The Erratic Surrealism Of American Gods Season 1.

The Good: Good performances, Intriguing set-up, Moments of character, Special effects
The Bad: Some truly dull characters, Deliberately opaque plot, Slow pacing
The Basics: The first season of American Gods works hard to set up something much better than itself.


The fundamental problem with creating great serialized television and fleshing out a world of one's own over the course of several episodes and seasons is that the burden falls upon the creator of such works - writers, executive producers, and directors - to create something that is both instantly compelling and does not rush its own story. Finding the balance is a hard thing, which is probably why so very many writers and executive producers today enjoy playing in already-established universes (Star Trek, Star Wars, the various super hero franchises built upon decades of source material, etc.). So, when a well-established creator of genre works leaves the comfort of one of those safe, already-conceived universes to do their own thing, it is the type of project that gets instant notoriety and comes with a behind-the-scenes intrigue that draws in an audience.

Bryan Fuller brought a look-in audience to the first season of American Gods when the renowned writer and executive producer did the legwork of creating Star Trek: Discovery and then abandoned the project in favor of American Gods. Fuller, who came up in Hollywood as a writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager (eventually working his way up to be one of the executive producers of that show) quickly departed the familiar to create his own works . . . all of which were obsessed with death or (some form of) the divine. And Fuller quickly achieved the sort of success that a cult hit creator has with Wonderfalls (reviewed here!), Dead Like Me (reviewed here!), and Pushing Daisies (first season reviewed here!). Fuller returned to franchise work with Hannibal and he was set to continue in that vein with Star Trek: Discovery, when he abruptly left that nascent project for American Gods.

American Gods allowed Fuller to play in an already-established world (the show is based upon a novel by Neil Gaiman) with an exceptional amount of freedom. Gaiman's American Gods had not been realized on screen before and Fuller had to create a show that would likely have a breadth and duration that would exceed the confines of the single novel source material. And the fundamental problem with the first season of American Gods is that it is built, almost entirely, on faith that the next component of the show will be better, more clear, more intriguing, than the current component. American Gods does not have an instantly compelling pilot episode . . . so viewers have to have faith that the second episode will be better. The midseason diverges from the protagonist, so viewers have to have faith that the show will refocus; the season builds to a climax that requires faith that the second season will pay-off the massive risk in a satisfying way . . . the entire first season is a series of risks requiring a deferment of true gratification, which is an inherently problematic way to create a serialized television show. That said, it is also one of the best ways to establish a larger narrative that has a real ability to develop and grow as it goes on.

Unfortunately for American Gods Season 1, the show's protagonist is put in the unenviable position of being one of the two least-interesting characters in the show. Season 1 of American Gods is built around Shadow Moon, a character who quite reasonably travels through the modern world without any faith as a low-level scam artist and conman. Paroled from prison early when his wife dies, Shadow Moon finds himself in the company of a mysterious man, who calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and the two begin a cross-country journey to a meeting Wednesday plans to attend. While the character of Shadow Moon might sound initially interesting, he is emotionally shut-off and his distance makes him entirely inaccessible. Shadow Moon drifts from prison to learning about the death of his wife to having his mind slowly opened to the presence of divine entities on Earth with no emotional journey. American Gods Season 1 is more the physical journey of Shadow Moon than it is his emotional trip. Indeed, one suspects if American Gods achieves a cult status that leads to merchandising, a t-shirt of "The Many Emotions Of Shadow Moon" will take its place on the racks next to identical t-shirts for Spock and Darth Vader.

And it is hard to criticize Ricky Whittle, who plays Shadow Moon, for the portrayal of the character. Rewatching the season multiple times, the first season of American Gods for Shadow Moon is built around the season's final moment and Shadow Moon's revelatory moment. Unfortunately for Whittle and American Gods Season 1, the moment of supposed epiphany is the most odd combination of understated (in the performance) and over-the-top (for the line). The result is a subtle character who ought to be the embodiment of the doubting, jaded, unimpressed audience within the show, but instead never becomes emotionally real enough to truly connect with the audience.

While Shadow Moon is emotionally inaccessible and impossible to invest emotionally in because of his unrealistic emotional distance from everything he encounters, Laura Moon is flat-out unlikable. Shadow Moon's wife, Laura, has an affair, dies, and is magically resurrected. Laura is a snotty, mean, bored and often-boring character who is the subject of two episodes of the eight-episode first season of American Gods and those episodes do nothing to make her more likable or interesting. What is perhaps most impressive about Laura Moon is that actress Emily Browning plays her - and her ancestor character, Essie MacGowan - with a decent emotional range. Browning's performance in American Gods Season 1 inspired me to give Sucker Punch (reviewed again here!) a second viewing and what struck me most about her growth as an actress between the two works is her ability or willingness to emote with her expressions in American Gods. Laura Moon might be flat-out unlikable, but Browning plays her well.

