Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/16971
Legal Trouble TV by DEAN ROBBINS Outlaw (Friday, 10 p.m., NBC) features Jimmy Smits as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice — but unfortunately, not one from planet Earth. Unlike any known justices, Cyrus Garza causes a ruckus at casi- nos and flagrantly comes on to every hot woman he meets. He suddenly grows tired of being the court’s most right-wing member because it occurs to him that “following the rules doesn’t always lead to justice.” So he resigns to become a left- wing lawyer, confident that it’s the best way for him to single-handedly change the entire U.S. legal system. And damned if he isn’t able to pull that off, though not without the help of a sexually outrageous private investigator in a miniskirt and go-go boots. Garza’s crusade involves making gassy speeches about “moral rightness” in court, as if he’s the first law- yer ever to be concerned with fairness. The Devil Made Me Do It Devil (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Devil (80 minutes) is pretty basic, and therefore pretty hard to review. The premise is a simple enough locked room mystery. Five strangers trapped in an elevator are tormented by either a supernatural devil or a hard to identify member of the group. The film, produced by M. Night Shyamalan, (although advertisers might want to steer clear of the associa- tion … did you see the train wreck otherwise known as Lady in the Water?) is the first in a planned trilogy featuring the supernatural in an urban setting. The idea does spark a little interest, although the concept is hardly a new one (remember Tales from the Hood?). While Shyamalan’s writing skills are terribly uneven, in this case he is supplying the ideas and letting the unequivocally amazing Brian Nelson snag the writing credit and the potentially awe- some John Erick Dowdle have the directing nod. If nothing else, at least Shyamalan has twigged to the fact that his writ- ing/directing well has run dry … and the viewing audience, as well as the city of Philadelphia, can breathe a sigh of relief. Or maybe not, since this latest opus is set in Philadelphia. The film opens on some pretty nifty camera work. The city is upside down, although the statue of William Penn looks pretty much the same as it did in Law-Abiding Citizen. Some pseudo-insightful voice-over work that I should probably be able to pin down to one of the main cast, but can’t, leads us into a suicide that looks eerily similar to one already filmed in The Happening. A dude falls from the sky, some people sign into the building security log and a security guard decides to overcome his suspiciously convenient claustrophobia to board the express elevator. Meanwhile Supercops One (Chris Messina) and Two (Joshua Peace) stumble around trying to figure out the source of the body that has mysteriously landed 20 UCW SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 5, 2010 on top of a bread van. It is so obvious that the body was dropped from a plane or a building that their puzzled looks are extremely irritating. They play Sherlock long enough to conclude that the mysterious body has come from the top of a nearby building, although somehow the van has ended up across the street and around the corner. I have a hard time following their complicated cop logic, but they sound pretty sure about their baseless conclusions, so I’ll go with it. Back in the building, the tension builds as janitors dis- cover a broken window and security guards watch security cameras. The elevator has stopped, and those trapped inside are trying to figure out which cliché to embrace. Among the imprisoned are: the sexy red herring (Bojana Novakovic), the unlikable suit (Geoffrey Arend), the not-obvious-so-she is automatically the prime suspect woman (Jenny O’Hara), the physically imposing authority figure (Bokeem Woodbine) and the cute guy with secrets (Logan Marshall-Green). As anyone would, the people in the elevator go from irri- table to homicidal in a matter of minutes. Inevitably the body count rises, and the Supercops are called in from the suicide scene to micromanage the incompetent security personnel whose strategy for rescuing the confined boils down to helpful suggestions such as “stay calm,” and “don’t kill each other.” Overall, the movie isn’t boring, but of all the ways it could have ended, the way it actually ended is probably one of the least interesting possibilities. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM “Dammit, Cyrus, I warned you not to bring your soapbox in here!” a judge warns. Objection sustained. Better With You Wednesday, 8:30 pm (ABC) I initially felt that Better With You was a standard couples comedy, from the generic title to the three predictably contrast- ing pairs: the younger sister (Joanna Garcia) with her free-spirited boyfriend (Jake Lacy); the older sister (Jennifer Finnigan) with her stick-in-the-mud partner (Josh Cooke); and the girls’ sour parents (Kurt Fuller and Debra Jo Rupp). The tired punchlines didn’t help: “Getting married after two months? What is she, a Kardashian?” But just as I formulated my appraisal — “painful” — I found myself smiling. The cast won me over in spite of the often weak ma- terial. So I guess I’m obligated to switch “painful” to “promising.” $#*! My Dad Says Thursday, 8:30 pm (CBS) This sitcom is based on a Twitter feed in which a guy tran- scribes the asinine $#*! his dad says. The beauty of experiencing it on Twitter is that you don’t actually have to hang out with the asi- nine dad. In the sitcom, comic pro William Shatner is faced with the tough assignment of making this nasty old dude appealing, and even he can’t pull it off. You just sit there waiting for the next Twitter- worthy bon mots, none of which are very bon. “Why do you keep giving me gifts?” Shatner sneers at Jonathan Sadowski. “If I’d have wanted piles of crap around the house, I would have bought a bird!” I don’t think I’ll tune in to another episode of $#*! My Dad Says. If I want to see crap on TV, I’ll watch a show about birds. Outlaw’s lawyer hero is bizarrely divorced from reality