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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The Judd Apatow comedy factory is at it again, cranking out yet another vehicle for slackers to get their share of laughs. In the tradition of “Superbad” and “Knocked Up,” incidentally two comedies in which Seth Rogen was either the star or writer or both, along comes “Pineapple Express” where Rogen wears multiple hats as a key player in front of and behind the camera. For such a busy guy, it’s interesting that he’s usually playing the goof or loafer with a serious lack of motivation.
Not surprisingly, “Pineapple Express” offers more of the same for Rogen in his role as Dale Denton, a giant loser with a serious fondness for weed. A disheveled process server who stalks his prey with a variety of costumes, Dale is not going anywhere in life, a point underscored by the fact that he’s dating barely legal high school girl Angie (Amber Heard).
Dale has a grudging business relationship with the laconic drug dealer Saul Silver (James Franco), deigning to visit his shabby apartment only to purchase some of the primo product. Unable to form complete thoughts into coherent sentences, Saul seems to be enjoying a rare new strain of marijuana called Pineapple Express.
Perhaps too stoned to know better, Saul appears only too willing to turn a business relationship into something more meaningful, if only to engage in some conversation beyond a transaction for illicit contraband.
While staking out a residence in an attempt to deliver a subpoena, Dale witnesses a cold-blooded murder committed by the city’s most dangerous drug lord, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), who’s assisted in this crime by a crooked cop (Rosie Perez).
Fleeing the scene of the crime in great haste, Dale drops the remnants of his Pineapple Express joint. This piece of smoking evidence, of course, is all that the evil drug lord and dishonest cop need to pick up a trail leading right back to the drug-dealing Saul.
When Ted’s goons arrive on the scene, Dale and Saul are suddenly thrust into a wild odyssey that puts them on the run, after discovering they are not just suffering from pot-induced paranoia. The long, weird journey to escape harm puts them in some awkward and often bloody, violent situations, such as when they confront drug middleman Red (Danny McBride), who’s only too eager to sell out his buddy Saul when pushed around by nasty, brutal thugs.
Only slightly less frightening is the encounter that the duo must endure by showing up for dinner at Amber’s house, since Dale had promised so many times to meet her parents (Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn), who are in turn absolutely stunned and appalled by Dale’s erratic behavior. Of course, it’s absurd that Dale is going through this courtship effort when his life is in mortal danger.
For all their attempts at a getaway, Dale and Saul are slightly more consumed with a nearly insatiable desire to keep sampling the potency of Pineapple Express. This puts the loopy guys in more danger, though Dale appears more tuned into their predicament than the largely oblivious Saul. At one point, Saul thinks that hiding in a dumpster may be the best alternative to constant flight.
The charm, if that’s the appropriate word, of “Pineapple Express” is the developing friendship between the more uptight Dale and the perpetually unaware Saul. In a relationship forged by circumstances, these putative buddies have a weird, genial bond that makes them likable even when things get violently out of control in the climactic showdown with warring drug gangs.
Chemistry (an interesting word to use when talking about a drug-fueled plot) is very much present between Seth Rogen and James Franco. These guys are fun to watch, even in the most stressed-out situations. “Pineapple Express” is probably the best stoner comedy since the first “Harold and Kumar” movie, when the love of weed made the principals crave White Castle burgers. Meanwhile, Judd Apatow is just hoping that the target audience will crave this brand of humor, and most likely the younger crowd will prove more accepting of the elements of gross-out comedy mixed with violence.
DVD RELEASE UPDATE
Since the film reviewed this week is a Judd Apatow comedy, maybe it is only fitting to bring to your attention the DVD release of the raunchy teen comedy “Legacy,” the story of three sorority beauties who will have everyone watching their backs.
Haylie Duff stars as Lana Stevens, the hottest coed at the Omega Kappa house, who’s forced to accept one of the most unpopular girls on campus as her new sorority sister. But when this geeky pledge is found dead at a party, Lana and her two best friends become prime suspects in a murder investigation, lead by the intense and determined Detective Strasburg (Tom Green).
Full of tortured laughs, catfights, sex and murder, “Legacy” sounds just right for the Apatow crowd.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
I am referring to AMC’s “Mad Men,” a very stylish period piece about the advertising world in Manhattan at the dawn of the Kennedy era. Heretofore, AMC was probably best known for its seemingly endless supply of classic Hollywood movies. With 16 nominations for a celebrated drama series, AMC just may be moving up in the TV world.
Now, many of you may be wondering what the fuss is all about, considering so few people have probably watched the series at all. “Mad Men” became the darling of critics everywhere, and recently the Television Critics Association (TCA) bestowed three awards on AMC’s freshman series “Mad Men,” including Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama.
Keep in mind that the TCA, unlike the Emmy Awards, has only nine categories for awards, and “Mad Men” was very unlikely to win in a category like children’s programming or news and information. My guess is that you had no idea the TCA gave out awards anyway.
I never like to fall in line with the herd of critics blathering and raving about a particular series, but “Mad Men” is really fascinating in so many ways that I am irresistibly drawn to the second season that started July 27. If you miss the start, keep in mind that cable networks always run their original programs multiple times, thus saving you the trouble of recording shows for later viewing.
Oh, by the way, “Mad Men” also won the Golden Globes earlier this year for Best Television Drama Series and Best Actor in a Drama Series for Jon Hamm. The aforementioned Mr. Hamm is the star of the show, playing the very dapper Don Draper, creative director of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency.
On a superficial level, Don Draper has an idyllic life, working in a glamorous industry and having a model family, including his pretty wife Betty (January Jones), a former professional model. Beneath the glossy surface is an entirely different story, since Draper has a double life and a secret past that sometimes bubbles up into more public view.
