0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 8A Poehler 's 'Park' leases By DAVE REAP except Leslie. So instead of one- TV/New Media Editor on-one duels, we see four-, five- or six-against-one melees. And "Parks & Recreation" will while that sounds slightly cruel always be judged alongside "The in nature, it definitely generates Office" - that's an undeniable, laughs. irrefutable There's a fraternal bond truth. And it ** between those surrounding Les- makes sense lie; they all act like they care, "Parks" was Parks& humor her a bit and then when she created by Greg RSreation jollily turns the corner, they drop Daniels, execu- what they're doing and resume tive producer of Thursdays at something of actual importance. "The Office;" it 8:30 p.m. For instance, the colleague Les- uses the mock- NBC lie proclaims her right-hand man umentary style Tom (played brilliantly by Aziz "The Office" Ansari, "Observe and Report") is is celebrated for; it airs right charged with writing down Les- before "The Office" on Thursday lie's most memorable quotes on nights on NBC; and if that wasn't command so they can be included enough, one of its cast members, in her not-yet-written memoirs. "Watch what I can with this. D ragonball' devolves Liv( class of c With thy and v persona big-scre inthe p it was o ter of ti a class series suit. "E Evoluti lovablec from th includin more - e-action take on doesn't revive, however, is the spirit of the timeless cartoon. Unlike the iC cartoon is full show, there is little character devel- opment and the fight scenes are heap thrills and cheesy and slow. The plot centers on Goku (Jus- flaeCid fights tin Chatwin, "The Invisible"), an abnormal boy who can harness his By HANS YADAV "ki" (some sort of life force) but Daily Arts Writer can't fit into normal school life. Enter the newly escaped-from-ban- every remotely notewor- ishment green demon Piccolo, who superhero lays waste to everything in his path ideo-game as he searches for seven mysterious making a orbs known as Dragonballs. The en debut holder of all seven Dragonballs is astdecade, Diagonball granted one wish, so Goku, teamed nly a mat- Evolution with a few friends, goes on a quest me before to find the spheres and stop Piccolo. ic anime At Quality 16 Like most TV series translated into followed and Showcase a motion pictures, "Dragonball" Dragonball 20th Century Fox tries to include too much in too lit- on" revives tle time. Characters are introduced characters willy-nilly with little background e "Dragonball" TV series - supplement. ig Goku, Bulma, Piccolo and Much of the appeal ofthe cartoon in live-action form. What it was the intricate storyline coupled with the unique personalities each character brought to the manga. The movie should have focused on just a few important characters and taken the time to really flesh them out. That could have eliminated many of the half-assed introduc- tory scenes, thereby siphoning the extra time into a deeper, more lin- ear storyline. But the movie's biggest letdowns are its action sequences. Fans of the series know the frequent encoun- ters in the TV show between the forces of good and evil were epic and surprising. Contrastingly, the film contains few battles, and the battles it does have repeat them- selves. They all involve the same moves and CGI effects, neither of which look polished. The only thing missing as the characters fly across the screen is the wire suspending them in the air. The heavy green- screen usage is extremely apparent (like a certain instance when Goku hops across a very "real" lava flow), leaving many scenes looking doc- tored and amateur. Because there are only a hand- ful of real fighting scenes, much of "Dragonball" is boring filler. Each new line of uninspired and unnec- essary dialogue makes the hour- and-a-half long flick feel much longer than it rightfully should. The only slightly redeeming qualities of the movie are the striking Emmy Rossum ("The Day After Tomor- row") and relative newcomer Jamie Chung. Given the rest of the movie's shortcomings, it's not surprising that it uses the age-old technique of hiring charming starlets to com- pensate for its lack of substance. "Dragonball" will probably appeal to very few people - the fanboys, children under the age of 11 and most likely some randy, single men over 40. Future anime- based movies should learn from the atrocity that is this film, and hope- fully evolve into something worth watching. Rashida Jones, was featured prominently in the third season