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The last entry in the NAKED GUN trilogy is widely considered the least impressive, and that was certainly my recollection after first watching these films back in the day. But seeing as I found myself revising my opinion of the first sequel (um, downward), I was hoping a re-watch would lead to a more positive reassessment of NAKED GUN 33⅓: THE FINAL INSULT.
The first half-hour of this comedy is pretty damn shaky, and you can tell there's someone new behind the camera in Peter Segal—making his directorial dรฉbut ahead of NUTTY PROFESSOR II, ANGER MANAGEMENT, and GET SMART. There are far too many flashbacks and dream sequences that stop the narrative dead in its tracks, seemingly to crowbar in jokes that couldn't occur more naturally. Or were constructed for the trailer. Arguably more frustrating is how the story begins with Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) retired from Police Squad and adjusting to domestic life, while going through marital problems with wife Jane (Priscilla Presley). It sounds like a great way to explore other aspects of Frank's persona and his marriage; but it quickly becomes apparent the character only works in the context of being a dogged cop, and the ongoing Frank/Jane romance perhaps should have been abandoned after the first film.
Liev Schreiber is the latest big-screen actor to jump on the TV bandwagon; at the moment, there's still a feeling it's the best medium for character-based, ambitious storytelling. He plays the eponymous Ray Donovan, a so-called fixer for Tinseltown's moneyed clientele. I love a good pilot and Ray Donovan's passes muster, although it's a perhaps too familiar in its broader strokes.
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#UndertheDome is becoming its own 'jump the shark'-style idiom for a TV show that aims high but is restricted by a creative glass ceiling.
— Dan Owen (@danowen79) July 16, 2013
Spellbinding, beautifully shot, unpredictable, with great performances amidst spectacularly bleak locations, Top of the Lake is a co-production of BBC2, Australia/NZ's UKTV, and America's Sundance Channel. The seven-part mini-series is written by Jane Campion, best known for her Oscar-winning 1993 film The Piano. It's likewise set in her native New Zealand and follows an investigation into Tui, a young girl found trying to drown herself in a lake.
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Dexter's back for its final season, earlier than usual. I hope this means it will maintain season seven's momentum, which conjured a satisfying comeback after two weak years in which the show fell victim to its refusal to shake things up enough. Last season's decision to have Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) discover that her brother Dexter's a serial killer was a breath of fresh air. Alas, this premiere didn't have anything as gripping. That made the majority of events feel 'business-as-usual', although things improved and the hour ended on a high.
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At the height of his fame in 1988, Eddie Murphy starred in COMING TO AMERICA, directed by John Landis, who had helmed their hit movie TRADING PLACES five years earlier. Landis would later comment that Murphy had gone from "curious and funny and fresh and great" to "the pig of the world" in those intervening years, but thankfully Murphy's off-screen personality change isn't detectable in this film.
It's interesting that both Murphy's movies with Landis involve characters changing their social status; with TRADING PLACES a loose update of THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER story (Murphy as a street hustler who becomes rich), and in COMING TO AMERICA it's the reverse with Murphy as a prince who feigns poverty. I guess the idea of sudden wealth/impoverishment grabbed the public imagination in the era of the yuppie.
It's always fun to watch comedies from decades ago, because they tend to have a different rhythm and sensibility. COMING TO AMERICA feels very lackadaisical compared to its closest modern cousin (Sacha Baron Cohen-starring THE DICTATOR), and didn't contain very many moments where I laughed aloud. That's not to say it isn't a funny movie, it's just aiming for a constant feeling of amusement.
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