Yes, that's right. I'm rising to new heights of dorkiness and reviewing the 2008 LOST
calendar. After five years of working in a calendar kiosk, I suppose
it's about time I showed a little love to the goods I keep hawking.
Though I adore LOST, this is the first year I purchased the
calendar. The first time around I was afraid of spoilers, and the second
I just didn't grab one in time. But this year I'm prepared, and right
now I have Jack staring out at me every time I walk in the living room,
boldly declaring, "Nobody gets left behind!"
It's no surprise
Jack is January, but the calendar doesn't focus disproportionately on
Our Hero. February features Kate among the trees. March is Sawyer, which
makes me laugh because my friend just told me he thinks that there is
one particular line he says in which he always sounds Irish. In April,
both John and Eko are on display, which is an interesting but logical
choice since the two are such forceful characters whose destinies are
deeply entwined.
It makes even more sense for Sun and Jin to
be pictured together for May, and they look like a pair of vibrant
spring flowers, she in a pink top, he in purple. In June, we get a
close-up of Sayid, lost in an intense gaze. His eyes are perhaps the
most arresting of all the characters, and the accompanying quote - "I am
not a soldier anymore" - reminds us of all the pain that lies behind
them. July is graced with an Aaronless Claire, only one month away from
August's pensive Charlie. At this point it seems cruel to separate them,
but I won't complain about having more of Charlie to pore over.
An insufficiently shaggy Desmond's hair is whipped about by the
ill-fated winds of September. It's lovely to be able to stare at Desmond
for a month, but even though I have this picture - albeit with a jungle
backdrop instead of the ocean - as my desktop background, it seems out
of place, since Desmond's hair hasn't been that short since the
beginning of season two. Give the guy a beard already!
In
October, Hurley's puppy dog eyes peek out from a face sunk into a sullen
expression. I know our resident millionaire can't be happy all the
time, but he possesses a certain joie de vivre that lights up the
island, so it might have been nice to show a picture of him smiling. The
year concludes with the Others, who we get to know so much better in
the third season. Juliet is November, while lovably psychopathic Ben
closes out the year, perhaps in honor of his birthday, or maybe because,
as leader of the Others, he makes the perfect bookend to Jack.
Along with the full-page pictures, the bottom half of the calendar
includes six small photos of the featured character, and these are
generally a lot more interesting than the canned publicity shots. The
cover shot, a green-drenched collage of characters, is fantastic too,
and a border of jungle green surrounds both the photo and the calendar
page for each month.
I wish there was a planner and page-a-day calendar for LOST,
which would allow for much more pictures, along with trivia and quotes.
I'd definitely snatch one of those up, but I've never seen one. Still,
I'm satisfied with the wall calendar, on which Thursdays are not even
marked because it's completely ingrained in my brain: 9:00 on Thursdays
means LOST. I know right where I'll be.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The Mysteries Deepen in LOST's Third Season
It's been a long wait between the season three finale of LOST
back in May and tonight's season four opener. Eight months, during which
we learned that the already short sixteen-episode season would probably
be cut down to eight courtesy of the Writers' Strike. In November, we
finally got a little something to tide us over with the mobisodes,
brilliant little scenes first sent to cell phones and then posted on
ABC.com a week later. Each of these nuggets has been pure gold to me,
whetting my appetite for the excitement to come. I'm especially
intrigued by the revelation in the 13th mobisode, though my favorite
probably remains King of the Castle, in which Jack squares off
against Ben in a game of chess and shrugs off suggestions that he might
not really want to leave this island for good.
This month, we got the fantastic www.find815.com, an interactive website whose contents I still have not fully explored. It allows fans to follow the journey of Sam Thomas, former Oceanic employee and longtime boyfriend of an 815 stewardess named Sonya, who decides to conduct his own search after Oceanic gives up on finding the fallen airplane. Filled to the brim with fascinating tidbits, it no doubt offers some hints about the upcoming season.
But there's nothing like the show itself, so I was eager to pick up season three, which came out in mid-December, though I waited until January to buy it. I've heard and read a lot of complaints about its unevenness; most reviewers seemed to agree that the last few episodes had saved a substandard season. Maybe it made a difference that I saw the first six episodes close together, so I didn't have to wait such a long time to see what had happened to everyone after the season two finale, but I had few of those frustrations with the season.
Oh, sure, it was aggravating to see Kate and Sawyer stuck in bear cages and Jack in a shark tank, unable to roam freely and being manipulated by the Others. I worried that they might not make their way back to the beach, but in my heart of hearts, I figured they would. I think the writers could have given one of the second season's key characters a more graceful exit, and two of the third season's most superfluous characters a more natural entrance. But for the most past, I found the season absolutely riveting, and I was thrilled to be able to watch it in real time at last.
Season three is very focused on the Others, who are mostly hinted at in the first season and still shadowy in the second. We get to know the deliciously creepy Ben, formerly known as the sniveling Henry. Michael Emerson's exceptional Emmy-nominated performance kept me hanging on Ben's every word and gesture. Ben is especially compelling in conjunction with Jack (Matthew Fox), who gets intimately acquainted with the Others this season, and John (Terry O'Quinn), who despite long absences manages three centric episodes, the intensity of which were enough to score O'Quinn the Emmy.
Our castaways are very fragmented, particularly at the beginning, with Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in captivity; Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) in decoy Otherville; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) wandering through the jungle; Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), John and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) unaccounted for and the rest of the gang back at the beach - save Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), of course, who have skipped the island in the Others' motorboat. As the season progresses, the fragmentation continues as the characters shuffle around, but in the entire season, we never see all of the castaways together in the same place - though we come close at one point, with only John off on his own, becoming more embroiled in the mysteries of the island and demanding answers from Ben.
Because the Others are now a prominent faction, there are many scenes, especially toward the end of the season, that don't involve the castaways at all. Much of the action hinges on the loyalties of Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), a fertility specialist brought to the island because every pregnancy in recent memory has ended with the death of both mother and baby. Controlled by Ben for three years, all she wants is to get home to her sister and the nephew she's never met, and she's willing to do anything to facilitate that escape. She seems to have bonded with Jack, but is it all an act?
Richard (Nestor Carbonell), a soft-spoken man with heavy eyeliner who "looks fair but feels foul," recruited Juliet with some wheedling words and a little help from the dearly departed Ethan (William Mapother), who, like Christian (John Terry), has a habit of popping up frequently even though he died in the first season. Richard seems to be Ben's advisor, and quite possibly a scheming one at that, while Tom (M. C. Gainey), hitherto known as Mr. Friendly, is his lackey who is not nearly as intimidating without his beard. My favorite of the secondary Others, Tom is known for his congeniality, and in this season he generally comes across as a regular guy without as many sinister underpinnings as his cohorts.
Cohorts like Mikhail (Andrew Divoff), affectionately known as Patchy. This one-eyed Ukrainian first pops up on a television screen in the surveillance hatch. A loose cannon, he lives reclusively on a farm equipped with communication devices and shoots at anyone who comes to visit. He's surly and unpredictable, and he's much more important to the season than it at first appears. And then there is Jacob, the enigmatic leader of the Others who no one but Ben seems to have seen. Supposedly he calls all the shots, but does he even exist, or is he just another way for Ben to exert control over others?
The mysteries pile up in this season, but some compelling questions are answered, among them What is the Dharma Initiative, and how does it relate to the Others? Who is the original Sawyer? How is it that polar bears are wandering around on a tropical island? How did Locke get in the wheelchair? Some less intriguing questions receive an unwarranted degree of attention, most notably What's the deal with Jack's tattoos? But I'll forgive that debacle of a back story because the episode also focuses on the teenaged Karl (Blake Bashoff), who may be Luke to Sawyer's Han Solo and who shares a gorgeous Somewhere Out There moment with Alex (Tonya Raymonde), unhinged island resident Rousseau's (Mira Furlan) long-lost daughter, as the episode closes.
Sawyer certainly is one of the most riveting characters of the season. Though he hasn't grown any less snarky, he seems to be advancing steadily in his maturation process, and Jack's absence is doing him some good as it gives him the opportunity to step up and take some responsibility, with a little help from the wise Hurley. But this is Sawyer we're talking about here; can it be long before he backslides? All of the characters face new challenges this season, but the one I couldn't keep my eyes off of was Desmond, who we only really got to know during the season two finale. Now he's a regular part of the gang, though all that time in a hatch didn't do much for his social skills. He's a loner, but as he spends the season haunted by disturbing visions foretelling the death of Charlie (Dom Monaghan), the pair remain predominantly in one another's company, which is lovely for me, since they are two of my four favorite characters.
Charlie's supposed doom comes to light in Flashes Before Your Eyes, an episode whose format is unique among all those we've seen so far. Framed in the present, the bulk of it takes place at a key moment in Desmond's past - or is it? With its mind-bending premise and epic overtones - not to mention a terribly romantic storyline for a show that aired on Valentine's Day - it firmly establishes Desmond as a key player in the third season and makes the question of Charlie's survival a principal concern. Expose, on the other hand, disposes of two much-maligned characters and is widely regarded as a wasted episode, but the light-hearted tone and alternative perspectives actually made it one of my favorites of the season - though I am cross when I realize that while we are putting up with Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paolo's (Rodrigo Santoro) pointless shenanigans, we could be getting some more time in with the fantastic Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard (Sam Anderson), who are missing in action for the vast majority of the season.
