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.
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The Princess and the Pauper Gorgeous twins change places The Lying Game TV by DEAN ROBBINS With summer almost over, there's not much time left to wallow in warm-weather trash. So don't miss The Lying Game (Monday, 9 p.m., ABC Family), a shameless wish- fulfillment fantasy based on the old twins-separated-at- birth premise. And I mean "shameless" as a compliment. High school beauties Emma and Sutton (both played by Alexandra Chando, who looks like Kristen Stewart without the soulfulness) have just discovered one another's existence, communicating via webcam. Emma is a foster child in a low-rent, abusive Nevada family, while Sutton has been adopted by a wealthy, loving clan in Scottsdale. While Sutton heads off to find their lost parents, Emma arrives in Scottsdale to take her place — and here's where the shameless wish-fulfillment fantasy comes in. After a lifetime of pain, Emma finds herself in paradise. Masquerading as Sutton, she has not one, but two hunky boyfriends competing for her attention. She has her own BMW and a huge closet full of designer clothes. Best of all, she has parents who constantly hug her as sentimental music soars on the soundtrack. "What would I ever do without my Sutton?" coos Emma's new mom. The search for my own twin with a perfect life begins tomorrow. He's got to be out there somewhere. Beyond Scared Straight Thursday, 10 pm (A&E) "A&E" stands for Arts & Entertainment, but A&E's Beyond Scared Straight has questionable entertainment value. Every episode is a solid hour of yelling, as wayward kids are taken to jail on a dry run. Guards get up in their faces and harass them relentlessly, all by way of showing them what's in store if they don't straighten out. "WHEN I TALK TO YOU, YOU DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES!" the guards bellow at kids while they're handcuffed and fingerprinted. "WHEN I TALK, YOU LISTEN, 'CUZ I DON'T LIKE REPEATING MYSELF!" The therapeutic value of abusing these children is questionable, since many of them already have abusive adults in their lives. The people most likely to be "scared straight" are viewers at home. Like me, for instance. After watching these sadistic guards in action, I vowed never to do anything that might put me in jail. I mean, anything that might put me in jail, sir. Strike Back Friday, 10 pm (Cinemax) In this new series, a roguish American special forces dude named Damian (Sullivan Stapleton) joins a British military unit to stop a terrorist group. Strike Back flaunts its only-on-premium-cable language and gory action scenes, but aside from that, it's reminiscent of all such TV action series. Damian delights in breaking rules and making non- chalantly witty comments even with a gun pointed at his head. The Brits, of course, insist on doing things by the book. "You are to maintain proper military discipline and respect at all times," British colonel Eleanor Grant (Amanda Mealing) tells Damian in this week's episode. If she really expects this guy to follow her orders, I doubt she's seen many such TV action series. The Best Movie Title of the Summer, Maybe of the Year Cowboys and Aliens (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Well, I feel rather foolish. I (and I keep my ear pretty close to the ground on this stuff) had no idea that Cowboys and Aliens (118 minutes) was based on a comic book. Here I was, planning to criticize it for being a screenplay by committee, when it turns out that the SEVEN guys with writing credits included the comic book author. You know what? I am still going to criticize it for being a screenplay by committee, because as fun as it is, there are a couple of subtle issues with it. First of all, really dudes? Six guys working on it and nobody thought, hey, we've got a chick in this thing, maybe we oughta get a female co-writer? Apparently not, which is why, aside from Ella (Olivia Wilde), girls are strictly background in this one. There is one other slightly developed female character, but she gets taken out of the game pretty quick. And, in the grand tradition of action movies, the male characters tolerate but do not welcome her, and save her a few times since she cannot save herself. But she does a pretty good job of maternally protecting the young'un on several occasions. Because that's what women are good for. Sigh. And don't get all up in my face about how her role at the end of the movie redeems the character, because up until that point her character is not only dead- weight, she is also irritating, what with the wandering around saying "I know something you don't know!" Of course, I admit that may be due in part to the fact that Olivia Wilde is extremely irritating, and that she is Hollywood Attractive rather than Real World attractive. At least she looks super-pretty in firelight! Second of all, the ending is more than a little bit unsatisfying on an emotional level. The writers set up this great father/son (Harrison Ford and Paul Dano) con- flict. Then they establish that the father is a sadist and the son is an idiot. Then, at the halfway point they proceed to ignore the sadism of the father, and by the end of the movie the audience is expected to completely forget that the son was an idiot. Maybe it's that Harrison Ford isn't selling his character? And he just wants WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM to play the role like Indiana Jones as a cowboy? And when he tries to be murderous and evil (see What Lies Beneath) he still projects anti-hero type goodness? Third, sure, set your science fiction film in the old west. But if you're going to do that, train your actors to sell the idea that what a modern audience calls alien is perceived by western stereotypes as demons. Seriously, whenever Doc (Sam Rockwell) calls them demons, you can tell he is mentally rolling his eyes … and that goes for most of the main cast. But that's not to say it isn't a decent action western science fiction movie. Grab that box of popcorn and settle in because it is mostly pretty fun. Set in 1873, the hero of the piece (Daniel Craig) plays a great western character. In fact, age him up a few years and I could total- ly see him playing the Gunslinger from Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Is he bad? Is he good? It's super hard to tell since he can't remember anything from his past. Once he ends up in the defunct gold mining town of Absolution, the character is summed up nicely by the local preacher (Clancy Brown! Good to see you!) … good people do bad things, bad people do good things, etc. Too bad he is being singled out more for the bad things he has done. Not too long after he gets into town, he is arrested by Sheriff Taggert (Keith Carradine! Good to see you too!). Naturally, this is when the aliens show up. The effects are decent, the aliens are pretty cool look- ing, and there are enough twists to keep you guessing (if you haven't read the comic book or seen the trailers, which give away all the twists). Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upand- comingweekly.com AUGUST 17-23, 2011 UCW 17