Matthew Perry And Allison Janney Prove (Briefly) They Have Talent Untapped In Mr. Sunshine!

The Good: Very funny, Interesting characters, Generally amazing acting
The Bad: SHORT! Lack of DVD bonus features/chapters
The Basics: Mr. Sunshine was a thirteen episode television series that gave Matthew Perry and Allison Janney the chance to show off their talents after Friends and The West Wing, respectively, which unfortunately got cancelled long before its time!


After a long-running series, it is hard for actors and actresses to find a role that can match their iconic role that made them a household name. Few casts have had trouble finding consistent work like the cast of Friends (reviewed here!) and The West Wing (reviewed here!). Of the six main cast members of Friends, Matthew Perry seems to have tried the most new network television projects and failed. While I might be one of the few people who loved Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (reviewed here!) with Matthew Perry (and, ironically, The West Wing-alum Bradley Whitford), Perry’s terrible luck made me fall in love with a second prematurely cancelled television series, Mr. Sunshine.

The real story with Mr. Sunshine is Allison Janney. Janney followed Bradley Whitford and Rob Lowe back to regular series roles after the end of her seven years on The West Wing. While some of the other members of the cast returned to doing guest roles or films, Janney tried to stretch her performing wings on Mr. Sunshine and she proved to be exceptionally versatile in the role of the crazy, addled stadium owner, Crystal Cohen.

Ben Donnovan is the manager of the Sunshine Center, a 17,000 person stadium in San Diego. He is shocked one day when the stadium’s owner, Crystal, brings her adult son to him and orders him to give him a job. Roman is good at absolutely nothing and Ben struggles to find a place for Roman. At the same time, his girlfriend, the marketing manager Alice, decides that she is going to commit to Alonzo (a former NBA star who now works at the Sunshine Center), breaking things off with Ben. While Ben avoids his own assistant, the legitimately crazy Heather (who once set a man on fire), he takes pity on Roman and lets the adult child move in with him.

As the season progresses, Ben slowly becomes less self-centered. He handholds Crystal when she freaks out on the anniversary of the day she lost her true love (which inspires a guest appearance by James Taylor) and he has to learn the name of all of the people who work under him at the Sunshine Center when the air conditioning kicks out. Ben has to put up with a spoiled child rock star and has an uncomfortable date with Heather’s sister and manages to bag a beautiful woman who is reminiscent of him at the beginning of the season (a woman who is just looking for a completely casual relationship). While Ben evolves, it begins to make him realize all he lost with Alice and the changes in his life actually lead Alice to notice him again.

Mr. Sunshine derives most of its humor from phenomenally funny lines, as opposed to the situations. The plots to the episodes are often very tame – Ben gets waylaid by Crystal, so Roman has to entertain a lingerie football player Ben hooks up with whenever she is in town or Alice and Alonzo come to believe Crystal is a racist and try to change her perceptions on black people – but it is the lines that are audacious and laugh-out-loud funny. Matthew Perry delivers his lines with an anhedonic quality that is distinct and different from any other character I’ve seen him play. Allison Janney is absolutely loopy as Crystal Cohen and she delivers her lines with an earnestness that is hilarious (when she sings the song about all the different ethnicities of children with wide, eager eyes, it is impossible not to smile).

The thirteen episodes of Mr. Sunshine create a core of six memorable characters. In the sole season of Mr. Sunshine, the characters are:

Ben Donovan – Boyish and happy working for the Sunshine Center, he is entirely self-absorbed. He, for example, only refers to his past relationship with Alice as “the time we were sleeping together.” He lets Roman move in with him and he often has to remind Crystal of her son’s existence. He negotiates with multiple young women for sex through the course of the season and has to keep a teen heartthrob happy so he will actually perform at the Sunshine Center. He stops going only for casual sex and works to develop real relationships, which makes him look back in Alice’s direction,

Alice – A cheerful marketing manager, she decides she wants to commit to Alonzo. She becomes frustrated when Alonzo is so busy doing good things that she will never be first in his mind. She tries to one-up her high school rival when she visits the Sunshine Center and she briefly mentors under Crystal to learn how to be confident,

Alonzo – A former NBA player who failed to make a key basket in a game years prior, he now works community outreach at the Sunshine Center. He is perpetually happy and loves being in a relationship with Alice. Technically still married, he does things like give blood, organize charity events and coaches a team of at-risk young women (not quite realizing how bad “Alonzo’s Ladies” sounds!),

Roman – Something of an idiot, he is eager to try new things. He falls for Ben’s psychotic assistant, hard. He gets jealous when Heather and Ben spend time together, but covers for Ben when Ben needs favors. He works as Alice’s assistant, which leads Alice to stop trusting him because of the way he blabs to Ben,

Heather – One of Alonzo’s outreach projects, she came to work at the Sunshine Center on an internship. Having once set a man on fire, she keeps Ben continually on-edge. She is eager to please and falls for Roman’s earnestness,

and Crystal Cohen – The drug-addled owner of the Sunshine Center, she delegates to Ben on most things. When her adult son, Roman, pops back into her life, she has no idea how to be a mother. She resents the Smurfs, is thrilled by mysterious men and admits to being married six times, only five of which were consummated. She has an oddly close relationship with one of the cleaning women at the Sunshine Center and is devastated when Nadia dies abruptly. She briefly mentors Alice, but discovers Alice does not have her tolerance for drugs that she does.

Mr. Sunshine has an amazing cast led by Matthew Perry and Allison Janney. Andrea Anders makes a credible romantic interest for both Matthew Perry’s Ben and James Lesure’s Alonzo, though she often plays Alice like she played her character from Better Off Ted (season 1 is reviewed here!). Nate Torrence plays Roman with a familiar goofiness, but he brings an endearing quality to the role that sparks well with Portia Doubleday (who plays the wide-eyed crazy Heather).

Ultimately, though, Mr. Sunshine is thirteen delightful episodes that replay, like most outrageous comedies with diminishing humor. The DVD set is one of SONY’s “burn on demand” discs, so there are absolutely no frills (not even episode menus!) on the two-disc DVD set. Given how fast Mr. Sunshine was cancelled by ABC, it is unlikely that a better version of the show will ever make it to DVD. As a result, I make a strong recommendation for getting the set now; it’s worth it, even if it left Matthew Perry and Allison Janney looking for work and the show’s five fans pining for more episodes.

For other television series' that made their debut on ABC, please check out my reviews of:
”Turn, Turn, Turn” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Happy Endings - Season 1
V - Season 2
Lost
Pushing Daisies - Season 1
Invasion
Boston Legal
Alias
The Job
Once & Again - Season 2
Once & Again - Season 1
Sports Night
Spin City - Season 1
NYPD Blue - Season 4
Twin Peaks
V - The Complete Series
Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series

7/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Lynn Collins Gets Her Chance To Shine In A Film About Not Shining: Numb

The Good: Great acting, Interesting characters, Decent execution of a difficult plot concept
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features, Middle section (everything with Mary Steenburgen)
The Basics: Numb is a good little independent film that realistically portrays mental illness gets knocked off course in the middle by a dumb - and hardly entertaining - side plot.