The first season of American Gods has a remarkably simple plot - so much so that it is almost unsurprising that two episodes have to almost entirely diverge from it in order to get the season up to eight episodes: Shadow Moon is paroled from prison when he meets Mr. Wednesday and enters his employ. Shadow's job is to drive Mr. Wednesday around and protect him from threats, but he soon ends up helping Wednesday with schemes like robbing a bank's night depository and he finds himself the target of divine entities (new gods). While Shadow Moon drives Mr. Wednesday from one meeting to another (Mr. Wednesday's meetings are with classic Russian, Greek/Roman, and African gods now living in the United States), Laura Moon, resurrected by a magical Leprechaun's coin, follows Shadow's journey in the presence of the leprechaun Mad Sweeney and a man who was touched by a djinn (man, I hope that "Touched By A Djinn" is the name of a second season episode now!).

The two most consistently-represented divine beings - the leprechaun Mad Sweeney and the god Mr. Wednesday - easily steal the thunder from the two human protagonists. As well, Media's infrequent appearances instantly capture the viewer's attention and when Mr. World (the antagonist who Mr. Wednesday fears) finally makes an appearance, it is powerful. Media is expertly played by Gillian Anderson, who seems to have a great time portraying Lucy Ricardo, David Bowie, Marilyn Monroe, and other incarnations of legendary people who were made through their media presence. Mad Sweeney is caustic and sarcastic and Pablo Schreiber's embodiment of him is impressive in that Mad Sweeney is an asshole, much like Schreiber's Orange Is The New Black Pornstache character, who Schreiber plays in an entirely different way from the last iconic dickbag he played.

Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday and he is perfectly cast for the role of a god who is essentially down on his luck and looking to build a new base of worshipers. McShane plays Wednesday well, maintaining a level of intrigue throughout the first season of American Gods that is both consistent and compelling. The ability to do that is impressive considering that Shadow Moon is a particularly inattentive character whose epiphany is hinged on being told explicitly who Mr. Wednesday is in the season finale . . . which is problematic in that the audience is told exactly who Wednesday is a few episodes prior to that. McShane, though, has the bearing, demeanor, and on-screen gravitas to credibly play a character who is wise, commanding, and has a trickster aspect to him. McShane dominates every scene he is in (in the best possible way).

There are more characters in American Gods, but in the first season, they are kept a supporting characters, most of whom are deliberately obscured and/or set up for bigger roles in subsequent seasons. And part of that is because the first season of American Gods deliberately obscures the overall plot arc of the season. The Old Gods who are living now in the United States are struggling for relevance in the face of New Gods - Media, technology, and interconnectedness. The Old Gods are either attempting to reinvent themselves to stay alive (the show features vignettes of various gods, including one whose entire base of worshipers has completely died out, thus killing the god) or are being marshaled to fight the New Gods outright. But most of the big meetings do not happen in the first season and the outright war is not the subject of the first season; American Gods defers its action, character growth, and (for much of the season) true purpose.

The direction in the first season of American Gods is homogeneously wonderful. American Gods Season 1 is a beautiful-looking show and it flows effortlessly between surreal scenes and a cold, literal world.

Ultimately, the first season of American Gods is an essential bedrock season of a serialized show. The characters are established, the purpose is (eventually) made clear, and the concept is solid. Whether Bryan Fuller and the rest of the American Gods team can pull off the larger story in a satisfying way will determine whether the investment viewers place in watching the first season is paid off, but on its own, the first season of American Gods is far more erratic and requires far more faith to invest in than one might want to admit.

For a better understanding of exactly what this season entails, please check out my reviews of the individual episodes at:
"The Bone Orchard"
"The Secret Of Spoons"
"Head Full Of Snow"
"Git Gone"
"Lemon Scented You"
"A Murder Of Gods"
"A Prayer For Mad Sweeney"
"Come To Jesus"

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Twin Peaks - Season 3 ("The Return")
Doctor Who - Season 10
Glow - Season 1
Orange Is The New Black - Season 5
House Of Cards - Season 5
The Flash - Season 3
Supergirl - Season 2
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 3
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4
Sense8 - Season 2
Dear White People - Season 1
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 2
The Walking Dead - Season 7
Thirteen Reasons Why - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 3
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

5.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The First Season Of American Gods Peaks At "Come To Jesus"

The Good: Well-paced, Plot ties the season together, Good performances, Decent character moments
The Bad: Could use more Shadow Moon
The Basics: "Come To Jesus" finishes the first season of American Gods well, though it is very much the culmination of the prior episodes, as opposed to being a story driven by the show's protagonist.


