The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, February 23, 2015 — 6A
‘Big Bang’ director
talks hit CBS show
Mark Cendrowski
discusses science’s
role in TV series
By ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
Late on Friday afternoon a
group of students gathered in
1400 Chem for the opportunity
to have Mark Cendrowski answer
their questions. Cendrowski, most
famous for being the lead director
on the well-known TV series
“The Big Bang Theory,” spent two
hours with students, answering
their questions about what it was
like to work in the highest-rated
comedy on television and in the
TV industry in general.
After talking about the large
mix of concentrations in the
room (the event was advertised
to people from everyone from
film majors to Physics majors),
Cendrowski discussed how the
physics community has embraced
and loved the show. The set also
has intense conversation about
science. Neil DeGrasse Tyson
was on the show right after he
debunked Pluto and got into a
heated debate with members of
the crew about the subject. He
was also proud of how the show
has led to a renewed interest in
physics at universities across the
U.S.
In an interview with The
Michigan Daily, Cendrowski also
discussed why he prefers to keep
the mood on the set light when he
directs.
“We play games all the time.
We don’t just come in and make it
the drudgery of work and make it
like a factory,” he said. “If you’re
having fun it’s easier to make
people laugh.”
Cendrowski spent most of the
event discussing his role in “The
Big Bang Theory,” everything
from the production process to
tales from the set. These included
some individual stories about
working with a few of the leading
actors. He spoke about his lengthy
conversations
with
Johnny
Galecki about his character, how
great he felt when Jim Parsons
thanked him in his Emmy speech
and how uplifting it was to watch
Kaley Cuoco blossom as an actress
during her eight years on the show
(she was only 20 when it started).
One of the highlights of the talk
was when he touched on some of
the guest stars that appeared on
the show. When he mentioned
working with comedy legend
Bob Newhart, Cendrowski said,
“I can’t believe I got to tell him
what to do.” One of the best was
the story of what happened when
Stephen Hawking appeared in
the season five episode, “The
Hawking
Excitation.”
They
didn’t know that he would be on
the show until two days before
going to Caltech to film the scene.
Hawking actually did all the
dialogue himself, using a motion
sensor in his glasses to speak. He
also attended a run through two
days later, where he saw Simon
Helberg’s character, Howard,
do an impression of his voice
(Helberg apologized profusely
afterward.)
Most
importantly
of
all,
Cendrowski talked about how
much he loves working on the
show.
“It’s an actual dream for what
any
director
goes
through,”
Cendrowski said. “To (be) on
a hit show that is funny, that
people still talk about, that wins
awards, it’s got all the elements.
And, there’s nice people. There’s
no prima donnas on the show.
They have been friends since
the beginning; they support one
another; they’re there for one
another and they’re professional.
There’s nothing more you can ask
for.”
In the interview, Cendrowski
shared why he loves sharing his
experience with students like he
did at the Q&A event.
“To me, it’s so invigorating,”
Cendrowski said. “I love giving
back. I love the idea of (it),
because I was in their seats one
time myself … I realized there’s
an appreciative value. I hear it
from all the teachers saying the
kids really appreciate it, someone
from the real world, someone
from this school that has made
it. They are hopefully as an
inspiration from them to do the
same thing.”
‘Hot Tub’ sequel a
mindless experience
By LAUREN WOOD
For The Daily
After the success of the first
“Hot Tub Time Machine,” it’s easy
to assume that the sequel would
know just how
to use its big
budget
and
array of stars to
come up with
a
predictable
but
likable
movie.
This
assumption
would
be
wrong.
The
film
opens
by
showing how far the group has
come since we’ve last seen them,
interviewing them on an “E! True
Hollywood
Story”-style
show
and cleverly skipping over the
often awkward summary that
sequels can be bogged down by.
We learn that the group of friends
has managed to use their previous
trip to 1985 for profit and fame,
with Lou (Rob Corddry, “The
Daily Show”) creating a number of
famous inventions, such as Google
(here called Lougle), Nick (Craig
Robinson, “The Office”) wrote hit
songs like “I’ve Got a Feeling,” and
Adam, (John Cusack, “Being John
Malkovich”) who is not present in
this film, apparently on a trip of
self discovery after he wrote a best
selling sci-fi novel about a hot tub
time machine. Only Jacob (Clark
Duke, “Greek”) is still struggling
to find his place, acting as a
butler to Lou in his New Orleans
mansion. At a party in that
mansion, Lou is shot (in the dick,
of course) by a mysterious figure
in a tuxedo, and the group must
time travel in to find the killer and
prevents Lou’s death.
The movie’s start is colorful and
fast-paced, demonstrating a fresh
self-awareness. The characters
are stupid and weird, and the
actors know this and attempt to
play to it. But this can only take a
film so far, and once the inventive
premise of a group of friends who
can do whatever they want in a
hot tub time machine wears off
(due, in part, to a serious over-
saturation of dick jokes) “Time
Machine 2” loses any credit its
few original moments grant it.
The appeal of the charismatic
cast offers the film some respite
but not nearly enough to keep its
audience engaged. At first, Adam
Scott (“Parks & Rec”) adds some
much needed innocence to the
group, but after a few scenes his
character is overpowered by the
repetitively crude hive mind,
and Scott’s sarcastic bite is lost.
The film does a disastrous job
navigating the line between brash
and clever humor that is the basis
for many R-rated comedies. And
the jokes themselves are not only
tiresome in subject matter but
rehashed ad nauseum.
For a film that relies so heavily
on mindless humor, the actual plot
line is unreasonably complicated.
