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/32317
He Says His Name Is Thor Thor (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Director Kenneth Branagh reportedly conceptu- alized Thor (114 minutes) as a comic book twist on Shakespeare’s Henry V, which makes sense, because if it’s not Shakespearean in some way, Branagh can’t be bothered. Much like most of Shakespeare (and most comic books), the women in Thor take a secondary role and/or stand around ineffectually while dudes take care of business. Wait a min- ute … there are tons of proactive women in Shakespeare and in comic books, too! I guess Kenneth Branagh is a sex- ist. Too bad. The film opens at what turns out to be narrative halfway point by introducing some of the main players before laying out the backstory. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who is a nurse in the original comic, ends up as an astrophysicist here. While it is nice to showcase a talented female astrophysicist, it does tend to take away from your positive message when said talented female astrophysicist isn’t doing much science. It’s like casting Mila Kunis as the tough leather babe in Max Payne … you can say she’s tough, but that doesn’t make me believe she is tough. Her assistant Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) isn’t much help. She is a great chick sidekick, she handles a Taser, and she gets most of the funny lines, but she doesn’t do much to advance women in the sciences. Luckily for the ladies, Jane’s mentor Dr. Erik Selvig (conveniently familiar with both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Norse mythology) is there to tell the womenfolk what to do when their stereotypically bad driving, aggravated by their womanly bickering, causes them to run over the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth). After this introduction to the mortal characters, the movie reverses back to tell the story of how Thor ended up in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Odin the Allfather, King of Asgard (Anthony Hopkins) is fighting the Frost They Write the Songs Would-be composers can’t carry a tune in Platinum Hit TV by DEAN ROBBINS Have you ever wondered why most pop music sounds so bad, given all the talented mu- sicians to choose from and all the money that goes into each song? Platinum Hit offers a clue (Monday, 10 p.m., Bravo). In this reality competition, Jewel, Kara DioGuardi and other music-industry bigwigs put a dozen composer- performers through a series of tests to identify the next big hitmaker. From the get-go, the per- sonalities are toxic, just as you imagine they are throughout the business. “I am a musical genius,” proclaims a mo- hawked guy named Nick, proving it by writing his first song in five seconds. You can’t wait for the judges to knock this idiot down a peg, but guess what — they love the five-second song! Nick shoots to the top of the heap, de- spite these lyrics: “To Hollywood I move/To seek, destroy, and prove/But some- thing by the waist/RE-A-LI-TY!/Comes and spits right in your face!” “I loved the metaphors,” says a tone-deaf executive from Jive Records, making you wonder if the entire music industry has completely lost touch with RE-A-LI-TY. Platinum Hit sets out to discover greatness and fails. But it unintention- ally discovers music so lame that you can’t help being fascinated by it. In other words, I already have the DVR set for the next episode. How to Die in Oregon Thursday, 8 pm (HBO) I’m the kind of person who would much rather watch a Looney Tunes mara- thon on the Cartoon Network than consider issues of mortality. But for two hours, this Sundance Award-winning documentary forced me to think about The End and all the legal and philosophical issues related to it. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM How to Die in Oregon takes a peek at the subculture created by the state’s 1994 law legal- izing physician-assisted suicide. We watch painful scenes in which terminally ill people drink their poison and say their goodbyes to family members. “It will put him in a coma in a matter of minutes,” says a volunteer attending the suicide of Richard Sagner. “And after that….” “…we wait for me to die,” says Richard, fac- ing oblivion with his eyes wide open. Well, then, let’s see what’s on the Cartoon Network, shall we? Million Dollar Decorators Tuesday, 10 pm (Bravo) Bravo has found yet another group of L.A. professionals who cater to rich people and, consequently, have an inflated sense of self-importance. This time, it’s interior designers who work with the likes of Elton John and Cher. “I don’t get out of bed for less than a million dollars,” crows Kathryn. Jeffrey has an even grander sense of himself: “Sometimes I think my job is more important than the President of the United States.” So what is it that these people do that makes them so vital, requiring ob- scene amounts of money even to coax them out of bed? In the premiere, we get a glimpse of their indispensable work as one of them, Martyn, must design a luxury apartment for second-tier TV personality Sharon Osbourne in only three days. “The heat is on!” he cries, because God forbid Sharon would have to wait an extra day for the right shade of cream on her walls. The episode climaxes as Martyn barks out an order to his minions with Sharon just about to show up: “Can you get me a white fluffy pillow?!” I’d love to watch episode two, but I don’t follow TV series this bad for less than a million dollars. MAY 25-31, 2011 UCW 15 Giants of Jotunheim, led by Laufey (Colm Feore). Odin wins the war and claims the source of their magically delicious frost powers, the Casket of Ancient Winters. Sometime between then and now, Odin had a couple of anklebiters with Frigga (Rene Russo). Just like Cain and Abel, Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) don’t always get along. Their relationship only gets more complex as Odin decides to decree Thor as his heir. Just as he is about to make that official, a couple of the extras from Avatar...whoops, a couple of Frost Giants break into Asgard and try to steal back the Casket of Ancient Winters. Since the fatal character flaw of Thor is arrogance, he grabs his buddies and arrogantly runs to Jotunheim and lays down some wrath all over the Frost Giants. For those of you keeping track, his bud- dies are the Warriors Three plus One Lady include Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas), and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) plus Lady Sif (Jaime Alexander). Or, as a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents prefer, Robin Hood, Jackie Chan, and Xena on their way to the Renaissance Faire. Odin steps in just in time to save his son from the evildoers only to get supergrumpy and ground him (literally). He evidently isn’t as mad as he appears, since he throws Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, down to Earth with him. In response, the local folk, apparently grungy drunks who wear tank tops and baseball caps that look very much like Stan Lee, throw a simultaneous barbecue and tractor pull. The rest of the movie is a mix of S.H.I.E.L.D., fighting, and completely unbelievable romance, followed by an interest- ing after-credits scene fea- turing … wait for it … Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)!! HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upand- comingweekly.com