11.22.63

By: Robert Murphy

One of the biggest conspiracies in American history has revolved around the John Kennedy assassination that shook the nation to it's core. It was an unbelievable tragedy, but years later there are still many different ideas about what actually happened on that day. People always question whether or not it was actually done by the shooter that they arrested, Lee Harvey Oswald, or whether there were bigger elements at play. Was the CIA somehow behind it? Was there a second shooter? Or was it even Oswald? And while I've never been one to get wrapped up in all of the crack pot theories, this new series from the mind of Stephen King peeked my interests. 

The story revolves around an interesting take on time travel when longtime diner owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper) reveals to the recently divorced English teacher Jake Epping (James Franco) that he has discovered a portal to 1960. Simply by walking into the pantry closet of Al's diner will transport anyone back to this era and for years he has tried to stop the assassination of one our most famous presidents but with no success. His last passage through has left him a doddering old man with cancer and unable to try and continue his work in the past. So he hands the task on to Jake knowing that he doesn't have too much longer in this world and since Jake was eager for a fresh start, who better to continue on where he left off.

Events of the story though feel more centered around Jake than his overall goal to stop the Kennedy assassination from happening. Naturally so since it will be three years before the fated day when Kennedy gets shot and the show compensates for this quite well. Jake spends much of the first year getting the lay of the land and learning just why Al has failed so many times before him. Time itself wants to happen in this world, it has a set path that does not want to be tampered with. This becomes painfully clear when Jake goes through the worst case of diarrhea in his life, one of the high points of time travel humor to come out of the series. But, Jake's early attempts at altering time lead him to learn some harsh lessons and while he succeeds at altering one life in his future it still took an immense amount of effort to overcome. So what will it be like when he tries to alter a huge point in history like the one between Oswald and Kennedy?

As Jake slowly makes moves to get close to Kennedy and Oswald various dangers pop up for him such as vivid hallucinations and random events preventing him from trying to learn the truth about what is to come. Music in a room will get louder so he can't hear a conversation, a flaming drink will nearly burn his entire arm up, a car will come crashing through a phone booth he was using, these just to name a few. The most bizarre of these occurrences comes when a seemingly average homeless man appears wherever Jake ends up. Perhaps he is an agent of time itself or just another time traveler but it really is never fully explained why he focuses so much on Jake or how he possess the abilities he has despite a brief explanation to what he is after in a later episode. It comes off as the rantings of a mad man more or less and made the character feel less effective than I thought he would end up being. 

These time occurrences also effect those Jake becomes closest to in the 1960's. Despite the warnings left by Al before he left Jake becomes extremely close to a number of people during this era. Some were bit players who never got in on the grand scheme of things but they still played their parts wonderfully such as Deke Simmons and Mimi Corcoran. But even more exceptional were those who learned that Jake was a time traveler on a mission to save the future. Early on Jake reluctantly takes the help of Bill Turcotte (George MacKay) who is searching for something to believe in after losing his sister and having Jake come along with this mission to save the president was just the thing. Bill unfortunately suffers the most after Jake starts to lead double lives with another character Sadie (Sarah Gadon), leaving him to do most of the grunt work while he is away. But this also leads him to get increasingly close to our potential assassin Oswald (Daniel Webber) and his neglected wife Marina (Lucy Fry). It becomes a tangled web of mystery as Bill wanders dangerously close to Oswald without Jake ever realizing the two had become fast friends. Could he have been a second shooter? It cannot be risked.  

As for Oswald himself, the story never quite makes it all the mystery it is cracked up to be. Jake struggles to uncover the truth as to whether or not he is the real killer or not, simply because he does not want to harm an innocent man for no reason. However, the story doesn't give credence to any other potential killers out there. There is some speculation with the CIA and agents are constantly revolving around Oswald for some unknown reason. The story almost makes it seem like it's their fault in the first place that Oswald shoots JFK without ever really going into the "why" that is on everyone's minds. Oswald never really pops either and I feel the story had trouble shifting focus from Jake back onto Oswald especially in the final episode when all caution is thrown to the wind and the assassination needs to be stopped.

