uptownrn Reviews

Gossip Girl (2007–2012)

Something Special

[7/10 · 7 July 2008]

I've never known TV without the Teenage Primetime Soap, and seeing how the genre has evolved since the days of 90210 has always been interesting to me.

Gossip Girl is a practically perfect example of the genre. The kids of prettier, richer and more screwed up than any kids you actually knew in High School. The problems are absurd of course, but the emotion behind them is real. When you're 16 and 17 your world does largely begin and end with your social circle (Notice I didn't say friends, because to be honest half the time on Gossip Girl the leads aren't friends with each other.) The adult's story lines are swiped right from Josh Scwartz's other highly successful teen drama...but guess what? They worked there too! The real revelation of this series is Leighton Meister as Blair. The only character flawlessly preserved from the pages of Cecily Von Zeisliger's book series, Meister is beautiful, cold and at times neurotic. The rest of the cast is good. Penn Badgley and Blake Lively are oddly beautiful together and their chemistry as Dan and Serena is wonderful. Ed Westwick pulls off Chuck Bass's evil scheming well, he is the guy you love to hate. Little Taylor Mumson is perfect as Little Jenny Humphrey, a character I feel much improved from her literary incarnation.

Yeah, it's not exactly high art, but honestly? It does it's job, it's slick and shiny and wish fulfilling. And the clothes are fantastic.

Bottoms Up (2006 Video)

Creme de la Crap

[3/10 · 24 September 2006]

I love bad movies. I do, I love watching them and laughing at their absurdity. This was a bad movie that I couldn't enjoy.

Maybe it was because I couldn't get passed my previous conceptions of the two leads. To me Paris Hilton is always Paris Hilton, for better or worse I cannot get "That's Hot" and Tinkerbelle and well everything else associated with her public persona. And Jason Mewes...he's Jay, I see him and I wonder where Silent Bob is. (As a side note Kevin Smith is in the film, although not silent, thank God, he's probably the funniest person in it!) And here I was thinking it was impossible to have worse chemistry than Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman in Episodes II and III...Oh boy was I wrong. Mewes and Hilton make them look like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Not that they don't try their best. I can't help but think that this character Owen is closer to the real Mewes than Jay...He's silly and goofy but also a little sweet and incredibly loyal. As for Paris, she seems very uncomfortable as Lisa, which is strange because this is not a person I have ever seen feeling uncomfortable about anything.

Now on to the supporting cast, who I must say, are excellent. Like I said before Smith, as Owen's lazy farting best friend back home, is hysterical. The guy who plays Lisa's boyfriend Hayden is great. Also Owen's Uncle Earl is hysterical, as are the guys in Hayden's "posse" This is definitely worth the rental, but except crap...even from crap...

The Sandlot 2 (2005 Video)

Simply Pathetic...

[3/10 · 17 June 2006]

I'm 18 years old. I was a little kid when The Sandlot first came out. I saw it in the movie theater. It was amazing...it's one of those movies that I watch EVERY time I see it on TV, and my friends and I make sure to watch once every summer.

That being said, this movie, an attempt at a sequel to The Sandlot is just pathetic. The basic premise is alright, Scotty Smalls' little brother and some other kids have their own amazing summer at the sandlot. OK fine, except that this kid, this Jonnie Smalls, is nothing like our beloved nerdy awkward Scotty. He is whiny, and the kid who's playing him is a horrible actor. Next of course comes the other important kid, the leader. In the original Sandlot our leader is the unreal hero Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez. Benny is everything a leader of kids should be, brave, smart, kind and benevolent but most of all a killer baseball player. In this film we are given Davey "Rocket" Durango...who is as much an opposite of Benny as possible. He gives off a selfish awkward vibe, and nearly beats up Jonnie at the beginning, something that Benny would never do. Also, he spends most of him time trying to crack his crush on a girl named Haley...girls were not a factor in The Sandlot, and that made it great, it was about childhood same sex relationships, which being male or female (I happen to be a girl) are an extremely important part of growing up. Not that crushes aren't too, but just don't fit into this kind of story line.

