The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Review

I am already starting to feel bad about the review I am about to write. Writing mean things about "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is a bit like yelling at a kitten. It's so cute, and endearing, and it just wants to be loved. Yet, someone has to be the bad guy, and the Renegade Film Snob is certainly up to that task.

Lets ease on into this review and start with the positives.

As is expected from a network like HBO the series has great production values. The show is actually shot on location in Africa, and some of the scenery is so beautiful it looks like it was shot for the Botswana board of Tourism. The sets are authentic enough to be believable, but they also have a cuteness to them which makes you feel right at home. In some ways it reminds me of "Ugly Betty" it's a heightened and much cuter take on reality.

The cast is wonderful. I can't say enough about Jill Scott and her portrayal of Precious Ramotswe, she caries the entire show. Without her charm and believability the show would be lost. This is not to say that the other characters are poorly acted, but in the first episode they are very charming and well played stock characters. We have the uptight secretary, the gay hairdresser, the love interest, and even a sleazy philandering husband. As this is only the first episode I am going to give this show the benefit of the doubt and hope that more depth is added later.

The soundtrack is also very enjoyable.

Now to the bad stuff.

I have to admit that some of my disappointment with the series is due to my own high expectations. To make things clear I have not read the book series that inspired the show, my expectations came from the network itself. With Networks like HBO you expect things to be edgy. And no, I am not just talking about the sex, violence, and cursing which is often used in excess in HBO series; I am talking about edgy topics and experimental film.

HBO has conquered shows "Carnivale" and "John from Cincinnati" that were far too weird and convoluted for network television. It has also faced off on controversial topics like polygamy with "Big Love" or AIDS with "Angels in America". With it's big budgets and looser holds from the FCC networks like HBO and SHOWTIME are expected to push boundaries, but so far "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" hasn't pushed a single boundary.

I want to make this clear I'm not saying that a show needs to have a lot of violence, and sex, and cursing simply because they can. Point in fact I kind of wish they would tone down the amount sex scenes in "True Blood" but that's another topic entirely.

With a show set in Africa there are a lot of controversial topics that can be addressed, there are lots of experimental film techniques can be used, the show could go through the depths of gritty realism but it doesn't. Africa is a beautiful place and there are a lot of people there who live happy lives, and I'm glad that is represented. But people living happy normal lives anywhere in time or space is most certainly not what I expect when I tune into HBO.

I guess my problem is that the story itself is handled at such a slow and charming pace that I found I wasn't as upset by plot points as I should have been. Maybe I'm jaded from watching so many action and mystery films but there was no suspense for me.

There is a point in the story where Precious must make a long drive alone to a remote village to rescue a kidnapped child from practitioners of evil magic, she fearing that they may have cut off pieces of the child for use in spells. I should have been on the edge of my seat for that part of the show, but I wasn't. Nope I felt calm as I looked out on beautiful African scenery, there was never a doubt in my mind that Precious was going to be ok. Even when her life was threatened by a woman with a machete there was never even a hint that anything bad would actually happen. At least not in my mind.

I get that they are trying to do a cute and quaint slow moving story like the origional novels, but I'm not sure how well that translates to tv. Like many tv watchers I have a short attention span, I want a story that grabs hold of me and keeps me hooked. I'm not a fan of the slice of life cinema, I get to see enough normal human interaction in my own life thank you very much. When I watch something on the screen I want to to be bigger and more exciting then real life, and unfortunately "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is just cuter and more charming then real life. Which would be great if it had an interesting plot to back it up.

I really hope the rest of the show is done using one hour long episodes. During the course of the two hour pilot episode Precious works on solving four cases at once. I felt like the intertwining of four separate storylines was too much. I am betting that in the books Precious works on solving multiple cases at the same time, but I'm not sure how that works for film. It felt forced, like the director had to work very hard to make them all fit in the same episode. At times it felt very disjointed, I am almost certain I would have liked the story better had it focused on Precious founding her detective agency and then working on just one or two cases.

Another problem that I had with the pilot of "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is it's preachyness. It's awesome that the show has a proud "traditionally figured" African Woman, but there are times where the show seems to be patting itself on the back for doing just that. There were two or three times in the show where Precious talks about how much she loves Botswana. The first time it happened with the opening made total sense and was great, the other times it came up in the show just seemed preachy. I am sure that Botswana is a great place, and you should be proud of where you are from, but saying it multiple times in the same episode is just annoying. It made a lot of sense to do this on the pilot episode, but if she does two or three speeches a week about how much she loves her country I'm going to get sick of it pretty fast.

