Entertainment

Tonight I watched Jarhead (2005,R) (ScreenIt! Review). From the Wikipedia entry:

Jarhead is a 2005 film based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 Gulf War memoir Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford. The title is based on a semi-derogatory slang, jarhead, used for Marines, and sometimes by Marines themselves. The film was directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes, most famous for his 1999 film American Beauty.

I thought it had potential, but I give it 3 out of 5.

Tonight I finished watching Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007). It's currently playing on HBO and examines torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. So disgusting. So disgusting.

Today I watched Prime (2005,PG-13) (Screen It! Review). From the Wikipedia entry:

The film is a character comedy set in New York City. Rafi (Uma Thurman) is a recently divorced, 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan. David (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old Jewish painter from the Upper West Side, falls in love with her. Rafi shares all her secrets with her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep). Unbeknownst to Rafi, Lisa happens to be David's mother.

I'm a sucker from non-cheesy romantic films, especially if there is a healthy dose of angst and longings unfulfilled. This one didn't really fit the bill; it was just OK. I give it 3 out ot 5.

Some TV recommendations from The Week magazine:

• My Life as a Child, Mon 7 PM, The Learning Channel
• The Black Donnellys, Mon 10 PM, NBC
• Wild Strawberries, Thu 2:15 PM, Turner Classic Movies
• Robin Hood, Sat 9 PM, BBCAmerica

Lisa and I watched the first episode of T1/2HNH last night. I thought it was weak and lame, a pale imitation of TDS. I can't imagine it surviving unless they can find a way to actually make it funny. The weekend-update-style alternating short news items from the anchors was OK for one segment, but I winced when they returned to it again for the next segment. None of the other segments were too impressive either. The faux ACLU PSAs were OK as satire and commentary, but they weren't funny (I was left thinking, "Yes, sometimes while protecting everyone's rights we have to protect the rights of people with despicable views and actions"...ironic, but not exactly a barrel of laughs).. Also, as I've mentioned before, I can't stand laugh tracks. The running Ed Begley, Jr. gag was a dud too. Frankly, until I heard Begley's commitment to environmentalism mentioned twice in one weekend (on Real Time too), I had no idea about him. Maybe the problem is that comedy isn't Surnow's specialty and that the show really needs to be infused with someone else's comic vision. The connection to reality that TDS has through the in-studio guest (where Stewart is forced to initiate a reasonable discussion with the guest...even if the guest is O'Reilly or McCain or Buchanan) was conspicuously missing too. I was left with the feel that I had just watched a collection of political-sketch rejects from SNL or In Living Color rather than a spunky, funny, yet coherent fake news show. If these first two pilots aren't lame enough to kill it, maybe they'll give it an overall makeover and new comic vision when it becomes an actual series.