As the first season of American Gods ratcheted up toward its end, the basic purpose of the entire series became clear: Wednesday is an Old God, who is nearing the end of his relevance and power in the face of New Gods, some of whom want to extinguish the ancient divinities (and reinvent others). Given the apparent invincibility of the New God Mr. World, the stakes are both high for the series and for a compelling season finale. "Come To Jesus" is the first season finale of American Gods and it bears the burden of ending in a place that makes viewers want to tune back in for the second season and put the characters in a predicament that justifies the faith viewers have put in the first half of the oft-surreal, oft-obscure show.

"Come To Jesus" (largely) succeeds with both goals.

Picking up after the events of "A Prayer For Mad Sweeney" (reviewed here!) which found Mad Sweeney (in the main narrative) overcome with a sense of guilt strong enough to make him change his mind about killing Laura Moon a second time, "Come To Jesus" is the culmination of the journey Wednesday and Shadow Moon began back in the pilot. Now, with a clear purpose, Wednesday is attempting to recruit Old Gods and "Come To Jesus" has him attempting to bring the Old Goddess Ostara, Easter, into the fray on his side. "Come To Jesus" is the ultimate episode for the atheists and agnostics who have invested in American Gods as it explicitly argues that modern religions have co-opted old religious figures, symbols, and holidays and that a god is anyone (or thing) that is worshiped (hence the multiple Jesuses in the episode).

Opening with Wednesday and Shadow Moon at Mr. Nancy's shop where he works his loom to create oufits for the pair. Mr. Nancy (Anansi) tells the pair the story of Bilquis and how she would be worshiped at orgies and bring down rulers in ancient Egypt. Bilquis evolves through the ages, until 1979, Tehran, where she is forced out of the Middle East. She retreats to America, where she is soon forgotten and homeless. On the streets, she is approached by Techno Boy, who offers her worship in the form of followers on a dating site in her name (Sheba). Nancy concludes the story by making his point explicit; gods need queens to truly rule and remain relevant.

Wednesday and Shadow Moon arrive in Kentucky, en route to their meeting in Wisconsin. The goddess Ostara is holding court on her day, which has been co-opted by the Christians as Easter. Shadow Moon quickly recognizes that he is in the presence of many gods, including several Jesuses. Wednesday tries to make Ostara angry over the fact that no one prays in her name and that antagonism affords them the chance to meet privately. Techno Boy hunts down Bilquis and calls in her debt to him, charging her with using her seductive powers to bring down one of his enemies. Laura Moon and Mad Sweeney arrive at Ostara's home, with Laura suffering further decomposition, while Wednesday pitches to Ostara that they starve the Americans so they start to worship Ostara again. Ostara meets with Laura Moon and reveals that she was killed by a god and cannot be resurrected using her powers. Ostara is alarmed when Media and Mr. World arrived and that leads to an escalation in Wednesday's plan.

"Come To Jesus" reveals what has been alluded to throughout the first season of American Gods, that Wednesday is the god most commonly known as Odin, the Norse god. Odin is in a war for his survival and "Come To Jesus" continues to defer the war; Wednesday is looking for a powerful ally so he might survive the impending conflict.

The brilliance in "Come To Jesus" comes from the casting. Kristin Chenoweth is perfectly cast as Ostara. Ostara is a long-forgotten goddess, whom Wednesday riles up. Ostara has been co-opted as Easter and she has compromised. But Ostara is tremendously powerful (she has the ability to bring spring) and Chenoweth is perfectly cast to play a character who is hiding her power and the full range of her majesty. Her perky deliveries are contrasted with frustrated lines and Chenoweth plays the transitions perfectly. In a similar fashion, Jeremy Davies plays Jesus Christ in a delightfully serene manner and his sadness over realizing Christians have co-opted Ostara's day for him is well-executed.

The imagery from the early episodes - Shadow Moon's bone orchard vision and the white buffalo with the flaming eyes - returns, which continues to insinuate throughout the episode that Shadow Moon is someone other than the simple man he appears to be.

