My Top Ten "X-Files" Episodes

I enjoy a rare geeky distinction among geeks. Back in the fall of 1993, I was one of the few people who actually watched the first episode of "The X-Files" as it originally premiered, with the special pre-show disclaimer screen and everything. Through junior high and high school, though I had other shows on my plate, "The X-Files" came first. I tuned in every Friday or Sunday night for years, and loved it as only a socially inept geek girl could. And I stuck with it much, much longer than a should have, all the way up to the end of the eighth season, when it seemed that Mulder and Scully would be replaced for good by far less interesting leads. Now, a decade later, I expect that some kind of reboot or spinoff is only a matter of time. "The X-Files" was one of Fox's biggest TV properties, and it would be a good fit with the recent resurgence of supernatural-themed movies and television shows. But before that happens, here's a look at my top ten favorite episodes, unranked, in chronological order. Please note I was never much one for the "mythology" stories, so these are all stand-alone cases.

"Eve" - Two of "the X-Files'" most intriguing early monsters were a pair of identical girls, discovered on opposite sides of the country. They meet thanks to the FBI's investigation into the strange circumstances around their foster fathers' deaths, and Mulder and Scully soon discover the girls may be part of a secret cloning project - with a history of turning out psychotic homicidal maniacs. Lots of little touches, from Mulder and Scully being mistaken for the girls' parents, to the superb work by guest star Harriet Sansome Harris make this a memorable, creepy early outing.

"Darkness Falls" - With a classic horror movie scenario, this was one of the first episodes that really scared me. Investigating disappearances in the Oregon woods, Mulder and Scully have to contend with swarm of lethal, tiny, swarming insects that only attack when it's dark. Stranded far from civilization with a group of hostile, frightened locals, the situation gets worse with each successive night. The show did a couple of these extreme survival episodes like "Ice" and "Firewalker," but "Darkness Falls" was by far the most thrilling and effective of them.

"Humbug" - You may remember this one as the episode with the circus freaks. There is so much to love here, from Mulder and Scully unearthing a small town's secrets (and potatoes), encounters with a big ensemble of colorful characters, including suspects played by Michael J. Anderson and Vincent Schiavelli, and the circus folks getting the last word on the subject of freakishness. This was one of the first largely comedic "X-Files" episodes, which I always held a special affection for, and you can expect several more of them to appear on this list.

"Soft Light" - Horror can come from anything, even something as simple as your own shadow. This episode has one of the weakest premises, but such strong execution, that it manages to summon up some real paranoid chills. It also features another great performance from a guest actor, this time Tony Shalhoub, a few years before "Monk." Other favorites in this vein include "Mind's Eye" and "Roland," for the work of Lili Taylor and Željko Ivanek respectively, but it's "Soft Light" that had the most impact on me. I still remember the creepiness of some of the images to this day.

"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - Speaking great guest stars, here we have Peter Boyle as Clyde Bruckman, an unassuming insurance salesman who can tell you how everyone is going to die. The tragi-comic tale of his involvement in a murder investigation is one of the most touching episodes of "The X-Files," a meditation on death, depression, and how knowing the future is definitely not all it's cracked up to be. Peter Boyle won an Emmy for playing Clyde Bruckman and Darin Morgan won an Emmy for writing him. And they were both very well deserved.

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - We go from tragi-comic to out and out comic, with the second of Darin Morgan's great contributions to "The X-Files." In one of the most free-form and self-mocking episodes of the series, a writer named Jose Chung gathers information for a new book based on one of Mulder and Scully's cases, interviewing witnesses to a possible alien encounter who have wildly different interpretations of what happened. Part satire and part "Rashomon," this is "The X-Files" having fun with its pop culture image in the best way.

"Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" - The show's great roster of minor characters has mostly been missing from this list so far. This episode gives us a peek into the (speculated?) dirty doings of the show's signature villain, the Cigarette Smoking Man. And we find out that though he is a thoroughly despicable human being, he nurses his own small aspirations and his own private dreams just like anyone else. One of my favorite moments in the whole series is the ending of this one, culminating in a searing, bitter monologue that starts with, "Life is like a box of chocolates."

