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Scary Women

By Aaron 11/14/2007

Pushing Daisies took a week off and so did I – but that does not mean the show has let up – it has just gotten more intense.

Episode 5, the Halloween episode follows a ghost who kills Olive’s old friends and her past comes to light as the team tries to find the murder before Ned has to save Olive like he saved Chuck. In episode 6, the Dog Show episode – a dog breeder is found stabbed to death, but the real murder weapon was poison. The team knows it’s his wife – but which of the FOUR did it?

Both of the cases were a lot of fun – the Halloween episode because it showed so much back-story on Olive, as well as lots of action (the unfortunate result meaning more people die. The dog case was intriguing because it dealt with polygamy – and that is totally crazy. Throw in intense characters who look like the walked out of the pages of Christopher Guest’s Dog Show, and you have some hilarious scenes.

More importantly, there were three new developments for three of the main characters that both involved that organ in our chest that beats us up, keeps us going, and breaks every so often. Ned and Chuck are torn by their increasingly incomplete relationship with each other. Olive finally locks lips with her love but is crushed by Ned’s nonchalance over the incident. Emerson tries to keep his head in the game while he falls for a suspect.

Ned and Chuck cannot touch, for if Ned touches Chuck, she will return to her blue-dead state. The first few episodes have included inventive ways to cope with this quandary, such as Ned’s glass-divided-rubber-glove-outfitted-car, saran wrap, and bee HAZMAT suits. For any other guy, and most gals, these compromises would be grossly inadequate. And until now, Ned and Chuck have been enjoying their newly rekindled, innocent love, without any complaints. But now they seem to both want more and there are obvious hints that they each want to, and will, look to other alternatives. Alternatives they each can have skin-contact with. Will that be the end for the two childhood sweethearts? Will physical hunger drive them apart? Even if those two macro-issue questions won't be resolved, it appears like the show is moving in that direction.

In a moment of gratitude and emotion Olive finally plays some serious tonsil hockey with the man of her dreams, the Piemaker. Although Ned pulls away when Chuck steps into the clearing, and tries to brush off the kiss, even going so far as to share a cruel exchange with Olive, Olive holds out hope. And she keeps pushing Ned and Chuck toward that inevitable “we-have-to-see-other-people” phase with thinly veiled comments amounting to: “I just want you to be happy – but you should realize Olive wants you.” As each show passes I think it becomes more and more likely that Olive will get what she want, and that Ned may find that he is getting what he wants too. What do you think?

Emerson’s plot development will likely amount to anything, but he does share some heavy chemistry with a suspect, a confident, driven businesswoman Emerson has eyes for. Will she make it into another episode? Unclear. But the narrator did use words like “love.” And the show usually doesn’t throw the L word around carelessly.

   

Bob’s October Movie Preview

By Bob 10/2/2008

Now that we have gotten through the sludge of September movies, it’s time for some Oscar contenders, and movies that think they’re good but not. Halloween is also this month so there is bound to be a lot of random horror movies going on and of course a Saw film to soak in. Whatever happens though, I’m gonna guess that at least one of the following gets some nods come Oscar time. With that, my October Movie Preview:

Cops, Robbers, and Blah

10) Pride and Glory: October 24th

From the director of Miracle comes one of the most clichéd trailers of ALL TIME. Edward Norton as A COP. Colin Farrell as HIMSELF. What more could we want from a movie? I don’t know, and I will likely never find out because this is not one flick I will be seeing.

9) Max Payne: October 17th

As I feverishly go through my mind trying to think of a video game adaptation that has actually been a good movie, I’m also reminded of all of the bad movies Marky Mark has made over the past ever (excluding The Departed and Boogie Nights of course). I would be shocked if there is anybody who is actually excited for this, as anybody who actually played the game has probably outgrown the genre.

8) Body of Lies: October 10th

Leonardo Dicaprio. Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott. Something about spies. The trailers really tell us nothing about this film except, “How am I supposed to run an operation when you’re running a side operation.” I don’t really know what that means, but Leo says it in the trailer. This film looks like another lame attempt by Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe to win Oscars. I’m not buying it.

7) Flash of Genius: October 3rd

Greg Kinnear stars as an man who invents the intermittent windshield wiper, and then has it stolen from him buy the major auto manufacturers. This just looks like a boring film that will get a lukewarm response. For some reason, however, it has been getting a huge level of marketing with television and even radio advertisements. I doubt people will buy it.

6) RocknRolla: October 10th

Guy Ritchie is back in the genre he knows best, and this appears to be an English gangster film much in the mold of Lock Stock and Snatch. We’ll see if he still has his stuff, but for now, I’ll just pop in my DVDs of the older films that I can trust, and look to be almost identical in plot to this one.

Movies that Intrigue Me

5) Changeling: October 24th

Angelina Jolie stars in this Clint Eastwood film about a woman whose son goes missing and is returned with something different. Any film that Eastwood directs (that’s not Flags of our Fathers of course) is worth checking out, and this looks to be no different. It got solid reviews with it premiered at Cannes, and Angelina Jolie is ready for a solid role.

4) W.: October 17th

A film that is certain to be the years most controversial, Oliver Stone directs this biopic about our current president. While I am sure Stone will exaggerate many of the details, there is no denying that he has put together an awesome cast including Josh Broling (as Bush), Elizibeth Banks (as First Lady Laura), James Cromwell (as his father H. W.), Richard Dreyfuss (as Cheney), Thadie Newton (as Condoleezza Rice) and others as the rest of his cabinet. Whatever happens in this film, it will certainly be interesting.

3) Synecdoche, New York: October 24th

A film that I have been awaiting since last year, this is Charlie Kauffman’s directorial debut. I have loved the films he has written (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Adaptation. ) and this should prove to be equally compelling. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a playwright who attempts to put on a production in a warehouse that includes a scale model of New York. It will probably boggle our minds, but that is Kauffman, isn’t it?

2) Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: October 3rd

Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star as the eponymous Nick and Norah who meet each other one night in New York and have adventures. Something about the trailer really brought this movie to my attention, probably the indie style that I love. Cera is always great, and Dennings was really cool in Charlie Bartlett, so I might make my way to a cinema this week to check it out.

1) Zach and Miri Make a Porno: October 31st

Seth Rogen and Elizibeth Banks star as two best friends who decide to make a porno together. This is Kevin Smith’s first film since Clerks 2, and I can only hope that it matches that film in hilarity. The only thing I don’t understand, is why are they releasing this film on Halloween? I guess there is probably a Saw film being released anyways.

   

   


   


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