"Come To Jesus" gives Emily Browning something very real and different to perform. Browning plays Laura Moon as dead, but wanting to be alive. Browning's subtle and dark performance contrasts incredibly well with Chenoweth's more perky and expressive acting. Browning expresses longing exceptionally well in "Come To Jesus" and it allows her to show off more emotional range in the part of Laura Moon than she was able to present in her character in prior episodes.

It is hard not to watch "Come To Jesus" and be completely captivated by the final act. When Gillian Anderson's Media steps into the episode, the pace accelerates in exactly the way a writer, director, and executive producer hopes to make a story that is relenting to its climax. "Come To Jesus" does what a season finale needs to . . . but it is the culmination, largely, of the season's plot elements with a somewhat unsatisfying arc for the primary protagonist. For sure, Shadow Moon has a part in "Come To Jesus," but he is still a bystander and enabler in what started out as his story. American Gods is not moved to its logical powerful, logical, conclusion by Shadow Moon, which is a little disappointing.

The special effects - CG and make-up - in "Come To Jesus" are wonderful and enhance the story in the best possible way, like good special effects ought to.

Ultimately, "Come To Jesus" is an excellent pay-off to a season that has been occasionally erratic, sometimes entirely surreal and it does everything a good season finale ought to, setting up a very different and potent second season of American Gods.

For other season finale episodes, please check out my reviews of:
"The Defenders" - The Defenders
"Call To Arms"- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"The Parting Of The Ways" - Doctor Who
"Episode 7"- Twin Peaks

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into American Gods - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the surreal series here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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American Gods Grows Into Intrigue With "The Secret Of Spoons."

The Good: Good performances, Wonderful direction, Characters start to become intriguing
The Bad: Most of the characters are very easy to empathize with, Minimal plot
The Basics: "The Secret Of Spoons" starts the real journey of American Gods with Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon getting to Chicago to meet with old Russian gods.


American Gods was a television show that came with a built-in audience given that it was based upon a novel by Neil Gaiman, beloved of the genre fans. Selling the series to a wider audience was done by simply having the show developed by Bryan Fuller. When an executive producer leaves the next Star Trek television series for a project, that instantly raises the stature of the project for which he left it. So, American Gods picked up an initial audience of Gaiman fans, Fuller fans and Trekkers for the look-in and what newbies like me discovered from the pilot episode was that the first season of the show was going to require some faith and time to get into. "The Secret Of Spoons," the second episode of the first season of American Gods is very much a second chapter in a story that is in no way clear yet. "The Secret Of Spoons" does a decent job of more clearly focusing on Shadow Moon as a protagonist and reinforcing the idea that in the world of American Gods, divine influence is a thing, both in the past and in the present.

"The Secret Of Spoons" picks up immediately after "The Bone Orchard" (reviewed here!) and is impossible to discuss without some references to the prior episode. "The Bone Orchard" introduced the essential American Gods characters of Shadow Moon, Mr. Wednesday, and Mad Sweeney,with glimpses into Laura Moon, Bilquis, and the new god Technical Boy, who tried to have Shadow Moon lynched before he was mysteriously rescued. "The Secret Of Spoons" picks up the main Shadow Moon narrative immediately after he has escaped death from Technical Boy's forces.

Opening with another "Coming to America" vignette, this time in 1697 on a slave ship, the imprisoned Okoye cries out to the spider god Anansi. Mr. Nancy appears and delivers a sermon about all that is coming to the people on the ship and their descendants. Okoye's bonds are broken and he frees his compatriots to burn the boat to kill the Dutch slavers. Shadow Moon is stapled up and returns to the motel where he confronts Mr. Wednesday. Shadow returns to his house where he recalls aspects of his life with Laura and confronts the realities of her cheating on him with their mutual friend, Robbie. Shadow boxes up the possessions he wants and prepares the house for sale before moving on with Mr. Wednesday and the mysterious man's muscle.

Leaving Eagle Point behind, Mr. Wednesday has Shadow drive him to Chicago for his hammer. While Wednesday meets with someone at a dive en route, he tasks Shadow with shopping for him. At the big box store, Shadow Moon is spoken to by Lucy Ricardo, through a television. Lucy Ricardo, the voice of Media, is impressed with Shadow Moon and offers him a job on her team, which Shadow refuses. Reaching Chicago, Wednesday meets with Zorya Vechernyaua and weasels his way into an invitation to their home for dinner. There, Shadow Moon encounters the Zorya sisters and they wait for Czernobog (a cattle slaughterer) to arrive. Czernobog gets into a checkers match with Shadow Moon after dinner . . . for Shadow's life.