"The Post-Modern Prometheus" - More of a modern-day Frankenstein story than a Promethean one, told with B-movie horror, comic book, and daytime talk show flourishes. In a small rural community, Mulder and Scully discover that someone has been dabbling in genetic experimentation, and a "monster" named the Great Mutato may be lurking. However, this is a monster unlike any they've met before – he's a Cher fan, for one thing. From the black-and-white cinematography to the fairy tale ending, this was an unusual experiment for the show that paid off big.

"Triangle"– Probably best remembered for Mulder somehow getting himself stuck on a passenger ship in the Bermuda Triangle and sent back in time to when the ship was being hijacked by Nazis during World War II. However, I think of it as the episode with the amazing long take of Scully extracting secret data from the FBI building, narrowly avoiding detection by Kersh and Spender, and finally getting away with the help of the Lone Gunmen in their microbus. "Triangle" was one of a string of ambitious post-movie episodes that cemented the sixth season as one of the show's best.

"The Unnatural" – And finally, we have a nostalgic baseball fable about a remarkable friendship between two minor league players, from different worlds. And I mean that literally. It's also about the famous 1947 Roswell crash and racial segregation in the 1940s, but the focus is friendship and baseball. Thus, "The Unnatural" is one of the most feel-good hours of television that "The X-files" ever produced. And with its Southern-infused music, tongue-in-cheek humor, and touch of the miraculous, this was the show proving again that it could tell a very wide range of supernatural tales.
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China's Getting Animated

My experience with Chinese produced animated films is quite limited. I've seen exactly two features, both screened at the 2004 Anime Expo in Anaheim. One was "Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective," following the comic adventures of the manwha character Old Master Q. The other was "The Butterfly Lovers," a period fable with character designs that looked like they'd been lifted wholesale from "Mulan." Both were pretty awful and derivative, but there was clearly a lot of ambition behind them. In China's never-ending quest for greater cultural relevance, they've long recognized that animation can be an important medium. The most profitable category of American films in the last decade has been its animated children's films, which bring in staggering revenue at the worldwide box office. Anime from neighboring Japan is more of an acquired taste, but viewed and adored by fans from all over the globe. Most importantly, Western and Japanese animation does very well in China, and the Chinese are itching to break into the market themselves. Last year, a massive new animation studio was announced by the Chinese authorities, being built for the explicit purpose of competing with Western toons.

Historically, there have been some influential Chinese animated films, like "Princess Iron Fan" (1941) and "Havoc in Heaven" (1961), from the Wan brothers. Unfortunately the political climate in China made all filmmaking difficult for decades, and animated films have been rarities. This has put Chinese animation far, far behind other countries. There have been some gains in recent years, with reports of interesting films coming out of Hong Kong and Shanghai, but these have been very low profile. So, the latest tactic has been to recruit help from bigger players. The "Kung Fu Panda" movies have been hugely popular in China, and it's no surprise that Dreamworks Animation announced a joint venture with China Media Capital to form Oriental Dreamworks back in February. They'll be producing family friendly live action and animated content geared toward Chinese audiences. Dreamworks Animation had a rough 2011, losing over 40% of its market value after films like "Puss in Boots" flopped, so this is a good opportunity for them. Then on Tuesday, per Deadline, the Walt Disney Company announced it had "entered a partnership with the culture ministry and Chinese internet giant Tencent to develop the country’s animation business." And as a bonus, a new Shanghai Disneyland has just been approved for construction.

This could end up playing out in a couple of ways. Chinese animation hopefuls would do well to remember what happened in South Korea when it opened dozens of animation studios in the 80s and 90s and the United States and Japan farmed out large amounts of labor-intensive animation work to them. Any kid who watched cartoons in that era should remember the prominent lists of Korean names at the end of every episode. It's become a running joke that many popular American cartoons like "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" depend on Korean animators, toiling over endless drawings, often in substandard working conditions. And it's rare that you see Korean talent making any major contributions to the writing, planning, direction, or design of the Western projects they work on. But hasn't all of this helped South Korean produced animation? Not really. Like in China, major South Korean animated projects have been few and far between, and they haven't gained much international attention. However, of the few titles I've seen like 2003's "Oseam" and "Sky Blue," the Koreans have the potential to do much bigger things, and they'rein a better position than the Chinese are on the creative front.