In any case, James Franco's commanding on screen performance sucked me in to the story as I learned of the many details surrounding the life of the man that killed a president. There is genuine intrigue throughout the entire story as to finding out what did or didn't happen during the months leading towards JFK's death, even though Oswald himself never quite stands out as a character you fear or want to get an understanding for. He talks about Marxism one minute and then his rights as an American the next and it makes him feel like a jumbled up mess of ideas. As for time traveling back to 1960's, it is handled in an engaging manner and the concepts of time "pushing back" make things even more difficult for Jake and those trying to help him. It gives those out there who would think time traveling back and changing one thing for the better would be so simple and have them think twice about the effects it may have on themselves and the future.

Good:

- James Franco was on top of his game

- Characters were all engaging no matter how short a time spent on them

- Concepts of time travel and time fighting back felt fresh

Bad:

- Oswald and the mystery around him didn't pan out

- The mystery man following Jake throughout the story was a bust in the end

Scully Rating: 7.8 out of 10

The Interview

By: Robert Murphy 

Despite all the hype and controversies over the latest love child of James Franco and Seth Rogan, I had every intention of seeing the movie for myself before it became the scandal for the end of 2014. After watching it though you will feel the sensation that you were expecting to get from it and that is the sheer idea that a movie like this caused such a fuss to begin. Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogan) plays side kick and long time producer to the TV celebrity gossip show, Skylark Tonight, the host of which is none other than Dave Skylark (James Franco). The two have created a successful life for one another but it isn't till the celebration of their 100th show that Aaron feels like he's just creating smutty nonsense for the star studded masses. Seeing this disgust effect his friend prompts Skylark to do some research and try to give him a real chance for a real interview and the lucky winner just so happens to be the world's most infamous name at the moment, Kim Jong-Un. The leader of North Korea turns out to be a big fan of the American television scene and Dave Skylark is one of his favorite people to watch, leading the two on a journey for the possibly the interview of the century. 

The mission turns into a spy comedy quickly though once the CIA contacts Aaron and Dave to assassinate the leader during their trip, the idea of which is funny enough to think about but is rather short lived. The expected happens from here on out, the two will likely screw up a few times along the way and that Dave being the simple minded one will fall for Kim Jong-Un. Yes, a bromance like Rogan's and Franco's forms between the world leader and talk show host and they go around enjoying the finer things of North Korea, hot woman, drugs and alcohol. Making the story out to be the idea that Kim is just a bro who is stuck in a bad situation and one who maybe just needed a good friend and also have his daddy love him a little more when he was growing up. The series of failures that follow the story to kill Kim prove to be nothing but one of escapades that will make you chuckle and then it is on to the next one. The plot barely strings together as you watch along and at one point the CIA sends in a drown to help the two out and it soars close enough to Kim Jong-Un's palace that I thought, "Why didn't you just bomb the place if the guy is such a threat?" 

Once the pretenses get dropped though and Dave sees through the sugar coated parade that Kim has clearly put on for him and Aaron, you would things would kick into high gear but in actuality it's the opposite. An attempt at gratuitous and disgusting violence and flopped humor begins to break out, the fight scene between Aaron and a particularly feisty technical manager being the worst of it all. The fight drags out for the longest time and involves Aaron getting two fingers bitten off, which grow back in the last scene of the movie apparently and also leads the technician to have a joystick style control shoved up his rectum after he lands on top of it. The whole experience leaving me scared as it flipped between that and Dave flopping through his interview with Kim who cries, craps his pants and storms off to destroy the western coast of the US. It's just enough to make you wish you had a theater to walk out of in a way as the film winds down it's last moments with a dramatic tank scene set to Katy Perry's "Firework". 

What I can say for The Interview is the impressive array of stars on screen that make use of what little screen time they're given as Franco and Rogan attempt their brand of humor for 112 minutes. Lizzy Caplan perhaps being the most name worthy for myself as the CIA operative that tries to get the assassination off without a hitch and actually save Rogan and Franco from certain death as well. Diana Bang as Kim Jong Un's chief of propaganda however makes probably the most impact for the film as she attempts to save her country by using the two to prove to North Korea that Kim is not a good leader and far from a God. Seeing your idol and leader of your nation poop his pants in front of you wouldn't really be the thing to do it I would think but never the less it inspires the uprising of the nation in the movie but just makes you realize again what you're watching. 

In the end, I don't know if North Korea is responsible for The Interview getting pulled or not but if they actually sat down and watched it I think they would just feel bad that it was ever a thing to begin with just like the rest of us. The movie does have it's chuckle moments of course as you might expect but really it all just feels like it was trying to hard to make light of the situation the world is in. The foul mouth and sexual escapades of Franco and Rogan are best left in the United States where they won't bother the rest of the world and just leave it that. 