It's a tough sell to make a film about characters who are mentally ill. I'm not talking mentally retarded, because there are plenty of movies with protagonists who suffer from learning disabilities and retardations (many a-list stars aim for them in order to get nominated for awards or to stretch their acting chops). And while there are a ton of movies about characters who are drug addicted, it's tough to find one where the protagonist legitimately suffers from a mental illness, like depression. In fact, the only two that come right to mind is the socially maladjusted protagonist in Punch-Drunk Love (reviewed here!) and the title character in Charlie Bartlett (reviewed here!). Far more often, the protagonists are just drug addicts and I'm to the point where movies involving drug culture simply bore me.

So, when I found Numb at my local library, I was actually pretty psyched. I've enjoyed Matthew Perry in many films and television shows, so when I saw that he was in a film with a mentally ill protagonist, I picked it right up off the shelf. And Perry is pretty wonderful in Numb. His costar, Lynn Collins, might steal the show, but Perry is excellent in the movie and it certainly cements the idea that Perry can do drama with the best of them.

Hudson takes a pretty extreme hit of weed which activates a depersonalization disorder within him. From that point on, he begins to feel like an observer outside his life as opposed to a participant in his own narrative. Desperate to get well, he begins seeing a psychologist and returns home to see his parents. Leaving when his uptight mother is unable to deal with his lack of ability to function, Hudson returns to Los Angeles where he is a writer to attempt more therapy and work on a new series with his writing partner, Tom.

When he returns, he meets Sara, an executive who is considering one of Tom and Hudson's projects and who once saw Hudson as a fish out of water at a Hollywood party. Sara pushes to be in Hudson's life and when she is there, he falls for her. However, between the medications he is put on and the symptoms of his depersonalization disorder (which includes shoplifting pens, despite the fact that he is quite well-off) Hudson finds himself unable to manage the relationship. He and Sara have a falling out and he begins to see Dr. Cheryl Blaine for help, though his heart remains with Sara . . .

Numb is one of those movies that gets so much right right out of the gate that when I started watching it, I thought I'd be as enthusiastically rating is as I did Waitress (reviewed here!), another small-budget film about difficult human relations. And Numb remained on the fast track to an astonishing review by me - if for no other reason than being clever enough to not use the title in the film, despite Hudson having to describe the disorder several times - until the fifty-eight minute mark. At that point, the film derails and while it recovers near the end, there is a half hour in there that is virtually unwatchable.

It is in that half-hour that Hudson has been left by Sara and Dr. Blaine enters the story. I've nothing against Mary Steenburgen and I'm not even sure that Dr. Blaine is an unrealistic or thoroughly unlikable character (she's just as screwed up as the rest of us, so it's hard not to like that!), but she doesn't fit this particular story. Dr. Blaine's little sidetrip into the narrative is pointless, distracting and offensive to those in the mental health community. Her presence in Numb transforms the realistic, informative, insightful and intelligently-presented story into a cheap, degrading, piece of entertainment that fails to entertain or do anything but revolt the viewer who was engaged for the first (almost) hour. Writer and director Harris Goldberg strikes out on that front, which is way too bad, considering he knew the perfect amount of time to take to establish Hudson and his disorder before bringing Sara into the story.

On that front, I enjoyed Goldberg's cutaways to Hudson's childhood. He clearly establishes the groundwork for Hudson's disorder by portraying his relationship with his mother as problematic as well as the contradictory reinforcement he received from his father. These might seem like distractions to some viewers, but it becomes a decent part of portraying Hudson's overall mental health history and it works very well as such. If anything, the problem with the cutaways to his childhood is that there were not enough of them. I'd love to see Goldberg remake the film with more of those scenes and the elimination of the Dr. Blaine arc.

Barring that, we are still left with a film that is worth recommending, if for no other reason than it tackles a rather difficult issue and deals with it thoroughly and (for the most part) maturely. The friendship between Tom and Hudson balances well against the isolation Hudson is mostly faced with and Numb utilizes voice-overs (something I've long stood against, especially last year when it seemed every television series was obsessed with doing them) judiciously and well.

Writer and director Harris Goldberg deserves a lot of credit for two things in Numb. The first is that Hudson is seen asking his doctors questions and he Goldberg often portrays the therapists as disinterested, unhelpful or focused on their own agendas. The same friend who will like that I was offended by Dr. Blaine's actions in Numb might be troubled by that last line of mine, so I'm going to explain that. Therapists tend to be very specialized and have areas of expertise and finding the right one is incredibly important; something Hudson acknowledges in Numb. Hudson is almost as much to blame for his treatment by Dr. Townsend as Townsend is for his apathy in dealing with Hudson; he and the protagonist are not a good fit, but Hudson keeps going to him anyway. The problem with Numb is it does not show the lengthy process of finding the right therapist and when Hudson finally hooks up with a specialist in his field, the story goes in a different and problematic way. But there is a realism to having therapists who are not used to extreme cases of mental illness having difficulty in dealing with patients who clearly need the services of a mental health professional.

The other thing that Goldberg does remarkably well is in the character of Sara. Sara enters Hudson's life and when they fall in love, there is a scene (sadly, only one) of Sara with Hudson at the psychiatrist. In that scene, Sara acts as Hudson's advocate, fighting for what he needs. This is an extraordinary and realistic scene that deserves mention because it is exactly the type of scene most movies like this are lacking. One of the truly comic aspects of American Medical Society is that the mentally ill are expected to be functional enough to accurately describe all of their symptoms (the tragedy of American Medical/Governmental Society, by the by, is expecting the mentally handicapped to manage their treatment and living conditions when the programs they are put in cannot be described to mentally able adults by the mentally able adults who run the programs in a way that they can be understood. The point of that last sentence, and this one and the next, is to illustrate the intrusive nature of the Dr. Blaine subplot in Numb. See how the paragraph was going along all well and nice, focusing on something wonderful involving Sara and then these other sentences just popped in . . . ?) and that is utterly unrealistic. Mentally ill people frequently need the aid of friends or loved ones to advocate for them as part of their treatment and Sara takes up that mantle in Numb perfectly.

Indeed, Sara is the bright spot in Numb that appears at just the right moment. Goldberg has Hudson wandering through his depersonalization disorder long enough to clearly establish how debilitating it is and Sara pops in the the precise timing in the film to keep the movie flowing and from becoming preachy or boring. It is easy to see - not just from her Hollywood beautiful looks - why Hudson's life is so energized by Sara's presence.

Sara is played by Lynn Collins, who I only realized I had seen by checking out the IMDB, who steals ever scene she is in. This is perfectly appropriate, though, as her character is intended to be a beacon of light in Hudson's life. Collins has an excellent sense of comic timing and a strong ability to play dramatic in a very demanding way opposite Matthew Perry's Hudson. Unlike her unmemorable role as Mona in The Lake House (reviewed here!), Collins explodes with talent in Numb in a way that makes me eager to see her in the new Wolverine film!

But it is Matthew Perry who is charged with carrying most of Numb and he certainly does not disappoint. Perry has a strong sensibility as an actor do play subtle and dramatic and if one had not seen him in other roles before this, this would easily convince the viewer that he can do understated and impressive. Perry never makes the viewer feel like they are watching Matthew Perry; from the moment he appears on screen, he is the terribly depressed Hudson and that serves the story perfectly. In fact, there is no higher compliment for an actor, I believe. Indeed, Perry was so convincing as Hudson that when Sara calls him on his stealing and Hudson returns the pen he stole and I sat there saying "Okay, he didn't really return it," Perry's performance convinced me otherwise.

On DVD, there is a commentary track, a featurette and a slew of previews for other artsy, underviewed films like Numb. There are no deleted scenes and the commentary track does not justify Blaine's place in the movie, so it's average at best on the bonus features.