of "The Office." So for television critics and average Joe television junk- ies alike, "Parks" presents an intriguing question: Can a show that borrows so much establish its own identity? The answer to this question can't be communicated in black-and-white absolutes. While "Parks" unquestionably sports the feel of "The Office," the new faces - save Jones - help remind us what we're watch- ing. And at the forefront is dis- tinguished "SNL" alum Amy Poehler. As the main attraction, Poehler convincingly portrays the wonderfully oblivious optimist Leslie Knope, a low-level govern- ment official working at a Parks and Recreation Department inthe cradle of Midwestern boredom: Pawnee, Ind. Yes, "Parks" mostly takes place in an office, but this office is set up differently from the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin - and that's not a reference to the fur- niture, but the web of palpable personal relationships that per- vade it. The bread and butter of "The Office" is the clashing of signature personalities, whether it's between Dwight and Andy over the love of cat-aficionado Angela, or Michael and Stan- ley over Michael's stupidity. But the dynamic of "Parks" differs: Being a part of the Parks and Recreation Department is a joke, and everyone understands that Not quite 'The office. Yet, when asked, Tom doesn't actually write down anything Leslie says. He merely scribbles on a piece of paper to appease her. Similarly, the hunk at the work- place who Leslie thinks she's in a relationship with wants little to do with her. There's also the always-angered boss and the always-bored college intern, who, despite their differences, share a powerful disdain for the forever- cheery Leslie. So all that's new. Still, that pesky feel of "The Office" never quite goes away during "Parks," reminding us that while the show is no clone, it certainly isn't a beacon of originality. That's probably OK, though, and it almost doesn't matter; "Parks" is pretty much assured to get relatively high rat- ings. Its placement within NBC's Thursday night comedic jugger- naut lineup - which includes "My Name is Earl" and "30 Rock" as well as "The Office" - gives it a boost most television shows would kill for. So for the time being, the soul searching can go on hold, even though it seems "Parks" is already on its way to making a name for itself. At least as much as it possibly can within its restraints. 4 'Krod' is nothing but crud By TOMMY COLEMAN Daily Arts Writer In 2007, "Epic Movie" topped the box office charts. A year later, "Meet the Spartans" achieved the same feat. Both mov- ies were shoddily cooked up by throwing scenes from recent popu- Krod lar films of the epic fantasy genre Mandoon into a pot, mixing in some slapstick, a scoop of potty humor and a few and the tablespoons of pop culture refer- Flaing ences. And despite being ripped apart by critics, they enjoyed unde- SWord niable commercial success. of Fire Seeking to capitalize on the rat- ings that an epic-fantasy parody Thursdays at TV show could bring, Comedy 10:30 p.m. Central unveiled its newest addi- Comedy Central tion, "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire." Like its predecessors, "Krod" doesn't seem too wor- ried about its critical success. In fact, it's like "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" in every way (except there aren't any scenes pulled directly out of "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter" - or any other refer- encestopopculture, forthatmatter). Otherwise it'sthe same go-for-every-gag-possible routine, with the same sometimes-it's-funny-but-usually-it's-not result. In "Krod," a team of fighters is assembled to bring down an evil empire against impossible odds. Unfor- tunately, the actors playing the rebellious gang are lackluster at best. Krod (Sean Maguire, "Meet the Spartans"), plagued by a lack of self-confidence, is expected to lead the battle against evil. But when Maguire's unconvincing forehead-wrinkling look of concern never changes, it's apparent that he will bring little comedic value to the show. The legion of actors Maguire commands is equally lifeless. India de Beaufort ("Run, Fatboy, Run") plays Aneka, Krod's on-and-off girlfriend and a skilled Pagan warrior who gets Krod and his pals out of several hairy situations. But her contri- butions to the "humor" are nothing special, and it seems that she may have been brought on purely as eye-candy. One of the show's few comedic bright spots is the evil-but-incompetent