I have largely been quiet about TV shows in the past month or so but not for any lack of watching. We have been avidly watching a few new shows we really enjoy and while it’s not currently my favorite of the crop I can’t help but love the return of one of my favorite action heroes on 24. I feel like the first four weeks were mostly more of the same but the fifth hour really turned up the heat and made things interesting. For the first time I can remember the pompous asshole opposed to Jack (this time played by Tate Donovan) simply realized he was wrong and manned up to the mistake. If that isn’t 24 breaking new ground I don’t know what is. In truth I have felt a lot of this show’s return has been nothing new but I am not complaining about that. Not until I saw the 24 beep across the screen for the first time in years did I realize how much I dearly missed the show. Yeah it got redundant, yeah there wasn’t new ideas being brought to the table as much as simply new scenarios, yeah Jack Bauer is a bit too invincible, but who the hell really cares? Under most circumstances I turn my nose up to this kind of thing but in the case of this show I will always be willing to make an exception. This show originated and started during a time when TV series were making their largest leaps as far as budget, story lines, and character development go. As far as I am concerned 24 was a pioneer series that consistently raised the bar for what TV was capable of and I am really happy to have it back.
I looked over a ratings chart yesterday that suggested the show isn’t currently a hit with its target audience but I don’t think these numbers tell the whole story. I think in the case of a show like this more and more people are simply recording it so they can watch episodes back to back. 24 can be difficult to watch week to week maybe more so than most television shows. I think the veteran fans know this and are simply waiting for the right time to jump in and catch up. I couldn’t do this myself because I feel compelled to see the show air in “real time” and refuse to even pause it during our viewings. Seeing this show back on the air reminds me of the good old days in college when my wife and I had the kind of time to watch entire seasons in one or two sittings. I love Jack Bauer in a sentimental way that makes me giddy to see him back on the air. Only Jack Bauer can break a co-hort out of a super secret prison, shoot innocent civilians to create a diversion, and somehow still hold the cards to strong arm the President of the United States into putting him back to work. I freaking love it, and I can’t wait until he gets back into the field next week to do his thing.
I thought it was a bit silly when the show started but “the Chloe with the dragon tattoo” has grown on me a bit. I thought her character was ready for the axe long before the show ran its course but somewhere along the line 24 just wouldn’t be right without her. There are not enough of the classic characters still left alive so she is needed, but the woman has had about three too many makeovers during the run of this series. I think given her position as Jack’s technical aide it was only natural for this most recent makeover to have her look as much like Lisbeth Salander as possible.
Speaking of classic characters, there is one that we haven’t seen since season 3 and I have never understood why. That would be Jack’s partner Chase Edmunds, played by James Badge Dale. Yeah he lost his hand in the end of season 3 but it was reattached and he is referenced a few times during the following seasons. In season 4 he is mentioned as having married Jack’s daughter Kim and in season 5 he is mentioned as having left her to return to field ops. I thought during the show’s last season when Jack was on the run that it would be great writing to bring him back into the fold to lead the hunt. As we heard long before he is back out there somewhere in the field and who better to hunt down Jack than the man who worked alongside him. I thought it would have been a great idea but it all turned out to be wishful thinking. He was a great character and for whatever reason we have never seen him again. If there is a bigger fan out there than me who actually knows anything about why please leave me a comment and let me know.
I am in a state of mind lately where this show can literally do no wrong. I’m just that happy to have it back and to hear Jack’s regular references to millions of lives being at stake. It’s been fun and I hope the ratings pick up. At the very least I hope the executives at FOX have the wherewithal to see value over dollar signs. I never watch anything on FOX because unless it’s a popular animated series they just don’t seem to have the patience to wait on any show to gain a following. It’s a tough industry for TV series and there is so much quality stories being aired. You have to have patience to let something develop and gain an audience. I would love to see this return for 24 transition into more because I sincerely love it. I want a follow up where Jack is welcomed back home to the US and all forgiven just before he is thrust into yet another day of peril.