LOST just keeps getting more and more complex, and it's nice to know that the writers now know exactly how much longer they have to wrap up the series. Presumably, this provides assurance that we're actually going to unlock most of the show's mysteries - though no doubt some will be left for us to discuss long after LOST has ended. I wish I could say that the show seems to be building toward the optimistic conclusion indicated by the first season, which was largely an idealistic study in how flawed people from disparate backgrounds can learn to live together peaceably. If you discount those killed upon impact in the plane crash, there are about twice as many deaths in the third season as in the first two combined. I certainly hope that trend doesn't continue. But whatever the case may be, I know exactly where I will be on Thursday night at 9 p.m., even if it is only for the next eight weeks. LOST has lost none of its appeal for me. I can't wait to see what Damon and Carlton have in store for us next!
This month, we got the fantastic www.find815.com, an interactive website whose contents I still have not fully explored. It allows fans to follow the journey of Sam Thomas, former Oceanic employee and longtime boyfriend of an 815 stewardess named Sonya, who decides to conduct his own search after Oceanic gives up on finding the fallen airplane. Filled to the brim with fascinating tidbits, it no doubt offers some hints about the upcoming season.
But there's nothing like the show itself, so I was eager to pick up season three, which came out in mid-December, though I waited until January to buy it. I've heard and read a lot of complaints about its unevenness; most reviewers seemed to agree that the last few episodes had saved a substandard season. Maybe it made a difference that I saw the first six episodes close together, so I didn't have to wait such a long time to see what had happened to everyone after the season two finale, but I had few of those frustrations with the season.
Oh, sure, it was aggravating to see Kate and Sawyer stuck in bear cages and Jack in a shark tank, unable to roam freely and being manipulated by the Others. I worried that they might not make their way back to the beach, but in my heart of hearts, I figured they would. I think the writers could have given one of the second season's key characters a more graceful exit, and two of the third season's most superfluous characters a more natural entrance. But for the most past, I found the season absolutely riveting, and I was thrilled to be able to watch it in real time at last.
Season three is very focused on the Others, who are mostly hinted at in the first season and still shadowy in the second. We get to know the deliciously creepy Ben, formerly known as the sniveling Henry. Michael Emerson's exceptional Emmy-nominated performance kept me hanging on Ben's every word and gesture. Ben is especially compelling in conjunction with Jack (Matthew Fox), who gets intimately acquainted with the Others this season, and John (Terry O'Quinn), who despite long absences manages three centric episodes, the intensity of which were enough to score O'Quinn the Emmy.
Our castaways are very fragmented, particularly at the beginning, with Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in captivity; Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) in decoy Otherville; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) wandering through the jungle; Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), John and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) unaccounted for and the rest of the gang back at the beach - save Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), of course, who have skipped the island in the Others' motorboat. As the season progresses, the fragmentation continues as the characters shuffle around, but in the entire season, we never see all of the castaways together in the same place - though we come close at one point, with only John off on his own, becoming more embroiled in the mysteries of the island and demanding answers from Ben.
Because the Others are now a prominent faction, there are many scenes, especially toward the end of the season, that don't involve the castaways at all. Much of the action hinges on the loyalties of Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), a fertility specialist brought to the island because every pregnancy in recent memory has ended with the death of both mother and baby. Controlled by Ben for three years, all she wants is to get home to her sister and the nephew she's never met, and she's willing to do anything to facilitate that escape. She seems to have bonded with Jack, but is it all an act?
Richard (Nestor Carbonell), a soft-spoken man with heavy eyeliner who "looks fair but feels foul," recruited Juliet with some wheedling words and a little help from the dearly departed Ethan (William Mapother), who, like Christian (John Terry), has a habit of popping up frequently even though he died in the first season. Richard seems to be Ben's advisor, and quite possibly a scheming one at that, while Tom (M. C. Gainey), hitherto known as Mr. Friendly, is his lackey who is not nearly as intimidating without his beard. My favorite of the secondary Others, Tom is known for his congeniality, and in this season he generally comes across as a regular guy without as many sinister underpinnings as his cohorts.
Cohorts like Mikhail (Andrew Divoff), affectionately known as Patchy. This one-eyed Ukrainian first pops up on a television screen in the surveillance hatch. A loose cannon, he lives reclusively on a farm equipped with communication devices and shoots at anyone who comes to visit. He's surly and unpredictable, and he's much more important to the season than it at first appears. And then there is Jacob, the enigmatic leader of the Others who no one but Ben seems to have seen. Supposedly he calls all the shots, but does he even exist, or is he just another way for Ben to exert control over others?
The mysteries pile up in this season, but some compelling questions are answered, among them What is the Dharma Initiative, and how does it relate to the Others? Who is the original Sawyer? How is it that polar bears are wandering around on a tropical island? How did Locke get in the wheelchair? Some less intriguing questions receive an unwarranted degree of attention, most notably What's the deal with Jack's tattoos? But I'll forgive that debacle of a back story because the episode also focuses on the teenaged Karl (Blake Bashoff), who may be Luke to Sawyer's Han Solo and who shares a gorgeous Somewhere Out There moment with Alex (Tonya Raymonde), unhinged island resident Rousseau's (Mira Furlan) long-lost daughter, as the episode closes.
Sawyer certainly is one of the most riveting characters of the season. Though he hasn't grown any less snarky, he seems to be advancing steadily in his maturation process, and Jack's absence is doing him some good as it gives him the opportunity to step up and take some responsibility, with a little help from the wise Hurley. But this is Sawyer we're talking about here; can it be long before he backslides? All of the characters face new challenges this season, but the one I couldn't keep my eyes off of was Desmond, who we only really got to know during the season two finale. Now he's a regular part of the gang, though all that time in a hatch didn't do much for his social skills. He's a loner, but as he spends the season haunted by disturbing visions foretelling the death of Charlie (Dom Monaghan), the pair remain predominantly in one another's company, which is lovely for me, since they are two of my four favorite characters.
Charlie's supposed doom comes to light in Flashes Before Your Eyes, an episode whose format is unique among all those we've seen so far. Framed in the present, the bulk of it takes place at a key moment in Desmond's past - or is it? With its mind-bending premise and epic overtones - not to mention a terribly romantic storyline for a show that aired on Valentine's Day - it firmly establishes Desmond as a key player in the third season and makes the question of Charlie's survival a principal concern. Expose, on the other hand, disposes of two much-maligned characters and is widely regarded as a wasted episode, but the light-hearted tone and alternative perspectives actually made it one of my favorites of the season - though I am cross when I realize that while we are putting up with Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paolo's (Rodrigo Santoro) pointless shenanigans, we could be getting some more time in with the fantastic Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard (Sam Anderson), who are missing in action for the vast majority of the season.
LOST just keeps getting more and more complex, and it's nice to know that the writers now know exactly how much longer they have to wrap up the series. Presumably, this provides assurance that we're actually going to unlock most of the show's mysteries - though no doubt some will be left for us to discuss long after LOST has ended. I wish I could say that the show seems to be building toward the optimistic conclusion indicated by the first season, which was largely an idealistic study in how flawed people from disparate backgrounds can learn to live together peaceably. If you discount those killed upon impact in the plane crash, there are about twice as many deaths in the third season as in the first two combined. I certainly hope that trend doesn't continue. But whatever the case may be, I know exactly where I will be on Thursday night at 9 p.m., even if it is only for the next eight weeks. LOST has lost none of its appeal for me. I can't wait to see what Damon and Carlton have in store for us next!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
McFarlane Branches Out From the LOST Guys With Entish Kate Austen
Before I received the talking Charlie Pace figurine from McFarlane Toys last Christmas, I had no idea that there was a line of LOST
toys. While Charlie is almost certainly the best of the bunch in terms
of craftsmanship, I was eager to complete my trio of favorite characters
by securing John Locke and Hurley Reyes, and when I spotted the deluxe
diorama for half price, I snagged that too. I told myself I would stop
there. But this fall, I happened upon Kate Austen for half price while
attempting to sneak a peek at the second line of LOST figures,
which includes Sun and Jin Kwon, Sawyer Ford and Mr. Eko. Alas, there
was no sign of them, but when I spotted Kate sitting next to Charlie
with a big clearance tag on her, I was moved. Kate would be joining my
menagerie.
Kate is an interesting character, spunky and compassionate but full of dark secrets. Her back story reminds me of Catch Me If You Can, with the U. S. Marshall Edward Mars dogging her steps as she hops from town to town, leaving a trail of crime behind her. In her own way, Kate is as much a con artist as Sawyer, but her intentions tend to be purer than his. For the most part, I really like her in the first season, though in the second and third season I've begun to find her frustrating as she zips back and forth between Sawyer and Jack and acts in headstrong ways that endanger her fellow castaways.
McFarlane captures Kate in an early moment of derring-do. One of her laudable traits is that she's not afraid to get filthy, making her much more useful in the early post-crash days than Shannon, the pedicured princess. Surrounding her on the stand are big bunches of bamboo. This three-dimensional background is probably my favorite aspect of the figure.
What I don't like is the way Kate's sleeves, wet, wrinkled and dirty, look like tree branches, and that extends to her hands as well. I kid you not. It was the first thing I noticed when I laid eyes on her, and when I showed the figure to my friend Dan, he declared, "She looks like Grandmother Willow!" That's not too far off the mark. I'm all for Ents, but Kate is fully human and shouldn't look like she's about to sprout leaves. Frankly, I find it disturbing - though maybe it's a veiled reference to Evangeline Lilly's romance with Dom Monaghan, former Ent-rider?
