evilcritic

I had a chance to catch this pilot yesterday and being a die-hard T2 fan i was very impressed.

Firstly the pilot does dissolve the continuity of T3 almost instantly, yet does it in a way that shows exactly how that film could have been better (for the record, I did enjoy T3 tho). Headey does a first rate job as Sarah, capturing the "weight-of-the-world" angle of the character extremely well despite looking at least ten years too young for the part. Dekker does a decent job as John but is given very little to do in the pilot, that is somewhat counteracted however by hints of what's to come for the character - a look into exactly what sort of life he has in store as far as the real world goes. Summer Glau meanwhile steals the show as Cameron (terrible in-joke with that name by the way), playing the new Terminator as oddly lovable yet traditionally stone-faced simultaneously and even managed to deliver the classic line "Come with me if you want to live" in a matter befitting a good old fashioned cheer.

The storyline is very good if a tad more traditionally sci-fi than we're used to with this franchise - going to so far as to include actual time travel. Although it's a stretch to include this, it doesn't feel particularly forced and works rather well as the device for setting up a series (as well as clearing up the chronology finally, should T3 ever be worked into the continuity again). It is also worthy of note that the pilot i saw included the scenes now stated as being rewritten for the premiere in January (the school shootout). A great sequence in the pilot i saw, I don't think their alteration will really hurt the finished pilot too much.

A first rate pilot for what i hope will be an extremely good series.

Reviewing Serenity to someone who's completely unfamiliar with Joss Whedon's short-lived series "Firefly" is essentially like trying to describe the taste of Pepsi to a new-born child. A witty comedy-ridden action-thriller series set in a futuristic space-western, Firefly followed the exploits of a Firefly-class vessel named Serenity. It's crew – a band of guns for hire, smugglers and thieves who took in a pair of fugitives on the run from the evil Alliance. Sound a lot like Star Wars? Nah, it's a whole new ballgame.

Six months after the events of the Firefly episode "Objects In Space", the crew of Serenity have fallen on harder times than ever. Their continued protection of River and Simon has started to severely affect their income and after a particularly hair-raising encounter with the Reavers (think Space-cannibals), the Tam's take their leave of Serenity.

But when River's abilities begin to advance quicker than ever and an Alliance assassin begins to track her, it's up to Captain Mal Reynolds and the rest of the Serenity crew to get to the bottom of the Alliance's interest in young River once and for all.

Simply put, Serenity is incredible. A film that truly pulls off the balancing act of being funny, intelligent, exciting and in parts even quite tragic, Writer/Director Joss Whedon has crafted a true winner.

Non-fans of Firefly can expect a Star Wars/Indiana Jones-esquire roller-coaster that takes an admittedly clichéd concept and works it into part of an elaborately made sci-fi/mystery/thriller without equal. Firefly fans however can expect not just the same, but also both the perfect swansong to a fantastic series AND the set-up for could be the greatest franchise sci-fi has seen since y'know what.

Each performance is subtley brilliant although some may complain that several of the supporting characters are criminally underused. Having said that though, this is Nathan Fillion's film. Halfway between being a typical Whedon character and a sort of Indiana Jones/Han Solo hybrid, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is quite a close contender for one of sci-fi's all time greatest characters. Hardened by the Alliance's continued threat, Reynolds is not the captain we left off from in Firefly, this new Reynolds is tougher and more willing to sacrifice an innocent if it means protecting his crew (or "me and mine" as he would phrase it). Fillion delivers a performance that simply HAS to evoke Harrison Ford comparisons with all of his own subtle nuances and best of all - his ingenious way of taking a beating.

The SFX are as good as they ever were on Firefly, and although the franchise has now transitioned up to the big screen it was nice to find that the Western-score had been kept.

Whedon surprisingly is quite a slick yet intense director, it's quite evident from Serenity that he obviously can handle a project of this scale. Having said that however, there are at least five very badly executed camera pushes throughout the film that although not quite as bad as any of George Lucas's work, are still a little cringeworthy. But anyone familiar with the Whedonverse knows that his strength lies not in his directing but in his writing. Serenity proudly boasts what can only be referred to as one of the best scripts written for any film in the last two decades. Every line is golden. From Kaylee's remark on her "nethers" to Mal's utterly fantastic delivery of "I aim to misbehave", the script is superb and any comedy director worth his salt should honestly give Adam Baldwin a starring vehicle for his quite evident fun with most of the funniest lines.

The look of the film is quite unique as well. Although it follows the look of the series quite well, it adds an epic-depth to it that really does draw one into the piece. Serenity IS a real ship in this incarnation as opposed to a set. That kitchen IS a kitchen. The cockpit…you get the idea. The conversion of TV shows to the big screen always tries to up the ante with it's look and more often than not fails (stand up Chris Carter, you know you torched The X-Files with that film…). In this era of cinematic television, it's nice to see one true visual success.

Although non-fans can enjoy Serenity, ultimately a fan who knows the series (and the comics that fill in the TV-to-movie void) quite well will enjoy it with a different level of depth. I saw this film with four friends, only one of whom had seen the show besides me and yet shockingly all five of us loved it beyond repair.

See this film, see it right gorran now!

After years of producing endless fly-on-the-wall crap, Reality TV has finally produced something worth seeing in the form of I'm With Busey.

The premise is simple : Adam De La Pena is a comedy writer who grew up worshiping Gary Busey. So Busey takes young Adam under his wing and shows him life and the world through the eyes of Busey.

Admittedly the initial appeal of the program hinges largely on well you know Gary Busey. If like me you thought he was the high point of Point Break, then the show simply suckers you in and doesn't let up. On the other hand I initially caught the program with a friend of mine who had no idea whatsoever who Busey was and simply found him entertaining as hell. The truth is that simple - Busey is clinically insane. Not in a threatening-to-humanity sort of way, but in a Doctor-Cox-from-Scrubs sort of a way. The man is not only funny, violent, arrogant, interfering, impulsive, brash, rude and childlike, but he somehow manages to be most of these things at the same time. Don't let this fool you into thinking he's evil or anything, he's not - he's just funny as hell to see going through his motions.

To add more humour to the mix, Adam De La Pena is the polar opposite of Busey. He lives constantly in fear of anything even remotely risky and as such becomes the witless foil for old Busey on many many occasions.

Busey shows Adam a lot of different aspects of life through his eyes - dating ("Adam, tell her 'I like your scent'"), technology ("One day technology's gonna be developed that can kill your mother"), death ("You're not gonna be conscious when you die, so what's to be afraid of?"). From cooking roadkill, to absurd poetry, breaking up childhood friendships, making an enemy of Andy Dick, the show never lets up. The sight of Busey physically assaulting an organic vegetable delivery man is positively the funniest thing you'll see in years.

There is some talk of the show being more scripted than reality-based and although I agree that the final episode of the series (featuring Andy Dick) just screams "set up" the rest of the episodes are simply too insidiously twisted and darkly comical to be scripted. If De La Pena HAD legitimately scripted the show then quite frankly he'd be one of the best comedy writers in the business and he'd be an idiot for not admitting it.

Good show, good "characters" and more importantly good Busey.