"The Secret Of Spoons" does a decent job of revealing cultural ignorance to Americans. I took several Mythology courses back in college and high school and it was only as "The Secret Of Spoons" moves into the proper mission of Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon that I realized that I had absolutely no knowledge of Russian mythology. The deities visited in only the second episode of American Gods will be new to most viewers. Ironically, Anansi was instantly recognizable to me, but the Russian gods were entirely new to me!

Ian McShane is perfectly cast as Mr. Wednesday and "The Secret Of Spoons" allows him to play the character as wise, knowing and subtly powerful. McShane manages to make Wednesday intriguing to watch in every single scene by credibly delivering even the most diction-intense phrases with a knowledgeable ease and then landing the reductive phases with humor. McShane has absolutely the right amount of charisma to sell the idea of an understated deity roaming the Earth.

Ricky Whittle, by contrast, continues to play the ultimate straightman to McShane and the rest of the cast. Whittle is charged with making Shadow Moon a grounded and realistic character; he is an ex-con who has lived in a very literal world. Shadow Moon is being moved incrementally over the entire first season into a much more mystically-influenced world. Whittle continues in "The Secret Of Spoons" to portray Shadow Moon as a cold pragmatist and while it is hard to care much about his fate yet, Whittle makes the character accessible to the audience by keeping him understated and having his reactions feel familiar.

Peter Stormare continues his trend of appearing in works with, apparently, unwashed hair. Stormare's Czernobog is a pragmatic killer and his character is defined mostly through his long monologues. Stormare is an incredible storyteller in "The Secret Of Spoons" and while his character is not physically animated in the episode, he is dynamic as a storyteller and he makes the character vital to watch.

The other big acting moment in "The Secret Of Spoons" comes from Gillian Anderson. Anderson is unrecognizable playing Lucy Ricardo (Media) and that's saying something. Anderson gets Ball's twang down perfectly in her brief scene and she makes the sudden appearance of Media seem far less jarring than, for example, Bilquis's random scene in the episode. Cloris Leachman is predictably wonderful in her subtle performance of the Zorya matriarch, but Anderson makes her lone scene stand out in a surprising way.

Director David Slade gets a huge amount of credit for his direction in "The Secret Of Spoons." Slade makes almost everything and everyone look dirty, but fabulous at the same time. Outside Shadow Moon's trip to the big box store, the settings are filthy, the people are greasy and Slade uses lighting masterfully to indicate time shifts during Shadow Moon's flashbacks in his home. Slade does a great job with opening "The Secret Of Spoons" with an intriguing vignette that looks amazing and in the latter scenes of the episode, capturing the deep wrinkles and shining eyes of Ian McShane makes the mundane look beautiful.

"The Secret Of Spoons" is the beginning of a pretty banal road trip (at this point) where the purpose is not yet clear and the characters are hard to empathize with at this point. That said, "The Secret Of Spoons" has the show gaining a little momentum and making the basic premise incredibly clear as Shadow Moon encounters people who are clearly divine entities working on Earth.

For other works with Ian McShane, please visit my reviews of:
John Wick
Jack The Giant Slayer
Snow White And The Huntsman
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Coraline
Death Race
Scoop
Babylon 5: River Of Souls

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into American Gods - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the surreal series here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oh . . . So . . . Pretty Bad: Enemies Closer Keeps The Credibility At A Distance!

The Good: Decent production values, Generally good acting
The Bad: Ridiculous characterizations, Preposterous plot, Exceptionally lame exposition thinly disguised as erratically-delivered dialogue.
The Basics: Enemies Closer is a beautifully b-rate (or c-rate) contrived action movie that has more value for mockery than legitimate cinematic enjoyment.


As a reviewer, I have an interest in a wide array of films and I can honestly say in that regard that I try to watch a little bit of everything. Even so, I don’t believe that before today I had ever seen a Jean-Claude Van Damme film. So, with Van Damme’s latest film Enemies Closer, I broke that trend in my life . . . and I don’t think I was missing anything before. Enemies Closer is a Van Damme film featuring Van Damme after his prime. No longer just relying on his brawn, physique and martial arts skills, Van Damme plays Xander, a character who initially seems foreign and quirky, but is soon revealed to be an outright sociopath.