Her hair hangs lankly behind her head in a ponytail, with strands brushing across her forehead. She wears a muddy pair of jeans and a dingy blue tank top, over top of which is the khaki shirt with the bizarre sleeves. Her hardy shoes are the practical ones Jack insisted she wear.
I'm not overly impressed with Kate's sound clips, which include...
* "If you're thinking about going for the cockpit, I'm going with you."
* "Well, I only made out with him because torturing him didn't work."
* "JACK!!!!!!" *thunderclap* "One... two... three... four... five!"
That last one is particularly annoying because you have to press the button between the thunderclap and the counting, which is practically impossible to understand over top of the downpour in the background. All three quotes, from the Pilot and Confidence Man, are directed toward Jack, though the second involves Sawyer. Kate was certainly very involved with Jack throughout the first season, and the inclusion of the Sawyer quote is a reminder of the continuing tensions there. But it seems slightly excessive that all three of her quotes basically are about her chasing after Jack. I'd like to think there's a bit more to Kate than that...
At least the prop has nothing to do with Jack, though it is a souvenir of a sincere romantic attachment. I don't remember if the plastic plane that she kept as a reminder of the childhood sweetheart for whose death she feels responsible is supposed to be missing a propeller. Mine is, but otherwise it's very nifty and rather more durable than the paper props included with all of the series one figures except for Charlie (whose ring, I found out the hard way, is not quite as hardy as it looks).
If you're a big Kate fan, you'll want to pick up this figure. If you can find it in the store, it'll most likely be half-price; otherwise, check it out online, and while you're at it, see if you are interested in any of the other folks. The series two figures could especially use a little love, lest McFarlane decide not to go ahead with series three, which is slated to include Claire, Sayid, Ben and - joy of joys - Desmond. Though Kate is not the most realistic-looking of the bunch, she's still a great stand-alone or addition to an existing collection.
Kate is an interesting character, spunky and compassionate but full of dark secrets. Her back story reminds me of Catch Me If You Can, with the U. S. Marshall Edward Mars dogging her steps as she hops from town to town, leaving a trail of crime behind her. In her own way, Kate is as much a con artist as Sawyer, but her intentions tend to be purer than his. For the most part, I really like her in the first season, though in the second and third season I've begun to find her frustrating as she zips back and forth between Sawyer and Jack and acts in headstrong ways that endanger her fellow castaways.
McFarlane captures Kate in an early moment of derring-do. One of her laudable traits is that she's not afraid to get filthy, making her much more useful in the early post-crash days than Shannon, the pedicured princess. Surrounding her on the stand are big bunches of bamboo. This three-dimensional background is probably my favorite aspect of the figure.
What I don't like is the way Kate's sleeves, wet, wrinkled and dirty, look like tree branches, and that extends to her hands as well. I kid you not. It was the first thing I noticed when I laid eyes on her, and when I showed the figure to my friend Dan, he declared, "She looks like Grandmother Willow!" That's not too far off the mark. I'm all for Ents, but Kate is fully human and shouldn't look like she's about to sprout leaves. Frankly, I find it disturbing - though maybe it's a veiled reference to Evangeline Lilly's romance with Dom Monaghan, former Ent-rider?
Her hair hangs lankly behind her head in a ponytail, with strands brushing across her forehead. She wears a muddy pair of jeans and a dingy blue tank top, over top of which is the khaki shirt with the bizarre sleeves. Her hardy shoes are the practical ones Jack insisted she wear.
I'm not overly impressed with Kate's sound clips, which include...
* "If you're thinking about going for the cockpit, I'm going with you."
* "Well, I only made out with him because torturing him didn't work."
* "JACK!!!!!!" *thunderclap* "One... two... three... four... five!"
That last one is particularly annoying because you have to press the button between the thunderclap and the counting, which is practically impossible to understand over top of the downpour in the background. All three quotes, from the Pilot and Confidence Man, are directed toward Jack, though the second involves Sawyer. Kate was certainly very involved with Jack throughout the first season, and the inclusion of the Sawyer quote is a reminder of the continuing tensions there. But it seems slightly excessive that all three of her quotes basically are about her chasing after Jack. I'd like to think there's a bit more to Kate than that...
At least the prop has nothing to do with Jack, though it is a souvenir of a sincere romantic attachment. I don't remember if the plastic plane that she kept as a reminder of the childhood sweetheart for whose death she feels responsible is supposed to be missing a propeller. Mine is, but otherwise it's very nifty and rather more durable than the paper props included with all of the series one figures except for Charlie (whose ring, I found out the hard way, is not quite as hardy as it looks).
If you're a big Kate fan, you'll want to pick up this figure. If you can find it in the store, it'll most likely be half-price; otherwise, check it out online, and while you're at it, see if you are interested in any of the other folks. The series two figures could especially use a little love, lest McFarlane decide not to go ahead with series three, which is slated to include Claire, Sayid, Ben and - joy of joys - Desmond. Though Kate is not the most realistic-looking of the bunch, she's still a great stand-alone or addition to an existing collection.
McFarlane's Shannon Lies Down on the Job
In a show filled with compelling characters, Shannon Rutherford never quite measured up to the rest of the principal cast of LOST's
first season. She didn't start to get really interesting until the last
few episodes. Before that point, she spent most of her time engaged in
some variation of the activity depicted in her McFarlane figure: lying
on her back in an orange bikini, cushioned from the hot sand by a
vibrant multi-colored towel, with a pair of sunglasses to keep the sun
out of her eyes and help her maintain her distance.
When you remove the other series one figures from the pegs attaching them to their habitats, they can almost stand upright, but Shannon is stuck in that silly lounging position, bare feet hovering just above the sand, dirty blond hair clumped against her head, a bottle of water and another of lotion close at hand. In the cardboard backdrop, the calamitous scene contrasts with her air of aristocratic apathy. As wreckage burns, red-shirt castaways struggle to get their bearings, and her step-brother Boone marches fuzzily toward her, probably preparing to reprimand her for her inertia. It's not a colorful scene, but a zoned-out Shannon doesn't make for the most interesting figure.
But I couldn't resist. When I saw her lying on a shelf in a battered box with a half-price sticker, I snatched her up. Maybe it was pity for the character, who started out annoying but became more sympathetic as time wore on and never had the opportunities for development that were afforded most of the other major castaways. If they wanted to round out the series with a blond beauty, I would rather have Claire, but it's of some consolation that she will be manufactured with the third series, if there is one. Here's hoping!
With the backdrop and stand, Shannon is a bit longer horizontally than most of the other figures but considerably shorter vertically, since she is lying down. Press the button on the black box, which requires a pair of AAA batteries, and you get to hear three ever-so-charming quotes from the show.
* "What's a four-letter word for 'I don't care'?"
* "The plane had a black box, idiot. I'll eat on the rescue boat."
* "You want my information. Name: Shannon Rutherford. Age: 20. Address: Cr**hole Island."
Ah, yes, Shannon. Such impeccable people skills. At least the creators give her a little credit with her prop, which is Rousseau's map of the island. It unfolds to be quite large and would look nice on a wall if you don't mind a few creases. The map comes complete with Rousseau's random scrawling, the interpretation of which marked a major change in Shannon's attitude on the island. Once she realized that there was a way to make herself useful, she became a lot less insufferable.
Of the six figures in McFarlane's first series, Shannon is easily the least interesting, but it's still not a bad sculpt, and the map is a pretty cool artifact to have. If you're a big Shannon fan or just want to complete your collection, she shouldn't be too hard to come by for ten bucks. I just hope that Claire gets her time in the spotlight too!
When you remove the other series one figures from the pegs attaching them to their habitats, they can almost stand upright, but Shannon is stuck in that silly lounging position, bare feet hovering just above the sand, dirty blond hair clumped against her head, a bottle of water and another of lotion close at hand. In the cardboard backdrop, the calamitous scene contrasts with her air of aristocratic apathy. As wreckage burns, red-shirt castaways struggle to get their bearings, and her step-brother Boone marches fuzzily toward her, probably preparing to reprimand her for her inertia. It's not a colorful scene, but a zoned-out Shannon doesn't make for the most interesting figure.
But I couldn't resist. When I saw her lying on a shelf in a battered box with a half-price sticker, I snatched her up. Maybe it was pity for the character, who started out annoying but became more sympathetic as time wore on and never had the opportunities for development that were afforded most of the other major castaways. If they wanted to round out the series with a blond beauty, I would rather have Claire, but it's of some consolation that she will be manufactured with the third series, if there is one. Here's hoping!
With the backdrop and stand, Shannon is a bit longer horizontally than most of the other figures but considerably shorter vertically, since she is lying down. Press the button on the black box, which requires a pair of AAA batteries, and you get to hear three ever-so-charming quotes from the show.
* "What's a four-letter word for 'I don't care'?"
* "The plane had a black box, idiot. I'll eat on the rescue boat."
* "You want my information. Name: Shannon Rutherford. Age: 20. Address: Cr**hole Island."
Ah, yes, Shannon. Such impeccable people skills. At least the creators give her a little credit with her prop, which is Rousseau's map of the island. It unfolds to be quite large and would look nice on a wall if you don't mind a few creases. The map comes complete with Rousseau's random scrawling, the interpretation of which marked a major change in Shannon's attitude on the island. Once she realized that there was a way to make herself useful, she became a lot less insufferable.