Think about it, if the show were about an American detective and we had to listen to one speech a week about how much he loved his country the show would have been canceled already (or at least be horribly reviewed) because that is freaking annoying.

I mean if your going to do a show about a proud African Woman, then do a show on a proud African woman. Let the film speak for itself, let her actions and attitudes speak louder then words, she doesn't need to make a patriotic speech every hour on the hour for the audience to get it and to get why it is important to the character.

As I said at the beginning of this blog, this is a show that just wants to be loved. It is cute, and quaint, with endearing characters in a beautiful setting; but the story needs work. I mean it's a fabulous advertisement for Botswana, because watching this makes me want to visit the country. The plot of "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is just too slow moving, and has too many plots forced to intertwine to really hold my attention. The characters are cool enough to make me want to come back and watch another show, but if the next episode doesn't wow me I think I will have to find something else to watch on Sunday nights.

Worst Movie Ever

There are a lot of ways to judge a movie, and most of them can never be fully removed from ones own personal taste. Things that I love in a movie could be things that other people hate and vice versa.

Lists of the best and worst movies ever made are generally speaking pure bullshit. Especially when you consider that each group making these lists has their own agenda, not to mention critics are prone to be swayed by things like historical significance or current popularity. The experts can probably narrow down a range of 50 or so movies to be agreed upon as being the best of the best, but when it comes down to it it's all about how you personally connect with a movie.

Judging the top 10 films of all times and ranking them is a daunting task, but perhaps the more dificult task would be to truly rank the worst films ever made. Some of the worst movies ever made were shown once or twice, and I doubt people too too much care into their preservation. Who knows how many putrid wastes of celluloid have been reduced to ... well ... putrid wastes of celluloid. Never the less every year there seems to be a new movie being ranked as the worst movie ever made.

I can only truly speak for myself when I call "Red Zone Cuba" aka "Nigh Train to Mundo Fine" the worst movie I have ever seen.

The plot is both slow moving and hard to follow. There is no clear explanation or motivation available to justify anything that happens in the movie. The movie has two locations, The actors are so lacking in charisma and talent that it creates a vacuum effectively leaving the audience feeling drained. Perhaps worst of all it fails to be bad in a way that is in no way amusing.

I love watching unintentionally hilarious bad movies. Ed Wood was a master of making films so horrible that they ended up being somewhat charming or comic. "Red Zone Cuba" is not one of those movies. It's just terrible and painful to watch. Even with the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version it was damned near impossible for me to sit through.

To give you a good idea of my tolerance for bad movies I am someone who has sat through "Gigli", "I Know Who Killed Me", "Manos Hands of Fate", "Glitter", "Plan 9 From Outerspace", "Kazaam", "Showgirls", and "National Lampoon's Gold Diggers". I managed to sit through all of them, but I could not sit still when I was watching "Red Zone Cuba." I am the ultimate couch potato and have no problem sitting down for a serious movie marathon, but I had to get up and begin cleaning my kitchen because I needed to do something other then simply watching or I was going to hurt someone.

Yep at my Bad Movie wine and cheese party "Red Zone Cuba" easily beat "Bells of Innocence" the Christian-western-horror flick for worst movie. As a matter of fact I have gained a new appreciating for "Bells of Innocence" because at least it has a plot and a few unintentionally hilarious moments.

I do not recommend watching "Red Zone Cuba". It was too painful for me to risk the second watching which would be necessary for me to write an in depth review. So I found the blog of someone crazy enough to write an actual review. http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Red_Zone_Cuba_1966.aspx

I know that saying "don't see this movie" is kind of like saying "don't look down" your first reaction will be to see the movie. Resist that initial reaction, because this movie has zero redeeming qualities.

A Wizard of Oz Remake?

Ok, there are some things in this world that are sacred. I'm not talking about religion here, I'm talking about pop culture. There are some movies that should never be touched, remade, or tampered with. Remakes should be saved for movies that had a great premise but were poorly executed. Look at the Oceans Eleven series for example, it was based of a crappy Rat Pack movie and turned into something really enjoyable.

Some movies were ok at the time of release but either faded into obscurity or seriously need to be updated so that they can be better understood and related to by modern audiences. "Shop Around the Corner" became "You've Got Mail" and it was a tasteful well done remake.

Yet as I said earlier there are some movies that should never be remade or retouched. In 1998 Gus Van Sant had the audacity to remake the Hitchcock classic "Psycho." Even With Van Sant copying shot for shot what Hitchcock did, including some mistakes from the origional film, but it was not successful. The movie just didn't have the same feel to it. In this case adding color, a new cast, and including a few scenes originally ruled too racy by censors provided no improvement whatsoever. Other remakes like "Planet of The Apes" often to be far less successful then the films they were based off of.