Enemies Closer is essentially Art House Theatre For Guys. Low budget (and feeling like it), Enemies Closer makes quite a bit of an attempt to create character conflicts and make the movie into a legitimate story that focuses on characters who have quite a bit of backstory and ideals backing them up. As a result, between intense fight scenes and multiple murders, Enemies Closer has dialogue from the four main characters that tries to flesh out each of the character’s beliefs and backstories. Unfortunately, writers Eric and James Bromberg present the bits of characterization with such clunky directness that it is astonishing Enemies Closer was ever made. Director Peter Hyams is not able to do much with the movie because the writing is so stilted.

After a small plane crashes in a lake on the U.S./Canadian border, park ranger Henry goes about his day – helping tourists, checking in on Mr. Sanderson, and stopping a young couple from bringing alcohol into the park – unwittingly under surveillance by a mysterious man. The U.S. Border Patrol near the lake starts a search for the downed plane, which they believe was carrying drugs, when the Canadian Mounties visit and offer their assistance. Arrogantly, the U.S. refuses their help until Xander shows up and beats the crap out of and kills all of the agents before heading to Kings Island to find the plane. On Kings Island, Henry rescues Kayla from a having her foot stuck (and sprained) and brings her back to the Visitor’s Center. Kayla shamelessly hits on Henry and invites him to dinner before canoeing off and insisting her join her that night.

At Seal Bay, the “Mounties” kill a drunk boater and go out in search of the plane with the drugs. Back at the Visitor’s Center, Henry opens the door for a stranger, Clay. Clay blames Henry for his brother being left behind on a mission that Henry was in command of, back when Henry was part of a military diving team. Captured by Clay, Henry is led out at gunpoint to be killed. He is unwittingly rescued when they encounter Xander’s team and Xander and his men try to kill Henry and Clay. Teaming up long enough to evade Xander and his assassins, Henry and Clay try to get to a working phone and survive the drug smuggler’s desperate attempt to recover the drugs.

Enemies Closer is a somewhat ridiculous film, largely because its adversaries are preposterous. Clay is motivated solely by revenge, revenge born of loss of his beloved brother. That motivation goes out the window when Enemies Closer transforms into an awkward buddy action flick as opposed to the revenge story that should result in Henry’s early death in the film. The transition is inorganic and weakly defined: Clay is willing to let Henry live because he needs Henry’s help to get off the island. That motivation is silly given that Clay could easily kill Henry and wait the drug smugglers out anywhere else on the island than by at Henry’s side.

But it is Xander who is the paragon of absurdity for Enemies Closer. Xander is a sociopath Vegan; a radical environmentalist who refuses to use guns because of their carbon footprints and spouts lines about environmental issues much the way Mr. Freeze delivers puns about the temperature in Batman And Robin (reviewed here!). Given that this is my first experience with a work featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, I cannot write with any authority as to whether his playing a villain is a departure for the actor, but I have the sense that many of his films have an absurd suspension of disbelief required to buy the premise. There is no amount of suspension of disbelief that makes his character of Xander – who is so concerned about polluting the environment, but not about the drugs people would put into their body – make rational sense.

That said, Van Damme plays Xander with an over-the-top absurd quality that works for the character. The overnight killing spree that depletes Xander’s men only makes the character more deranged and desperate and Van Damme is able to play that startlingly well – usually by just bugging out his eyes and throwing his head back as he speaks.

While Orlando Jones is saddled with the unfortunate task of playing Clay, a character who fundamentally makes no sense (after he puts the blame for his brother’s death on Henry, all that made sense for the character was Clay immediately killing Henry), he does an adequate job with the role. It is Tom Everett Scott who bears the brunt of selling Enemies Closer. As Henry, Scott embodies that character the audience is rooting for and while Scott was painfully unmemorable in last year’s Parental Guidance (reviewed here!), in Enemies Closer, he proves he has both acting ability and credibility playing a former military specialist. Sadly, director Peter Hyams includes – early in Enemies Closer - some bad takes that feature stiff line deliveries from Tom Everett Scott that make his character seem less than he rapidly becomes. To his credit, Scott holds his own with the film’s physical work, credibly delivering powerful fighting moves that seem within the range of his character.

Unlike most low-budget films I’ve watched lately, Enemies Closer does not look low budget. While the movie is not going to win any cinematography awards, it does not look like a delusional fan-film. Sadly, that’s about the best that can be said for Enemies Closer.


For other action movie reviews, please check out my reviews of:
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
16 Blocks
You Only Live Twice

3/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Lesson From The Time Machine Is: If You Fail Once, Don't Try Again!

The Good: Moments of special effects, Jeremy Irons, Moments of concept
The Bad: Most of the acting, Character, Execution of plot
The Basics: In a generally disappointing film, Alexander Hartdegen tries once to save his lover, gives up and jumps to the future to help humans fight being eaten by their cousin race.