The supporting kids don't do much to help, in fact they do very little. The kid who I suppose is supposed to be Ham, is awful, the token black kid who always talks in jive is worse, and replacing Timmy, Tommy and Yeah-Yeah, with a deaf kid and his older brother is just plain insulting. An added character, a kid called "The Retreiver" clinches that this is the worst executed movie idea ever.

The only good parts of this movie came in its connection to the original. When Jonnie tells the story of "The Great Fear" who is the spawn of "The Beast" from the original movie, it is a parallel scene to when Squints tells the story of the Beast to Smalls. The first five minutes, absolutely the high point, are a quick recap of the original story. In the final chase scene when Davey changes his shoes he takes off an old pair of PF fliers, which Benny puts on in the original. Many of the funniest and best lines from the original come back to this one. "You play ball like a girl" ends an insult contest, as Davey is about to hop the fence he and Jonnie exchange the same lines as Benny and Scotty did. In this same scene Davey wears a nondescript jersey with just a number and his last name, and as the great fear comes bounding over the fence, he shouts the same expletive as The Jet. I could go on, but I think it would just make me more sad that this movie will never live up to the magic of the original...

The Mighty Ducks (1992)

The King of Kiddie Comedy

[7/10 · 11 June 2006]

Made in a time when comedies about kids and sports were probably among the most popular kinds of movies, The Mighty Ducks is the undisputed best of any of these. (Other favorites of mine include The Sandlot and Little Giants.) The plot isn't complicated, as many have said, Gordon Bombay is an overworked lawyer who gets a DUI charge and is given community service, coaching a kids hockey team of misfits. The difficulty in this is Gordon played hockey himself as a kid, and blew a championship game. Without giving too much away, Gordon teaches the kids hockey, and they teach him to not take life too seriously.

What makes this movie special is really the portrayal of the kids. Sure they sort of fall in to stereotypes, the goofy fat kid, the short but tough kid, the misunderstood "bad" kid, the lovable and sweet underdog (Charlie Conway, played by Joshua Jackson, pre Pacy, although in the Ducks sequels you see shades of that character coming out!) but these characters feel real, and are very funny. I don't know if younger kids still watch this movie but if you ask any teenagers who Goldberg is you'll get a laugh and some fun reminiscing. Not to mention they often know the correct moments for quacking (not when getting yelled at by your principal!) All in all definitely worth watching, if only for a trip down memory lane!

Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (2004–2007)

Throwback to classic Nick

[3 May 2006]

Being 18 and having only basic cable channels, my sick time TV choices are fairly limited. One of those sick days I caught an episode of Ned's Declassified school survival guide. I was hooked ever since.

The premise is simple one boy (Ned) and his two friends are trying to create a guide to surviving middle school. Each show made up of two fifteen minute episodes. Each episode focuses on one overall heading of "the guide" mentioned in the title.

What I like most about this show is the resemblance it bears to the Nick sitcoms when I was kid. The humor is young but not stupid, much like Clarissa Explains it All and Salute Your Shorts. Also, like Clarissa used to Ned talks directly to the camera, explaining "guide tips" and situations inside of the plot. Of course there are gags (it is still aimed at kids after all) but some of those gags are actually better for older kids and adults, like the vice principal who dresses like the guys from Miami Vice.

All in all this is a pretty good show, not great, but there are definitely worse out there, heck, there are even worse on Nickelodeon...like Zoey 101.

High School Musical (2006 TV Movie)

Campy, Corny and ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!

[9/10 · 21 January 2006]

High School Musical is one of those rare movies that makes you laugh at it's absurdity and love everything about it at the same time. The plot isn't complex, Troy meets Gabriella at a New Years Eve party, and they sing a karaoke duet together. Neither has ever sung before, and they find the experience exhilarating. After midnight, when they almost kiss, Gabriella runs away, but not after exchanging phone numbers with Troy. A few days later, Troy returns to school, where he is the star basketball player, just before the "big game." Also about to occur, casting for the school's "winter musicale." This is where we meet Sharpay and Ryan Evans, a brother and sister musical star team. It is soon revealed that Gabriella is a new student at Troy's school. After a lot of deliberation, Gabriella and Troy audition for the musical, much to Sharpay's, and their friends', dismay. I won't divulge how, but all end up happy, and celebrate in a fantastic closing song "We're all in this together!"

