CliqueClack

Splash is not quite the big, wet belly-flop everyone expected

A few years ago I started watching and (much to the chagrin of some of my fellow colleagues) reviewing Skating With The Stars. And, despite the expected “Is this what reality television has come to?” comments, I had a blast and a half watching it. It was one part circus, one part mayhem, one part comedy, three parts dippy judges with the final part a fumbling host, the fantastical Vernon Kay. (Not so coincidentally, Vern hosted a UK version of the show earlier this year on ITV in the U.K. I’m a bit heartbroken he’s not talking up the domestic version. But my worries are for naught — I have the “I-didn’t-even-know-he-was-still-around” Joey Lawrence to entertain me.)

Now, granted … a lot of reality series have come and gone since SWTS. Many (thankfully) were short lived. And truth be told I think Splash is destined to become one of them.

But for what it was worth, I decided to tune in and catch the soaking it made on the small screen … before it becomes a distant memory.

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The happy ending of Girls was actually very depressing

Note: This article contains spoilers for all aired episodes of the show Girls.

The final moments of the second season finale of Girls presented a practically storybook ending, with Adam literally running to the rescue of “damsel in distress” Hannah and lifting her into his arms. A suspiciously pleasant image, but one of deep, dark problems lurking both beneath the surface and right there in your face. Charlie admits he has feelings for Marnie, and while she doesn’t quite reciprocate entirely, she seems legitimately happy to try it again with him. The lone “sad” ending has Roy, who has worked towards actually something approaching ambition, being dumped by Shoshanna. And Jessa is nowhere to be found at all.The threads come together in a blaze of sorrow and confusion.

Lena Dunham has said about the episode that the theme is about “connection and disconnection” — signified by the episode title “Together” — characters finding each other again or coming apart. And everyone’s broken in some way. Charlie can’t get over his entirely surface level attraction to Marnie or his own arrogance and bizarrely strong inverted confidence (by “inverted confidence,” I mean that he doubts himself so much in some ways but seamlessly succeeds in others). His business success seems both connected to legitimate work and a ridiculous amount of luck. Almost a contrived amount, except that it’s obviously overly contrived intentionally.  But the primary driving force for Charlie is “don’t stop, just keeping going;” that led to ennui and boredom in his relationship with Marnie before. But one problem they both share is that they are highly uncommunicative. They may talk, but they don’t listen, and they don’t self-reflect. They barely consider the feelings of others at all (although it’s not as bad as some others in the show). Continue reading 'The happy ending of Girls was actually very depressing' »

What’s wrong with being backward and happy?

One day, I’m going to be 60 years of age. Granted, that’s a long way off … but it’s coming. (And, when it does, I’m certain I’ll still be watching my beloved CBS Sunday Morning.)

Throughout my life, I’ve never (yes, I used “never”) wanted to be any older than I was at the time. I didn’t want to be a teenager when I was a youth, I didn’t wish for 21 when I was a teen, I didn’t voice my desire to turn the age of adulthood when I was much younger than I am now. (Not so interestingly, lots of folks accuse me of still being a kid. And I really don’t see a problem with that.)

But there is one thing I’ve continually said as the years have passed: I want to be spry when I’m an old man. And not spry in the manner of leaping out of a porch patio chair swinging my cane above my head threateningly, yelling at those damned kids to get off my lawn.

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The Hobbit comes to home video with a special offer

Warner Brothers is releasing the theatrical edition Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on multiple home video formats on March 19, but the big question is will fans of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy be as enamored with this film (and its two coming follow-ups)?

When I saw the film theatrically, I saw the new HFR 48 fps 3D version which did not impress me at all. It ended up looking like an old BBC video production that you might have seen on Masterpiece Theater. The sharpness and detail were amazing, but it just didn’t look like a movie or have that film-like quality the other trilogy has. It looked surprisingly flat even though it was in 3D, and some of the scenes were overly bright and contrasty with some of the white areas almost blown out. I was hoping that the presentation of the film on Blu-ray would correct some of these issues, but it only seems to magnify the problems. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Blu-ray presentation itself; it’s the source elements that are to blame. Some of the flat, overly lit scenes are still flat and overly lit, but it still has a more film-like look to it. However, there are also some issues involved with converting the 48 fps down to 24 fps for Blu-ray (in full 1080p) and 30 fps for DVD, especially in any scene that has a lot of fast motion — some of the CGI effects move just a bit too fast and there is no motion blur, so they just look like really bad special effects (the rabbit sled scene in particular). I wondered if the HFR process was going to impact the eventual home video edition, and it has. The average viewer may not notice but, to me, it stuck out like a sore thumb. The film’s audio, however, will give your home theater system a nice workout.

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Who dazzled the ballroom on Dancing with the Stars’ opening night?