After I watched L.A. Confidential for the first time (reviewed here!), I remember being instantly enthusiastic about Guy Pearce. He had impressed me in that movie and I wanted to find something else he was in, so I sought and I found The Time Machine right away. As part of my self-proclaimed insanity, when I recently watched Memento (reviewed here!) and went to reference my review for The Time Machine, I was baffled to discover I had not written one. So, I was compelled to take in this science fiction film a second time (last night).

Alexander Hartdegen is a radical physics instructor who has fallen in love with Emma, a simple woman in the late 1800s. Alexander proposes to Emma and no sooner are they engaged than she is killed in a mugging. Bummer. Alexander spends four years working on a time machine, which he utilizes to return to the night of the proposal, where he takes Emma into the city (as opposed to into the park) to prevent her from dying. When this plan keeps her from being mugged, she ends up run down by a carriage and killed and Alexander ends up so distraught that he hops into his time machine and travels to the future to try to figure out how he change the past. When he is leaving the future, he accidentally skips forward a short distance again to a time when excavating the moon has essentially blown it up and our satellite is radically altering Earth's orbit and jeopardizing humanity.

Escaping this near future knocks Alexander unconscious with the violence of the quakes he is experiencing and Alexander is thrown into the distant future, approximately 800,000 years into the future. There, he discovers recognizable humans living in huts and caves above the rivers where they are preyed upon by Morlocks for food and breeding stock.

Maybe I just didn't write a review the first time around because I was so terribly disappointed with The Time Machine; after all, I watched it for Guy Pearce and his slack-jawed performance of Alexander Hartdegen was one of the serious drawbacks of the movie. Seriously. Pearce spends all of his time in his native time (and up until the final leap into the distant future) with his mouth open in one of the dumbest expressions of all time.

This does not aid the story or the character because in addition to looking like an utter moron throughout a significant portion of the movie, Alexander remains one of the least sensible characters of all time. As someone with something of an obsessive personality, I've no fear in saying that if one is determined enough to shatter the laws of physics for love, when things don't work out the first time, I'd try again. Alexander fails to save Emma after his first attempt, so he gives up. How ridiculous is that?!

Granted, it's not the most natural thing to solve one's problems by going back in time to try to undo the problems, but if one is determined enough to do that, common sense seems to indicate that such a person would be of such a character as to not give up after the first time. So, taking Emma out of the park fails. What stops Alexander from going back again and simply incapacitating the mugger? Or delaying the carriage that runs Emma over in his first time travel experiment? Logic dictates that with each attempt, odds of success increase as the number of Alexander's working to save her life increase as well.

This is just an irreconcilable character problem that is utterly unforgivable. What's even worse is Alexander's eventual surrender to fate in the distant future. The humans and the Morlocks, the subterranean evolutionary offspring of humanity, have been locked in effectual warfare for thousands of years and Alexander's refusal to go back and stop the apocalypse that creates the Morlocks and makes humans into their meat product is just ridiculous. Man loves woman enough to go back in time (once) to try to save her, man does not love Humanity enough to even make a single attempt.

Part of the problem here is certainly the acting, which is compounding the lousy characters. The best performances are bit performances in The Time Machine. Mark Addy plays Alexander's best friend, David Filby in Alexander's native time. Addy gets into the period part and is believable as the stiff but likable associate of Alexander with his sympathetic delivery of lines intended to heal his wounded friend. Similarly, Jeremy Irons is great as the villainous Uber-Morlock, though he comes into the movie so late that by the time he makes his appearance, the viewer just does not care. Irons has a much more substantial and better role in The Mission, reviewed here.

Guy Pearce, though, is not at the top of his game here. His performance does not make or break the movie, but he fairly bumbles through the story, teetering as he does with a weak character on a pretty poor script. He's not given a lot of decent lines in the distant future and as much of the movie is spent there, it just weakens the whole piece.

Samantha Mumba is, sadly, unremarkable as Mara, Alexander's friend and ally in the distant future. And Orlando Jones, in his cameos as Vox is simply Orlando Jones. I like Orlando Jones on MadTV. He's funny and it was an excellent starting point for him. When Jones, as Vox, begins to sing in the library, it seems like Jones, not the character he is playing and (writer) John Logan's addition of "Live long and prosper" as a line for Vox just fell flat.