That's the biggest problem I see with Chinese animation. I think they're going to make sure they have far more opportunities to turn out animation that reflects their own sensibilities, and working closely with the major American studios will certainly help them to avoid becoming simply another cheap outsourcing destination. I definitely see the Chinese benefiting on the technological side. However, that's only one part of what makes modern animated cartoons so successful. Originality, creativity and innovation are going to be the biggest stumbling blocks. China may have lots of eager young animators, but the rigidity and the formalism of their learning system, plus the the heavy cultural politics, plus the constant concerns about censorship and staying on message do not add up to a good atmosphere for creating silly, loveable cartoons like "Kung Fu Panda." The Chinese don't need Disney and Dreamworks to help them figure out how to make their CGI look better. They need them to explain the value of absurdity and the business of caricature and that first and foremost a cartoon needs to be entertaining and tell a good story.

I'd love to see them succeed. I really would. Another thriving Asian animation center would be wonderful to have. However, at the same time I don't relish another propaganda-driven arm of the current mainland Chinese film industry, turning out the cookie-cutter morality tales their government likes so much. And frankly, they'd all be a bust commercially. Animated films have to cater to a very tough audience: small children. The kids will pick silly, fun, wild, and crazy over ideologically pure any day. And at the end of the day, even in China, I'm willing to bet the adults will too.
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The Preview for the Teaser for the Trailer

It seems that movie marketing has taken an interesting turn in these last few months. The Rian Johnson science fiction thriller "Looper" is coming out in September and a trailer for it was released this week. To promote the trailer, a teaser for the trailer - not the film itself, but the trailer - was released a few days earlier. It follows in the footsteps of other films like "Prometheus," "Breaking Dawn Part 2" and "Total Recall" that used similar previewing tactics. I'd throw in the Superbowl commercials for films like "The Avengers" and "John Carter," which had longer, expanded versions online, making the broadcast versions essentially expensive promos for more substantive promos.

This new trend is not without precedent. Ever since trailers started becoming newsworthy in and of themselves, often enjoying exclusive premieres on television or with certain theatrical releases, the studios have teased the promos themselves with a few seconds of footage here, or a flash of a logo there. Last year's MTV Video Music Awards brought us our first glimpse of the "Hunger Games," which only ran 45 seconds and featured a brief single shot of Katniss in motion. That didn't keep MTV from previewing the preview in advance with a few miserly frames of the footage. The new "trailer trailers" are just formalizing the existing marketing tactic. However, I think it's telling that all the movies that have employed them this year are the ones that have been breathlessly feeding hype machines for months. I swear Rian Johnson hasn't passed up a chance to sell "Looper" to the fanboy crowd in the last year.

Not that I blame him. As we saw with "John Carter," the marketing campaigns for many of these movies are more important to their financial success than ever. Everything film has to be an event, and so marketing campaigns have become more elaborate and marketers have to keep coming up with more things for the reporters and movie bloggers and the anxious fans to talk about. These days it's not rare to see reporting on posters, promotional stills and clips, TV spots, tie-in merchandise, and even fan-made items. The teasers and trailers are the centerpieces of the campaign, often highly anticipated in their own right. It makes sense that the studios would want to take advantage of this, drawing more attention by building up that anticipation. And the best way to do this, of course, is to give viewers a glimpse of what they're waiting for.

There's a downside, of course, as there is with all overkill marketing. Too much hype and information can wreck the actual moviegoing experience. I've yet to see a frame of "Looper," but thanks to stumbling across multiple write-ups about the movie, I feel I already know too much about the plot. And if the advertising for a film is poor, like it was for "John Carter," the pervasiveness of the previews can do more harm than good. I also worry about the big marketing campaigns taking up so much of their creative talents' time and attention. I'd rather Joss Whedon be working on his next film rather than shilling "The Avengers" for the next few weeks. And then there's the growing divide between films that can afford this kind of marathon promotion and the ones that can't.

