spenshel2 Reviews

Serendipity (2001)

An hour and a half of ridiculous romantic rubbish

[31 August 2003]

What were they thinking when they made this movie? Were they thinking at all? It's as if they churned it out of the formula romantic comedy mill, then decided it was still too fresh and original, so they ran it through again. Serendipity throws every known romantic comedy cliche at the audience with dizzying speed, finally concluding with the unavoidable happy kissing scene. This movie is intended for hopeless romantics (like the woman who dragged me to it) who will happily sit through an hour and a half of pointless nonsense for the happy kissing scene at the end. And did I mention the happy kissing scene? The trailer had an intriguingly romantic premise--two people supposedly destined by fate to be together--which could have been made into an intriguing romantic movie. Looking back, I can see that this "high concept" was merely intended to lure hopeless romantics into the movie. Instead of living up the promise of this idea, Serendipity turned out to be just another cookie-cutter romantic comedy, and then some. The biggest, largest, hugest mistake the movie made was to make Cusack and Beckinsale engaged to supporting characters. The movie would have been much, much more palatable if they had been lonely and searching. The central part of the movie involves Cusack and Beckinsale walking, driving, and flying around in a desperate race against time to find each other before they have to get married to somebody else. This race against time is ultimately meaningless, because Cusack jilts his girlfriend at the altar--off screen! Cusack's girlfriend and Beckinsale's boyfriend simply disappear from the movie! They must have been heartbroken, but since they are the obligatory supporting characters who have to be discarded so that the romantic leads can get together, their feelings don't matter and the audience shouldn't be burdened with them. It's an outrageous cheat on the part of the writers. And by the time Cusack finds the copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" with Beckinsale's name and phone number in it, and Beckinsale finds the five-dollar bill with Cusack's name and phone number on it, they have already spent half the movie trying to find each other, so what's the point? At the end of the movie, after Cusack lies down on a skating rink and lets snowflakes fall into his mouth in a scene with no apparent purpose except to showcase his cuteness, Beckinsale finds him, they tell each other their names to be sure they have the right person, and then they immediately start kissing, even though they spent only one evening together five years ago. After all, now that they've found each other, there's no point in continuing the movie; the requirements of the formula have been satisfied. Please, for the sake of humanity, if you want to watch Serendipity, watch the one with the pink sea serpent.

Arthur (1996–2022)

Almost the first great crossover kid's show, but not quite

[22 June 2003]

My siblings who have children exposed me to Arthur, and the intelligent dialogue, clever parodies, and fleshed-out characters got me interested. Now that I have seen nearly all the episodes, however, I find it doesn't stand up to closer examination. The writers often make drastic character changes to get the stories they want, temporal consistency is nonexistent (I even found a case where a character was in two different cities in two different episodes set on the same day), and the B-list characters don't get justice at all. Instead of giving the minor characters the screen time and development they need, the writers simply stuff in more and more characters who have to compete for less and less time. But the worst thing about the show is the character Prunella. She is not a member of Arthur's third-grade class, but seems to have no life outside of it. She was in Mr. Ratburn's class the previous year, which would presumably make her a fourth-grader; however, nothing is ever mentioned about her fourth-grade class, and we never meet anyone else from it. She appears to be involved with anything and everything that Arthur's class does. I looked at some of the old picture books for an answer to this riddle, but this only resulted in more confusion, as she alternates in the books between Arthur classmate and Ratburn veteran. This is a glaring oversight on the part of the show writers, but they will probably never correct it since Prunella is on the B-list. I also discovered that Sue Ellen and Fern, who have never been given a real chance on the show, were introduced in the book series before screen hog Muffy. Sue Ellen, who has lived all over the world with her diplomat parents, is the most inspired character on the show, but has been reduced to a foil for Muffy's whining. And Fern is so neglected that her mother has appeared only once, and her father not at all. But these are minor problems compared to the vast, smoking crater on the face of the show which is Prunella.

Arthur (1996–2022)

"Arthur" is the new "Peanuts"

[17 January 2003]

Don't let the PBS Kids label fool you--"Arthur" is really a show for grownups that children can enjoy as well. The writers constantly throw in witty cultural and pop cultural references that the kids (and many adults) don't catch. Here's an incomplete list of references/spoofs from the latest season (7) alone:

"Alan Greenspaniel" extolling the virtues of the "sock market" The famous artist "Andy Warthog" Dr. Phil MacGraw "Waiting for Godot" (Binky and Brain wait a long, long, long time to be picked up, while subsisting on carrots and turnips) A combined "Back to the Future"/"Bill and Ted" spoof N'SYNC Muffy the Vampire Slayer And everybody's favorite, Harry Potter.

Not to mention appearances by Larry King, the Backstreet Boys, and those guys from Car Talk. Seriously, it's becoming the "Simpsons" of public TV.

Some notable moments from previous seasons (again, incomplete):

A Teletubbies spoof that has them reciting Shakespeare. The poet William Carlos Williams shouting, "Free verse! Free verse!" "I am educational...I am educational..." "Is there someone inside your head watching everything you do on TV?" "The Contest"...a tour de force featuring spoofs of South Park, Dexter's Lab, and WWF. Bionic Bunny vs. Elias Howe. Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Redman in the same episode. The Spinach Heads. "Nancy Drew gets criminals to confess by wearing attractive pastels." Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde Hyde Jekyll... "It's like being dead, only there's homework." Hound. James Hound. "Initials? That's it? Didn't you give the kid a full name?" Buster's "Planet of the Apes" reverie. An introductory narration directly lifted from Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein" ("This story will thrill you and shock you...").

This show is great fun for everyone. I hope the high level of quality continues, and that the writers continue to come up with great ideas.