Ultimately, Numb is a truly wonderful romantic comedy and drama for 2/3 of the film with a chunk taken out of the latter half. But, seeing as it's in there, Numb suffers. And for those who can stomach a great movie about human suffering, Numb becomes one of the best to see.

For other works with Kevin Pollak, be sure to visit my reviews of:
The Big Year
Red State
Cop Out
The Whole Ten Yards
The Wedding Planner
The Whole Nine Yards
The Usual Suspects

5.5/10

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

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Despite The Obvious Attention To Wholesome, 17 Again Is Worth Watching!

The Good: Funny, Fun, Moments of acting
The Bad: Predictable, Obvious character arcs, Overbearing moralizing, Editing
The Basics: Funny, but poorly edited and assembled for adults who watch such things carefully, 17 Again is still entertaining for a wide audience.


[Note: This was originally written based on a screening of the film in advance of its cinematic release. Hence the verb tenses . . . Enjoy!]

The true joy of free movies has to be that they allow reviewers to take risks they might not otherwise take, namely watching films that are not necessarily their cup of tea. I, for example, have been seeing a lot more "family fare" so far this year largely because I have been getting into screenings. The latest film that I would not have been predisposed to seeing if not for my status as reviewer was 17 Again. Unlike some other risk films I've seen of late, I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit, despite its formulaic nature and the overbearing "family values" b.s. that I usually despise.

17 Again is the latest vehicle for Zac Efron, whose soul may or may not be owned by Disney and appears as a nonthreatening good guy in this non-Disney (but might as well be) movie. As my partner observed, 17 Again is a great example of a test for the generation divide; our screening was packed by people who were there to see Friends alum Matthew Perry along with a gaggle of tweens who were clearly mooning over Efron. Despite figuring that Perry would not last in the film more than ten minutes early in the movie (he gets about fifteen minutes early on) and about two at the end, my partner and I went enthused to see Perry working again and we were delighted to find there was much more to the movie to enjoy beyond that.

In 1989, Mike O'Donnell is a basketball champion at Hayden High School who is being watched by talent scouts, his entire school and his girlfriend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett gets pregnant, Mike gives up his dreams of playing basketball to go be a responsible father. Twenty years later, Mike is living in his best friend's house when Scarlett throws him out pending their divorce. As Mike mourns his wife wanting to terminate the marriage, he and his geeky best friend try to make the best of things. After visiting his children at their high school, Mike encounters a mystical janitor who he later sees while driving back to Ned's. Trying to follow the janitor, Mike falls into a mystical energy vortex and is suddenly de-aged to seventeen.

Mike enrolls in Hayden High School as Ned's child in order to restart his basketball career and be closer to his children. The seventeen year-old Mike soon realizes his son Alex is being bullied and his daughter, Maggie, is on the fast track to losing her virginity to the school bully. Mike quickly realizes that his purpose in being de-aged is not to take the road not taken - i.e. revitalize his basketball career - but rather to get closer to his children and become a better husband to Scarlett. In the process, Ned begins to court the school principal and Mike relearns all that he might have forgotten about love and relationships.

17 Again is a fun, but sloppy movie that is predicated on the idea that viewers are young and not watching the movie or thinking too closely about it. First, the plot is ridiculously simple and fairly obvious in that the "made young for the purpose of learning a valuable lesson" plot has been done before and the moralizing is pretty obvious. The purpose and character arcs are largely unsurprising and they promote a family-friendly agenda that advocates abstinence, strong family bonds, the value of working at a marriage (no divorce!), and strong, traditional gender roles. Bullies get put in their place, there is a double standard for boys and girls. Despite references to safe sex and pressure for teen sexuality, abstinence is pushed fairly heavily and all teen drinking occurs off-screen and is referenced as such a bad thing that the only characters even accused of it are treated as ridiculous.

The thing is, 17 Again has a few issues within its own narrative that are more ridiculous than the contradictions between reality in teen behavior and the "reality" of the film. So, for example, Mike is 17 in 1989 and today (specifically mentioned as 2009 later in the film), Mike has a daughter who is a Senior in high school and a son who appears to be a Junior at the same high school. Mike's daughter, though, would be 19! Mike references working for the company he works for in the opening scenes for about twenty years, but the idea that his daughter would not be age-appropriate for the storyline is simply glossed over. Also unaddressed is the relationship between the de-aged Mike and Alex; one need not work in high schools to recall that underclassmen and upperclassmen seldom fraternize the way Mike and Alex do, especially at the larger high schools like Hayden High School.

Despite the contradictions and the simplicity - as well as the obvious way Zac Efron is highlighted by appearing on screen for the first five to ten minutes so the tween audience does not have to wait for him any longer than they might want to - 17 Again is a fun and funny movie. It takes a lot to get me to laugh these days, but this film made me laugh out loud fifteen times and smile an additional twenty-two times, which puts it well above most other recent films.

What surprised me most, though, was the quality of the acting. Zac Efron reappears on-screen as the de-aged adult Mike O'Donnell and he plays the role as Matthew Perry for a few minutes as he adjusts from the adult to the teen role once again. Efron almost effortlessly takes on the mannerisms of Matthew Perry which he has in his early scenes. Fans of Perry can see Perry in Efron's performance and that illustrates well the ability the young actor actually has.

The cast is rounded out well by Leslie Mann as Scarlett, Thomas Lennon as Ned and Sterling Night and Michelle Trachtenberg as Mike's son and daughter, Alex and Maggie. Lennon has a decent role as Ned, though much of his performance is upstaged by props and wardrobe used to define his character. Mann, however, utilizes her second billing role to shine and she clearly outperforms the expectations one might have of her from such things as Knocked Up. Problematic, though, is that director Burr Steers cast Mann as Scarlett and Melora Hardin as Principal Masterson, Ned's love interest. Mann and Hardin look far too much alike and are put into virtually identical roles that there are several scenes that the only way the viewer knows which woman is appearing on screen is by who is with her.

Overall, 17 Again is amusing and seems to be lightly PG-13 (I was surprised that it was not PG) and is likely to entertain children, young adults and the middle agers as well. The film is funny and a decent fun date movie, but it is not extraordinary entertainment or thematically clever or super-engaging in a way that older audiences will be blown away by it.

For other works featuring Matthew Perry, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
The Whole Ten Yards
The West Wing - Season Five
The West Wing - Season Four
The Whole Nine Yards
Friends

6/10

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

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Of The Best Arguments Against Making Sequels: The Whole Ten Yards

The Good: One or two laughs
The Bad: Just about everything, Characters, Plot, Use of cast
The Basics: If you liked The Whole Nine Yards, do not spoil your fond memories by sitting through this unbearably unfunny sequel.



When I first saw The Whole Nine Yards, (reviewed here!) I was pleasantly surprised. I found I enjoyed it and it made me laugh quite a bit. I was very surprised when it was announced that there was a sequel in the works and I was very curious about how they would successfully pull it off. The answer, as was revealed to me by watching the movie, was they could not. The Whole Ten Yards is a terrific failure, an idea almost as bad as making a sequel to "Magnolia" and only serves to sour the good memories I had about The Whole Nine Yards.