I've been moving away from watching all but the earliest teasers for a film. I find it much too easy to get engulfed in the hysteria of a promotional campaign, and some movies are put in the awkward position of trying to live up to hype and expectations that are far too big for them. I'm worried about "Prometheus," which is one of the most buzzed about upcoming summer films thanks to a pair of excellent trailers, but the degree of dissection and speculation about the content of the various promotional materials, spurred on by the information-hungry internet, makes me wonder if some of the film's most ardent early supporters are setting themselves up for a fall.

Of course, in some cases the marketing is better than the movie it's selling, and the promos turn out to be the high point of the whole experience. Last year's "Sucker Punch" and "Cowboys & Aliens" had some great, promising trailers and came out complete duds. So why not place more emphasis on the only parts of those films that were actually entertaining - the trailers? More money is spent promoting some of these movies than actually making them, so it makes sense that the marketing itself should become the main event. If Hollywood is having trouble selling movies these days, at least it can sell the hype.
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Your 2012 Summer Movies

Summer movie season is right around the corner. Ever wish you had a plain, simple schedule of the upcoming movies that just told you what was coming out and when? With maybe with a little more information about the titles you haven't heard much about yet? See below. And please note the limited releases haven't been fully scheduled for July and August yet.

May

The Avengers (May 4) - Superheroes.
Dark Shadows (May 11) - The 70s, vampires, and Johnny Depp.
The Dictator (May 16) - Sacha Baron Cohen trying to make us forget about "Bruno."
Battleship (May 18) - Based on the Hasbro board game, except this has aliens and Liam Neeson.
What to Expect When You're Expecting (May 18) - Pregnancy dramedy. Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez lead the ensemble.
Chernobyl Diaries (May 25) - The latest found footage horror movie from some of the guys who brought you "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious."
Men in Black 3 (May 25) - Ten years since the last one, and four years since Will Smith was in a movie.

Limited Release Highlights

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (May 4) - A gang of British retirees, including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Maggie Smith, decide to spend their retirement in India in a hotel run by Dev Patel.
Where Do We Go Now? (May 11) - About a Lebanese village where the women conspire to keep the men from learning about the country's civil unrest.
The Intouchables (May 25) - Hit French comedy-drama about a quadriplegic and his immigrant live-in attendant.
Moonrise Kingdom (May 25) - Wes Anderson's latest. If you don't know who Wes Anderson is, there's still time to go find out.

June

Snow White & the Huntsman (June 1) - This is the one with Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Chris "Thor" Hemsworth as the Huntsman, and Charlize Theron as the Queen.
Piranha 3DD (June 1) - Horror movie with bitey fish.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (June 8) - No comment
Prometheus (June 8) - Ridley Scott returns to the "Alien" universe.
Rock of Ages (June 15) - Based on a recent Broadway musical. Tom Cruise plays an 80s rock star.
That's My Boy (June 15) - Formerly "I Hate You Dad." The Adam Sandler saga continues, now with more Andy Samberg.
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (June 22) - Directed by the guy who did "Wanted."
Brave (June 22) - Formerly "The Bear and the Bow." Let's see what PIXAR's idea of girl power looks like.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (June 22) - Dark romantic comedy with Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley and the apocalypse.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (June 29) - No comment, except we're seeing a lot of Channing Tatum this year.
Magic Mike (June 29) - Steven Soderbergh comedy about male strippers. Also stars Channing Tatum.
People Like Us (June 29) - Formerly "Welcome to People" - The screenwriting team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are trying their hand at a domestic drama with Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, and Elizabeth Banks.

Limited Release Highlights

Safety Not Guaranteed (June 8) - Time travel indie with a little romance. Based on this internet meme.
Lola Versus (June 8) - Greta Gerwig romantic comedy about a woman who is dumped only weeks before her wedding.
To Rome with Love (June 22) - Formerly "The Bop Decameron" and "Nero Fiddled." In short, a Woody Allen goes to Rome.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (June 27) - The big winner at Sundance this year, about a community in the Louisiana wilderness about to collide with encroaching modernity.
Take This Waltz (June 29) - Sarah Polley directed drama starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen as a couple in a troubled marriage.