Last season, every episode left one anxious to see the next, anticipating more layers of the onion to be peeled. The greatest fascination with “Mad Men” is that most of the action took place in the shark-infested waters of the Madison Avenue corporate headquarters.
At the end of the first season, Draper was blackmailed by ambitious young account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) and, in the process, Don’s true identity was finally revealed.
In the second season, the newly-promoted Draper struggles to stay ahead of the young bucks nipping at his heels, while dealing with the entanglements in his personal life. The sneaky Pete Campbell is someone to keep an eye on, as he will certainly maneuver for advantage in the corporate pecking order.
The 1960s era setting for the corporate world is highly charged by sexual shenanigans and seduction, and as such, some of the secretaries are fodder for the kind of harassment that is not only politically incorrect but legally actionable today.
Draper’s former assistant Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) proved her talent by becoming a junior copywriter, but not before succumbing to an unfortunate office fling. As head of the secretarial pool, the attractive Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), a real femme fatale, is gifted at office politics, but she’s had a dangerous affair with Sterling Cooper partner Roger Sterling (John Slattery).
Fascinating to watch for so many reasons, “Mad Men” looks at the societal issues and culture of the early 1960s through the prism of a corporate world where lust, power and ambition run rampant. The show’s characters, in large or small roles, offer a range of interesting perspectives on cultural mores.
Restless and often moody, Draper smokes and drinks too much. Actually, just about everybody is smoking and drinking, almost to extremes. Sexism is rampant, and hardly any male employee is above flirting and sexual harassment. The devious Pete Campbell, a recent newlywed, sexually pursued Draper’s assistant Peggy, while treating most women with condescension.
“Mad Men” is very deserving of the Emmy Awards nominations for such categories as outstanding art direction, cinematography and costumes. This is a show with an incredible visual appeal, where the producers have taken great care to create an authentic look for the early 1960s.
Though the second season should prove compelling, it would seem essential to be familiar with the entire first year. If you missed all the AMC reruns, the entire first season has been released on DVD.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Suna Flores
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I always thought some of these obscure nations had little value beyond creating some nice postage stamps for philatelists to enjoy, but they are sending athletes into competition. Now is the time to brush up on geography.
Speaking by way of satellite to a gathering of the nation’s TV critics recently, Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, announced that he’s “awed by the enormity of what’s going on” in Beijing, particularly because the NBC family will provide a record 3,600 hours of coverage, at least 2,900 hours of it live.
Considering that NBC paid $894 million for the rights fee for broadcast coverage in the United States, one would hope that Ebersol is enthusiastic about the 17 days and nights of what he calls “unscripted drama.”
You may ask how NBC can provide 3,600 hours of coverage. It’s a fair question in light of the fact that it would take 90 weeks at a regular 9 to 5 job to watch everything. I don’t think I can spare that much time, but it works for NBC Universal, because they will run coverage on NBC, USA, CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.
Of course, NBC’s primetime coverage will focus on the prime traditional sports of swimming, diving, gymnastics and beach volleyball, with Bob Costas again acting as the primetime host. I am not kidding about this, but even the Oxygen network will carry nightly programming on gymnastics, plus synchronized swimming and the equestrian category. Only the Sci-Fi Channel is not getting into the act.
Even with more than a half-dozen networks and cable outlets, NBC Universal doesn’t have enough hours in the day to become the most ambitious single media project in history. So this is where NBCOlympics.com comes into the picture, providing additional competition footage but also being the venue for more information about the schedules, listings, news and biographies of the athletes. This Internet destination will take every sport and offer it on-demand, while also offering the best of daily TV coverage as encores.
There is a 12-hour time difference between Beijing and New York. As you know, in the media world, New York is the center of the universe, so the folks at NBC somehow finagled commitments from the International Olympic Committee to secure certain finals at 9 or 10 in the morning in China so that they would go on primetime live in New York. Ebersol told the TV critics that prime coverage would be live on the East Coast and in the Central time zone, leaving the rest of us out here on the left coast to get our Olympics on a time delay.
“Historically, we have always shown the Olympics on tape on the West Coast,” said Ebersol, noting that roughly 81 to 82 percent of all households in the United States are in the Central and Eastern time zones.
California may be the largest state in the union (we have the electoral votes to prove it), but we don’t matter as much to the network bigwigs. Actually, they are taking us for granted, because as Ebersol noted, people on the West Coast “love sports so much, and they know when they want to watch it, and that’s in primetime.” After extensive research, he figured out most of us are employed and can’t get home in time to watch something at 4 o’clock.
The NBC executives obviously have high hopes for the Beijing Olympics. Noting that the Chinese were second to the Americans on the gold medal chart in Athens in 2004, NBC host Bob Costas told the TV critics that “when Yao Ming leads the Chinese (basketball) team against the Americans in their very first game in the second day of competition of the Olympics, this is going to be like a Super Bowl atmosphere.” Sensing that he might be succumbing to hype that often afflicts sports announcers, Costas followed up by saying “that is not an overstatement.”
On the other hand, Ebersol seems to have picked up the hyperbolic fever. He thinks the Chinese curiosity about the Games is not just about sports. “China’s new to the world in terms of any level of openness,” he claims, and then goes on to say that in the seven years NBC has been in business with Chinese he “clearly sees change.”
Ironically, an AP news report claims the Chinese are backtracking on a promise of open press coverage, and that they have placed blocks on Internet sites in the Main Press Center and venues where reporters will work. Hoping or thinking change is afoot in China is one thing, but it’s a hard notion to sell in a repressive society.
Politics aside, let’s hope we can share Bob Costas’ belief and fervent wish that the opening ceremonies, based on what he has been told by people privileged to have seen the early plans, will be “uber-spectacular.” Curiosity will probably take hold of me on Aug. 8.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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