This dreadful sequel follows the dentist Oz, who has become increasingly paranoid after settling into his life with Cynthia, the ex-wife of Jimmy the now-retired hitman. Oz, however, now has reason to freak out as Cynthia is abducted by old enemies of Jimmy's. The gangster Lazlo has abducted Cynthia and Oz is forced to call on the domesticated Jimmy and his trigger happy, though terminally unlucky hitwoman wife Jill.

I wish I could say "hilarity" ensues, but it does not. This is a stupid movie. I want to end my review there. This movie is just plain bad.

First off, I am not a fan of slapstick. Simple convolutions of the body and spasms and falling down aren't funny to me. It's a joke that works once. In The Whole Ten Yards, Matthew Perry's Oz serves solely as a slapstick character and he fails entirely at being funny. That's not to say that Matthew Perry is not funny or that he is unable to do physical comedy, because he is and he can. The problem here in The Whole Ten Yards is that Perry is reduced to doing only physical comedy. He is given one schtick the whole movie and it plays old very quick.

Furthermore, the use of physical comedy is continually diluted through the use of Lazlo's two dimwit sons who also use extensive physical comedy. They fall easily into the role of idiot sidekicks and they add nothing to the mix. In fact, they distract from the overall plot and only serve to highlight how Kevin Pollak's Lazlo is just not funny at all. Pollak is a genius comedian and his talents are completely wasted as Lazlo, a one-trick pony character whose prosthetics are decent but lacks any charisma or actual character.

The Whole Nine Yards had a distinct advantage over The Whole Ten Yards in that it had a very rich and diverse cast. The absence of Michael Clarke Duncan (who played Frankie Figgs in the prior film) is felt and the last minute character that pops up is a ridiculous attempt to replace his presence and fails utterly.

In fact, the only two people who ought to be happy about The Whole Ten Yards are Natasha Henstridge and Amanda Peet. Henstridge ought to be happy because her part as Cynthia is more prominent in The Whole Ten Yards and there is more for her character to do. Unfortunately, Henstridge also delivers the line, near the beginning, that ruins any and every element of surprise about her abduction and the underlying elements of it. Nevertheless, she has more productive airtime and quite possibly the only character growth in the entire piece. If Amanda Peet is camera shy about nudity (something she does not seem to have a problem with given her role in The Whole Nine Yards), this sequel improves her position by not forcing her to bare all.

The truth is, The Whole Nine Yards had a spark and it was funny and different. The Whole Ten Yards attempts to recreate that spark, but instead reunites a stellar cast and then fails to do anything magical with them. A horrible script, nothing impressive in the way of performances and failure to grow the characters beyond where they were in The Whole Nine Yards (save a few cheap impotence and domestication jokes about Jimmy) gut this film.

For other works with the amazing Amanda Peet, be sure to visit my reviews of:
2012
The X-Files: I Want To Believe
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

2/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Dentist Humor And Dead Bodies: The Whole Nine Yards

The Good: Frequently funny, Intriguing characters, Generally well-acted
The Bad: Predictable plot twists, Disturbing supporting performances
The Basics: In a fun flick, a dentist and a mobster look out for one another when everyone else in their lives wants to kill them.


There are several combinations of unlikely characters that make for good storytelling. The butcher and the vegan come right to mind, though I'm sure I've never seen a film featuring two characters with those affiliations working together. Far more frequently, the combinations are more like the police officer and the criminal as an odd couple. Here, we have the dentist and the hit man. What has the world come to?

Oz is a simple dentist with the worst nag of a wife in cinema since Princess Leia. Sophie and her mother live with Oz for no reason that is fathomable other than so they won't have to go out and get a job. Oz returns home from work one day to discover that his new neighbor is a hitman and when he reveals it to Sophie, she sends him to Chicago to get a finder's fee on the bounty on Jimmy's life. Oz plays the unwilling accomplice, for he likes Jimmy Tudeski as a person. In Chicago, Oz sleeps with Jimmy's wife and meets Frankie, a bodyguard for the mobster Jimmy ratted on. Oz returns home in a load of trouble and fearing for his life.

And rightfully so, for his assistant, Jill, was hired by Sophie to kill him. But she doesn't. See the pattern? The Whole Nine Yards is filled with reluctant hitmen, people who don't want to kill others. Jimmy and Jill like Oz and don't want to kill him, Oz doesn't want to see Jimmy dead and Cynthia, Jimmy's wife, doesn't want to die. But the film has quite the body count for a movie where no one wants to kill anyone. Go figure.

The thing is, the plot is one of the most transparent I've ever seen. Not so much in what is going to happen next, but more in the supposed twists in the film. Sophie is such an unlikable character in the first few minutes of the film that you know if there is any justice in the universe, she will get something bad in the end. Similarly, the attempts at reversals are all dull and predictable. The moment Frankie Figs appears, we know he's not after Jimmy, when Jill insists on meeting Jimmy, we know she's not a simple dental assistant. And the moment bodies begin to fall, we know the skills of the dentist will come into play.

The only thing worse than the predictable plot and character twists are some of the performances. Rosanna Arquette is outrageously loathsome as Sophie, giving the vile wife no stage presence. She feels flat and dispassionate. Similarly, Matthew Perry plays Oz as Chandler (his character from Friends) in suburbia. That is, there's no deviation in his performance between the two roles. It's disappointing. That's not to say it's bad completely; I like Chandler. But, it's not the sign of good acting to take two roles so close and play them as interchangeable.

Conversely, Michael Clarke Duncan gives a great performance as Frankie Figs. As well, Amanda Peet has great presence and range as Jill. Furthermore, she's easy to look at, a technique of using the actress that plays directly into the film.

Bruce Willis, however, outdoes himself. He's charming and funny as Jimmy Tudeski in a way that he hasn't been since Moonlighting. He's very sharp and he gives layers to Jimmy that work. It's refreshing to see a comedic character with different facets. Sometimes it's a facial expression, but more often than not, there is a change in the tone of Willis' voice that defines Jimmy's moods. And that's genius.

Ultimately, the most disturbing aspect of The Whole Nine Yards is in the characters. Why Oz is with Sophie at all is never thoroughly or acceptably explained. It's hard to pity Oz when we know he made a choice to be with Sophie and he makes a continual choice to stay with her. Add to that that the infidelity he has with Jimmy's wife, while enjoyable to watch for the way it re-energizes his character, it makes little sense when one steps back from it. Why would Oz stay with Sophie so long and be so miserable, yet throw it away on the next real good looking woman he comes across?

Who knows? Maybe that's attraction. In the end, The Whole Nine Yards is a fun film that perhaps ought not to be taken too seriously. Then again, it does feature a dentist . . .

For other works featuring Bruce Willis, please be sure to check out:
Friends - Season 6
Unbreakable
The Story Of Us
12 Monkeys
The Verdict

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Season Of Changes Ends Friends The Complete Tenth (And Final) Season!

The Good: Good sense of character and plot movement.
The Bad: Shorter season, Bonus disc DVD bonus features are nothing special
The Basics: A shortened season, the tenth and final season of Friends adequately closes the character arcs of six New York City friends.


Here it is. My wife and I began watching Friends (reviewed here!) earlier this year and I have been slowly making it through the seasons of the show. At the end of it all comes season ten and it is a rare thing for any series to make it that far. Sadly, for fans of the show, Friends The Complete Tenth Season is a truncated season and on DVD, it is a tough sell at the same price as the earlier ones. But what the series has going for it at this point in its story is a strong sense of movement. The last season is heavily serialized and it is a coda, a season that is intended to reward the fans of the show. In other words, while I do recommend this film, it is not worth acquiring or even watching if one has not seen the prior seasons. The reason for this is simple: Friends is essentially a soap opera and this season finishes the character arcs that have been building for nine years.

