In the end, who ends up on top?
Don't look now, TV students, but it's time to take your finales. Did you get through the conclusion of "24" without a crib sheet? Are you prepared for the final episodes of "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood" without a plot chart or character family tree? Interrupt the action to ask your fellow viewer what happened to Adriana at your own peril.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Bush, Rumsfeld and the art of Achilles
It was a dark and stormy day when the president and members of his staff filed into the executive screening room for a showing of "Troy." Things in Iraq had been going, shall we say, poorly. What better than a little Hollywood-style escapism to take their minds off the bad news? "Saving Private Ryan" was a big White House hit. This was a different sort of war movie, but a war movie nonetheless with its strategy and spectacle and body counts.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Give me my closing credits!
So there I was in my comfy chair, taking in the shattering final scene of the first part of "Prime Suspect 6" -- the scene in which Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison races in vain to prevent the murder of a young woman she had promised she would protect -- when TV, as it increasingly does these days, trashed the mood.
Sunday, May 9, 2004
A new 'Day' dawning this election year
Filmgoers have always had two basic ways to approach spine-tingling fare. There's the "It's only a movie" approach, which is probably the healthiest way to go if you want to avoid thinking Hannibal Lecter is forever lurking outside your bedroom window. And there's the "Be scared, be very scared" option, which you should subscribe to only in the face of movies that are out to save your life or sanity. Movies like that driver's ed classic, "The Last Prom," which still makes me quake.
Wild about Harry
15 Mickey Mouse statues will flank State Street for the next two months.