Of the six figures in McFarlane's first series, Shannon is easily the least interesting, but it's still not a bad sculpt, and the map is a pretty cool artifact to have. If you're a big Shannon fan or just want to complete your collection, she shouldn't be too hard to come by for ten bucks. I just hope that Claire gets her time in the spotlight too!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
First-Time Director Expands on The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
My brother Nathan's favorite Christmas book is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey,
so when I saw that it had been made into a movie, it quickly went into
my Netflix queue. I made sure to bump it up to the top so that there
would be plenty of opportunity for Nathan and me to watch it while he
was home for nearly a month between semesters. But it transpired that
Nathan was reluctant to watch a film adaptation of his beloved book, so
much so that by the time he left, we still hadn't watched it. He feared
the movie would be a pale imitation of the book and somehow diminish its
power. So I watched it with Mom, who didn't remember the plot of the
book at all and, upon its conclusion, declared the movie boring. I don't
know if Nathan would have agreed, but I didn't, so maybe next Christmas
I will try again...
In the book, the only characters are the titular Toomey (Tom Berenger), the inquisitive boy Thomas McDowell (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) and his widowed mother Susan (Joely Richardson). The film expands the cast of characters considerably and throws the primary focus upon Thomas, a lively youth whose devastation at the death of his father (Elliot Cowan) in battle is compounded by the loss of the Nativity set they cherished together. The set goes missing during the move from the city, which means a departure from the warm, maternal housekeeper, Mrs. Hickey (Jenny O'Hara), and Thomas' grandpa.
When Thomas arrives in the country at the home of his aunt, he is determined to be miserable, but slowly he warms to the farming life and begins to form friendships with schoolmates. Bratty Edward Hardwick (Jack Montgomery) is a bully, but his spunky sister Celia (Saoirse Ronan) quickly takes a shine to him, and they soon become bosom buddies. He also finds a kindred spirit in nerdy Bobby (Benjamin Eli). But it isn't until a third of the way through the hour-and-a-half-long movie that he meets the reclusive Mr. Toomey, who Edward insists is a criminal. Used to taunts by schoolchildren, the carpenter doesn't take kindly to youthful company, but after taking on the job of replacing the McDowells' nativity set, he reluctantly agrees to let Thomas observe his work while Susan sits in the corner and knits. And with each visit, he finds that he minds their presence a little less...
Ward-Wilkinson is very engaging as the energetic but distraught Thomas, and Ronan complements him perfectly as the sweet but feisty Celia. I'm looking forward to seeing her in the main role of Susie in Peter Jackson's upcoming production of The Lovely Bones. I've seen Richardson in other films and enjoyed her here as Thomas's stern but kind mother. Giving us a glimpse of how she deals with her husband's death and showing her ongoing struggle to learn how to cook make her all the more human.
Berenger, meanwhile, carries himself the way Jonathan Toomey would, but there's something wooden about his performance, and it's not just the shavings in his beard. Though we get a good sense of his progression from gruff to warm, whenever he actually speaks, it sounds as though he is reading off a cue card. I find this odd, since he is one of the most accomplished actors in the cast, but his stilted dialogue gives us a deeper appreciation for "the value of silence," which Toomey emphatically espouses.
Susan Wojciechowski wrote the book on which the film is based, while P. J. Lynch provided the evocative illustrations. The movie was both written and directed by first-timer Bill Clark, who does an excellent job for a novice. Though I am very familiar with the book, he almost had me believing that the movie came first. So successful was his expansion of the story that every element felt as though it had been there all along.
The film seems to be set during World War I. The location is harder to place; it was filmed in London, but the American accents place it stateside. Though the dialects place it somewhere in the north, we see the children playing in the creek until shortly before Christmas, which certainly wouldn't be likely here in Pennsylvania. I read that the setting is supposed to be New England, and for the most part that seems to fit, but the water hole antics just don't seem appropriate for the season. Apparently it was also filmed on a sound stage, which would explain why many of the sets looked "too perfect," as my mom put it. They looked realistic enough to me, though, and I especially liked Toomey's little woodcarver's hut.
It's a shame this quiet, tender little Christmas movie was rushed to DVD late in 2007 with little promotion. I'm afraid it has gotten lost in the shuffle, and that is a pity because it is a worthy adaptation of a beautiful book, and such a thing is a bit of a miracle in itself.
In the book, the only characters are the titular Toomey (Tom Berenger), the inquisitive boy Thomas McDowell (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) and his widowed mother Susan (Joely Richardson). The film expands the cast of characters considerably and throws the primary focus upon Thomas, a lively youth whose devastation at the death of his father (Elliot Cowan) in battle is compounded by the loss of the Nativity set they cherished together. The set goes missing during the move from the city, which means a departure from the warm, maternal housekeeper, Mrs. Hickey (Jenny O'Hara), and Thomas' grandpa.
When Thomas arrives in the country at the home of his aunt, he is determined to be miserable, but slowly he warms to the farming life and begins to form friendships with schoolmates. Bratty Edward Hardwick (Jack Montgomery) is a bully, but his spunky sister Celia (Saoirse Ronan) quickly takes a shine to him, and they soon become bosom buddies. He also finds a kindred spirit in nerdy Bobby (Benjamin Eli). But it isn't until a third of the way through the hour-and-a-half-long movie that he meets the reclusive Mr. Toomey, who Edward insists is a criminal. Used to taunts by schoolchildren, the carpenter doesn't take kindly to youthful company, but after taking on the job of replacing the McDowells' nativity set, he reluctantly agrees to let Thomas observe his work while Susan sits in the corner and knits. And with each visit, he finds that he minds their presence a little less...
Ward-Wilkinson is very engaging as the energetic but distraught Thomas, and Ronan complements him perfectly as the sweet but feisty Celia. I'm looking forward to seeing her in the main role of Susie in Peter Jackson's upcoming production of The Lovely Bones. I've seen Richardson in other films and enjoyed her here as Thomas's stern but kind mother. Giving us a glimpse of how she deals with her husband's death and showing her ongoing struggle to learn how to cook make her all the more human.
Berenger, meanwhile, carries himself the way Jonathan Toomey would, but there's something wooden about his performance, and it's not just the shavings in his beard. Though we get a good sense of his progression from gruff to warm, whenever he actually speaks, it sounds as though he is reading off a cue card. I find this odd, since he is one of the most accomplished actors in the cast, but his stilted dialogue gives us a deeper appreciation for "the value of silence," which Toomey emphatically espouses.
Susan Wojciechowski wrote the book on which the film is based, while P. J. Lynch provided the evocative illustrations. The movie was both written and directed by first-timer Bill Clark, who does an excellent job for a novice. Though I am very familiar with the book, he almost had me believing that the movie came first. So successful was his expansion of the story that every element felt as though it had been there all along.
The film seems to be set during World War I. The location is harder to place; it was filmed in London, but the American accents place it stateside. Though the dialects place it somewhere in the north, we see the children playing in the creek until shortly before Christmas, which certainly wouldn't be likely here in Pennsylvania. I read that the setting is supposed to be New England, and for the most part that seems to fit, but the water hole antics just don't seem appropriate for the season. Apparently it was also filmed on a sound stage, which would explain why many of the sets looked "too perfect," as my mom put it. They looked realistic enough to me, though, and I especially liked Toomey's little woodcarver's hut.
It's a shame this quiet, tender little Christmas movie was rushed to DVD late in 2007 with little promotion. I'm afraid it has gotten lost in the shuffle, and that is a pity because it is a worthy adaptation of a beautiful book, and such a thing is a bit of a miracle in itself.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Get LOST With Paul Simon in This SNL Christmas Collection
The tree is down, and so are the outside lights and most of the inside
decorations. Holiday compilations are out of the rotation in the CD
player. I almost have Christmas out of my system. Before I let it go, I
have to allow myself a few more Christmas movies from my Netflix queue.
Last week, I treated myself to Saturday Night Live: Christmas Past.
Released in 1999, it contains mostly sketches from the variety show's glory days, with the likes of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, and later Dana Carvey and Chris Farley. The most recent material includes Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri. The special clocks in at just over an hour; while it includes 18 amusing skits, I'm sure SNL could easily release another volume, particularly with the inclusion of sketches from the last decade. I'd put in a vote for the obnoxious couple at the Christmas tree lot (2005) and, dare I confess, 2006's phenomenally popular music video starring Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake. What this collection gives us is a range of material, most of it slightly off-color.
Christmas Eve At The White House - Chevy Chase does his usual Gerald-Ford-is-a-klutz shtick, and it's pretty funny, though extremely ridiculous. In Chase's hands, the poor president can't do anything right; he is unable to follow simple instructions for how to give his Christmas address; he hangs his children's stockings upside-down; he knocks over the Christmas tree. Pure slapstick, and bearing very little resemblance, I'm sure, to the real guy.
Opening Montage - Bill Murray does an opening monologue, and when Santa (Dan Aykroyd) shows up, he has all sorts of great stuff to say about him. Nothing objectionable about this one, but it seemed very short.
Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood on Christmas - I'm not sure I want this guy as my neighbor. Eddie Murphy spoofs Mr. Rogers in a ghetto version of the beloved man in the sweater. Actually, he's everything Mr. Rogers isn't, as he demonstrates when, clad in a Santa suit, he opens his sack of stolen toys and confides his plan to make a killing by ringing a bell and holding out a Salvation Army kettle. Murphy is a funny guy, but I'm not sure this one sits so well with me...