As well, Friends in the tenth season is impossible to discuss without revealing a few things about prior seasons, most notably how the ninth season ends (or left the characters). Because there are character elements that are quickly resolved (and a few that take longer), in order to seriously discuss the final season of Friends the changes have to be noted. The season only has eighteen episodes and one suspects that part of the reason for the shorter season was the fact that Courteney Cox-Arquette got pregnant and (for reasons obvious to fans who have seen the season before this) that caused some insurmountable filming obstacles. Regardless, with eighteen episodes, with plots that flow very quickly from one to the next, this is a fast-moving season of situational comedy.

Opening with the six friends still in Barbados with Phoebe's boyfriend Mike and (now) Ross' girlfriend Charlie, Joey wants to let his relationship with Rachel progress, just as Ross wants to move things forward with Charlie. Both men, though, want to be sure things are okay with the other before they go forward. And when Ross finds out Joey and Rachel are romantically involved, he freaks out in a way that neither of them feels comfortable taking the relationship further. Ross is abandoned by Charlie shortly thereafter when one of Charlie's ex's want her back. As Chandler and Monica work to impress the adoption board, Ross, Joey and Rachel each try to work through their separate damages. At the same time, Phoebe and Mike grow even closer.

Despite everything, Phoebe and Mike get engaged and they look to a quick marriage. Monica and Chandler discover a rather dippy girl in Ohio who has gotten pregnant and is looking to give up her baby for adoption. But as Joey becomes more upset by the way all of their lives are changing, in the wake of Monica and Chandler finding a house in Westchester they want to move to, Rachel and Ross both have professional changes that threaten to change all their lives even more!

In the tenth season, Friends moves right along with such things as the teased relationship between Joey and Rachel getting resolved rather quickly. The show becomes very preoccupied with tying up loose ends and this season is largely about that. Will Ross and Rachel ever get together? Will Monica and Chandler become parents? Will Phoebe ever do anything normal? This season answers all of these questions and leaves a few very strange ones up in the air (like where do Phoebe and Mike live after they get married?). But, for the most part, the last season of Friends is largely about rewarding fans who have been watching for years and as such, it is intended to make fans feel good about how their friends get through their lingering obstacles.

Rather nicely, this season is mostly serialized without bottle episodes that have ridiculous premises. Outside the annual Thanksgiving episode, the episodes generally flow from one to the next with the character elements building upon each other. The result is that very little actually happens this season that can be described . . . outside everyone trying to get out of Emma's first birthday party when the cake that arrives turns out to be an erotic cake. Outside that somewhat contrived plot, everything flows from the character choices. Monica and Chandler have an interview with the adoption center, which leads them to a birth mother, which compels them to buy a house and so on. Similarly, Phoebe and Mike make their choices and the only thing that does not honestly make sense is how quickly Mike comes around to proposing to Phoebe, especially how adamant he was against it in the prior season.

And while most fans will enjoy the ultimate resolution to the show, it is hard not to feel cheated by the Joey and Rachel resolution. By the end of the second episode of this season, the relationship that has been teased for two years is over and done with and the fan-favored relationship between Ross and Rachel suddenly becomes a possibility again. The thing is, the chemistry is not quite there. Instead, Ross and Rachel come together as a plot and character contrivance that is remarkably abrupt. In the few episodes they are both present, Mike and Phoebe have much better chemistry than Ross and Rachel do (at least until the finale). The other significant change is that Joey's promiscuous quality dissipates. After he loses Rachel as a viable romantic partner, he does not date the entire season. Instead, Joey has to deal with the consequences of one of his prior bad relationships.

Because the season is almost exclusively about characters and character choices, it is worthwhile to know who the characters are and what they are motivated by in the final season. The most stable cast ends as it began with:

Rachel Green - Quickly realizing that she and Joey will not work out because of her history with Ross, she returns to work and raising Emma. It is only when her work situation changes dramatically that she has to consider her relationships and what she actually wants in life,

Monica Gellar (because, as we learn this season, she neglected to change her name) - tries to avoid an old acquaintance, but discovers she cannot be that rude. She and Chandler work hard to impress the adoption agency and soon find the perfect house in the suburbs,

Phoebe Buffay - Committed to Mike now, she proposes when she realizes he is ready. With a short engagement, the two move to be married and figure out their future together . . . with or without her other friends,

Joey Tribiani - Still working on Days Of Our Lives, he gets no other gigs, nor any other relationships after letting Rachel go. He proves himself to be a good and loyal friend to Ross and Rachel through that and to Monica and Chandler when he tries to write a recommendation for them for the adoption agency and straighten a rather unique problem out with their adoption agent on the home visit,

Chander Bing - Working at the advertising agency, he and Monica focus on finding a child to adopt and a house in the suburbs. He "takes one for the team" in order to insure he and Monica do not get saddled with the worst possible neighbor,

And Ross Gellar - Losing Charlie to a crazy Nobel-prize winner, he focuses in his career and Emma. When Rachel's career gets turned upside down, he is forced to make a choice about what is truly important to him.

In the tenth season of Friends, there are no truly outstanding performances. Instead, this is an example of six people performing the roles they have made iconic. David Schwimmer still infuses Ross with a rage that comes up at awkward times, Matt LeBlanc still plays Joey as completely dippy and Matthew Perry's Chandler is still deeply sarcastic. None of the character traits truly change this season, the actors just have the characters honed to a flawlessly consistent portrayal of them.

On DVD, there are three discs of episodes and one of bonus features. While three episodes have commentary tracks, the fourth disc has featurettes. On the final disc, there is a featurette on the end of the series as well as gag reels. There is also a music video and a final featurette (standard for the last few boxed set DVDs of Friends) on the guest stars from the season.

But for fans, this is a great way to finish the series and it is goes too quickly. This becomes an essential coda to the beloved comedy Friends.

For the final seasons of other comedy television shows, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Fraiser - Season 11
Arrested Development - Season 3

8/10

For other television show reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Looking Back, Friends Season Eight Is As Single-minded In Its Focus As The Prior Season!

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of humor
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features, Repetitive feeling, Some moments of performance
The Basics: When Rachel gets pregnant, the eighth season of Friends arrives on DVD with good serialization and some lame episodic bits.


As some television series's progress, they become repetitive or strangely more focused. In the case of Friends (series reviewed here!) it became both. The seventh season of the show was very much focused on the build-up to a wedding and when it was not leading to Monica and Chandler's wedding, it was aimless with "bottle" episodes that often fell flat. In a similar way, the eighth season of Friends was almost singularly focused on the pregnancy alluded to in the seventh season finale. As such, it is impossible to discuss the eighth season of Friends without revealing the final moments of the prior. That is the closest to a spoiler alter one gets with me.

The eighth season of Friends, repackaged now for the fifteenth anniversary of the series beginning, is very much focused on Rachel's pregnancy and the effect it has on the six friends who have regularly convened for coffee and companionship for years prior. The twenty-three episodes (the finale is double-long) of the eighth season are presented on DVD with little additional programming to recommend them over the syndicated versions, but for fans of the series and of situational comedy, there is still enough to recommend this boxed set.

