Be Like the Brits

It’s a recurring problem in American television: a show makes a gigantic splash, becomes the “must-watch” show to most of the public, earns its actors a ridiculous amount of money per episode, then…overstays its welcome. By the time series like Friends left the air, even the most ardent fans had noticed a drop in quality. An entire internet phenomenon was formed out of deciding when a show “jumped the shark” – that now-overused term referring to the episode of Happy Days where Fonzi waterskied over the man-eating marine life, symbolizing a downturn in the show’s appeal. There is a simple solution to this problem of TV overpopulation: follow the British example and cut the show short before it’s too late.

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Little Victories

It’s almost hard to believe that the Gin Blossoms were a major force in music. Ten years removed from their last album, they are remembered as little more than the harmless 90s adult alternative rock that you hear in the background of a party. While their new release Major Lodge Victory might not enlarge the stamp on musical history, it fits well into the mold of nice, forgettable pop.

The album’s opener, “Learning the Hard Way,” takes you right back to the mid-90s – its sweet harmonies and janglepop rhythm make it as if the Blossoms never went away. Ditto with the follower, “Come Down Hard,” packed with their signature, radio-ready sound. “Long Time Gone” and “Fool for the Taking,” co-written with Rembrandts founder Danny Wilde, are fresh despite their familiar beats and lyrics that are just a bit too cute.

The majority of the rest of the album echoes the fun, breezy vibe, but with less substance. “Let’s Play Two” is a wasted effort to encapsulate the Blossoms’ summery sound in a baseball setting and “Heart Shaped Locket,” while commendable for its emotion, seems more suitable stuck in the 90s than bringing the pop sound up to date. Fans of the Gin Blossoms’ other albums will rejoice in hearing the sound structured in new songs; the rest of us will simply enjoy it as it plays in the background, then forget it as soon as it’s over.

Rating: * * * of 5

Friends and Neighbors

With the advent of the new site comes the need to update the woefully ancient blogroll. Ancient as in it was last updated months ago and this is the Internet, so it was obsolete after two days anyway. Added to the blogroll are I’ve Made a Huge Tiny Mistake, a local sports and entertainment blog (by a fellow Hawk); Reviewing Whatever, an amalgamation of thoughts on everything the blogger (also a fellow Hawk) touches; A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago, one of the strangest and most wonderful group of pop culture bloggers around; and The Movie Blog, which is like Ain’t It Cool News without the flame wars.

Gone from the list is Shallow•Center, who has regrettably, for the time being, disappeared from the blogosphere. If Tom makes a comeback, I’ll be the first to write a glowing review of his stuff and welcome him home.

If you read the site and are a blogger, drop me a line at jeff@moviehawk.net to get added.

Conan the YouTube Barbarian

It will only be a few years before Jay Leno steps out of the spotlight on The Tonight Show and leaves the reins to Conan O’Brien. The day can’t come soon enough. Last night, the part of the public that’s asleep before Conan makes it to the NBC airwaves got a chance to see the genius at work, as he hosted the Emmy Awards. Though I didn’t watch the show, I can safely say that one of the highlights was Conan’s opening montage. He stumbles into the plots of Lost, The Office, House, 24, and Dateline‘s “To Catch a Predator” series. It’s smart, funny, and time-appropriate, something you don’t always see in the opening monologues of awards shows. The whole thing is reminiscent of the opening to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, featuring Justin Timberlake and Sean William Scott.

And, of course, one can never link to a video that features Conan without bringing up the Walker, Texas Ranger clips. You can see two of them here, and the perhaps the ultimate online video clip ever here. Apologies for these two links, as they aren’t YouTube videos and may take a while to load and/or have questionable page content.

On Eagles’ Wings

It’s become part of Disney’s regular schedule to release a cheesy sports movie about an athlete or team succeeding in the face of significant underdog odds. As such, Invincible , the mouse’s take on the story of Philadelphia bartender Vince Papale, who attended an open tryout for his hometown Eagles and became a 30-year-old rookie, is necessarily formulaic. Yet for all the additions to the “true” story, for all the scenes you’ve seen before in films from Rocky to Miracle, Invincible finds the heart to stand apart from the crowd as a genuine, moving film.

Marky Mark stars as Papale who, at the beginning of the movie, is like much of Philadelphia: down on his luck. His substitute teaching job disappeared from under his nose, his wife left claiming that he’d never make a name for himself doing anything, and the one thing he and the entire city relies on for an escape – the Eagles – just finished a dismal season. But things start to change when new head coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) comes to town and announces open tryouts. The idea is a lark for both men – Vermeil wants to shake things up and Papale wants to get on the field just to forget his troubles for a few hours – but Papale soon finds himself in training camp, competing for a roster spot and, it seems, for the hopes of an entire city.

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