It's the simplicity of the movie that makes it so wonderful. As a fan of musical theater and an amateur performer (I played Mrs. Paroo this fall in The Music Man! HEHE!) I loved every moment of this film. It is the essence of musical theater, parts of it were corny and over acted, but go to see any show on Broadway and you'll notice the same, it's a characteristic of musical theater. Other parts were heartfelt and lovely, without being overly sentimental. The music was beautiful and well sung overall. The actors didn't necessarily have the best voices, but they were all fully suited to their roles. Especially the girls. Ashley Tisdale is perfect as dive Sharpay. Any one who has been in a high school show recognizes this girl, there's one in every school. Vannessa Anne Hudgens is lovely as shy, intelligent Gabriella. She is practical and grounded but can't help wanting to do something as seemingly frivolous as singing in the school show and fall for the popular jock. The first time you see her smile you realize how adorable she is.

High School Musical is definitely worth watching. If you're a fan of musicals you're sure to enjoy it.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

A disappointment, but an entertaining one

[6/10 · 1 January 2006]

I have been looking forward to seeing this film since I first found out it was being made. I'm a huge fan of fantasy literature and the Narnia books are some of my favorites. That being said I was hugely disappointed in this film. I felt that much of the CGI in the film looked forced and horrible fake. The performances of the young actors was one dimensional, and the ending, the four siblings as grown Narnian kings and queens hunting the white stag and then finding their way home to England, a beautiful and funny passage in the original novel, was clumsily handled and not well explained. It did not show that many years in Narnia passed and yet when the children returned to England they were still just that, children. The character of Aslan seemed to me not to be the central figure of this film, as he is in the novel. The film's focus is much more on the children, less on Aslan. Their relationship with the great lion is shown, although it is hard to show on film with the necessary detail the feeling the children are supposed to get from Aslan.

With these criticisms aside, I have to say that The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is an extremely enjoyable film. Although badly animated the animal characters, especially a fox who lays down his life for the safety of the Pevnsie children, and the beavers who escort them to Aslan, are extremely likable and fun. Also I enjoyed the performance of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. Early on in the film she sugar coats a sweetness to entice Edmund to her side, and you see why he is attracted to her, although we as an audience already know she is evil. When she becomes entirely evil I found myself getting chills. And although I felt that the three older children gave dull performances I did enjoy the youngest Georgie Henley, as Lucy Pevnsie. She was adorable and perfect as the innocent little girl who finds the magical land, and introduces her skeptical siblings to it.

This is far from a perfect adaptation of LWW, but it is enjoyable, and the story has so much heart and beauty in it, it is almost impossible to hate. I recommend seeing this film, but be warned of its pitfalls.

Rent (2005)

No day but today...

[8/10 · 24 November 2005]

First and foremost I'm going to say that I am a very large fan of the original Broadway musical, so I had mixed expectations for this film version. I was afraid it would never measure up to the stage musical's emotion and power, and yet the casting of many of the original Broadway actors gave me a certain expectation of excellence in performances.

The film exceeded almost all of my expectations. There were many changes made from the original musical, which I had heard about, and I was nervous about their input into the story. After watching the film I saw that these changes were necessary to make the story flow well on film. A straight filming of the stage play would make for an extremely awkward and disconnected film. By changing a few of the songs into dialog (Happy New Year, the Tune ups, and The Voice mails) it created a more solid world for the characters to live in.

As for the performances, I have to say that I felt Rosario Dawson gave the strongest performance as Mimi. She played her not only as the sexy temptress or the tormented drug addict, she added the element of a vulnerability and an almost little girlish sense of being lost. Next to Dawson's performance in my opinion, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel was incredible. He brought a life and energy to the film that added a feeling of realism and pity, in the second half of the story. While those were my two favorite performances I take nothing away from the performances of the other actors. The entire cast was extremely talented and gave very very powerful performances.

All in all I have to say RENT was an extremely powerful and wonderfully made film. For fans of the stage musical I recommend going in with an open mind and holding it separate from the original. It is very different, but on its own, it is beautiful and moving.

No day but today