Up & Coming Weekly

Count the Cameos Get Him to the Greek (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Hollywood Renaissance Man Judd Apatow continues to support an entire stable of quality directors and actors who try to make funny mov- ies (and usually succeed). Even when all they have to give is a spin-off of a secondary character in a great movie like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, his cadre of performers try their best to insert some originality into tired concepts like the road movie. Director Nicholas Stoller seems to be a little bit out of his comfort zone with Get Him to the Greek (109 minutes), but he does an accept- able job of getting the characters from point A to point B without descending into Borat-levels of offensiveness or straying into Disney-like schmaltziness. Although it is clear that his strength as a director tilts more to the romantic half of the romantic comedy, he still coaxes the actors into finding the emotional depths of what are otherwise fairly shallow and standardized characters. Several years after Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) of Infant Sorrow dated Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), he apparently had a long-term relationship with Jackie Q (Rose Byrne). The film picks up with the creation of the video for “African Child”, which doesn’t do as well as expected. After the critics trash his song, Aldous Snow falls off the sobriety supertrain while simultaneously torpedo- ing his relationship and media appearances. Switch to Aaron Green (Jonah Hill, playing to type within the narrow range of characters he seems to favor). Aaron is an idealistic up and coming music promoter who works for Pinnacle Records. He impresses executive Sergio Roma (Sean Combs) with his synergistic vision of an Infant Sorrow anniversary concert. Sergio gets on the trolley and orders Aaron to escort the now notoriously out of control singer from London to the Today Show and then to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. When he tells his live in girlfriend, Doctor Daphne (Elisabeth Moss! She’s so AWESOME!) about his assignment, they part on less then friendly terms. Confused, pressured, and influenced by bad companions, Aaron heads to London. As usually happens when we meet the famous people we admire, he finds out that his idol is self-centered and refuses to recognize the reality of the situation. After many hijinks and shenanigans, the dynamic duo makes the scheduled promotional appearance. Unfortunately for professional doormat Aaron, Aldous manages to reroute their entire trip so that he can deal with some deep seated psychological issues related to his father, Jonathan (Colm Meaney). After a bizarre night that includes the psychedelic Geoffrey and a room with shag carpeting for wallpaper they make it to LA. Once there, Aldous continues his hilariously tragic string of finding out terrible truths he was happier not knowing. This takes us into the hitting rock bottom part of the movie At this point, all the drug fueled craziness is wearing a little bit thin since it is the same joke over and over again. Aldous pushes Aaron to do something deviant, Aaron doesn’t want to do it, but then he does. Repeat ad nau- seum. Overall, it was good for a few giggles. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com How to Make a Sitcom Hot in Cleveland revives the classic approach TV by DEAN ROBBINS Every year, the broadcast networks try to produce new sitcoms in the classical mode: laugh tracks, three-camera setups, punchlines, etc. These shows almost never work, despite massive infusions of money and stars. You begin the think the art form is dead until a series comes along and makes it look easy. Hot in Cleveland (Wednesday, 10 p.m., TV Land) is one of those series, nestled in the upper reaches of extended basic cable. Start with a cast of veter- an sitcom goddesses: Valerie Bertinelli, Betty White, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves. Establish a serviceable premise: aging L.A. sophisticates move to unglamorous Cleveland so they can look more glamorous by comparison. Then sit back and watch the magic hap- pen. The material isn’t brilliant, but the actresses put it over with perfect timing and tone. Last month on Saturday Night Live, 88-year-old White proved that she hasn’t lost an ounce of her comic mojo. She proves it again here, playing a blunt local caretaker who punctures the L.A. ladies’ pretensions. When Malick refers to Cleveland as “the Paris of Ohio,” White deadpans, “No, that’s Toledo.” Cleveland, Toledo, whatever. I’ll take these four amazing actresses anywhere. Jaws: The Inside Story Wednesday, 8 pm (BIO) You may not think you need to spend two hours on a beautiful summer night watching a documentary about the making of 1975’s shark-attack classic. But — trust me — you’ll be glad you did. The story behind Jaws proves to be as exciting as the movie itself, with disaster looming at every turn. Like me, you may know a couple of facts going in: that director Steven Spielberg paid a steep price for deciding to film on the real Atlantic Ocean; and that the mechanical shark rarely worked, requiring Spielberg to imply horror rather than show it graphically. But there’s so much more. Did you realize that Spielberg’s career hung in the balance due to extreme budget overruns? That star Richard Dreyfuss disowned the movie in a TV interview when filming wrapped? That the filmmakers wrote the script as they went along? We also learn that Spielberg has avoided the ocean for over three decades, fearing that sharks are mad at him for making Jaws. If that’s so, this documentary will do absolutely nothing to appease them. The Phantom Sunday, 7 pm (SyFy) This four-hour TV movie offers a fresh contemporary take on a musty old comic strip about a costumed hero. Young Chris Moore (Ryan Carnes) makes immediate contact with the audience as he practices parkour on New York City’s rooftops while studying for a law degree. Just when he starts dating a beauti- ful paramedic (Cameron Goodman), a bald-headed advisor shows up to inform him that he’s not really Chris Moore. He’s Kit Walker, next in line to become the Phantom, a role passed down from generations since the 1500s. It’s a thrilling prospect — to me, anyway. Chris, on the other hand, has a hard time accepting the new state of affairs. “You want me to give up everything,” he tells the bald-headed dude. “My life, my name, my whole world, just like that.” Hey, if you don’t want to do it, I will. Scoundrels Sunday, 9 pm (ABC) In this new dramedy, Virginia Madsen plays the matriarch of a nuclear crime family who make their living with heists and cons. When you want an audience to pull for criminals, tone means all. And Scoundrels’ tone is way off the mark. I think it’s supposed to be funny and cute when the son injures an old woman in a strong-arm robbery and the daughter blackmails her principal by shooting a Peeping Tom sex tape. But it’s not funny and cute; it’s creepy and off-putting. I found myself rooting for the cop investigating the Wests’ criminal activity. I don’t think that’s what the producers intended. 20 UCW JUNE 16-22, 2010 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM

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