Year: 1987
Directed By: Joel Schumacher
Written By: Janice Fischer, James Jeremias, and Jeffrey Boam
RYAN’S REVIEW
In this age of vampire rage it’s almost too much to even bear seeing any vampire movie again, but this is the vampire movie. This movie made vampires cool twenty years before it became the trendy thing to do. Screw all the Twilights and True Bloods, Jack Bauer was the vampire in this movie. By today’s standards this film is far and away ahead of its time. It both exploited the comic book world and made vampires cool which are both so big in our current culture. This movie gets a bit too goofy at times but it’s cool enough to compensate for all that. The music and the style of the time are captured in the film making it a portrait of the era in the late 80s. The tone of this movie is all over the place because it tried to fuse comedy and horror together but it’s a fun movie and sometimes that it all that matters when it comes to evaluating a film.
In 1987 there was every reason to believe the young cast in this movie all had bright futures ahead of them. Arguably some of them did but none really reached the potential people saw in them during the late 80s. The most successful is without a doubt Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland. That’s his actual name by the way. If I remember right his dad, Donald Sutherland, chose to name his son after six of his best friends so Kiefer’s legal name is actually that long. I am a big fan of Kiefer because he played one of the greatest characters ever, Jack Bauer. However, there was a reason Kiefer landed on a TV drama at a time when it was considered an act of desperation in a film star’s career. Kiefer has had some memorable roles over the years but his career was spinning out of control in the years preceding his part as Jack Bauer. Yet faced with adversity he took that role and made it something special. Kiefer is one of the big reasons 24 was such a success and I for one look forward to the return of the series next year. As it goes with his role here there is an interesting factoid that I was unaware of till just now. His character David doesn’t die. All of the other vampires explode or disintegrate when they are killed but he does not when impaled on the deer antlers. Apparently his character was meant to survive and play a part in a sequel that was never made. In true 80’s fashion is was to be titled The Lost Girls; go figure right? It’s too bad the sequel wasn’t picked up. Although it probably would have been a disaster anyway I would have liked to see what more they could have done with the David character. Kiefer made for a cool vampire and it would have been cool to see more of him.
It’s Jason Patric I have in mind when I think that people probably expected big things from the young cast of this movie. He must have come across as the type of young actor who had a promising future in front of him but it never happened. I don’t know why but I know his track record doesn’t do anything to impress. Unless you were really taken with Speed 2, when for some reason it’s a problem that a boat can’t slow down with the enormity of the ocean to cruise through. Jason Patric fit the part in this movie well but his character’s name is said relentlessly to the point of being annoying. There aren’t enough drugs in the world to account for the annoying amount of uncalled for laughter coming from these hipster vamps, and peppered all throughout their “lol-ing” is the name “Michael” said over and over, and over and over again. It’s not Jason Patric’s fault, but it’s an annoying part of the film I always think of when he comes up in conversation.
When I was a kid I was quite taken with Jami Gertz in the role of Star. That wild hair and hippy style really did it for me back then. I was always a bit confused about the little kid who was with her in the movie. Was he her brother or son? I never knew before but having read a bit about the movie I found out that the vampires just snatched this kid up at random to be her companion. At one point in the movie you can see his image on a milk carton as a missing child. Dianne Wiest plays the other female lead in this movie and I think she really brings the film down. I have never really seen her play more than the aloof and naive mother and I’m just not a big fan of that role. It’s a necessary role in some films and I suppose she does it as well as anybody. She plays a similar part in both Edward Scissorhands and in one of my personal favorites, The Birdcage.
