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April 20, 2006
A Bone to Pick
Ok, "Alias," this time you've really stretched my disbelief to its limits.
I was with you when Sydney's mom, believed to be dead, turned out not just to be alive, but also to be some sort of super-terrorist.
I was with you when Sydney's roommate Francie was killed and replaced with a genetic double.
I was with you when Sydney woke up in Hong Kong and realized that two years of her life had miraculously vanished.
I was with you when Sydney's mom died -- again! -- and then turned out to still be alive -- again!
I was even with you when a red ball in the sky somehow poisoned the water supply, turning everyone in its path, including Sydney's sister, into rage zombies.
But when the show returned from its hiatus last night, something happened that I just couldn't accept. In the episode's final moments, Syd, her dad and her mom infiltrated a bank building looking for some sort of mysterious device. Repeat, it was a bank building. No one was there except for them and a team of terrorists who also wanted the device.
Then pregnant Sydney went into labor, and delivered seemingly in minutes, despite having a breeched birth. But that wasn't the truly unbelievable part.
No, the unbelievable thing -- the thing I just can't my head around -- is that, after the baby was born, Syd's mom handed the little one to her in a hand-woven baby blanket, which appeared seemingly from thin air! I mean, where do a bunch of spies find a baby blanket in an empty bank building? Were they carrying it around just in case?
I'm sorry. I just didn't buy it.
But Vaughn still being alive after getting shot, like, 20 times? That makes total sense.
Posted by amanda on 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2006
In praise of Sam Elliott
There are certain people who have never looked young, and will probably never look old. Actor Sam Elliott is one of them. For decades, it seems, he’s looked virtually the same, crystallized in the twilight of middle age.
The white hair, the craggy face and, of course, the mustache. He’s always been an elder statesman, regardless of age.
This timeless quality also makes him unbelievably cool, a characteristic he always projects on screen, regardless of the role or piece he’s performing in. Who else could the Coen brothers have chosen to play an omniscient narrator in their goofball classic “The Big Lebowski?�
He’s even watchable in a fairly run-of-the mill revenge drama, like the TNT film “Avenger,� which premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday.
In the movie, Elliott plays Calvin Dexter, a mysterious Vietnam vet and attorney who is a secretly a revenge-for-hire man. We learn in flashbacks that he came to this odd line of work after his daughter’s death at the hands of her drug dealer boyfriend.
Frustrated that the legal authorities let the man get away, Dexter tracked him down and killed him. And, I guess he figured that he could turn this into a nice sideline business.
He’s hired to find the son of a wealthy businessman and, when the son turns up dead, to serve justice to the war criminal who caused the boy’s death.
It’s typical macho hokum, punctuated by a few nicely staged chase scenes and action set pieces. But, through it all, Elliott manages to imbue his surly character with heart and vulnerability. He has the look of a man turned sour by pain, and it’s not hard to imagine the loving father he once was.
He also gets to beat up a bunch of people and, admittedly, he is magnificent even at this.
Elliott isn’t our greatest actor. He’s not even in the top 50. Yet he’s easy to watch and has mastered the difficult skill of adding humanity to an unsympathetic character.
All those qualities are on display in “Avenger.� The movie isn’t a must see, by any means. But Elliott always warrants a look.
Posted by amanda on 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