Good:

- Co-stars to Franco and Rogan's attempt at humor deserve recognition for their roles and willingness to be a part of the flop film

- The occasional laugh here and there 

Bad:

- Plot barely strings together with one off jokes and escapades for Franco and Rogan

- Lewd, foul mouthed and sexual reference every where you go

- If dootie and poo poo jokes are where comedy is at now then I don't want to be a part of it

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10 

This Is the End

By: Robert Murphy

Now I’m going to start this review by saying, I usually don’t go and see a comedy movie in theaters, it’s nothing against comedies, I just get roped into seeing an action or scary movie when I go out but taking one look at “This Is the End” and I was hooked. Seth Rogan and James Franco have been together in a couple of films in recent years and each time I’ve seen them together, it is just pure gold to me and the actors themselves are grade A as well. Joining them in the film is an all-star class of comedy movie characters such as Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and Danny McBride along with other big names that come to James Franco’s home in “This Is the End” for a huge party that they will all be talking about for the rest of their lives……for however long that may be. The party starts out well enough with all these stars playing as themselves like Emma Watson and Rihanna, all supposedly showing what they are all like off the screen, then things go wrong as things begin to erupt and the sky lights up with fire and it’s clear that the end of the days has finally come.

 These guys would not be my pick for an apocalypse team

A big appeal for me in this film right off the get go is the fact that all these stars are playing themselves and I love when a movie does this sort of thing, actors acting about being actors in a movie just tickles me because it makes you question, is this what these people are really like? This also adds to the fact that hey these guys and girls are regular people, they party, and they can be jerks or a bunch of people sitting around talking about life and playing video games in their spare time. This all is erupting in a powder keg of comedy and epicness at James Franco’s party in his incredible bachelor pad I might add and just when you’re starting to enjoy yourself, boop the world comes to end. People are being wrapped up in blue lights and carried off into the sky, being saved and raptured to Heaven while the rest are left panicking and being dragged down into the depths of the Earth in giant holes and so on. It’s all written in that book, you’ve read the book I’m sure, you know that book that’s in every hotel room still, starts with a B…..ahh damn it’ll come to me, anyway all that is going down and it ain’t pretty. Before long all that is left from this party are five guys, Rogan, Baruchel, Franco, Hill and Robinson, the three are left to survive and defend themselves at what this new world that is left after the rapture has brought them and these five comedians are not what you’d call end of the world survival material.

 Emma Watson to the rescue... or not

Now even though the world has collapsed and lawless/chaos are about to become an everyday occurrence, that isn’t even the main part of the story, what “This Is the End” becomes is a sort of “Big Brother” type affair. Each of the five all do hidden confessionals during the film to get what they’re feeling about their whole situation out there for all of us to see and it feels a lot like what you’d expect these comedians to say to each off camera. It is all completely raw and obscene but in the right way that doesn’t overdo it and while it feels all warm and funny, just a bunch of comedians and funny people hanging out together like something right out of the movie “Grown Ups,” there is back stabbing and self-absorption among the stars that takes over. Oh hey right the world ended or something I thought? Often times during the movie I forgot about the fact that it happened because of laughing so hard, “This Is the End” just digs into the personal life of these stars and continues your questions on this being who these people actually are.

 Some “Big Brother” confessionals

“This Is the End” gave me a huge amount of laughs in a dirty/hardcore way that I haven’t laughed at in a while and if anybody were to make it happen again it would be this cast of characters right here. Franco, Rogan, Hill, Baruchel and McBride are all at the top of their games with the laughs just pouring in as it delves into their supposed personal lives and what these guys are actually like outside the big screen…..while being on the big screen at the same time. Also there is a great cast of other famous celebrities included in the film like Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Kevin Heart, Aziz Anasari, Michael Cera and many more and while they’re not part of the movie for long, they make great additions to the film and add to the laughs as well. It was also refreshing to know that some people in Hollywood would actually be raptured up to Heaven and that is heartwarming in a way but then again it was only a few people.

Good:

-Amazing main and supporting cast

-A great level of raunchy and raw laughs

-Makes you question if this is what these people are truly like

Bad:

-There are those too far moments for certain people

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10