April 2012

There were 16 posts published in April 2012 (this is page 3 of 3).

That Old Black Magic

Magic City

Magic City is the latest Period Drama series from the Starz Network. Premiering last Friday, Starz has made the first three episodes available on their site, unedited and for free. I’ve now watched all three episodes and here are some of my initial thoughts. Set in Miami, Florida in the late 1950s, Magic City is about the operations of the fictional Miramar Playa Hotel, an upscale hotel located right on the sandy beaches of Miami. Isaac “Ike” Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the central star of the series and the owner of the hotel, though his life may not be as glamourous as one would expect. Protesters are swarming the hotel in an effort to convince Ike to unionize and in response Ike turns to some shady people, specifically notorious gangster Ben Diamond (Danny Huston).

I like the setup, the location, the concept, but something about this seems all too familiar. If you haven’t already guessed it, I’m thinking about this show’s strikingly similarities to both Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men. Like Boardwalk Empire you have a man in power with ties to some questionable people and then just take out prohibition and replace it with labor reform, gambling, and other issues relevant to the time and setting. Next you just need to add a splash of nostalgia a la Mad Men with guys in suits sipping on cocktails and you have Magic City. Already I’ve noticed some harsh reactions by some viewers to this show’s obvious similarities to those more popular shows, but I think if you can just go into Magic City objectively and judge it on it’s writing and performances, you might enjoy it.

Personally, I love the time period and I’m glad to see that Starz has gone all out to make this show look authentic. The settings, locations, and costumes are all marvelous and beautifully photographed, but what about the rest of the show? I like that as well. It’s basically all the reasons I like Mad Men except darker. The only spot where I think it may be lacking at this point in time is the characters. I like them all but there hasn’t really been enough time to explore them thoroughly. After the first episode I really had no idea what kind of character Ike Evans was supposed to be. Is he a tyrannical businessman? Is he driven by greed or power? But three episodes in I’m finally starting to get a feel for him. Surprisingly he’s a fairly normal, caring family man, who just happens to turn to dark places to avoid failure. I think this is one of the cases where you really have to give the show time to let the characters grow and thus far it looks promising.

Other characters of note on Magic City are Olga Kurylenko as Ike’s exotic young wife Vera, Steven Strait as Ike’s playboy twentysomething son Stevie, Danny Huston as intimidating gangster Ben Diamond, and my personal favorite Alec Rocco as Ike’s light hearted father. With all that being said why should you watch Magic City? Well if you’re the type that enjoys a good period drama or crime drama then you might get a kick out of this, or maybe if you’re into Mad Men. Plus you can watch the first three episodes for FREE, there ain’t no better deal than that. I know I’m going to try and follow this series best as I can. After all I gotta support Kirkland, WA native Jeffrey Dean Morgan, we K-Towners stick together.

Get to Mars

John Carter

The problem with adapting the John Carter of Mars series of books is that everyone’s already stolen all of the best scenes. As prolific as the original works were, their influence so obviously and completely permeates the history of sci fi cinema that seeing it in its original context feels weird. The sith aren’t weird insects, their followers of the dark side of the force. Don’t try to Jedi mind trick me, I know my sith. But, if you’re able to overcome your biases and appreciate the film John Carter on its own merits, I think you’ll see it’s not just the best movie this year, it’s one of the best ever.

Like all great adventures, John Carter begins with our hero; solitary, damaged by past atrocities. A veteran of the Civil War, John Carter roams the land aimless, with little will to live. That’s when Bryan Cranston happens upon him, in that infamous scene when he tries to recruit Carter to him team. He’s unsuccessful, but he does at least corner John Carter in a bar. It is at that moment that Carter, misreading the sign that says “Barsoom” as “barroom,” accidentally runs through a portal to Mars.

Upon arriving at the red planet, John Carter immediately discovers that the difference in gravity has given him super jumping ability, sort of like Superman before Superman just started flying everywhere. This power is so appealing to him that he starts bounding across the barren wasteland that is the planet, leaping like the king of kangaroos. He continues picking up speed and height, and soon enough is circumnavigating the globe in mere seconds. Eventually, he reverses Mars’ rotation, throwing the planet, and himself back in time.

John Carter decides to land and survey the damage he has done. He finds Mars populated by a green, four-armed people. Realizing he has to be careful, John Carter tries his best to blend in and not alter the future. This is when he runs into Willem Dafoe, a Martian scientist who has been developing a time traveling machine. John Carter considers himself lucky, until Willem Dafoe tells him that to go back to the future, he’d have to enroll in Mars High School and convince young Bryan Cranston to fall in love with his mom. That’s when John Carter realizes that Bryan Cranston was his dad and he was trying to help him all along!

John Carter meets young Bryan Cranston and convinces him to date his mom, only to find out that she’s been kidnapped on a diplomatic mission. So John Carter, Bryan Cranston and Willem Dafoe head off to rescue her from British space nazis. Along the way, a Martian beast monster attacks them while at the same time their ship’s AI betrays them. In a lucky turn of events, the AI accidentally blows the monster out of the airlock, giving John Carter the chance he needed to rip out its motherboards and shit.

The trio get to the bad guy space base and rescue John Carter’s mom. She’s spunky, making fun of John Carter’s height, much to his chagrin. As they make their daring escape, Willem Dafoe ends up fighting with and getting killed by Mark Strong. John Carter is very upset about this until Mark Strong reveals the big twist: he’s John Carter’s real father, and the evil space base is actually a time machine he built so his son could go home. But the only way to activate it is to shoot a pinpoint weakness in its outside.

John Carter gets in his alphabet-themed starfighter and flies around the base. He gets caught in a dangerous dogfight with Dominic West, until Bryan Cranston arrives and saves the day. This is when he yells him infamous catchphrase, “Never give up, never surrender. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” So John Carter uses his magic to fire a shot that someone curves downward into the hole, activating the time machine and sending him home…

Or so he thinks! John Carter wakes up in a mysterious pod, unplugging weird cables that were plugged into him. He looks around and sees that there are millions of similar pods all around him, as if all of mankind has been turned into living batteries. John Carter is dumped out of the pod into some weird pool, and prepares to die. Suddenly, a spaceship appears and lifts him out of the water. There, he meets Samuel L. Jackson, wearing an eyepatch, who tells him he’s putting a team together.

Needless to say, John Carter is an amazing movie and I can’t wait for the sequel.