And now we get to the point.

Someone is planning on making a remake of "The Wizard of Oz"

Yep you heard that correctly. The man who directed such films as Deliverance and Exorcist II wants to do a CGI remake of the classic. As you may have guessed he has not directed animated childrens films before. The script is being written up Ron Mita and Jim McClain, the same people who wrote the mildly successful preachy anti-corporate propaganda for tots film "Robots."

But you know what even if this remake was being done by the people at Pixar I'd still be upset. I defy anyone to name a movie as iconic and universally well loved as "The Wizard of Oz." This movie is like a priceless antique it has only gotten more valuable, well loved, and beautiful with age. No one should remake it! Especially if they are writing a version that is remotely true to the origional, and not a complete reimagining like what the Sci-fi channel did with "Tin Man"

Ok so these are early reports and nothing is set in stone. Lets hope the deal falls through before it's scheduled release in the summer of 2010.

I saw the origional report here.

http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2008/11/wizard-of-oz-cg-remake-coming-in-2010/

Watchmen Review

I suppose I should start out by saying that I have never read the "Watchmen" graphic novel. To be perfectly honest I had never heard of "Watchmen" until I saw the trailer play before Dark Knight. As a film critic I wanted to be able to judge the movie by it's own merit and not have any preconceived expectations from the book.

This is a spoiler free review.

All and all I quite liked "Watchmen". Sure it's got all the action, stunning visuals, nifty gadgets, and gore that you would expect from an action flick but there is more to it then that. It completely subverts the super hero genre and it makes you think, for me that's a good thing.

Normally when you walk into a theater to see a superhero movie you turn off your brain enjoy all of the pretty stunts and special effects. Usually there is some sort of plot twist throw in, but it's normally not something you think about or anything you didn't see coming a mile away.

The movie challenges the viewer to ask themselves: Do the ends justify the means?

There are no clear cut good guys or bad guys. Most of the heroes have mental problems. Really when you ask yourself what type of people would dress up in costumes and act as vigilantes, it's not all that surprising to find that there is something wrong with a lot of the heroes. Even with Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II who are easily the most well adjusted people in the bunch, you have to question their mental state when you see the sheer brutality they use when fighting.

This brings me to an important point, this is not a movie you should take your kids to. This is one of the most violent movies I have ever seen. Even though you know that many of the things being done aren't physically possible the violence is so jarring that I sometimes found myself looking away from the screen. The violence never looks cartoonish, or fake, and when you see fights they are one on one. There isn't that much gore or blood per se, but some of the violence is kind of jarring.

There are also sex scenes (which by the way I felt went on for far too long), a rape scene, and you see a lot of glowing blue penis in the film.

Side note: I found the naked Dr Manhattan kind of distracting. From a film making stand point it probably would have saved them money in computer animation if they had just kept him in his black speedo the whole time. But I suppose from character development standpoint, if you are as powerful as Dr Manhattan no one can tell you that you have to wear pants.

Ok seriously back to the notes on plot.

The story is quite dense and requires the watcher to pay attention, and even to question the information they are getting. I fell like I could really benefit from from seeing this movie a second time because I'm sure there are a lot of things that I missed. This is not to say that the average person wouldn't understand Wachmen, because they can, I'm just saying the average person will have to keep their brain turned on for the duration of the movie. There is a lot of conspiracy woven into this plot, but boy is it fun to watch it all unfold.

I really liked Watchmen but this movie suffers from an issue that occurs with any movie that makes you think, the ending isn't completely satisfying. There is no big happy Hollywood ending, justice may not be entirely served, but there is closure. This may turn some people off, but I felt it made sense given the nature of the story that this would not end with some giant victory.

There is a whole lot of badassitude in this movie. The characters are fascinating, well developed, and well acted. I particularly loved Rorschach and his unyielding morals, but thats just me. I loved the way background stories and facts on this alternate history were brought into the main plot. I also love that for once in my life I did not fully predict the ending of a movie.

Ok so "Sixth Sense," "Identity", and this one small budget thriller where my werewolf theory proved to be completely off the mark. But seriously I normally predict the ending of movies, hell I even figured out the big plot twist in "Fight Club" half way through.

The plot in "Watchmen" keeps unfolding and evolving further then most action movies, you may have figured out who the "bad guy" is but trust me you haven't figured out how everything is going to go till the very end.

So my basic verdict, go see it if your over the age of 17, and are not completely adverse to violence. This is not your average super hero film, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Seriously there will be a post soon.

I promise.