July

The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3) - Superhero reboot.
Savages (July 6) - Crime thriller directed by Oliver Stone, with two drug dealers vs. a Mexican cartel.
Ice Age: Continental Drift (July 13) - This is the fourth one, in case you were keeping count.
Ted (July 13) - Seth "Family Guy" McFarlane's feature debut. It's about a vulgar teddy bear who comes to life.
The Dark Knight Rises (July 20) - Last Batman movie until the reboot.
The Marriage Counselor (July 27) - Tyler Perry movie.
Neighborhood Watch (July 27) - Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn action comedy. There may be a title change in its future in light of recent events.
Step Up Revolution (July 27) - Fourth "Step Up" dance movie.

Limited

Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D (July 5) - Concert movie/documentary.

August

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (August 3) - The third "Wimpy Kid" movie.
The Bourne Legacy (August 3) - Jeremy Renner takes over as leading man for "Bourne" number four.
Total Recall (August 3) - Science fiction action reboot with Colin Farrell.
The Campaign (August 10) - Formerly "Dog Fight." Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis political comedy.
Great Hope Springs (August 10) - Comedy where Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones land Steve Carell as their marriage counselor.
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (August 15) - Disney's very delayed family film about a magic kid adopted by Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton.
The Expendables 2 (August 17) - More muscles, more explosions.
ParaNorman (August 17) - Laika Studio's stop-motion animation follow-up to "Coraline."
Sparkle (August 17) - Sure to be billed as the final Whitney Houston film, but it's really a coming of age story about a young singer.
The Apparition (August 24) - Haunted house horror movie.
Hit and Run (August 24) - Formerly "Outrun." Romantic action comedy with Kristen Bell and Bradley Cooper.
Premium Rush (August 24) - Bike messenger action thriller starring Joseph Gordon Levitt.
7500 (August 31) - Horror movie from director Takashi Shimizu, who brought you the "Grudge" movies.
Lawless (August 31) - Formerly "The Wettest Country in the World." John Hillcoat prohibition drama with Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy,
The Possession (August 31) - And one more horror movie.

Limited

2 Days in New York (August 10) - Julie Delpy comedy about a woman's visiting French relatives in New York. A sequel to "2 Days in Paris."

Happy watching.
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Scrutinizing "Tiny Furniture"

With Lena Dunham's new television show "Girls" in the news, I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about her feature film "Tiny Furniture," one of the most buzzed about 2010 releases among the artsy crowd. I was tying myself in knots of anticipation to see it because I'd heard such wonderful things, and the idea of a young female American filmmaker making such a splash with her debut film was an incredibly appealing prospect. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to see it until Criterion released "Tiny Furniture" on home media in December of 2011, and put it on Netflix shortly thereafter, which is where I finally got ahold of it. And after all that, I didn't like it.

As with all hyped up movies of this kind, first I wondered if there was something I was missing. Was there some context I needed to put the story in perspective, some sort of referential or satirical aspect of the film that wasn't registering in my consciousness? I'd read enough about the film that I knew what I should be paying attention to. I could see that the film was timely, dealing with the tribulations of a post-collegiate boomeranger, Aura (played by Dunham herself) who moves back in with her photographer mother Siri (Dunham's real mother, Laure Simmons) and overachiever teenage sister Nadine (Dunham's real sister, Grace Dunham). I could see how it was innovative, utilizing digital video and amateur actors. I could see how it was daring, with Lena Dunham putting her very ordinary, non-movie-star self in the spotlight, and including frank depictions of unflattering behavior and explicit, awkward sexual encounters. As more than one critic has pointed out, you don't see women with Dunham's body type doing the things she does here on film very often. The tiny feminist in me was also very happy to see the depiction of multiple relationships between Aura and other women - her mother, her sister, and friends Charlotte (Jemima Kirke) and Frankie (Merritt Wever).

And good grief, it was tedious. I haven't been having the greatest track record with coming-of-age stories recently, and "Tiny Furniture" came off as yet another self-obsessed, navel-gazing portrait of overgrown youth in directionless existential crisis. Maybe I'm too close to the subject matter, as I spent way too much of my twenties stuck in this phase, but much of the film was painful to watch, and not in a good way. Aura is an extremely trying protagonist, a young woman who is clearly intelligent but stubbornly obtuse about her tenuous living situation. Perhaps this is the fault of her home life, as her mother is a successful artist who has never had a job in her life. Perhaps this is the due to the influence of her friends, most of them similarly disconnected and living on high-minded aspirations. The brightest prospect among them is a burgeoning Youtube star. Whatever the reasons, Aura is extremely difficult to sympathize with. She self-aggrandizes and self-pities constantly, lashes out in childish ways, and is perpetually exasperated that life isn't going as easily for her as she wants it to.