I feel compelled to mention Corey Haim and Corey Feldman here but I can’t figure out why. These two had their moment in the sun around the time this movie came out and they have held onto this franchise hardheartedly as it continued long after their significance passed. Feldman is one of those great child actors that just didn’t take his success to the next level as he grew up. I know he is still out there doing things now but I’m not sure what. He has continued his role of Edgar Frog in a couple of long since sequels, Lost Boys: The Tribeand Lost Boys: The Thirst. I haven’t seen either one of those films but if any reader has feel free to share some thoughts on them. I know Corey Haim was supposed to be in at least one of those two but wasn’t able to after his untimely death a few years ago. Haim struggled with drug addiction for most of his adult life and it went the way these things often do with him dying at the young age of 38. These two guys became a pair in the 80s but like so many things from that decade they just didn’t transition with the times. Of the two I have always liked Feldman better because the guy was just such a great character in so many films that I love. I thought his character in this movie was a bit too campy and ridiculous but I’m thinking more of The Goonieswhen it comes to what endears me to him as a child actor. Speaking of guys who didn’t fully make it out of the 80s I’d like to point out the vampire version of Bill S Preston Esquire is in this film. Alex Winter plays the vampire that says the least and gets staked first. I mention him specifically because I have heard talk of a third adventure for Bill and Ted coming to the big screen. I have my doubts that it will ever actually happen but during this day and age, when anything that can be perceived to have vaguely significant name recognition is made, anything is possible.
Joel Schumacher was the director that destroyed the Batman franchise. An unforgivable act and even though this movie came out long before he was put behind the camera for the third Batman film it’s something that still needs to be considered. In truth he did nothing in this film to offer any saving grace if you ask me. It’s a cool movie but the whole tone is so up and down. I think it is an odd idea to make a film that qualifies for both the horror and comedy genres. It happens more often than not but I see these two genres being counteractive to one another and think it’s just a ridiculous idea. It has to be one or the other and can’t simply be a combination of both. A film can be set in the horror genre and intended only to be funny, like the perfectly done Shaun of the Dead, but that isn’t what they did in this film. I think there are several specific scenes in this movie that show they were actually trying to be scary and I feel like the comedy wasn’t the purpose of the film, just part of it. I have never found this movie to be either funny or scary but liked it despite that. I watched it at a young age and thought it was a really cool movie. I liked the idea of a vampire being something more than a monster and more about the opportunity to be forever young and party for an eternity. This idea may have been introduced before this movie for all I know but it was the first I had seen of it. This film has survived as a cult classic and I think that is by and large due to the idea of vampires who “sleep all day, party all night.”
I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m sick of vampires. I’ve been happy to see most of this unreasonable cult phenomenon shift focus toward zombies but it is only a matter of time before that begins to get annoying too. I think plenty of people would suggest we have already reached that point and I couldn’t argue that we haven’t. While there has been a shift toward zombies lately it hasn’t really slowed down the vampires enough. There seems to still be a significant market for the livelier of the undead but I think enough is enough. I think it went way too far a long time ago. I can stomach True Blood to an extent, mainly because of Anna Paquin’s fondness for nude scenes, but I draw a line when it came to Twilight. To start with, it’s a series that comes from teen reading and that’s lame enough. I did see the first film because I was unaware of what it was when I rented it. Needless to say I thought it was beyond ridiculous. Someone answer me this, why would an eternal creature want to spend its days going through high school over and over again? High school was totally lame no matter what crowd you were in and the idea of a vampire trying to blend in there is just stupid. Not only that, but when did it become OK for vampires to go about during the day? They are creatures of the night; it’s like one of the most important principles of vampires. It was just all so stupid, but who am I to argue with what made someone a millionaire. I have plenty of other thoughts and criticisms when it comes to Tweenlight but I’ll hold back in the event of diehard fans hating on what I have said.
If you can stomach more of what has become the unbearable norm these days then take a trip back to the 80s and check out this movie. It may have an odd tone to it but I think it’s a cool take on vampires, and one that was done long before they became too overdone in our society. This is a fun movie and I think it is worth your time to see it.
AMBER’S REVIEW
This movie almost always reminds me of my step-dad. My mom didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to watch this movie but he helped talk her into it. I remember having nightmares about maggots in my food for weeks. Still, it scared the crap out of me when I was younger, and may have been one of the very first vampire movies or stories even that I was introduced to.