With the identity of the pregnant friend quickly confirmed to be Rachel, Rachel sets about preparing to be a single mother. To that end, she informs the father that she is not intending for him to have any involvement in the pregnancy or the eventual raising of the child. As it turns out, the father is none other than Ross and this revelation comes on the heels of Ross actually meeting a woman he would like to be with (Mona) at Monica and Chandler's wedding. As Rachel gives up dating, she and Joey become surprisingly close while Ross dates Mona.

As Joey wrestles with falling in love with Rachel, Monica and Chandler settle into their marriage. Phoebe tries to be supportive, but she tends to find herself as the odd-woman out, though she finds herself breaking up her twin sister's engagement. Rachel's pregnancy progresses naturally and when she lets Joey down easily, she moves in with Ross. This complicates things between Ross and Mona and prepares the viewer for a surprisingly banal finale which is almost exactly where viewers expected the season to end.

Mixed in with the season-long Rachel pregnancy arc are a smattering of bottle episodes and some of them are annoying as this season includes the standard clipshow of prior seasons. Other episodes that distract from the more serialized nature of the season include ones where Monica having to fire a man Phoebe is dating (and wants to dump), Phoebe falling for her sister's ex-fiance, and another one where Monica is convinced the new maid is stealing her clothes. Other foibles include Monica hiring a stripper (who is actually a prostitute) and the annual Thanksgiving episode which exposes Ross as a former loather of Rachel. As well, the episode where Monica and Joey take a cooking class ("The One With The Cooking Class") seems particularly pointless after a long string of episodes that keep tight focus on Joey and Rachel.

Of course, part of the issue is that the entire cast of six characters must be utilized, but when Friends isn't focused in the eighth season, it is dreadfully unfocused. Still, there are some truly hilarious moments, from the moment Rachel tells Ross he is the father (and Ross learns about condoms being 3% ineffective) to Phoebe dating a real loser ("I write erotic novels for children . . . they're wildly unpopular" in "The One With The Tea Leaves."). But there are some real duds and DVD buyers ought to feel cheesed about "The One With Joey's Interview" where they are given yet another clip show.

Similarly, in the eighth season of Friends the show continues its NBC-driven inclusion of famous guest stars trading on their celebrity appeal. While Sean Penn makes a memorable two-shot appearance as Ursula's (ex-)fiancé, Alec Baldwin's two-shot is just annoying and seems designed to trade on the character being such a ridiculous departure from his norm that viewers are supposed to be wowed. The most notable act of celebrity "name dropping" is the appearance of Jennifer Aniston's then-husband Brad Pitt for "The One With The Rumor." Pitt plays a former classmate of Rachel's who had an "I Hate Rachel" club with Ross and Pitt smirks through almost his entire performance and the studio audience appropriately gushes for him showing up on television. It feels like what it is; a ploy to boost ratings even more than they already were (yes, it's taken me writing about eight seasons of Friends before it finally occurred to me that Thanksgiving is the cap of November Sweeps)!

As the best sitcoms survive based upon the strength of the characters, so too does Friends. In the eighth season, the primary characters are:

Rachel - Pregnant and looking forward to becoming a single mother (though dreading the process as her due date nears) she finds her life changing radically. While arguably responsible for the pregnancy, she finds herself placed in awkward situations as Joey falls for her and then when she realizes she doesn't want Ross dating anyone else. She becomes terrified when she sees a video of a live childbirth and delights in pretending to be married with Ross at his parents' anniversary dinner,

Ross - Mortified that he got Rachel pregnant, he still steps up to provide for the impending baby. After a few false starts, he and Mona begin dating and he finds himself delighted by the new girlfriend. However, his inability to tell Mona the truth - especially when Rachel moves in with him - costs him that relationship and he soon finds himself putting off his parents and Phoebe over the idea of him marrying Rachel,

Phoebe - After making Monica think she's actually pregnant, Phoebe is proposed to by Joey and dumped as well. She and Joey break into Monica's apartment and she continues to go through various men. This season, she dates a sous-chef, her sister's fiancé, the weird novelist, and a ridiculously over-happy man,

Joey - With Rachel as his roommate, he begins to find himself seriously attracted to Rachel and he wrestles with actually being in love for the first time. After opening himself up to Rachel and running through the gauntlet of Ross, he finds his life on Days Of Our Lives bringing him success,

Monica - Preparing for her own baby, she and Chandler begin their lives together. She opens all of the wedding gifts when Chandler is out looking for the cameras from the wedding. She has to fire Phoebe's boyfriend, buys an expensive pair of boots and reacts badly to a review in a newspaper of her cooking,

And Chandler - After getting back the cameras from the wedding and going on a honeymoon with Monica, he helps Monica get a maid (and lose her). He learns how to take a bath and breaks into Monica's secret closet. He becomes comfortable with the idea of having a child with Monica.

Season eight of Friends is notable on the acting front for the improvement of acting by Courteney Cox Arquette. While Monica has traditionally been the worst-acted character on the show, Cox Arquette's work with Matthew Perry pays off; she manages to get through her scenes without laughing constantly.

Jennifer Aniston is the standout on the acting front. Far from her character's originally spoiled origins, Aniston plays Rachel as a maturing young woman who is growing up and she seems plausibly adult.

On DVD, the eighth season of Friends is graced with only a few bonus features. Three episodes have commentary tracks and there is a gag reel. As well, there is a trivia game based upon Joey's game "Bamboozled" which is fun. Recurring performers are spotlighted in the season's lone featurette and there is a preview of season nine which is pretty bland.

Generally, though, the eighth season of Friends is fun and funny, but it is very average and unless one is a real fan of the series, seeing it in syndication is probably just as good as owning it. Of course, my partner is such a huge fan of the show and the eighth season is one she quoted in advance to me. Even so, it was funny and enjoyable.

Not many television series' make it to an eighth season! For reviews of other ones, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The X-Files - Season 8
Frasier - The Complete Eighth Season

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Familiarity Breeds Appreciation, How Friends Season 7 Earned A Warm Place In My Heart.

The Good: Funny, Good character development, Good plots
The Bad: Clip show, Reliance on guest actors seems cheap.
The Basics: On DVD, Friends Season 7 is a decent collection of some very funny sitcom episodes and is worthwhile for anyone who likes good characters.


Many television shows have quite a bit of difficulty in keeping the feel of the show fresh after a certain point. In fact, the seventh season of a program has traditionally been the final season for many long-running shows because the producers simply feel that they have told all of the stories they want to tell and the actors are ready to move on to other projects. This is, surprisingly, not how it is with Friends. With the seventh season of Friends, the television series grew past the need for some very simple jokes and into a realm where the characters truly came alive and became vibrant in ways that they had not been before. As I go through Friends again and review the seasons, I have to admit that I have a special attachment to season seven of the series: this is where I came in. I tended to watch Friends in syndication and this was the season where I was walking past my mother's room while she was watching an episode and it actually caught my attention. I could finally see the appeal of the show and I began to grow attached to some of the characters.

On DVD, Friends The Complete Seventh Season the season is generally serialized building off the prior year's proposal between Chandler and Monica. As the season leads pretty directly to their wedding, the viewer has the sense the show and characters are going somewhere. And on that journey there are surprisingly few pitfalls, but when they come they are annoying. Chief among these would have to be the clip show near the end of the season. There is something inherently offensive about paying money for a DVD set where there is a flashback episode and it is even more problematic when one knows how ridiculously overpaid the actors were for the series. New WGA rule: If your stars are being paid more than $100,000 an episode, you need to produce! No clipshows!