Delicious Dish - The two most boring women on the planet (played by Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer) host a holiday edition of their NPR cooking show. Their special guest is a baker (Alec Baldwin) with the last name Schwetty whose specialty is "balls". You know, like Russian tea cakes and doughnut holes. It's ever so benign, but the three take the opportunity to cram as much innuendo into one sketch as they possibly can. I think I saw this one live; certainly it's shown up in a bunch of SNL clip shows. It's Austin Powers-style naughty.
Church Chat - Dana Carvey is the persnickety "Church Lady" who invites guests onto her show just to scold them. Pretty funny, especially since I definitely know a few people like that. After two guests, one of them Danny Devito as himself, get a stern tongue-lashing, the Church Lady rocks out on the drums, and Devito does some festive singing.
Martha Stewart's Topless Christmas Special - This bizarre segment features Ana Gasteyer as Martha Stewart, cheerfully instructing anyone who cares to listen on the finer points of merrymaking, such as making a ludicrously complicated table decoration, though of course she claims that it's simple. For the most part, though, the humor derives from the fact that she is conducting her entire show topless (with a strategically placed black bar, of course). Um... why?
Hannukah Song - Ah, finally we're getting to the really good stuff. My second-favorite segment on the DVD, this has Norm McDonald at the news desk introducing Adam Sandler, who strums his guitar and sings a career-making song about all the famous people who are Jewish, so as to help Jewish kids to feel a little less left out around Christmastime. Funny, informative, even somewhat touching, this one is a winner, and I always turn up the volume when it comes on the radio in December.
A Holiday Wish - Steve Martin sits in a cozy easy chair and expounds upon what he would ask for if he had just one wish for Christmas. It starts out very warm and fuzzy but quickly degenerates as he adds more and more wishes, each less sentimental than the last. With a bit of a 12 Days of Christmas feel to it - though, thankfully, he stops long before 12 - this is dryly amusing but also considerably crass.
Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker - Phil Hartman hires Matt Foley (Chris Farley) to be the Santa in his shopping mall. I've been subjected to many skits in this series, and all of them give me a headache. Farley's vocal delivery makes me want to hit "mute" after a few seconds. My brother Nathan thought this one, which featured Sally Field as a furious mom and a slew of kids - an unusual sight on SNL - was hilarious, but I wasn't too impressed, aside from the rather clever way he managed to work his "van down by the river" shtick into a Visit From St. Nicholas-style Christmas story.
Consumer Probe - This one, however, had me laughing quite a bit. Candace Bergen grills a slimy toymaker played by Dan Aykroyd about the dangerous toys his company continues to make, while he tries to point out their value and convince her that even the most innocent of toys could potentially result in injury. Very funny.
Lost Ending of It's A Wonderful Life - It's William Shatner! But not for long. He merely introduces this missing ending of the Frank Capra classic. While the cast members do a pretty good job of imitating the various characters from that movie, it kinda takes the warm fuzzies out of it when George (Dana Carvey) leads the rest of the townsfolk in an angry mob against that nasty old man who stole his money.
Santa Wrap - This looks like something that could have been on American Inventor. Dan Aykroyd explains the advantage of Santa wrap, which he applies to the most unsanitary lap of a grossly inebriated mall Santa (John Belushi). A rather entertaining little commercial.
The Nigh Hannukah Harry Saved Christmas - Jon Lovitz as Hanukah Harry fills in for Santa, who is sick. A jovial fellow, he is nonetheless received with some disappointment by a pair of eagerly waiting kids when he gives them rather dull Jewish-themed gifts instead of the toys they were expecting. But it ends on a fairly heartwarming note when Santa comes anyway and the kids decide that Harry, too, is worthy of appreciation.
Deserted Island Christmas - I would have been very disappointed if this hadn't been included. In fact, it was the main reason I rented the DVD. I saw this on a television Christmas special once, and I absolutely adored it. Paul Simon? Desert island? Talk about a winning combination! He and Victoria Jackson are a couple stranded for Christmas, but they don't care too much. They're going to make a celebration of it anyway, and Paul feels rather pleased with himself over the potholders he's made and the fancy shells he's found as gifts for his ladylove... until she reveals an exquisite handmade watch and telescope and details how she managed to create them. Sweet and hilarious.
Winter Wonderland - Fun group song. Everybody gets involved, and as the ladies and gentlemen battle it out with their harmonies, it grows more and more chaotic.
Dysfunctional Family Christmas - More musical merriment, though it offers an awfully bleak view of the holidays. Phil Hartman and the gang advertise a collection of songs celebrating the darker side of Christmas.
Rita From Brooklyn - Outrageous New York accents rule the day as Cheri Oteri, Rosie O'Donnell and Penny Marshall duke it out over their lawn decorations until a group of caroling children change their perspective. Pretty funny.
Master Thespian - Almost a rehash of Matt Foley, with Jon Lovitz in the Santa suit instead this time. Phil Hartman is the mall manager again, and once more he finds he's got a little more than he bargained for with this overdramatic St. Nick. I like it better than the Chris Farley one, but it might have been nice to end the disc on something a little less repetitive.
All told, it's a moderately entertaining collection, but the crude nature of most of the sketches makes it a DVD I wouldn't go out of my way to include in the yearly holiday rotation. If you've ever gotten a laugh out of SNL, though, give it a shot. For my money, it's worth a look just for Deserted Island Christmas. Now if they only could have gotten Paulie to sing the Gilligan's Island theme song...
Released in 1999, it contains mostly sketches from the variety show's glory days, with the likes of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, and later Dana Carvey and Chris Farley. The most recent material includes Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri. The special clocks in at just over an hour; while it includes 18 amusing skits, I'm sure SNL could easily release another volume, particularly with the inclusion of sketches from the last decade. I'd put in a vote for the obnoxious couple at the Christmas tree lot (2005) and, dare I confess, 2006's phenomenally popular music video starring Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake. What this collection gives us is a range of material, most of it slightly off-color.
Christmas Eve At The White House - Chevy Chase does his usual Gerald-Ford-is-a-klutz shtick, and it's pretty funny, though extremely ridiculous. In Chase's hands, the poor president can't do anything right; he is unable to follow simple instructions for how to give his Christmas address; he hangs his children's stockings upside-down; he knocks over the Christmas tree. Pure slapstick, and bearing very little resemblance, I'm sure, to the real guy.
Opening Montage - Bill Murray does an opening monologue, and when Santa (Dan Aykroyd) shows up, he has all sorts of great stuff to say about him. Nothing objectionable about this one, but it seemed very short.
Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood on Christmas - I'm not sure I want this guy as my neighbor. Eddie Murphy spoofs Mr. Rogers in a ghetto version of the beloved man in the sweater. Actually, he's everything Mr. Rogers isn't, as he demonstrates when, clad in a Santa suit, he opens his sack of stolen toys and confides his plan to make a killing by ringing a bell and holding out a Salvation Army kettle. Murphy is a funny guy, but I'm not sure this one sits so well with me...
Delicious Dish - The two most boring women on the planet (played by Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer) host a holiday edition of their NPR cooking show. Their special guest is a baker (Alec Baldwin) with the last name Schwetty whose specialty is "balls". You know, like Russian tea cakes and doughnut holes. It's ever so benign, but the three take the opportunity to cram as much innuendo into one sketch as they possibly can. I think I saw this one live; certainly it's shown up in a bunch of SNL clip shows. It's Austin Powers-style naughty.
Church Chat - Dana Carvey is the persnickety "Church Lady" who invites guests onto her show just to scold them. Pretty funny, especially since I definitely know a few people like that. After two guests, one of them Danny Devito as himself, get a stern tongue-lashing, the Church Lady rocks out on the drums, and Devito does some festive singing.
Martha Stewart's Topless Christmas Special - This bizarre segment features Ana Gasteyer as Martha Stewart, cheerfully instructing anyone who cares to listen on the finer points of merrymaking, such as making a ludicrously complicated table decoration, though of course she claims that it's simple. For the most part, though, the humor derives from the fact that she is conducting her entire show topless (with a strategically placed black bar, of course). Um... why?
Hannukah Song - Ah, finally we're getting to the really good stuff. My second-favorite segment on the DVD, this has Norm McDonald at the news desk introducing Adam Sandler, who strums his guitar and sings a career-making song about all the famous people who are Jewish, so as to help Jewish kids to feel a little less left out around Christmastime. Funny, informative, even somewhat touching, this one is a winner, and I always turn up the volume when it comes on the radio in December.
A Holiday Wish - Steve Martin sits in a cozy easy chair and expounds upon what he would ask for if he had just one wish for Christmas. It starts out very warm and fuzzy but quickly degenerates as he adds more and more wishes, each less sentimental than the last. With a bit of a 12 Days of Christmas feel to it - though, thankfully, he stops long before 12 - this is dryly amusing but also considerably crass.
Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker - Phil Hartman hires Matt Foley (Chris Farley) to be the Santa in his shopping mall. I've been subjected to many skits in this series, and all of them give me a headache. Farley's vocal delivery makes me want to hit "mute" after a few seconds. My brother Nathan thought this one, which featured Sally Field as a furious mom and a slew of kids - an unusual sight on SNL - was hilarious, but I wasn't too impressed, aside from the rather clever way he managed to work his "van down by the river" shtick into a Visit From St. Nicholas-style Christmas story.
