José Luis Reséndez on DAMA or Sonya Smith and Juan Soler on MARIDO.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
VIVA KNIEVEL!
The motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel stars as himself in this piece of the 1970s cheese. Drug lord Leslie Nielsen wants to arrange for Evel to suffer a fatal accident during a jump in Mexico so he can smuggle drugs across the border in Evel’s funeral trailer.
Like many athletes and showmen, whatever charisma Knievel may have displayed in his television specials vanishes when called upon to act a character, even himself.
Knievel seems an awfully square daredevil, an establishment hero, in red white and blue, promoting an anti-drug message, to push back against the counterculture. A real manly man, Knievel butts heads with feminist photographer played by Lauren Hutton, but she’s converted after a ride on his crotch rocket.
From 1978, directed by veteran Gordon Douglas; featuring Gene Kelly, Red Buttons, Cameron Mitchell, Dabney Coleman, Marjoe Gortner and Frank Gifford as himself. Some of the action in the climax is better executed than one would expect in a movie like this.
Like many athletes and showmen, whatever charisma Knievel may have displayed in his television specials vanishes when called upon to act a character, even himself.Knievel seems an awfully square daredevil, an establishment hero, in red white and blue, promoting an anti-drug message, to push back against the counterculture. A real manly man, Knievel butts heads with feminist photographer played by Lauren Hutton, but she’s converted after a ride on his crotch rocket.
From 1978, directed by veteran Gordon Douglas; featuring Gene Kelly, Red Buttons, Cameron Mitchell, Dabney Coleman, Marjoe Gortner and Frank Gifford as himself. Some of the action in the climax is better executed than one would expect in a movie like this.
GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL
A spaceship buzzes an airplane causing it to crash on a barren rocky landscape. The survivors are offed by a space vampire. The title promises a wacked-out ride, but this Japanese science fiction horror movie from 1968 is mostly a boring rehash of misanthropic clichés about the savagery of humankind in extremis and the typical throat-sucking monster attacks. Some late 1960s era turmoil is horned into the proceedings including assassination, terrorism, Vietnam, and of course the bomb, imbuing the movie with an appropriately apocalyptic backdrop. Hajime Sato (TERROR BENEATH THE SEA) directs; the movie stars Teruo Yoshida, Tomomi Sato, Eizo Kitamuro, and Hideo Ko.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)