Okay, so watching the movie is a slog, but lots of great movies aren't easy to watch. Surely I can appreciate the bravery of the director for serving up versions of herself and her immediate family, and subjecting them all to the gawking and potential disdain of her audience. Surely I noticed how well Dunham captures the particular patter and mannerisms of that certain breed of New York Gen Y-er in her writing, or how "Tiny Furniture" follows the spirit of the mumblecore movement if not its specific requirements. Yes to all of these things, but the end result still left me unmoved. The movie reeks of authenticity, from the do-it-yourself design aesthetics to Aura's volatile wardrobe, but only rarely does it work up the momentum to offer any good insights into her life. There are few nice scenes between Aura and her mother that I liked, but otherwise I couldn't connect with Aura's journey of self-discovery and disillusionment. It's a very candid one, certainly, but lacking the necessary focus to make it compelling.

I would like to see more from Lena Dunham, because she's clearly talented and has a strong, distinct point of view. However, I'm wary of any more exercises in autobiographical self-flagellation. A little is fine, but this is serious oversharing. And quite honestly, she's just not all that interesting as a subject of scrutiny.
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Down on "Jump Street"

Previously on the Miss Media Junkie blog, I declared I was ready to bust my nostalgia goggles and try to give the new "21 Jump Street" reboot a fair shake. Now I've finally seen movie film, and I find myself in the unique position of being a fan of the old "21 Jump Street" television show who can tell you exactly how the two versions match up. The new movie is a fun buddy action caper barely resembles the old FOX television show. The film is a comedy. The series, despite some humorous episodes, was not. It was a perfectly ordinary police procedural aimed at teenagers, featuring a group of attractive young officers going under cover in different high schools and colleges every week.

The movie, on the other hand, is really about two guys and their partnership – Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum), who went to high school together but don't become friends until they meet again years later in police academy. Schmidt is the chubby nerd with confidence issues. Jenko is the handsome jock, who isn’t very sharp. Both fit nicely into the mold of the immature male comedy hero who never really got over high school. A goof up gets Schmidt and Jenko transferred to the revived Jump Street program, where Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) sends them back to high school for their first assignment, to uncover the source of a new designer drug. This time, things are a little different for both of them.

There's no way to compare the past and present versions of "21 Jump Street" without acknowledging that in the twenty years the show has been off the air, the high school experience has changed drastically. And likewise, Schmidt and Jenko are stunned to discover that in the mere seven years that have passed since they left high school, the pecking order has changed, and the social rules are different. Schmidt ends up one of the cool kids, while Jenko discovers, to his horror, that he's classed with the nerds. It's only the first of many role reversals and clever tweaks of the high school formula that the writers deliver. I would like to take this moment to apologize for prematurely denigrating the writing skills of Jonah Hill, who is credited for story alongside screenwriter Michael Bacall. The pop-culture savvy script is hysterical, and the movie's biggest asset.

"21 Jump Street" riffs on modern teen comedies as much as it does on buddy cop stories, so it treats excessive partying, drinking, and drugs in a much more casual way that its straight-laced progenitor. One highlight is an extended sequence where Schmidt and Jenko are blitzed out of their minds and running amok around the school. Sex is referenced casually, and there are a couple of graphic moments played for laughs. Profanity is plentiful. Practically the only thing the film and TV show share is a penchant for over-the-top action sequences, which were a staple of the Stephen J. Cannell action shows. In the movie, Schmidt and Jenko get their share of chases and shootouts, though theirs are much, much funnier.

But what really impressed me about the movie, was how well Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum worked together, and how strong their dunderhead characters are. I haven't liked either of these actors in anything else, but here they show off solid comedic chops and have a real rapport. They had me significantly invested in the ups and downs of Schmidt and Jenko's partnership, which form the backbone of the movie and is the one thing that everyone takes completely seriously in the midst all the silliness. Similar partnerships in the original "21 Jump Street" were a big part of why I liked that show so much as a teenager. It was a nice touch that Schmidt and Jenko go undercover as the McQuaid brothers, the same aliases that Tom Hanson (Johnny Depp) and Doug Penhall (Peter Deluise) used back in the old days.