Chancellor Dongalor (Matt Lucas, "Little Britain USA"), leader of the Meconian Empire. Whether he's sentencing those who doubt totalitarianism to torture or plotting to destroy a vil- lage with a weapon of mass destruction (known as the Eye of Gulga Grymna), his conviction that he's the best villain ever upstages even the most conceited evil rulers. There's something brilliant yet simultaneously disturbing about a man with this strength and will power prancing around like a schoolgirl and asking his assistant for fashion advice, occasionally showing off his blindingly pale thighs in his favorite feathery undergarment. Bringing another much-needed dose of humor to "Krod" are the British accents employed by Donga- lor and his minions. British accents are classically humorous, as seen with comedian Russell Brand and in other epic fantasy comedies like "Monty Python You'll laugh at the name, but that's it. and the Holy Grail." But the accents are pretty much the only genuinely funny element of the show apart from the villainous Dongalor. Everything else, like Krod walking into a support beam, feels forced and has been done before. "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" is plagued by a limp cast and an overuse of old and tired gags. When it's all said and done, the show's name may just be the funniest thing about it. "Jesus will lead me to my car keys. Malkovich shines in a sub-par film 4 By TIMOTHY RABB Daily Arts Writer Sometimes a film comes along that can amuse an audience with just a little bit of everything (a few laugh-worthy moments, a few sighs in the the- 7k* ater), but ulti- mately has no The Great lofty ambitions Buck Howard to transcend its predictability. At the Michigan A ripple in the Bristol Bay ocean of cine- ma, "The Great Buck Howard" ends, as T.S. Eliot might say, "not with a bang but a whimper." The plot follows a young law school dropout named Troy (Colin Hanks, "King Kong"), who takes a job as an assistant to the Great Buck Howard (John Malkovich, "Burn After Reading"), a washed- up mentalist who seems to be igno- rant of his own shameful state. In spite of Troy's initial misgivings, which stem primarily from Buck's volatility, he perseveres and even- tually witnesses Buck's resurgence to fame by way of an awe-provok- ing spectacle. Though a comedy shouldn't be expected to resort to ridiculous measures to elicit laughter, the movie doesn't make much of an effort at comedy at all, nor does it succeed in its attempt to adhere to the "inspirational" genre. In fact, the only cinematic aspect that even seems to indicate a moment's significance is the film's accompa- nying score. One need look no further than the production credits to see why the movie feels so familiar and overwrought. The film is produced by Tom Hanks, Colin Hanks's real-life father (Tom even cameos as Colin's father in the story). If you've seen "Shawshank Redemp- tion," "The Green Mile" or "For- rest Gump," expect this movie to be nothing more than a diluted version of these landmark produc- tions, with the all-too-familiar voi- ceover to boot. Colin Hanls plays his role satisfactorily, but does not venture beyond the constraints of the film or forge his own individ- ual personality as a character. It's unfortunate he didn't take advan- tage of his prominent role and showcase his acting talent. In spite of the movie's promi- nent flaws, the weight of the film's redundancy is countered by the superb theatrical abilities of its lead performer, John Malkovich. His obnoxious elitism manifests itself vividly onscreen to inject life and humor into what otherwise may have been a deadpan disap- pointment. Malkovich's personali- ty undergoes a seamless transition from the real world to the big screen whenever he appears in a movie; it's this genuine, raw dis- play of humanity that lends an endearing trademark to many of his films. Though totally forgettable due to its homogeneity, "The Great 'Howard' is a homogenous, deflated 'Gump.' Buck Howard"features alandmark performance by John Malkovich that is certainly worth your time. Malkovich proves he can bear the burden of a lead acting role in addition to compensating for the shortcomings of his more inexpe- rienced co-stars. The movie also alludes to Colin Hanks's poten- tial as an up-and-coming actor, though it certainly won't assure his stardom. If you're a fan of the inspirational comedy genre, "The Great Buck Howard" will keep you sufficiently entertained, albeit not amazed. "soon my Rogaine will be complete!"