The special effects are adequate and succeed in being generally special, at least during the actual time traveling sequences. Problematically, some of the basic shots (Alexander in front of the library in the future springs instantly to mind) are so obviously bluescreen shots that they are distracting. The score during the big leap forward is pretty wonderful.

On the overall, though, H.G. Wells's concept is corrupted by writers David Duncan and John Logan and executed in an unremarkable way by director Simon Wells. Even a science fiction fan is unlikely to enjoy this outing, even on a rainy day after their entire collection is exhausted. I had to sit through it twice to write that; no need for you to make the same mistake!

For other works with Sienna Guillory, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Inkheart
Love Actually

4/10

For other films, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Okay, I Didn't Hate It! Bedazzled Doesn't Quite Suck!

The Good: Funny, Casting, Costuming
The Bad: Obvious, Juvenile, Oftentimes repetitive
The Basics: Bedazzled is a funny enough film, the defects - utter lack of character development - are not enough to make me recommend it, though I enjoyed it more than I expected.


So, I've gotten a DVD player and I've been watching films on DVD now. I like the little extras, there is a single scene of extras in Bedazzled. It's not worth it. Why did I even bother with this film? Well, 9 out of 10 of the films I don't recommend, are ones my mother loves and I've been bringing movies for her to see when I visit her. So, I figured Bedazzled looked just dumb enough for her to like because my gut reaction was "eeehhh" (Little Homer Simpson head shake of creeped-outness there). I was right, but the way, my dear old mom loved it.

I was also wrong, though, because I didn't hate it. I expected to. It seemed so contrived, the Devil offers a man seven wishes and, naturally, he's thinking with his organ and his wishes are all about a woman. I suppose we ought all to be flattered by that. Sigh. So, the plot was contrived, that the wishes consistently go bad is somewhat obvious as is that things will work out well in the end. And - surprise! - everything you think will happen, for the most part, does.

So the friendless Elliot Richards meets the Devil. And the Devil is pretty hot, thanks to some pretty incredible costuming. The Devil offers Elliot seven wishes and Elliot, consumed with getting Alison Gardner to be his partner, makes wishes accordingly. His wishes always come with consequences; he wishes to be intelligent and have taste and he ends up a homosexual (in one of the most un-funny sequences of the film), he wishes to be emotionally sensitive and his drippiness turns Alison away, he wishes to be a mega athlete and he finds himself . . . unmanned in the genital department.

What's worth watching? Well, the costumes. Not just Elizabeth Hurley's. I mean, she is not sexy in this film because she's so obvious. I mean, it's real easy to see her breasts and legs, but they're right there all the time; it's not at all enticing. There's a fine line between arousing and obvious and the director of this film tried to draw that line with a super bold marker. It didn't work. Needless to say, though, it's quite easy to watch Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil. She's attractive and well costumed, just terrifically obviously eye candy.

The costumes extend beyond the Devil. Especially in his first wish incarnation, Elliot has pretty excellent wardrobe. The acting is fair, I suppose. Fraser is funny as Elliot, but I'm getting tired of seeing him as the lonely geek (see Still Breathing). Still, he gives an adequate performance (ever seen the NewsRadio episode where Bill McNeil is called "adequate?") as does Hurley. The acting isn't a terrifically good reason to see this film.

What is the reason to see the film is the humor. It's actually funny. The funniest part of the film does not appear in the film. There's an "extended basketball scene" on the DVD wherein Orlando Jones and Toby Huss improvise a whole longer scene as sportscasters and it's hilarious. But for the most part, I found myself laughing when I did not expect to be amused by this film. Kudos there!

The problem is, when the film picks a good joke, they stick with it and beat it into the ground. The "dumb jock" routine gets old quick when Elliot becomes a basketball player and his profuse sweating goes from being subtle and funny enough to obvious and "give me a break" level. If each joke was told only once, I suspect the film would be cut from 93 minutes down to about 50.

And the flaws of the script cannot be ignored. Believe me; I got into the film enough to desperately hope that the Devil's flirting with Elliot would end up with a final wish on Elliot's part for the Devil to be his consort. Really. There was some good tension there and when the film started just plodding on, the scenes between Elliot and the Devil were the only recourse and . . . well, I had hope it would surprise me like having Elliot become the Devil's lover. It didn't happen. Sigh.

The best moments, sadly enough, are the labels that occur during the opening credits. They're a good tension breaker for people who take films too seriously. Like me.

For other works with Brendan Fraser, please check out my reviews of:
Furry Vengeance
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
Crash
Looney Toons: Back In Action
Gods And Monsters
Still Breathing

4.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page on the subject!

© 2011, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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