Consumer Probe - This one, however, had me laughing quite a bit. Candace Bergen grills a slimy toymaker played by Dan Aykroyd about the dangerous toys his company continues to make, while he tries to point out their value and convince her that even the most innocent of toys could potentially result in injury. Very funny.
Lost Ending of It's A Wonderful Life - It's William Shatner! But not for long. He merely introduces this missing ending of the Frank Capra classic. While the cast members do a pretty good job of imitating the various characters from that movie, it kinda takes the warm fuzzies out of it when George (Dana Carvey) leads the rest of the townsfolk in an angry mob against that nasty old man who stole his money.
Santa Wrap - This looks like something that could have been on American Inventor. Dan Aykroyd explains the advantage of Santa wrap, which he applies to the most unsanitary lap of a grossly inebriated mall Santa (John Belushi). A rather entertaining little commercial.
The Nigh Hannukah Harry Saved Christmas - Jon Lovitz as Hanukah Harry fills in for Santa, who is sick. A jovial fellow, he is nonetheless received with some disappointment by a pair of eagerly waiting kids when he gives them rather dull Jewish-themed gifts instead of the toys they were expecting. But it ends on a fairly heartwarming note when Santa comes anyway and the kids decide that Harry, too, is worthy of appreciation.
Deserted Island Christmas - I would have been very disappointed if this hadn't been included. In fact, it was the main reason I rented the DVD. I saw this on a television Christmas special once, and I absolutely adored it. Paul Simon? Desert island? Talk about a winning combination! He and Victoria Jackson are a couple stranded for Christmas, but they don't care too much. They're going to make a celebration of it anyway, and Paul feels rather pleased with himself over the potholders he's made and the fancy shells he's found as gifts for his ladylove... until she reveals an exquisite handmade watch and telescope and details how she managed to create them. Sweet and hilarious.
Winter Wonderland - Fun group song. Everybody gets involved, and as the ladies and gentlemen battle it out with their harmonies, it grows more and more chaotic.
Dysfunctional Family Christmas - More musical merriment, though it offers an awfully bleak view of the holidays. Phil Hartman and the gang advertise a collection of songs celebrating the darker side of Christmas.
Rita From Brooklyn - Outrageous New York accents rule the day as Cheri Oteri, Rosie O'Donnell and Penny Marshall duke it out over their lawn decorations until a group of caroling children change their perspective. Pretty funny.
Master Thespian - Almost a rehash of Matt Foley, with Jon Lovitz in the Santa suit instead this time. Phil Hartman is the mall manager again, and once more he finds he's got a little more than he bargained for with this overdramatic St. Nick. I like it better than the Chris Farley one, but it might have been nice to end the disc on something a little less repetitive.
All told, it's a moderately entertaining collection, but the crude nature of most of the sketches makes it a DVD I wouldn't go out of my way to include in the yearly holiday rotation. If you've ever gotten a laugh out of SNL, though, give it a shot. For my money, it's worth a look just for Deserted Island Christmas. Now if they only could have gotten Paulie to sing the Gilligan's Island theme song...
Sunday, January 6, 2008
I Said Over and Over and Over Again, This Film is Gonna Be a Drag
When Groundhog Day first came out, the idea of a man living the
same day over and over again was novel. Since then, the concept has been
run into the ground, particularly when it comes to Christmas. Huey,
Dewey and Louie relived the same disastrous Christmas day until they got
it right. Elmo wished for perpetual Christmas with calamitous
consequences. Christmas every day sounds good in theory, but in practice
it's a little different.
In Christmas Do-Over, there are no established characters reliving the most wonderful day of the year ad nauseam. The hapless protagonist is Kevin (Jay Mohr), a self-absorbed jingle writer who couldn't be less interested in spending Christmas with his son, Ben (Logan Grove); his former in-laws, Trudi (Adrienne Barbeau) and Arthur (Tim Thomerson); his ex-wife, Jill (Daphne Zuniga); and her new boyfriend, Todd (David Millbern). But he does his duty, ever so begrudgingly, knowing it's just for the day. Little does he know just how long that day will last...
Christmas Do-Over first aired on ABC Family. As a made-for-TV movie, it doesn't need to try very hard. It's an obvious rip-off of Groundhog Day every step of the way, and watching it just made me aware of how skillfully that Bill Murray film was done. But as silly as this movie is, it's still fun to watch, and in general it works pretty well.
Kevin starts out completely obnoxious, doing his best to make a nuisance of himself so he can rub in everyone's faces how disgruntled he is at being a part of this celebration. He remains irritating throughout most of the movie, but of course he finally starts to wise up and turn into someone a little more tolerable. He gets some help from the adorable Ben, who is one of only two people who is genuinely glad to see him initially. The other is Granny Conlon (Ruta Lee), Jill's feisty grandma who has a tendency to hit on her ex-grandson-in-law. Mostly, though, he has to muddle through on his own, navigating this perplexing scenario in which, no matter what he is doing when Christmas Day ends, he always finds himself back on his in-laws' porch, ringing the doorbell and dodging a football thrown by a couple of snickering neighbor boys.
Because the bulk of the day's activities occur within the home, there's a lot less opportunity for Kevin to interact with the community at large, so there's a lot less breathing room in Christmas Do-Over than in Groundhog Day. Mostly, he does exactly the same things over and over again. He doesn't spend one huge chunk of time learning a foreign language, another learning a musical instrument, another learning an art form, yet another studying the goings-on of all the townsfolk so he can be in the right place at the right time to turn into everyone's hero. Kevin does get involved in the community to some extent via a town fair, but there's still not a whole lot that changes from day to day. As repetitious as Groundhog Day is, this movie is much more like a broken record.
The acting is pretty corny, especially from Millbern, as Todd ends up looking like a complete goon by the time the movie is over. My brother and I agreed that the most entertaining character in the bunch is a wacky-looking elderly neighbor (Jack Axelrod) who pops by to warn everyone that the road is out. Sadly, he only shows up a couple of times.
At first, I thought this was a Hallmark movie, but when I realized it was at least as crude as it was warm and fuzzy, I figured that couldn't be right. The humor is PG-rated but awfully immature, and there's an unnecessary smattering of bad language. But some of the laughs are genuine, and I won't deny there's a feel-good element to it, though one person's pleasure probably equals another's pain in this case, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. Not badly enough that I regret renting it. It was reasonably cute the first time around. But I won't be watching Christmas Do-Over over and over.
In Christmas Do-Over, there are no established characters reliving the most wonderful day of the year ad nauseam. The hapless protagonist is Kevin (Jay Mohr), a self-absorbed jingle writer who couldn't be less interested in spending Christmas with his son, Ben (Logan Grove); his former in-laws, Trudi (Adrienne Barbeau) and Arthur (Tim Thomerson); his ex-wife, Jill (Daphne Zuniga); and her new boyfriend, Todd (David Millbern). But he does his duty, ever so begrudgingly, knowing it's just for the day. Little does he know just how long that day will last...
Christmas Do-Over first aired on ABC Family. As a made-for-TV movie, it doesn't need to try very hard. It's an obvious rip-off of Groundhog Day every step of the way, and watching it just made me aware of how skillfully that Bill Murray film was done. But as silly as this movie is, it's still fun to watch, and in general it works pretty well.
Kevin starts out completely obnoxious, doing his best to make a nuisance of himself so he can rub in everyone's faces how disgruntled he is at being a part of this celebration. He remains irritating throughout most of the movie, but of course he finally starts to wise up and turn into someone a little more tolerable. He gets some help from the adorable Ben, who is one of only two people who is genuinely glad to see him initially. The other is Granny Conlon (Ruta Lee), Jill's feisty grandma who has a tendency to hit on her ex-grandson-in-law. Mostly, though, he has to muddle through on his own, navigating this perplexing scenario in which, no matter what he is doing when Christmas Day ends, he always finds himself back on his in-laws' porch, ringing the doorbell and dodging a football thrown by a couple of snickering neighbor boys.
Because the bulk of the day's activities occur within the home, there's a lot less opportunity for Kevin to interact with the community at large, so there's a lot less breathing room in Christmas Do-Over than in Groundhog Day. Mostly, he does exactly the same things over and over again. He doesn't spend one huge chunk of time learning a foreign language, another learning a musical instrument, another learning an art form, yet another studying the goings-on of all the townsfolk so he can be in the right place at the right time to turn into everyone's hero. Kevin does get involved in the community to some extent via a town fair, but there's still not a whole lot that changes from day to day. As repetitious as Groundhog Day is, this movie is much more like a broken record.
The acting is pretty corny, especially from Millbern, as Todd ends up looking like a complete goon by the time the movie is over. My brother and I agreed that the most entertaining character in the bunch is a wacky-looking elderly neighbor (Jack Axelrod) who pops by to warn everyone that the road is out. Sadly, he only shows up a couple of times.
At first, I thought this was a Hallmark movie, but when I realized it was at least as crude as it was warm and fuzzy, I figured that couldn't be right. The humor is PG-rated but awfully immature, and there's an unnecessary smattering of bad language. But some of the laughs are genuine, and I won't deny there's a feel-good element to it, though one person's pleasure probably equals another's pain in this case, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. Not badly enough that I regret renting it. It was reasonably cute the first time around. But I won't be watching Christmas Do-Over over and over.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Don't Rush to See Bush Christmas
Once upon a time, a girl excessively fond of Christmas movies raided
Netflix in search of fun holiday films. Recovering from her
disappointment that there was no separate section set aside especially
for yuletide delights, she improvised and did a keyword search. And so
it was that she stumbled upon Ralph Smart's Bush Christmas, a
1947 children's film in which five kids brave the outback and risk
missing Christmas dinner in hopes of tracking down a bunch of nasty
horse-thievin' blokes.
