Theatrical review: Elektra
1.33 GPA D+
Going into "Elektra," there were three distinct warning signs. First, it was released in January, a.k.a. the month when studios unload their turkeys. If the studio was confident, it would open in the spring or summer.
Second, the film is a spinoff of "Daredevil," one of the weakest of the recent Marvel comic adaptations.
Third, the film is directed by Rob Bowman, whose career high point is 2002's "Reign of Fire."
Yes, the weatherman has laid out a forecast with a high probability of mediocrity. Thus the only sensible thing to do was to bring an umbrella of low expectations and hope for an occasional burst of sunny originality through the clouds.
When it rains, it pours.
In "Elektra," the title character, played by Jennifer Garner, is a sai-wielding, elite assassin. She receives a new assignment and relocates to an expensive lakeside home to await the identity of her target. When she decides to protect her victims, instead of kill them, she incurs the wrath of "the Hand," one of those Asian, Yakuza-like crime syndicates.
The most striking feature of the film is its sheer lack of a single original idea or human touch. It's almost like a film directed by a computer -- everything is by the numbers, playing it safe on all fronts. The characters are dry pieces of cardboard. The dialogue is the sort of stuff used only by movie characters to further along a plot.
Even the action scenes were surprisingly dull!
The interesting comparison to make is to last year's "sexy female superhero in a revealing costume" movie: "Catwoman." Between the two, I'd rather be forced at gunpoint to see "Catwoman" again. At least with that film, the failure is so painful, massive and grand that one can feel something. "Elektra," on the other hand, offers little more than gray, cinematic Novocaine.
New DVD review: "Shaun of the Dead"
Movie: 3.0 GPA B
DVD: 3.33 B+
Last year's entertaining British import "Shaun of the Dead" bills itself as a "zombie romantic comedy." Is that possible? Isn't that about as plausible as combining "erotic thriller" with "animated family film"?
The film's slacker hero Shaun has been dumped by his longtime girlfriend for letting her down yet again. When Londoners become zombies, Shaun takes charge, leading his ex, her friends, his mother and his loser roommate Ed to safety.
One of the recurring motifs in the film is video games. At the beginning, Shaun and Ed play Playstation 2. Later, they go through Shaun's LPs and decide which can be thrown at the zombies. That scene -- and others -- is reminiscent of the great, old Super Nintendo game "Zombies at my Neighbors." That's the style of the film: the video game. Strangely, it works.
The mixture of genres does not always function as smoothly; bathroom humor, family tragedy and intense disemboweling don't blend easily.
The filmmakers knew that the film's fan base would demand a quality DVD: two commentaries, multiple featurettes and deleted scenes and a great feature I've never seen before, where they list three "plot holes" and supply explanations via storyboards and narration.
"You Must Buy This DVD Right Now" DVD review: "The Office -- The Complete Collection"
(All featured titles have a 4.0 GPA A+)
This 4-disc set compiles all 12 episodes and the two-hour special of the amazing British sitcom "The Office."
Set as a mockumentary, "The Office" documents the everyday lives of a fictional British paper company. Stealing every episode is co-creator Ricky Gervais as David Brent, the office's boss who fancies himself an entertainer. Between David's antics and his employees' various quirks and practical jokes, you have a show that offers more intense, uncontrollable belly laughs than anything else on television.
However, the show's drama functions as well as its comedy with the more serious romantic plot line being totally enveloping.
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