Unknown Persons: Terrible show, fantastic ending

So I don’t really have a “random” review to provide you with this week. This past week has been full of packing, moving, unpacking, moving around, and working a lot of hours to cover my co-jewelry worker’s vacation, so I haven’t had a lot of free time to whip up any funny reviews. And I do not want to review my moving abilities because I think it goes without saying that they are lacking. Also, my room is far from being unpacked so thinking about it is also extremely depressing to me. So, instead of forcing something, I am going to cheat a little and review some television this week (because I always have enough time for that in my life).

I just recently decided to splurge on myself and opened up a Netflix membership. Now, I shamelessly watch a lot of bad televisions and movies that it keeps recommending to me. (As a side note, whoever came up with the algorithm for that site needs to find a new vocation.) My latest series that I just finished yesterday morning was a mini-series that played on NBC last summer, Persons Unknown.

What initially drew me into watching the series was that the description made it seem strikingly similar to one of the Saw movies, which I will admit is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Here’s what it’s about: a group of seven individuals wake up in a mysterious town with no idea how they got there, or where the town is located, and are trying to figure out a way to escape while solving the mysteries of the town. And it was similar to Saw (in some ways). Much, much, much less graphic, but it maintained the ideal of: how far would you go to survive?

The series was far from perfect. A lot of what happened was downright stupid and unnecessary. Out of the seven main characters, I could only stand to watch four of them, and I only enjoyed to watch two of them (only one of them by the finale), and all the other characters really annoyed me. I hated the guest stars that popped in and out, only there to serve one purpose or another. And I didn’t really care whether they escaped the town or not.

But I loved the final episode. I really loved it. Because, for once, the makers of the show did what they promised they were going to: they answered all the questions about the town, and showed you the people who were running it. Of course, if I were to sit down and analyze the show, I would probably be able to come up with a million questions they didn’t answer by the finale, but I felt satisfied that by the end credits, I knew what I needed to know about that town. I certainly knew enough to know with certainty that I didn’t want to end up there.

Beyond the answering of questions, I thought the final two or three scenes of the show were two or three of the best final scenes I’ve seen of any show. It was one of those times when you feel pity for the characters, but you can’t help but to smile at the intelligence of the people running the show (both on and off screen).

If it were possible to understand the show by only watching the final episode, I would recommend only that one, but since it’s not, I would say this is the type of show that a viewer should proceed to watch with caution. And it’s not for the type of viewer who wants to be instantly entertained or gratified. This show requires perseverance, for sure.

Mindless entertainment gets Adjust-ed

Sometimes I have to go see movies with my parents. Movies that my parents want to see. And sometimes I dread the choices that they make, but I’m a good daughter (most of the time) so I swallow my pride from time to time and take a trip down to the local St. Albans theatre to appease them. Being forced to go home and sleep on the couch for two days over spring break, my mother decided she couldn’t have my brother and I hanging around the house anymore, and sent us off with our father to the movies to give her two hours of peace. Which meant that since my father was paying, he was always choosing the movie. Which meant I was going to see The Adjustment Bureau despite my desire against it.

The amazing thing is that I liked it. My brother liked it. My dad hated it from the moment it began until the moment that the credits started rolling. He sighed and he groaned and he got up several times to use the bathroom and refresh his popcorn. He whispered snarky remarks and insisted on switching seats so he could sit in the middle and whisper comments to both his children. He was, to put it lightly, not happy.

But I was engaged. I wanted to know what happened. The movie was primarily set-up. Introducing us to David Norris’ (Matt Damon) life, introducing us to Elise (Emily Blunt), introducing us to the Adjustment Bureau, introducing them all to each other, and so forth. The whole movie was setting us up for one single scene (that I won’t state for those of you planning to see the movie, which you should) that never came. It just…didn’t happen.

The last five minutes left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction. Extreme dissatisfaction. And shock that the scene I was waiting for the entire time never came. The last five minutes of this film were quite possibly the most unsatisfying five minutes of any movie I’ve ever seen. Certainly it wins some sort of award for cop-out, just-kind-of-stops ending. I was so mad after those last five minutes, I could hardly talk on the car ride home. I definitely didn’t want to talk about the movie.

But then I let it sit for a couple of days, and I went back to it. I enjoyed the first 85 minutes and that should not be negated by loathing the last five. It’s an interesting story. It’s engaging. It held my attention. Often times I judge movies that I see in the theatre by the number of times I checked the time on my watch. During The Adjustment Bureau, I checked my watch exactly zero times. That’s no small feat for a movie to do.

Overall, I was impressed with the movie and I highly recommend it. It’s not the type of movie that’s going to change the world or the watchers view of the world, but as I’ve said before (and even if I haven’t, I’m saying it now), there’s something to be said for a little bit of mindless entertainment. This is the quality kind.

Little Red Riding Hood, you sure are(n't) looking good

Growing up, Little Red Riding hood was one of my favorite tales. I used to make my mother read from a worn, dog-ear paged hardcover edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales (although she was Little Red-Cap then) almost every night before, and the story of Red's encounter with the wolf was always my favorite one to hear. So needless to say, I was quite excited when I began to see trailers for Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Little did I know was that she was complete destroy a classic.

In theory, the movie was okay. What drew to me to it was that it seems interesting to me to take an old classic and turn it on its head and adapt it into something the audience hasn't thought of before. The problem with this particular retelling is that the audience did think of it. Five minutes into the film, the Wolf's human identity becomes obvious and the point of the movie, the village's effort to figure out who among them is really the Wolf, begins to drag on for an hour more before Red finally figures out what the audience has known all along. At least there was a little throwback to Grimm's tale when she fills the Wolf's stomach with stones.

And then there's the trouble with the biggest subplot, the love triangle. Mainly, Red (Amanda Seyfried) loves one boy (Peter played by Shiloh Fernandez), who presumably loves her too, but her mother has already betrothed her to someone else (Henry played by Max Irons). Problem. The problem is that the movie begins too late in the romance of her and Peter because when the movie begins, he's already trying to break up with her to appease her parents. We're never shown why she loves him and we spend more time getting to know Henry than we do Peter, so we're left wondering: why are you desperate to be with this guy who just dumped you?

Both guys are equally good-looking and prove to be equally important in helping her out with the Wolf, so why chose one over the other? The storyline just isn't flushed out enough to matter and I've never been the type of girl to just accept that she loves him because she loves him and there isn't anything more to it. Maybe that's a flaw in me. Maybe it's also a flaw that I think the movie should have spent less time with the two boys and more time worrying about the Wolf and keeping his identity a little less transparent.

It’s a film worth seeing if you enjoy the classic tale and are interested in seeing a movie you don't have to think about. If you're looking to be entertained without being intellectually challenged, this is the movie for you. Because this is one film that isn't going to test your mind at all. And it's one that's good for a laugh. Just wait until the end when Red is walking up a snowy mountain and the train of her red cape is about twenty feet too long. Just wait.