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 Medium With a Message MTV honors 'meaningful' videos TV by DEAN ROBBINS MTV is adept at hyping its Video Music Awards (Sunday, 9 p.m.) but much less skilled at making the show live up to the hype. Last year, host Chelsea Handler laid an egg, and only Taylor Swift and Florence and the Machine made much of an impression with their per- formances. Still, hope springs eternal, especially with Lady Gaga in the room. Can she top her meat dress from 2010? Well, she's Lady Gaga, so you know she's gonna try. This year, MTV unveils an interesting new category called Best Video With a Message. The nominees include Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," a plea for tolerance; Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie," about domestic violence; and Rise Against's "Make It Stop (September's Children)," a shoutout to despon- dent LGBT teens. The category's one questionable nomination is Katy Perry's "Firework." I'm not exactly sure what the "message" is here, except that all of us should have sparks shooting out of our chests. Do we really want to live in such a world? And do we really want to go to the trouble of revising all the fire codes? Top Chef: Just Desserts Wednesday, 10 pm (Bravo) You'd think a reality cooking series focusing on dessert would be, above all, fun. But there's no lightness of spirit among this season's contestants. They're so paranoid that every glance from judges Gail Simmons or Johnny Iuzzini freaks them out. "I couldn't believe how Johnny's eyes stare deep into you!" one of them says, with no irony whatsoever. People, we're talking about banana splits and cup- cakes here! In the challenges, these unappetizing chefs bitch, insult one another and deflect responsibility for their missteps. If Johnny really is staring deep into their souls, he's looking into a void. Rat Busters NYC Friday, 10 pm (Animal Planet) This new series focuses on a couple of New Yawkers who claim to be the city's top exterminators. Jimmy and Michael handle not only rats, but also "every New Yorker's worst nightmare" — bedbugs. After the premiere episode, they'll be your worst nightmare, too. Jimmy and Michael explain that the bedbugs suck your blood while you sleep, and they show horrific close-ups of the little monsters. I was freaking out, just like the Ratbusters' desperate client, until Jimmmy and Michael unveiled their secret weapon: a heat chamber. Baking all the client's possessions to 140 degrees, they explained, would kill off all the bedbugs and restore his sanity. I have since heated my own possessions to 140 degrees. I even ran this blurb through the chamber, just to be safe. Killer Mountain Saturday, 9 pm (SyFy) I'm a fan of SyFy's Saturday night creature features, but this one is stingy in terms of monster gratification. It's about a mountain in Nepal that's "forbid- den" and the American corporation that, naturally, sends up an expedition anyway. Most of the climbers mysteriously die, so another expedition sets off to find the survivors. In a haunted-mountain picture, you expect a certain amount of hands slipping off rock ledges, ropes straining, etc. But that's basically all we get for well over an hour as we wait impatiently for the reptile-insectoid monster to show up. During these scenes, the only ones who appear to be having any fun are the soundtrack's orchestra members, who get free rein to pound the timpani and blare the trumpets. I wonder if the monster got scared off by all the loud music. Viva La Evolucíon! Humans Are Jerks! Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS There was a real risk for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes (105 minutes) to become a cheesy knock-off worse than the ill-conceived 2001 Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes. Luckily, Director Rupert Wyatt and writing team Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa do an utterly superb job of cre- ating a legitimate prequel that simply begs to become a tril- ogy. The best part? The way people in the audience clap and shout at all the good bits and callbacks to the original film! The worst part? Well, it's hard to notice because every- thing happening is so awesome. But take a minute to think about the basic plot. A scientist working with potentially bil- lion dollar formulas takes home an ape in California WHERE THEY ARE BANNED AS PETS and nobody blinks an eye? Not even the jerky neighbor who clearly has a problem with the Chimpanzee? Not the smoking-hot ape refuge veterinarian who clearly understands how dangerous apes can get? And when the authorities are called in, he doesn't get arrested or worry about paying a fine? I guess James Franco gave Hot Vet and Animal Control the puppy dog eyes and grin, and they let him walk. This may have been an editorial choice, since bringing in that sort of subplot would distract from the main action, while taking too much time to explore the ramifications of the law would kill the pace. Like Mulder and Scully's relationship, just assume it's all happening off-screen … it's happening, it's distracting and so the audience doesn't need to see it. Now we can all look forward to the deleted scenes on the super-mega DVD/Blu-Ray. Will Rodman (Franco) is trying to cure Alzheimer's by playing God with Chimpanzee's and his father (John Lithgow). The chimp in question, Bright-Eyes (after Heston's character in the original) goes a little nuts and wreaks havoc all over the expensive testing facility. This shuts down the testing, and results in a baby chimp heading home with Rodman. His father names the chimp Caesar (Andy Serkis). WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM It is interesting to contrast the handler's at the testing facility with the handlers who appear later in the primate refuge; while the former are clearly professional and view the apes as worthy of decent treatment, they do tend to treat them like unreasoning animals. This is, of course, much better than the latter handlers, who treat the apes as undeserving of even a modicum of compassion. I sus- pect that both are fairly accurate depictions of the day to day life of the average laboratory animal. Humans are jerks sometimes. With the addition of an adorably brilliant ape to the household, Rodman has a convenient way to pick up chicks. He meets Caroline Aranha (Frieda Pinto) when Caesar is injured by jerky neighbor, and in between helpful time advances they apparently move in together despite her opinions about his attempt to domesticate a chim- panzee, and without him explaining to her his life's work and how it changed the chimp. Like, way to warn your new girlfriend about the way you play God, Will Rodman! And way to hold on to those vaguely formed ideas about how dangerous apes can be, Hot Vet! Inevitably, jerky neighbor gets into a fight with Caesar, who is then shipped to the aforementioned primate refuge run by John and Dodge Landon (Brian Cox and Tom Felton. Perhaps Brian can explain to Tom the dangers of typecasting?). Reacting in a fairly reasonably fashion, Caesar becomes depressed, stages a coup d'cage, and then foments revolution against his human masters. Really amazing film, letter perfect CGI, and competing with Source Code and Insidious for the best movie I have seen all summer. Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upand- comingweekly.com AUGUST 24-30, 2011 UCW 21