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Reviews
Ordinary Magic (1993)
What the hell is "satyagraha"?
Or in other words, where in hell was the local press? The hunger fast went on for days and days, but it was nearly a full week before the one, single TV reporter on scene managed to get the pronunciation right, so apparently there were no stories explaining that Our Hero, nicknamed for a Hindu god, was attempting the kind of non-violent resistance that Mahatma Gandhi waged so successfully against the British Empire? Hint: Fasting and sitting-in were not the only means he used; Gandhi was also big on protest marches to take his campaign directly to the opposition. Pacificism does not mean passive-ism.
So it's only a story, not something particularly related to the real world-- and not just because the Good Guys win. That said, it is also thoroughly entertaining. For one thing, Ryan Reynolds says was only 14 when they were shooting major segments in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), though his character is supposedly 15 and raised in India (and he was 17 in 1993 when the picture was released. While he spends a surprising amount of time without a shirt, he's still just a kid with improvable teeth and not yet the romantic silver screen success he became later. He could, however, definitely act even then. While young enough to hold a number of difficult yoga postures, Ryan's craft is strong enough that he can sell an Indian accent successfully, and to be convincing alien from being raised in another cultural world entirely.
Actually raised in the Toronto area, which is where the bulk of the story was shot, Reynolds's only previous screenwork was on a Nickelodeon series shot in Florida with fellow Canadian, and later romantic link, Alannis Morisette. Villainous Paul Anka, a former teen idol who does not seem to get mentioned in the cast list on this site, is a fellow countryman. That all gives gives me a good feeling, though none of the non-US factors may interest anyone else.
In the same way, I was thoroughly annoyed by the absence of newspapermen, of any attempt to get publicity for the protest or to whip up support, the lack of outrage from anyone over either the potential destruction of what should be a town landmark built by one of its leading early citizens, or the economic catastrophe for the town and many of its individual citizen investors when the entire megaproject is threatened, along with the loss of profits from the promised flood of international tourists. None of such pesky details and considerations get in the way of this fairly simple-minded story.
And while such a casual connection to the actual world irritated me, probably none of that matters if all you want is some time pleasantly idle on your tension-free way to the guaranteed "feel good" ending. You could do definitely do worse than spend awhile with one of today's most attractive leading men and appreciating the chance to enjoy his work as an unknown starring as the lead in the very first motion picture he ever made.
Kyle XY (2006)
Just Watched 3-Season Marathon
I liked Kyle XY a lot, and had a good time watching compulsively like gobbling so much popcorn, but I do have a few issues I wanted to air.
First, I had trouble figuring out how old everyone is supposed to be. These have to be the oldest high school frosh in history, older even than the geriatric brigade at West Beverly High in that other TV series, Nine Oh Too Damn Old. Kyle appears at age 16, but is the adorable actor is 24 yrs old in real life. Josh, the brother in the family, is played by another fine actor, eight years younger in real life, making his teenage awkwardness fairly credible, at least at first.
After a while, though, these young folk all exhibit a level of maturity only possible in fiction. Which is fine with me, since the story lines were intricate and carefully woven together to the point where I did not even particularly mind the inconsistencies and plot problems. For one small example, very early on when Stephen has to fire a number of people, he says he will handle it. Guess he must have, because the topic never came up again, rather to my disappointment.
And did I just miss the home inspector's connection to everything. Seems like this character appeared more than once, but all I really know is that she faded from my awareness, and I have no idea whether her absence was part of the script. There certainly was enough going on, that even with the "Previously on" intros each week, it must have been really hard to keep track at the rate of one show a week over a three-year period. Eventually, they even forgot about Foss, except as occasional deus ex machina.
There were annoying inconsistencies. If Kyle can solve grossly complicated equations in his head, he has no need to write anything down to solve a substitution cipher no one beyond grade school would use it to encrypt anything anyway).
Such a brainiac does not need to download anything onto a flash drive when they can read and remember the entire contents, verbatim, of an entire multi-volume encyclopedia. Why swim for an emergency rescue when you can run across the water's surface? And so on.
Super senses that allow eavesdropping on your neighbors do not require lurking outside someone's room, and the ability to see outside the visual spectrum means you never have to worry much about whether you are alone, who is in a building and where, and so on.
One ongoing schtick is misunderstanding of colloquial terms and slang, yet if Kyle can learn Chinese and martial arts by imitation of a single movie, a weekend spent watching everything on NetFlix at high-speed would fix things, just as his quick study of prom night did.
Similarly, there is the whole sex thing. Apparently no one ever tells Kyle about the birds and bees, how the male body behaves, or why everyone does not run around naked. Josh seems about to explain the purpose of pornography at one point, but later it seems he never did. Thus, at a time when he initiates general family mortification over his masturbation jokes-- the kind all teenage boys make to their parents, right?-- Kyle is still clueless.
Which is fine. But while much is made of Kyle not needing sleep, later it turns out that he needs his ZZZ's as much as the rest of us. Well, okay, even Homer nodded.
Perhaps that is nitpicking. What really got me though was when I discovered the Kyle XY Drinking Game, my own invention. For a while I was aggravated that No One EVER seems to enter a room in that house, whether the door is closed or not, by asking permission instead of just barging in and finding someone naked, making out, or otherwise inconveniently surprised. For all the shrink's talk of boundaries and empathy for others, this simple act of thoughtfulness, would have eliminated a large number of plot developments right off the bat.
One drink per barge-in; two if there was a knock first.
Then there is the dialogue. Most of the following sentences (and their close variations) appear multiple times per episode. One drink for each:
I promise.
I'm sorry.
This is my fault.
Trust me.
It won't happen again.
Our/your/my family
Are you okay?/I'm okay./She's okay....
My concern all the way through was that the epic would come to an abrupt end without everything being wrapped up, but was relieved to find most major issues were sufficiently sorted to be satisfactory, even if not ultimately resolved-- such as the major plot development introduced at the very end. The main thing left was to finish off the villainy, but even that was mostly addressed.
I didn't mind the several food fights. It was fun that some episodes were basically played as comedy or farce, with the heavy lifting left in the background for a while. Otherwise, maybe the concept here was not esp. new, but it was well done, the characters interesting, the actors all believable AND attractive.
And so, the marathon ended, with me now grousing about details that really don't matter so much as the twists and turns of the ongoing saga as it unspooled. Gonna miss the old gang down at The Rack. Fortunately, I anticipate much fun to be had following up on some of these actors to see where there lives and careers go from here. Best of luck to all of them.