Reviews
Ceremony (2010)
Fonzie's kid has made an enjoyable indie romantic comedy
Uma Thurman was the SOLE REASON for renting this film--- none of the other actors are familiar to us, except for Michael Angarano (from The Forbidden Kingdom) in his first "adult" leading role!
The leads are competent, but you still wonder if the movie would have done better at the box office had Jesse Eisenberg hadn't backed out last minute (Angarano was supposed to play "Marshall", the sidekick).
Nevertheless, this movie reminded me of "Rushmore," even though the plot is more like "The Graduate." (If you've seen both movies, then you'll understand my analogy).
Max Winkler, son of The Fonz, has done a great job as a rookie director. He's got a great future ahead....
Finally, I have to say that Jake Johnson ("Teddy") really adds a "Hangover" dimension to this film, in a good way! He is only one of many quirky supporting characters who make this a lovable film....one you're likely to purchase rather than rent!
The Mentalist (2008)
Excellent TV Series with obvious flaws......
Simon Baker is the main character, and he is someone you either love or hate (or love to hate). Robin Tunney is great as the skeptical boss, & the supporting players are great (including Gregory Itzin from "24" as the head of CBI (California Bureau of Investigation).
However, I would like to point out some obvious GOOFS in this show, as we live in Sacramento, CA (where the fictional show takes place):
1) There is no such thing as CBI in California! We do not have a state police, but the California Highway Patrol (CHP, depicted in "Chips"), a state police agency that are basically glorified traffic cops who patrol the freeways and arrest people for speeding tickets.... California DOES NOT HAVE a detective agency based in Sacramento, although a small department of CHP are assigned to guard the State Capitol & governor Arnold Schwartzenneger.
2) The show supposedly takes place in Sacramento, but fails to use real location shots! Its basically a Hollywood-ized version of the California State Capitol. Some of the episodes use city names of nearby towns and one episode was in the Napa Valley.
3) One episode involved a murder in San Francisco (2 hours from Sacramento)....it made us laugh every time they were able to go from the CBI headquarters to the Crime Scene in only 5 minutes. (In a later episode, they mention that they have a Helicopter available--- obviously inserted by the writers to "cover" their continuity gaffe!)
4) Yet another episode took place in Davis, CA (a small town only 20 miles from Sacramento). Yet the location shots were from Southern California: News flash, the city of Davis does NOT have palm trees (palm trees would freeze dead in the Northern California winters). the Davis police department has only ONE part-time detective, yet the "Mentalist" made it look like they had a huge squad of detectives. (As a former University of Davis CA student, having lived in the town of Davis, it was very laughable!)
I'm sure the folks who live in Miami scream out "CSI investigators don't drive Hummers" and the Vegas residents probably howl that "there is nobody who looks like Helgenberger working in the LVPD."
Hopefully, if the Mentalist makes it to a Second Season, they will correct some of the goofs and gaffes, and PLEASE do some real location shots in the Central Valley!