A long story short, this has been a good learning experience. There's at least one of these reboots or remakes that I write off every year that turns out to be great. This has been the best surprise so far. I can't say this is the best "21 Jump Street" reboot I could have hoped for, but it is the best comedic buddy movie I've seen in a long while, and the best teen comedy spoof. Heck, I think it's the best all-around R-rated comedy I've seen in a very long while.
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Good Grief, "God Bless America"

The premise of "God Bless America" makes for a great trailer. A sad sack middle aged man named Frank (Joel Murray) discovers that he has terminal cancer, he's been fired from his job, and he has nothing to live for. Moreover, he's plagued by the inescapable dregs of the American media, in the form of braying political pundits, soulless talent competitions, and entitled teenage princesses who melt down when their parents buy them the wrong car. The last one inspires Frank to take a road trip and put the offending brat out of everyone's misery with a bullet to the head. Soon he's on a cross-country rampage with a spunky teenage girl cohort named Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), gunning down every hatemonger they can find, with America's favorite nationally televised singing competition in their sights for a final showdown.

Sounds pretty fun, doesn't it? Well, yes and no. While the film delivers a little catharsis with every new kill – I especially enjoyed Frank and Roxy picking off rude theatergoers and running over homophobic protesters – the joy is fleeting. Frank is not some righteous crusader, but a deeply sad and misanthropic individual with a very skewed worldview. He's zeroed in on one thing that he believes is wrong with the world, and it's the meanness and selfishness of everything being broadcast on television and the radio. He sees it poisoning the behavior of everyone around him, from his awful neighbors to his own spoiled daughter. And pretty soon it becomes apparent that the point of "God Bless America" is not the violence or the mayhem, but giving writer and director Bobcat Goldthwait a platform to rant about the state of American popular culture.

Frank gets multiple monologues that are painfully didactic and unoriginal. He rails against "American Idol." He disabuses Roxy of the notion that all adult men are attracted to teenage girls. He pleads for a return to civility and decency, using over the top violence to get people to listen to him. Frank is a sympathetic figure, but also a terrible hypocrite, and the plot indulges him shamelessly, ensuring that he gets away with a staggering number of major crimes. Roxy's even worse. She has an endless list of people she'd like to wipe off the face of the earth for fairly minor faults. The anarchic look of glee on her face when she contemplates murdering everyone who has committed a pop culture sin is pretty disturbing. And her impassioned, out-of-nowhere declaration of her love for the music of Alice Cooper makes it pretty damn obvious that she was written with the sensibilities of a middle-aged man.

The film would have had more impact if it sent up these two, revealing the inherent flaws in their approach to the world, or maybe having them caught up in the very media circus that they despise. Instead, they end up playing out all the odd couple clichés of an older man on an unexpected road trip with a runaway teenage girl. And I'm sorry to say that they don't do them very well. Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr try their best, but it was never clear how they'd developed any kind of meaningful connection, or why the audience would have any reason to care about what happened to them. At times the contrivances around the two border on the ridiculous. Roxy tells a very obvious lie to get Frank to take her with him on the killing spree, and her presence at the finale makes no sense.

I admire Goldthwait for getting a film like this made, and agree with many of the sentiments behind it. However, I frequently see discussions online that contain all the same complaints, all the same fantasies of doing away with the Rush Limbaughs and the Fred Phelps and the "American Idols" of the world, along with those who empower them. They usually end the same way, with everyone agreeing that the status quo sucks, and affirming each other's wishful thinking. And that's what "God Bless America" is in the end – a stack of complaints about the way the world is going, trying to provoke its audience into self-awareness and outrage, but not really adding anything new to the conversation. And it doesn't hit hard enough to leave much of a lasting impression, the satire dulled by an overwhelming lack sense of sadness and futility. What's the point of Frank continuing his rampage if the movie itself acknowledges that all killing the hatemongers won't change a thing in the end?

"God Bless America" may be an attack on the American media, but its pandering and its sensationalism smack of the worst of the same media's excesses.
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