The group is transported into the
year 2025, but this is the future
of an alternate present, and to
save Lou from being shot in 2015,
they must find the person who is
going to later use the hot tub in
2025 to go back and shoot him for
something his past self did in the
future … I think. Even the diagram
drawn into thin air using the
impressive futuristic technology
doesn’t offer enough clarification
to the storyline, and it’s easy to
tune out between the tiring jokes
and complex plot structure.
If I wasn’t already perplexed
enough by this movie’s unfunny
treatment
of
funny
jokes,
repetition of failed ones and
labyrinthine plot, the ending
scenes are what really convinced
me that “Hot Tub Time Machine
2” has got to be some sort of social
experiment about our tolerance
levels for good actors in awful
movies. With very little lead up,
the film goes sentimental and
shifts from 100 percent bro humor
to a 100 percent unexpected life
lesson about appreciating others
and learning to take risks on
love. Ellie Goulding kicks in out
of nowhere and there’s a lot of
solemn, unironic making-out
between the friends and love
interests we haven’t seen since
the opening scenes. Whereas
the film had been hanging out
in the realm of worst comedies,
it jumps dimensions (sans hot
tub) and decides to inhabit the
realm of overplayed love stories
as well.
PARAMOUNT
V-necks deepen but the plot doesn’t.
Rosie O’Donnell’s special
is ‘Heartfelt,’ personal
By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK
Daily Arts Writer
The phrase “comic relief” has
never carried more weight than it
does in Rosie O’Donnell’s recent
HBO
Docu-
mentary,
“A
Heartfelt Stand
Up.”
Gracing
the
spotlight-
ed
stage
for
the first time
in
20
years,
O’Donnell
(“The
View”)
has a new pur-
pose
for
her
comedy:
to
inform women
about the signs
and symptoms
of heart attacks, drawing from her
own nearly fatal attack in 2012.
Taking the medical statis-
tics into account, 52-year-old
O’Donnell shouldn’t have sur-
vived. She recounts that on a hot
mid-August day in New Jersey,
O’Donnell assisted an overweight
woman out of her car and soon
afterwards felt searing pain in her
upper arms. Dismissing the pain to
overexertion, she brushed it off —
until her state worsened. Her skin
scorched “hotter than I ever felt
during menopause,” her muscles
ached with overwhelming exhaus-
tion, her reflection was a clammy
ghost and nausea made it impos-
sible to stomach anything that her
then-wife, Michelle Rounds, gave
her. Yet like many women before
her, O’Donnell refused to call 911
on the grounds that she didn’t
want to cause a scene or snatch
the emergency vehicles away from
someone who “really” needed
them.
So she popped some aspirin
(which ultimately saved her life)
and stayed home, waiting over 50
hours until finally checking into
the E.R. At that point, O’Donnell
had 100 percent blockage in her
left descending artery (nicknamed
“the widow maker” of coronary
disease) — and she had lived a
whopping 40 hours longer than
any patient had before.
“I didn’t know I had a heart
attack, and I thought maybe the
reason I didn’t die was because
I have a public voice and I can
share the facts with everybody,”
O’Donnell reflects in “Heartfelt.”
In the aftermath of her heart
attack,
the
infamously
brash
banterer had a sort of humbling
revelation — though she had a
demanding lifestyle, a strained
relationship with her wife and
children as well as a genetic history
of cancer, she survived. To spread
the word, O’Donnell decided to
do what she does best — standup
comedy. Only this time with a very
real, very serious undertone.
The question is, should these
tasks be combined? Can a stand up
act really be heartfelt? The fact is,
comedians love to joke about death
and near-death experiences. Dark
comedy makes the audience just
uncomfortable enough to make it
a relief to laugh, knowing it’s all
a hoax — like when Betty White
played the grandmother in “The
Proposal” who faked her death to
expedite her grandson’s wedding.
As cynical as it sounds, death can
be funny if it’s not personal.
For O’Donnell, however, it is
personal. In her hour-long stand-
up act, the comedienne wears
her heart on her sleeve — no pun
intended — as she talks about
the struggles of raising five chil-
dren (she had the fifth, a toddler,
“Because I have four teenagers”),
the excitement of falling in love
again with Rounds (who proved
that “lipstick lesbians” actually
do exist), as well as her ongoing
obsession with Barbra Streisand.
Though O’Donnell is known for
her abrasive opinions and knee-
jerk comebacks, she somehow
becomes more human under the
spotlight, her eyes watery with
memories of her children when
they were “delicious” babies. This
doting mother act quickly snaps
back to farce, though, with a long
rant about circumcision.
Somewhere between explod-
ing about her eldest teenager’s
sex life and remembering the
ups-and-downs of her whirlwind
romance, O’Donnell finds her
somber purpose in the act’s final
20 minutes. Though she tries to
balance the severity of the issue
with her trademark sarcasm, there
is something off about her story.
Because on a stand-up stage, it’s
hard to tell farce from reality.
Death becomes the joke and the
joke becomes death, blurring the
lines of where to laugh and when
to listen. Comic relief certainly
lightens the issue — but should
heart disease be taken lightly?
HBO
She puts the lotion on the skin.
Visit the Daily Arts blog at www.michigandaily.com/the+filter.
TV INTERVIEW
FILM REVIEW
TV REVIEW
D
Hot Tub
Time
Machine 2
Rave and
Quality 16
Paramount
B-
Rosie
O’Donnell:
A Heartfelt
Stand Up
HBO
Documentary
Available on
HBO GO