Zalis

Out of the four seasons commercially available in the U.S., Sailor Moon Super S is often regarded as the worst or second worst. I won't argue with the reasoning of the naysayers, because they've got a point. The series does suffer for its focus on Chibi-Usa, and the often unimpressive "Remless" contribute to a "Monster of the Day" syndrome in many episodes. There aren't a lot of the filler episodes that focus on the inner senshi and their development, which I miss, and let's not even talk about the "little elephant" incident.

However, a lot of elements are quite strong. The philosophy on dreams, while repetitive, is fairly interesting, and the adulthood/growing up themes resonate in my ancient twenty-two year old soul. There's also some interesting episodes concerning music and art. The soundtrack retains some classic tracks, and the first ending song, especially when used within episodes, always gets an emotional reaction. (Especially in #31, "The Secret of Pegasus! The Handsome Guardian of the Dream World," where Chibiusa becomes an adult and Usagi becomes a child.) Although, the second ending song is quite forgettable. Even though Nehelenia and Zirconia are not that interesting, the main henchmen (the Amazon Trio & the Amazonness Quartet) are decently fleshed out, and become sympathetic characters by the time their "Stage Out" comes along.

So, even though Super S isn't the best, it's still worth watching if you like to see a lot of cute moments interspersed with the standard SM action, romance, and love/friendship celebrating that we've come to know and love. Nevertheless, I should say that my positive comments only apply to the Japanese version. Not only have I not seen the English version, but my theory is that if the Japanese version was weaker than the other seasons, the English will certainly be very bad. The English voice of Chibiusa, in particular, is somehow even more annoying than she was in R.

My perception of "The Hot Chick" was quite similar to my perception of Schneider's earlier film, "Deuce Bigalow: Male Giggalo." It's a comedy that's not the greatest, with some good and funny moments in a sea of overdone, lowest-common-denominator humor. The movie did a good job satirizing the trappings and formalities of high school and the behaviors of teenaged girls and guys. As other reviewers pointed out, it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't more shown of Rachael McAdams as she attempted to play a male character. It would have added a little more balance to the plot. At many moments, I felt like the movie could have had potential to do better, but decided to take the low road or carry a gag too far. For instance, the scene where she's listening to her dad talk about his marriage would have been good if they hadn't started going into too many details. . .the restroom scene was a little too much. . . and in general, they could have had Jessica starting to respect people outside her own race and class a little more. Anna Faris also puts in a good turn as Jessica's best friend, and the quasi-lesbian romance is rather interesting. Still, I got the suspicious feeling that the movie was a vehicle for Rob Schneider to have pillow fights with relatively young actresses, and I recommend that you do something else, like ironing, while watching it.

Great Expectations '98 was a decent film on some levels--the cinematography of the Florida scenes, particularly the crumbling mansion; the acting was reasonable, for the most part, and that first kiss scene had me "aww"ing like a Full House audience. However, even though I've never read the book (see location above), I still got the feeling that it was being heavily distorted and bastardized in the transition to film. I have some inclination to read the book, but maybe I should just watch the old film instead.

P.S. I'm glad someone else noticed the Bryan Adams lyric use.