The, ahem, stars are back in the beautiful ABC ballroom for a sixteenth season of Dancing with the Stars, so for its season premiere my good pal Tara and I sat down and asked each other “who could win?” and “just exactly who are these people?” Our original plan was to pick a couple of people we thought could be our favorites, but when we both came up with the same two stars … because they were basically the only ones we knew … we decided to just go ahead and critique everyone’s performances and pick a contender or two after seeing them dance.

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Is Survivor broken beyond repair?

Let me preface this with the statement that I am a Survivor fan. I have watched every season from the beginning, I’ve seen the good and the bad, and I’ve stuck with it hoping that somehow, some way it can have a season that lives up to the best of the best. What I’ve seen over the past couple of year, though, is a downward spiral that is taking a great game dangerously into the realm of conflict reality TV (i.e. the Real Housewives franchise), putting the personality clashes among the tribe members above the actual game.

It also doesn’t help that a majority of the players are now cast — off the street, in a club, from a modeling agency — for “types” (or stereotypes) instead of being culled from viewer submissions (I personally know a couple of people who have applied several times and have never been contacted). What’s worse, the producers then reinforce the stereotype by selecting what that person wears on the island! If you’ve ever wondered why someone would wear a suit, high heels, or a sweater vest to a tropical island knowing that they’re about to play the game of Survivor, now you know (even Phillip’s awful pink underwear were selected by the producers). The show has gotten so enamored with the “conflicts” between the tribe members that they’ve forgotten about the challenges, most of the time combining a reward and immunity challenge just to give the “story” more screen time.

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The big 2012 holiday movies are ready to come home

March 19 is a big home video release day with The Hobbit, Zero Dark Thirty and This is 40 all hitting various formats. There are also some little-seen but worthwhile titles — Bachelorette, Rust and Bone, Price Check — coming, and to avoid the Tuesday crush, Universal will be releasing Les Misérables on Friday, March 22. The Criterion Collection has a couple of classics in Badlands and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the 80s are represented with Porky’s and Timerider hitting Blu-ray for the first time, and one of the very first documentaries, Nanook of the North, is also making its Blu-ray debut. These titles and many more will be available this week, so have a look at our handy shopper’s guide to find other titles you may need to add to your collection!

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The Hobbit comes out on DVD and Blu-ray and pisses me off

Let me start by warning you that this is more of a movie review than a review of the Blu-ray version of the movie. I’ll get to that later in the post, but for now I’ve got some venting to do.

A couple of years ago I introduced my then 6-year-old son to the world of Middle Earth. I’d already read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit once many years ago, so reading it aloud again for my son was a joy. It was nice to have the story fresh in my head again, with the knowledge that a film version was in the works. For each of the previous Peter Jackson films, I’d made a point of going out and seeing them in the theater, the morning of their release. I didn’t see why The Hobbit was going to be any different. I was pretty damned excited.

Then word came out that Jackson decided The Hobbit was too vast and complex to consist of merely one film. So it was decided that it’d be two films. Alright, I guess a couple of two-hour films could make sense, if he couldn’t fit the whole book into three. I even wrote about my thoughts on where the movies might split. Once that two movies became three movies, my faith in what was going to be included in these films shattered a bit. Was this really being done to include every little detail from that one book, or was it just a means for making more money?

After watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I’m thinking Peter Jackson didn’t decide to make The Hobbit into three movies for money alone, nor to be 100% faithful to the book, but to tell The Hobbit how he thought it should be told; Tolkien be damned. And maybe I’d be OK with that if what he actually produced was truly better, but it’s really mostly crap. And a lot of it.

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Win free passes to the DC screening of Olympus Has Fallen

CliqueClack has teamed up with FilmDistrict and Allied Integrated Marketing to offer our readers in Washington D.C. a chance to be the first to see the new action thriller Olympus Has Fallen. When a terrorist mastermind seizes control of the White House (Secret Service Code: Olympus) and captures the President, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning’s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune.

Olympus Has Fallen will have its advance screening on Tuesday, March 19, 7:30 PM at Regal Gallery Place. All you need to do is leave a comment telling us why you want to see this movie. We have a very limited number of passes that will be distributed on a first come, first served basis. Please, one comment per email and IP address. Multiple comments from the same email/IP address will be held in reserve if there are spare passes. You will receive a unique GoFoBo code by email with further instructions on how to claim your passes, so comment now before they’re all gone! CliqueClack has no control over the number of passes available, and this offer may end at any time.

Badass ladies of DC Nation

This Saturday morning marks the season finales of both Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Since neither show has been renewed as of now, there’s a good chance they will also be the series finales for both shows. Now, there is a strong renewal campaign being led by both fandoms together, so all hope is not lost; but, for this week, I’ve been thinking about how special the shows are. In particular, how special the shows are for featuring several fantastic female characters. These are just a few of the badass women that have made my Saturdays a little brighter.