That said, the seventh season of Friends is surprisingly solid, but most of it focuses on the build-up to the wedding. This is the season where Monica and Chandler prepare for their wedding and Joey discovers Rachel's erotic novel and mocks her mercilessly for it. Eager for the recipe, Monica tries to reverse engineer Phoebe's grandmother's chocolate chip cookies (with hilarious results) and Chandler proves to be entirely anti-photogenic when it comes time to have a wedding announcement picture taken. Phoebe and Rachel have to duke it out for position of Maid Of Honor for Monica and Janice resurfaces and learns of the engagement. Meanwhile, Rachel hires an assistant (Tag) based on his good looks and by Thanksgiving the two are dating. And when the apartment is ready, Phoebe moves back into her own place.

After a fairly episodic stretch - episodes where the friends simply stay up all night having various adventures, Joey's chair gets broken and Monica and Ross go to a family member's wedding where the groom is a man Monica once was with - the show returns to a more serialized arc when Joey gets his job on Days Of Our Lives back and Rachel feels the effects of being thirty and dumps Tag. Monica gets her ideal wedding dress, then freaks out because she realizes all the "firsts" she will no longer have and she bars her friends (and Ross) from hanging around with her younger cousin Cassie, who is pretty much a hottie (played by Denise Richards). From there, it's a sprint to the end of the season as Joey gets work on a movie after agreeing to officiate the wedding, Chandler and Monica write vows, find Chandler's father in a nightclub in Las Vegas and finally get married.

There are no real surprises this season of Friends and as I write about it, it seems much more like it was killing time between where the season began and the inevitable wedding that smart money said would be the season finale. The show, fortunately, does not belabor the question of "will they or won't they" marry, but rather moves the show in a new direction. Chandler and Monica share most of their scenes and more than in any other season, the other four congregate without them. As a result, the character dynamics shift over the course of the season and it becomes enjoyable to watch just how that happens.

The show does take a few amusing risks that pay off for it. For example, "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" is structured like a clip show in that the character set up flashbacks and the show regresses to prior times, but the episode is not filled with clips from earlier episodes. Instead, the flashbacks have all-new material and the episode works as a tongue-in-cheek poke at both the right of passage (turning thirty) and clipshows. Of course, the irony of it would be better realized if "The One With The Vows" did not present a very literal clipshow with all of the cliche setups and flashbacks.

As well, bottle episodes like "The One Where They're Up All Night" fit less well within this season. In that episode, the characters pair off (Rachel goes with Tag and Phoebe is left alone) and have little adventures that are ultimately pointless and have no bearing on the rest of the season. I suppose the writers just wanted an episode where wedding planning was not on the forefront of the show. On the plus side, when viewed as an entire season the seventh season of Friends shows a startling amount of realism for how a traditional wedding is built up. Because most of the a-plots tend to revolve around which aspect of the wedding is currently being dealt with, most of the other characters in season seven are relegated to b-stories, especially Phoebe.

Even so, the characters on Friends are pretty vibrant and they are generally dynamic. Here is how the seventh season finds the principles:

Monica Gellar - After feeling like her thunder was stolen by Rachel kissing Ross, she settles into a pretty strict routine of work and wedding planning (she is only shown at her restaurant twice this season). Planning goes well from the start because Monica has a book of ideas she has been developing since elementary school and she is only thrown off-course by having her bridesmaids determine who is Maid Of Honor, encounters Chandler's ex-girlfriend Janice, and has to deal with her fiance not being photogenic. After a single freak-out, she finds her ideal dress (and gives it up to book the band Chandler wants) and becomes Mrs. Bing,

Ross Gellar - Now working as a college professor, he spends the season single, after being teased by Rachel. He tries to learn to play the bagpipes to play at the wedding and is almost conned by a student who claims he is in love with him in order to get a passing grade. He has more time with his son, Ben, whom he is distressed to learn has learned practical jokes from Rachel and he competes with Joey for the affections of a woman who moves in across the street from Central Perk,

Joey Tribiani - An actor, his show "Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E." is abruptly canceled, forcing him to beg for his job at Days Of Our Lives back. His character comes out of a coma, but is a woman trapped in his body! When Chandler and Monica cannot find an acceptable minister, he gets ordained on the internet in order to be able to officiate the wedding,

Rachel Green - Still living with Joey, she becomes distanced from Monica and Monica and Chandler move toward their wedding day. She learns to play the drums (compliments of a gift from Phoebe) and becomes enamored with Tag. Her job goes well, but after realizing she truly wants children, she breaks it off with Tag and begins looking for a serious lifepartner. Of course, she is distracted when a sorority sister she once kissed comes back into her life, but she gets over that,

Phoebe - Eagerly moving out when the apartment is ready once again, she discovers she lost an entire year of her life when her twin sister shows her her birth certificate. She dates a nice guy (who is man enough to wear women's underwear) and seems content living on her own again, save for a fire alarm that will not shut off,

and Chandler Bing - Happy with Monica, he begins to eagerly look forward to the wedding, despite the resurfacing of Janice and having to go get his dragqueen father from Las Vegas. He grudgingly admits not liking dogs and is dismayed when there are so few people coming to the wedding as his guests.

The seventh season of Friends is remarkably accessible to those who have not been fans of the series before now largely because the characters are in transition. Because they are moving into different stages of life, whenever essential information on their past is brought up, the writers discretely remind (or tell new) viewers of the relevant facts. The humor in this season is largely verbal, though Monica gets in on a bit more physical comedy when she is drunk at a party and has to tackle a competitor for her ideal wedding dress. More common is humor like Rachel telling a woman at a wedding shop about a great sale where she can get dresses cheaper only to have the woman reveal that she owns the shop they are in.

This is the season where Courteney Cox-Arquette comes into her own as an actress. No longer is she seen at the side of frames breaking out laughing at the show's jokes, so that is a plus. By this point, though, she was the only one with real room to grow as an actress. The rest of the cast - Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry - has already hit their stride and the seventh season finds the writers playing to each performers strengths. So, for example, Kudrow is given the chance to score big laughs by witlessly asking "Does this also mean that putting out doesn't get you love?" in "The One With Joey's Award." Similarly, David Schwimmer does a lot of deadpan, which makes his impersonation of a velociraptor even more funny.

All in all, this boxed set is twenty-four episodes (one is double length!) that are consistently funny, even when the show diverges from the main storyline. On DVD there are three episodes with commentary tracks, a featurette on the recurring guest stars and a gag reel. There is also a trivia game and fans of Friends are bound to enjoy the details found in these. The less wonderful bonus feature is a preview of Season Eight, which seems somewhat pointless now.

But for anyone who likes situational comedy or is looking for humor pertaining to weddings, the seventh season of Friends consistently delivers!

For other funny shows that made it to a seventh season, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Frasier - Season 7
The West Wing - Season 7
Gilmore Girls - Season 7

8/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Almost A Perfect Season? Friends The Complete Sixth Season Comes Close!

The Good: Funny, Good character development, Generally good plots, Generally good acting
The Bad: A few missteps, Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Arguably the best season of Friends, Friends The Complete Sixth Season might have minimal bonus features, but it is still worth picking up on DVD.