The 80-minute-long black-and-white movie reminded me of something you might see on the Wonderful World of Disney, rather along the lines of The Apple Dumpling Gang. The troop of kids consists of responsible, braided Helen Thompson (Helen Grieve), the oldest at about 12; her brothers John (Morris Unicomb) and Snow (Nicky Yardley), a lively six-year-old; Michael (Michael Yardley), a nerdy Brit taking refuge with the Thompsons while war rages back home; and Neza (Neza Saunders), an easy-going, resourceful child of Aboriginal descent. With faithful pooch Kanga in tow, they set off in search of the outlaws whose trickery lost Mr. Thompson his prize mare and her young foal.
Because the movie took place in 1947, I had steeled myself for black and white, but the menu screen is colorized, which gave me a momentary surge of hope. I really find it hard to warm to a world entirely devoid of color, and that may have detracted from my enjoyment of the film. Mostly, though, everything about the movie just felt so antiquated, from the flowery, detached narrator (John McCallum) to the notion of a mother sending five kids off on an alleged several-day camping trip with no adult supervision, especially when she knows there are a bunch of bandits about.
Not to worry, of course; these children are more than a match for a trio of bumbling no-goodniks. Ringleader Long Bill (Chips Rafferty), a quintessential Aussie who seems to be easily the best actor in the movie, would probably do all right on his own. He's tough and clever, and if he weren't such a heavy sleeper I doubt the kids could outsmart him too easily. But his sidekicks, Jim (John Fernside) and Blue Kennedy (Stan Tolhurst), are useless, and with the kids' sabotage and the lackeys' muddling, it's a fair bet those horses will be back to their rightful owners in no time.
There's some nice footage of the Australian outback, but aside from a brief glimpse of a kookaburra it might as well be the American west. There's a disappointing lack of kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and other distinctly Australian creatures. I can't decide if the treatment of Aboriginal culture is respectful or condescending. For the most part, the kids seem to regard Neza as an equal, even someone with a bit of an edge when it comes to surviving in the wilderness, but there's something grating about the way various characters keep joking about "those blacks".
Mostly, though, while this was a short movie and it was supposed to be an adventure, I was bored. The outlaws were occasionally funny, and the kids faced some interesting challenges - especially poor Michael, who lost his glasses out in the bush - but generally, I found it pretty dull. If you want a rip-roaring, kid-friendly Australian adventure, skip Bush Christmas and go for The Rescuers Down Under instead.
The 80-minute-long black-and-white movie reminded me of something you might see on the Wonderful World of Disney, rather along the lines of The Apple Dumpling Gang. The troop of kids consists of responsible, braided Helen Thompson (Helen Grieve), the oldest at about 12; her brothers John (Morris Unicomb) and Snow (Nicky Yardley), a lively six-year-old; Michael (Michael Yardley), a nerdy Brit taking refuge with the Thompsons while war rages back home; and Neza (Neza Saunders), an easy-going, resourceful child of Aboriginal descent. With faithful pooch Kanga in tow, they set off in search of the outlaws whose trickery lost Mr. Thompson his prize mare and her young foal.
Because the movie took place in 1947, I had steeled myself for black and white, but the menu screen is colorized, which gave me a momentary surge of hope. I really find it hard to warm to a world entirely devoid of color, and that may have detracted from my enjoyment of the film. Mostly, though, everything about the movie just felt so antiquated, from the flowery, detached narrator (John McCallum) to the notion of a mother sending five kids off on an alleged several-day camping trip with no adult supervision, especially when she knows there are a bunch of bandits about.
Not to worry, of course; these children are more than a match for a trio of bumbling no-goodniks. Ringleader Long Bill (Chips Rafferty), a quintessential Aussie who seems to be easily the best actor in the movie, would probably do all right on his own. He's tough and clever, and if he weren't such a heavy sleeper I doubt the kids could outsmart him too easily. But his sidekicks, Jim (John Fernside) and Blue Kennedy (Stan Tolhurst), are useless, and with the kids' sabotage and the lackeys' muddling, it's a fair bet those horses will be back to their rightful owners in no time.
There's some nice footage of the Australian outback, but aside from a brief glimpse of a kookaburra it might as well be the American west. There's a disappointing lack of kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and other distinctly Australian creatures. I can't decide if the treatment of Aboriginal culture is respectful or condescending. For the most part, the kids seem to regard Neza as an equal, even someone with a bit of an edge when it comes to surviving in the wilderness, but there's something grating about the way various characters keep joking about "those blacks".
Mostly, though, while this was a short movie and it was supposed to be an adventure, I was bored. The outlaws were occasionally funny, and the kids faced some interesting challenges - especially poor Michael, who lost his glasses out in the bush - but generally, I found it pretty dull. If you want a rip-roaring, kid-friendly Australian adventure, skip Bush Christmas and go for The Rescuers Down Under instead.
Surviving Christmas Not as Difficult as Suspected
The night my brother Nathan came home for Christmas break, Surviving Christmas
was on TV. I suggested we watch it; he countered with "Ben Affleck!"
And as the "guest," he won the argument, but I slipped the much-maligned
flick into my Netflix queue anyway, and Mom and I watched it when he
wasn't looking. And you know, I actually enjoyed it.
Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a hot-shot young ad exec whose girlfriend Missy (Jennifer Morrison) recoils when he suggests they flee to Fiji for Christmas. Her disdainful response to his apparent fear of family togetherness leads him to seek out the advice of her shrink, who implants the idea of going to his childhood home, writing a list of grievances and burning it in a gesture of forgiveness. Drew likes the idea, and he's tickled to go back home and clean his slate, but complications arise when Tom Valco (James Gandolfini), current head of the household, sees him loitering outside and knocks him out with a shovel. Yes, this family is just bursting with the Christmas spirit.
Despite the chilly reception, after being brought inside, Drew desperately wants to stay in his childhood home for Christmas. And while Tom thinks the visitor is a lunatic, he is willing to put up with him for a few days for a tidy sum of $250,000. Sounds good to me! Along with gruff, cranky but lovable Tom, we meet his burnt-out wife Christine (Catherine O'Hara), surly teenage son Brian (Josh Zuckerman) and, a little later, snarky daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate), home for the holidays. Throw in a local actor as Doo-Dah (Bill Macy), Drew's grandpa, and they've got a full house. Especially when Missy, in the mood for reconciliation, shows up with her parents for Christmas Eve dinner.
With its PG-13 rating, Surviving Christmas is occasionally crude but generally tamer than I expected. While Drew is considerably more obnoxious than Buddy, the endearing protagonist in Elf, he has a similarly youthful outlook on the world, and he goes about most of the movie with a goofy grin on his face. For the most part, I found him sympathetic. House's Morrison looks elegant as high-class Missy, but there's something very phony about her performance. In fact, I found all of the women in the movie rather grating, especially O'Hara, who got on my nerves in the Home Alone movies as well. I don't know if it's Applegate or Alicia who's trying too hard to be aggressive, but I think she overdoes it a bit, especially in the scene after Drew makes a grand gesture in an attempt to win her over.
Gandolfini, on the other hand, is delightful and makes Tom easily my favorite character in the film. He's grouchy and grinchy, but he clearly cares for his family, and when he smiles, he's radiant. Both intimidating and charming, he is both lovable and hilarious. I also got a chuckle out of both the original Doo-Dah and his replacement (Sy Richardson of Pushing Daisies) and Missy's henpecked dad, Horace (David Selby).
I love the look of the movie, with its excessive explosion of Christmas cheer that starts with the opening sequence, which shows December in all its festive and frustrating glory while It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year plays in the background. There are plenty of other Christmas songs on the soundtrack, and Affleck and Gandolfini get a nifty little duet on O Christmas Tree. All the traditional secular elements of Christmas pop up, from Christmas cookies and gifts in shiny paper to a garishly bright Christmas tree and a community theatre performance of A Christmas Carol. There's even a hint or two of the sacred, as when Drew insists they all join hands and say grace before dinner.
On the down side, there are, as Missy's uppity mother (Stephanie Faracy) puts it, "various incestuous overtones," and though we know they're not legitimate because those making advances on each other are not actually related, it still feels a tad uncomfortable at times. And I really could have done without all of Brian's smutty web-surfing. The direction of the plot couldn't be more obvious; we know Drew and the Valcos are going to wind up one big happy family by the end and that although he and Alicia initially loathe each other, they'll soon be locking lips. It's just the way these things go. And there are aspects of the story that don't make a lot of sense, like when Drew admits he was raised by a single mother who had to work double shifts at the diner to make ends meet. The Valcos' house may not be a mansion, but it looks way too rich for a struggling waitress's blood.
Still, I liked it. It's certainly not one of those Christmas classics that must be watched year after year, but most of the time it made me smile. Keep your expectations modest, and you should have no problem surviving Surviving Christmas.
Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a hot-shot young ad exec whose girlfriend Missy (Jennifer Morrison) recoils when he suggests they flee to Fiji for Christmas. Her disdainful response to his apparent fear of family togetherness leads him to seek out the advice of her shrink, who implants the idea of going to his childhood home, writing a list of grievances and burning it in a gesture of forgiveness. Drew likes the idea, and he's tickled to go back home and clean his slate, but complications arise when Tom Valco (James Gandolfini), current head of the household, sees him loitering outside and knocks him out with a shovel. Yes, this family is just bursting with the Christmas spirit.
Despite the chilly reception, after being brought inside, Drew desperately wants to stay in his childhood home for Christmas. And while Tom thinks the visitor is a lunatic, he is willing to put up with him for a few days for a tidy sum of $250,000. Sounds good to me! Along with gruff, cranky but lovable Tom, we meet his burnt-out wife Christine (Catherine O'Hara), surly teenage son Brian (Josh Zuckerman) and, a little later, snarky daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate), home for the holidays. Throw in a local actor as Doo-Dah (Bill Macy), Drew's grandpa, and they've got a full house. Especially when Missy, in the mood for reconciliation, shows up with her parents for Christmas Eve dinner.
With its PG-13 rating, Surviving Christmas is occasionally crude but generally tamer than I expected. While Drew is considerably more obnoxious than Buddy, the endearing protagonist in Elf, he has a similarly youthful outlook on the world, and he goes about most of the movie with a goofy grin on his face. For the most part, I found him sympathetic. House's Morrison looks elegant as high-class Missy, but there's something very phony about her performance. In fact, I found all of the women in the movie rather grating, especially O'Hara, who got on my nerves in the Home Alone movies as well. I don't know if it's Applegate or Alicia who's trying too hard to be aggressive, but I think she overdoes it a bit, especially in the scene after Drew makes a grand gesture in an attempt to win her over.
Gandolfini, on the other hand, is delightful and makes Tom easily my favorite character in the film. He's grouchy and grinchy, but he clearly cares for his family, and when he smiles, he's radiant. Both intimidating and charming, he is both lovable and hilarious. I also got a chuckle out of both the original Doo-Dah and his replacement (Sy Richardson of Pushing Daisies) and Missy's henpecked dad, Horace (David Selby).
I love the look of the movie, with its excessive explosion of Christmas cheer that starts with the opening sequence, which shows December in all its festive and frustrating glory while It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year plays in the background. There are plenty of other Christmas songs on the soundtrack, and Affleck and Gandolfini get a nifty little duet on O Christmas Tree. All the traditional secular elements of Christmas pop up, from Christmas cookies and gifts in shiny paper to a garishly bright Christmas tree and a community theatre performance of A Christmas Carol. There's even a hint or two of the sacred, as when Drew insists they all join hands and say grace before dinner.
On the down side, there are, as Missy's uppity mother (Stephanie Faracy) puts it, "various incestuous overtones," and though we know they're not legitimate because those making advances on each other are not actually related, it still feels a tad uncomfortable at times. And I really could have done without all of Brian's smutty web-surfing. The direction of the plot couldn't be more obvious; we know Drew and the Valcos are going to wind up one big happy family by the end and that although he and Alicia initially loathe each other, they'll soon be locking lips. It's just the way these things go. And there are aspects of the story that don't make a lot of sense, like when Drew admits he was raised by a single mother who had to work double shifts at the diner to make ends meet. The Valcos' house may not be a mansion, but it looks way too rich for a struggling waitress's blood.
Still, I liked it. It's certainly not one of those Christmas classics that must be watched year after year, but most of the time it made me smile. Keep your expectations modest, and you should have no problem surviving Surviving Christmas.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Christmas in January With Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Tullio Arena, Erie, PA, January 3, 2008
Two years ago, my brother Nathan fell in love with Trans-Siberian
Orchestra after a friend gave him one of their albums. My parents and I
soon followed suit, but my brother Benjamin wasn't at home anymore, so
he missed out on the constant exposure to Nathan's latest obsession.
Then last Christmas, Benjamin's girlfriend suggested they go to see
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and he agreed though he didn't know the first
thing about them. He was wowed. And such was the impact of that
performance that he decided we ought to experience it this year. This
Christmas, he bought the four of us tickets to see Trans-Siberian
Orchestra, playing their first-ever January show in frigid Erie, PA.
What a fantastic way to extend our celebration!
Back in December, my parents and I attended a Clay Aiken Christmas concert at the Tullio Arena in downtown Erie. It was lovely and intimate - especially since we managed to score seats in the second row - but a whole lot of folks missed out on it. Only 1700 people showed up, a number vastly superior to the paltry smattering of folks fellow American Idol alum Rickey Smith got back in February but nowhere near the sold-out crowd of nearly six thousand of which we were a part last night. It was mayhem navigating in and out of the arena, particularly when we hit the gridlock of the merchandise table, where we purchased a ten-dollar ornament on the way out, and the food vendors - none of whom, sadly, deigned to entertain us by hawking their wares out in the stadium before the show. But when all of those people were settled into their seats, the effect was impressive, particularly during a song from the upcoming Nightcastle during which, at band's request, everyone who had a cell phone flipped it open and held it aloft, filling the arena with tiny twinkling lights.
The first half of the show consisted entirely of Christmas Eve and Other Stories, TSO's first album, with a very bombastic narrator reading verse from the liner notes that connects the songs. He did a fantastic job, as did all of the instrumentalists and vocalists. The performances were electrifying. And it was a feast not just for the ears but for the eyes as well, with spotlights and lasers of various colors - mostly red, green, blue and white - filling the arena with a blinding spectacle in perfect coordination with the music. Toward the end of the show, which included selections from their other albums as well as a few extras such as a fun homage to Vince Guaraldi, they added some impressive plumes of flame into the mix, and up in the second row from the top, the heat of it practically singed out faces. We were all pretty eager for the relief of that biting Erie air by the time the concert ended, but the pyrotechnics certainly added to the excitement.
Each song was performed brilliantly, usually with a heaping dose of spectacle on the side, the notable exception being the exquisite Old City Bar, which featured just one vocalist and one guitarist in the spotlight on a dark stage. I was especially impressed with Christmas Canon Rock and the pulse-pounding Wizards in Winter, and the finale in which the guitarists were lifted up on a platform amid an explosion of sound and color was thrilling. Under any circumstances, performing so skillfully night after night must be incredibly difficult, but I would think all those flashing lights would be very distracting. The members of the band never missed a beat, and those with portable instruments leaped around the stage to boot, trying to ensure that everyone in the audience could see them as well as possible. In their effort to be accommodating and approachable, they went so far as to invite everyone to stay after the show and chat with them onstage. It was a tempting offer, but when the concert ended, nearly three hours after it began, the crowd drove us forward and before we knew it we were out the door, venturing into the night to face the inevitable parking ramp traffic jam while visions of laser beams danced in our heads. Christmas visited again on that January evening. Thanks, Benjamin!
Back in December, my parents and I attended a Clay Aiken Christmas concert at the Tullio Arena in downtown Erie. It was lovely and intimate - especially since we managed to score seats in the second row - but a whole lot of folks missed out on it. Only 1700 people showed up, a number vastly superior to the paltry smattering of folks fellow American Idol alum Rickey Smith got back in February but nowhere near the sold-out crowd of nearly six thousand of which we were a part last night. It was mayhem navigating in and out of the arena, particularly when we hit the gridlock of the merchandise table, where we purchased a ten-dollar ornament on the way out, and the food vendors - none of whom, sadly, deigned to entertain us by hawking their wares out in the stadium before the show. But when all of those people were settled into their seats, the effect was impressive, particularly during a song from the upcoming Nightcastle during which, at band's request, everyone who had a cell phone flipped it open and held it aloft, filling the arena with tiny twinkling lights.
The first half of the show consisted entirely of Christmas Eve and Other Stories, TSO's first album, with a very bombastic narrator reading verse from the liner notes that connects the songs. He did a fantastic job, as did all of the instrumentalists and vocalists. The performances were electrifying. And it was a feast not just for the ears but for the eyes as well, with spotlights and lasers of various colors - mostly red, green, blue and white - filling the arena with a blinding spectacle in perfect coordination with the music. Toward the end of the show, which included selections from their other albums as well as a few extras such as a fun homage to Vince Guaraldi, they added some impressive plumes of flame into the mix, and up in the second row from the top, the heat of it practically singed out faces. We were all pretty eager for the relief of that biting Erie air by the time the concert ended, but the pyrotechnics certainly added to the excitement.
Each song was performed brilliantly, usually with a heaping dose of spectacle on the side, the notable exception being the exquisite Old City Bar, which featured just one vocalist and one guitarist in the spotlight on a dark stage. I was especially impressed with Christmas Canon Rock and the pulse-pounding Wizards in Winter, and the finale in which the guitarists were lifted up on a platform amid an explosion of sound and color was thrilling. Under any circumstances, performing so skillfully night after night must be incredibly difficult, but I would think all those flashing lights would be very distracting. The members of the band never missed a beat, and those with portable instruments leaped around the stage to boot, trying to ensure that everyone in the audience could see them as well as possible. In their effort to be accommodating and approachable, they went so far as to invite everyone to stay after the show and chat with them onstage. It was a tempting offer, but when the concert ended, nearly three hours after it began, the crowd drove us forward and before we knew it we were out the door, venturing into the night to face the inevitable parking ramp traffic jam while visions of laser beams danced in our heads. Christmas visited again on that January evening. Thanks, Benjamin!
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