Alias (TV)

Riding the wave of blah one hour television action "espionage" shows of the early 2000's, Alias is just another pulp, middle of the road nothing show complete with sloppy story lines, horrible acting and pathetic writers throwing about technical banter that wouldn't convince the local VCR repairman. The show lacks originality and is a poor substitute for many other shows in its same genre.

Jennifer Garner is particular poor in this series as the emotionally devoid star. Her blank facial expressions lead us to believe that she is a CIA zombie remotely controlled through satellite technology designed by one of their magical "hackers."

The show centers around the interactions between the US Government's Central Intelligence Agency and a fake CIA called SD-6 which is an unclear intelligence agency that has no clear sponsorship and interacts further with many competing intelligence agencies - none of which are government sponsored nor have any clear purpose. This show relies on viewers desires for their to be a complicated web of confusing "spy" networks without any objectives other than to be spy networks.

Overall, the show is viewable but its serial nature makes it much better to viewers who are prepared to devote a tremendous amount of time to the series which I strongly recommend against.

Get A Clue

If you are an all out Lindsay Lohan fan then you have been impatiently awaiting Disney's release of this made for television movie from the LL vaults. Lindsay made this film between Life Size and Freaky Friday. Get A Clue is Lindsay's least known film, even less popular than Life Size which was also a Disney made for television affair.

GAC follows the adventures of a high school newspaper gossip columnist and her friends as they attempt to solve a mystery of a disappearing school teacher. We are treated to the ridiculous sites and sounds of a teenage dream impression of New York City life as only Disney can bring us. The events are bizarre and completely unrealistic. Not that we have ever expected realism from Disney's made for TV movies.

As we have come to expect from later LL movies, Disney uses this movie as an opportunity to show us LL in a million bizarre outfits with changes coming in almost every scene. They even manage to weave the outrageous clothing into the very weak plot. Disney was banking on Lindsay's rising teen popularity when they made this movie and waited until her stardom was able to carry this movie completely to bring it to DVD. Nothing else could have saved this weak, weak movie. Fortunately, it is very short.

The bottom line is that this film is sort of cute but incredibly weak. LL fans will, of course, need to own it but it will never manage to be one of her classics and will always be a minor blemish on her record.

Good Morning Vietnam

GMV is a classic Vietnam war film that takes a very personal and offbeat approach to the conflict. Robin Williams stars in what may be his greatest ever role playing the part of radio DJ Adrian Cronour [sp] who is brought to Saigon early on in the ever escalating war in order to elevate troop morale. The movie also features a young Forest Whitaker who is, as always, enjoyable. Williams shows us some of his funniest material but manages to put that comfortably into the context of a very dramatic film.

Few Vietnam War films look at the early days of US Police Action and few stay as far away from the actual action. The perspective is fresh and important. Anyone interested in Vietnam War films has to have this movie in their collection. A true classic both as a film and as a Robin Williams showcase. If any single movie put him on the map, it was this film. Even though he was known widely prior to GMV, he was not in possession of credibility as an actor until GMV showed us how he could handle the other side.

Barry Levinson does an incredible job directing and many of the scenes of Vietnam are just amazing. We really get a feel for the people who lived there and we begin to see the war as existing in a personal context for someone other than just the US and its allies. Traditionally, we are shown a war devoid of a personal enemy but here we see a little of the people that we were supposedly sent to help.