There is something appropriate to beginning my review of Friends The Complete Sixth Season with the acknowledgment that I purchased the complete series of Friends (reviewed here!) for my wife when we got married. The reason for this is obvious to those who are fans of the show Friends, which ended its fifth season with a surprise wedding (spoilers ahead!). As my wife succeeds in getting me more and more into Friends, I find myself enjoying it when the characters are at their most adult and the scenarios are not geared toward the ridiculous.

The best season so far for me as a Friends neophyte is the sixth season. The thing is, it is hard to recommend "The Complete Sixth Season" of Friends as a standalone experience. The four-disc set with all twenty-five episodes of the sixth season follows closely on the heels of the fifth season and the character arcs in this season find the characters growing and changing. While it is a wonderful season on its own, to appreciate it best, it helps to see the prior five seasons. This is largely because by this point in the series the writers and producers assume that people have been watching. As a result, they do not clarify such things as the exact magnitude of Richard in the two-part season finale. That said, most of the season is quite self-explanatory and it recaps just enough of the prior season's action to allow new viewers to step right in.

When Chandler and Monica rush to get married in Las Vegas, they discover that Ross and Rachel have gotten drunk and beaten them to the punch. Freaked out, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe retreat to see what will happen next. Having no memory of the prior night, Ross and Rachel are as surprised as anyone to learn they are now married. Returning to New York City, Rachel nudges Ross toward a divorce, which he does not want (it would be his third) and Chandler and Monica make plans to move in with one another. With Rachel getting evicted from Monica's, Ross sees this as a chance to keep his marriage to Rachel alive and real, so he lies to her about getting the marriage annulled.

Soon, though, Ross and Rachel are divorced and when Chandler moves out, Joey is left in a lurch for a roommate, taking in the super-hot Janine. When she leaves, he is compelled to take a job at Central Perk. Rachel moves in with Phoebe, who despises the way Rachel decorates (with manufactured products from Pottery Barn). Their divorce finalized, Ross goes to work as a professor and begins dating a former student which leads Rachel to date Ross's girlfriend's father. And as living together causes Chandler and Monica to grow closer, the pair makes plans to take the next step.

The sixth season of Friends is largely serialized, as opposed to episodic. That means most of the episodes continue the same arcs as the prior episode and the conflicts and characters grow upon one another. This is rare for a comedy and Friends makes it work by doing "mini arcs." The sixth season of Friends may be easily broken down into the Ross/Rachel divorce, the Joey/Janine, and Ross/Elizabeth arcs with Chandler and Monica pretty steadily navigating their relationship throughout. This is not to say that the sixth season is devoid of episodic episodes where everything is neatly encapsulated in a single half-hour.

No, Friends - The Complete Sixth Season has a few bottle episodes, like "The One With Unagi," where Ross's alleged martial arts skills are put to the test against Rachel and Phoebe. Similarly, "The One With The Joke," where Ross and Chandler both claim the joke printed in Playboy is theirs is pretty much a bottle episode (though it does have the serialized element of Joey ending up waiting at Central Perk). Most impressively is a two-part bottle episode, "The One That Could Have Been." That episode presents an alternate reality where each character has one change made to their initial characterization and the results explored. For example, Monica is still obese and Phoebe has a job as a stockbroker. The two part episode recreates Friends without any consequence to the overall series as the musing is ended by the end of the second part. Still, the divergence is fun and the creativity in it is not usually evident in mainstream shows like Friends. Instead of alienating the audience, though, they seemed to embrace the alternate universe Friends and the series continued after as if it never happened.

The sixth season of Friends does have some classic bits to it. For example, the annual Thanksgiving episode features Rachel cooking a dessert that is an unfortunate mix of a dessert and a shepherd's pie. Similarly, the dance routine in "The One With The Routine" is funny and disturbing. Anyone who likes physical comedy will appreciate the ridiculous dance moves Ross and Monica go through in that sequence.

For a better understanding of what the sixth season of Friends is all about, it helps to know who the primary characters are. Friends had a remarkably stable ensemble and in the sixth season, all of the principles returned. For this season, they were characterized as:

Joey - Having not worked in a while as an actor, he is destitute when Chandler moves out, despite Chandler's cunning attempt to slip him money without him figuring out he is Chandler's charity case. He takes in Janine, who is very much Joey's type, but when she leaves, he finds himself once again unable to make ends meet. When their apartment burns down, Joey takes in Phoebe and then Rachel. After a stint at Central Perk, Joey works on a pilot that gives him top billing,

Ross - Accidentally married to Rachel, he becomes despondent at the thought of being divorced for a third time. When that finally happens, he finds himself hanging around Rachel's younger sister and then dating a student, which nearly has disastrous results for him. He begins teaching at a university, which causes him to adopt a fake accent out of nervousness,

Chandler - Continually growing up, the businessman moves in with Monica and finds himself repulsed by her when she gets ill. He admits he hasn't been able to cry since he was a child, which sets Monica off and the longer they live together, the more convinced he becomes that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Monica,

Phoebe - The bearer of Ross's secret - that he was unable to get an annulment - she becomes stressed until the truth comes out. She takes Rachel in, but her anti-consumer tendencies lead to conflicts between them. When Rachel burns down their apartment, she moves in with Joey. She helps Chandler pick out the ring for Monica,

Monica - Adapting to living with Chandler, the professional chef once again exhibits her tendencies toward obsessive compulsive behavior. Still, she and Chandler get along quite well, especially when Chandler reconciles with Monica's parents over an old weed-smoking incident. When Chandler wigs out on her over commitment issues, she finds herself intrigued by Richard resurfacing,

and Rachel - Upset over marrying Ross while drunk - though she admits responsibility - she moves to have the marriage dissolved based on Ross's mental health. Still, she becomes jealous when her younger sister dates Ross. Things turn around for the fashion buyer when she begins dating Paul, Ross's girlfriend's father.

More than the prior seasons, the sixth season of Friends relies on famous guest stars being utilized for their talents as opposed to their names. This season has recurring roles for Elle Macpherson (Janine), Reese Witherspoon (Rachel's sister) and Bruce Willis (Paul, Elizabeth's father). Having Bruce Willis around for three episodes commits the series to using him well and his role as Paul is memorable for his initially angry character which quickly becomes a weird guy with low self-esteem. Willis blends with the cast well and makes good use of his three episodes. Conversely, Macpherson's character is often segregated from the full cast, giving Matt LeBlanc more to do with her outside the group dynamic.

As for the acting by the main characters, by this point they are solid in their paces. They know what they are doing and they do it well. Here they continue to use their well-honed comic timing to make jokes and keep the situations interesting. Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry continue to lead the cast with strong, often emotionally-charged performances and quick-witted deliveries of the best lines. This season even sees Courteney Cox-Arquette growing as an actress as she is finally able to keep a poker face raised when other characters make jokes. Pairing her with Perry works quite well for the series for the peripheral benefit of keeping her laughter under control.

On DVD, Friends The Complete Sixth Season has minimal DVD bonus features. Three episodes have commentary tracks - which are stiflingly similar to commentary tracks from earlier seasons (we get that the Thanksgiving episodes are special for Friends!) - and there is a blooper reel. As well, there is a trivia game and a season seven preview which is now pretty unremarkable. The best bonus feature is the guest star reel which has recurring guest stars interviewed about their experiences on Friends.

This is a DVD boxed set where the source material is good enough to warrant the buy and the show succeeds in the sixth season because it is consistently funny.

For other works featuring Bruce Willis, please be sure to check out:
Unbreakable
The Story Of Us
The Verdict

9/10

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© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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