1. Knocked Up (2007)
Yesterday I went to see Knocked Up at the movie theater. The story of a one-night stand leading to pregnancy and a deft look at male/female relationships, this was the best Dramedy I can recall since Thirtysomething started the genre twenty years ago (Thirtysomething...I used to love that show!). In fact, other than the raunchy humor the movie reminded me a lot of that classic TV series of Adults trying to squeeze in work, family and their personal dreams in the most neurotic ways possible short of Woody Allen.
The movie holds up well both as comedy and drama. The humor has all the elements Judd Aptow's previous film, The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) had in terms of creating likeable and realistic characters to channel his jokes through. Seth Rogan stars as the unintentional slacker father and gives a freewheeling performance that seems to shoot dialogue off the cuff. Like Virgin, Rogan teams up with Paul Rudd and a group of other actors to riff off of pop culture jokes and lewd behavior. Katherine Heigel gives a good performance as the pregnant single career woman, though she falls a little short of making me believe she wants to be with Rogan past one night. As with most comedies, the jokes begin to fall off towards the end but Aptow does a good job of allowing the characters to grow enough for the audience to care about them. All in all, Knocked Up is the rare comedy that is actually funny while creating amiable, realistic characters.
2. Bon Jovi - Lost Highway (2007)
Continuing the path started on the previous Have A Nice Day (2005) album, Bon Jovi goes to Nashville on this Country tinged album. Jon Bon Jovi is one of those select group of performers whose main talent is to read the cultural landscape and then find a way to tap into it (Madonna and Prince both have this talent as well). With CMT and modern country taking on a rock edge, it was only natural that Bon Jovi take the step to countrify their sound. For the most part, it works as Jon Bon Jovi's voice always projects clinched teeth sincerity and had been writing about how he's a cowboy for years. The rave up rockers adapt the best, as Bon Jovi's standard lyric imagery about gettin' out, bustin loose, taking that last chance to come out on top, etc. is normal for Country music. The ballads are a little trickier because more attention is placed on Jon Bon Jovi's limited vocal range, particularly slow moving ones like "(You Want To) Make A Memory" and "Seat Next To You". The team ups with current Country performers come across as over heated and incincere (The Leann Rimes duet "Stranger" and the Big & Rich party anthem "We Got It Going On") Along with this change in direction is a slight loss of identity, as much of the band's performance (Richie Sambora especially) becomes indistiguishable from any other Country CD. In the end, it won't matter as CMT is always looking to welcome a mainstream rock band into its ranks. Bon Jovi will become a successful Country Rock band, even if they fall just short of Flameworthy.
3. Flight of the Conchords -on HBO
Tonight I watched the amusing, off beat Flight of the Conchords. The movie chronicles the fictional lives of two real New Zealand folk singers in New York. The Conchords offer up folk rock with silly, literate lyrics and Prince style vocals. The show works hard to be as quirky as the title duo and mostly succeeds. Best of all, the singers will break into song in the middle of a dramatic scene as if they're in a musical of their own making. The true winning moment of the first episode occured in this fashion, as the singer breaks into song after being dumped by Rachel Blanchard. The song, intentionally over emotive about seeing the man Cry, manages to parody the videos for Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and Godley & Creme's "Cry" while still holding onto it's main narrative of the guy getting dumped. Flight is not gut bustingly funnylike Knocked Up, but it is engaging and entertaining just the same.
Well, it's time to post this bad boy and go to sleep.
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