Are ready for another MONTAGE? This one could be really interesting if they hadn’t needed to put every single character in the movie on this poster. I think the use of a black and white posterized looking image on the stark red of the background was really great idea considering their lives are revolved around blood. I actually like the typography. I think it’s iconic, at least for me for this time period. Not an entirely missed poster, but dammit WHY must they always include everyone on the poster?
Year: 1990
Directed By: Joel Schumacher
Written By: Peter Filardi
RYAN’S REVIEW
This is an interesting movie about five medical students who start a daring experiment to learn more about life after death. Together the five of them meet with the necessary equipment to kill one of them for a specific amount of time and then bring them back to life to explain what they saw. It starts with just one of them wanting to do the experiment but after it is successful they all want a turn, and chance to raise the stakes. To the horror of all of them they find that while they are successfully brought back to life, they don’t come back alone. All of them soon find something from their own past haunting them in the real world.
To go along with such an interesting story was a really great cast of actors who were all on the rise at the time. Julia Roberts made this the same year she made Pretty Woman. She quickly became a superstar over night with that one so this film probably got overshadowed as far as her performance goes. This was a good movie for Kiefer Sutherland at this point in his career but things seemed to go downhill for him after this. He really struggled to have a hit or significant role until he landed the part of Jack Bauer on 24. I was a really big fan of that show and stuck with it even when everything went to hell during the writer’s strike. So naturally I am a big fan of Kiefer and I think he was good in this movie. I have always liked Kevin Bacon as well but he has had an up and down career too. I do think that of all the performances in this film his was one of the strongest but no one does anything specifically distinguishing in this film. The other two doctors are played by William Baldwin and Oliver Platt. Platt has been able to survive as an actor for all these years but I have never been a big fan. I’m not sure what it is that the other Baldwins are lacking next to their incredibly talented brother Alec, but you can’t say none of them made an effort. They all had roles in one movie or another but somehow can’t get anything going. Things weren’t always so rosy for Alec either though, my daughter does own his Thomas and the Magic Railroadmovie, and he must have been really desperate when he did that one.
This movie was made by Joel Schumacher, and like Sheldon Cooper I also loathe the man for ruining the Batman franchise during the 90s. What he did to the Batman character and film franchise is unforgivable, but fortunately this movie predates that disaster. That being said I can still enjoy this film by him, as well as The Lost Boysthat he did with Kiefer a few years before this one. A viewer with a watchful eye can easily see Schumacher’s style in this film. He likes gothic images and the glowing use of colors and fancy lights that we saw so much of in his Batman films. It all works in this movie though and he made a great film.
This movie starts off with a great cast and an awesome story but does get a little silly near the end. The tone of the film doesn’t have much continuity to it, but I don’t think it really takes anything away from the movie. I do really like the cast too but I don’t think any of them specifically offered a fantastic performance. They do their jobs well enough though and their names do enough to bring attention to the film and give it an audience. I have heard before that there might eventually be a remake of this film and that wouldn’t surprise me atall. A cool idea like this is an easy choice to make in this world of rehashed movies we now live in. I think this one is good though and I would recommend it to anyone. This movie is worth your time and if you give it a chance I think you will enjoy it.
AMBER’S REVIEW
I kept telling Ryan that I had already seen this movie. Apparently, he was right. This movie had me intrigued from the get-go. The whole idea of the afterlife is an interesting aspect; I don’t care who you are, we have all thought about what happens to you when you die. The idea that doctors are going to kill themselves and bring themselves back to life is amazingly interesting. I was in to the movie the whole time, while little by little each doctor kills themselves and then has the others bring them back to life in order to see what the afterlife is like. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should. It has some really key actors and is based on an interesting subject. Sometimes the movie gets a little cliché, but overall I really enjoyed watching it and would watch it again.
The Movie Snobs 
