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TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Secret in the Siege” – Season Finale

RACHEL REITSLEFF — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:30:23 +0000

TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Secret in the Siege” – Season Finale

Stars: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor, TJ Thyne, John Francis Daley, Patricia Belcher, Andrew Leeds, Alimi Ballard, Sarah Stouffer, Beau Knapp, Marc Aden Gray
Writers: Stephen Nathan & Jonathan Collier, series created by Hart Hanson, based on the life and writings of Kathy Reichs
Director: David Boreanaz
Network: Fox, Mondays @ 8 PM
Airdate: April 29, 2013

The BONES Season 8 finale comes as close to having cake and eating it too in “The Secret in the Siege.” Our heroes Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) love each other and are still together – but the relationship has been thrown a big wrench that hurts both of them. There’s a resolution in sight, but it could take until the end of the series (whenever that is, there’s already talk of a possible Season 10) to reach it.

The techno-savvy, smarmy and generally appalling serial killer Christopher Pelant (the excellent Andrew Leeds) has resurfaced. This conclusion is reached by the fact that a former FBI agent, a one-time partner of Booth’s, has been killed in a way that exactly matches an unpublished paper about serial killers authored by Sweets (John Francis Daley).

After another FBI agent is killed, the team figures out that Pelant isn’t committing these new murders himself. Instead, Pelant is manipulating a survivor of a siege on a religious compound by the FBI ten years earlier. Booth was one of the agents on the scene. Pelant is using computer software to change his own visage to that of one of the people who died on the day, leaving messages for his now-adult child. The twist is that the now-grown offspring is not one of the compound survivors, but rather the traumatized (and sharpshooter) daughter of an FBI agent who died in the shootout. Pelant, posing as her father, is instructing her to kill people he says are responsible for the father’s death.

When the computer files are discovered with the father’s image, Hodgins (TJ Thyne) is able to figure out the images are composites, based on the presence of a bird that didn’t migrate to the area until after the recordings would have to have been made if they were really from the woman’s father. Pelant has sent his assassin after Sweets, but Booth arrives in time, shoots to wound, and the woman is arrested.

During all of the stress, Brennan decides to propose to Booth, as she knows it’s what he wants. Booth is delighted – and so is Brennan. However, Pelant is cyber-spying on them. After the dead FBI agent’s daughter is arrested, Pelant calls Booth and tells him to call off the wedding, without telling Brennan the reason why, or Pelant will kill five innocent people. Booth knows Pelant is perfectly capable of carrying out the threat. After Pelant has dropped off the grid once more, undetectable again, Booth talks to Brennan and tells her that he thinks she was only proposing because they were under so much stress and that he thinks she was right in the beginning – marriage is just a piece of paper and they’re fine the way they are. Brennan is visibly hurt, but says she’s impressed that Booth can see it her way. She says they’re fine but goes upstairs to be alone for a little while.

This is an impressive piece of calibration, with enough tension placed on the relationship for viewers to want to see how it can be resolved, and at the same time, not overdoing it to the extent that the audience is furious with Brennan or Booth for being an idiot toward the other. There are only so many times they can hurt or exclude each other before viewers are willing to call it a day, even if the characters are not. The finale creates a mini-cliffhanger, while at the same time honoring the relationship that has been depicted throughout the show.

Meanwhile, Pelant’s creation of a virtual ghost speaking to his loving daughter from beyond the grave is creepy, but also poignant – we can’t exactly sympathize with the shooter, but we understand why she thinks she’s doing the right thing. There’s also a righteous sense that Booth might not reach Sweets in time, because of the obstacles in his way and because of the meta-knowledge that actor Daley has a thriving screenwriting career that might have taken him away from BONES.

As the episode’s director, Boreanaz is extremely proficient, staging a massive traffic jam in a way that persuades us the backup goes on for miles. He also handles the crucial Booth/Brennan scenes with sensitivity.

The episode’s score deserves special mention, as composer Sean Callery incorporates little homages to music from PLANET OF THE APES and the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake to up the tension factor as Booth is struggling to reach Sweets.

“The Secret in the Seige” is so heavy on surveillance technology that we half-expect the characters from PERSON OF INTEREST to turn up here. We’re used to Angela (Michaela Conlin) doing miracles with facial reconstruction, but this is one of those episodes that requires more than the usual suspension of disbelief. This aside, it’s strong and engaging, a suitably satisfying punctuation mark on a good season.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW!

Related: TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Method in the Madness”

Related: TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Tiger in the Tale”

Related Link: Part 1 of AX’s EXCLUSIVE HART HANSON Interview

Related Link: Part 2 of AX’s EXCLUSIVE HART HANSON INTERVIEW

Related Link: Exclusive EMILY DESCHANEL interview on BONES

Article Source: Assignment X
Article:TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Secret in the Siege – Season Finale”

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Movie Review: PARANORMAN

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:03:18 +0000

Movie Review: PARANORMAN

Stars (voices): Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman
Writer: Chris Butler
Directors: Sam Fell & Chris Butler
Distributor: Focus Features
Release Date: August 17, 2012

PARANORMAN is the latest 3-D stop-motion animation release from a lot of the folks who brought you the film version of CORALINE (writer Neil Gaiman isn’t involved here, but a lot of the sensibility is the same). The movie is full of surprises, not the least of which is what those surprises actually are.

Written by Chris Butler and directed by Sam Fell & Butler, PARANORMAN deals with a little boy, Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), who can see, hear and interact with ghosts. Unlike the youngsters of, say, THE SHINING and THE SIXTH SENSE,Norman doesn’t find this a problem in itself, though dealing with the reaction of family members and schoolmates is a chore. ThenNorman is told that he’s inheriting the task of suppressing a curse laid on the town by a dying witch.

Without getting too spoilery, the first big surprise of PARANORMAN is that it isn’t about what one expects from the publicity – that is, an animated comedy about kids taking on a zombie infestation. There are zombies in the movies that Norman enjoys watching, and they are properly funny/cheesy, but there are no flesh-eating ghouls in the story itself, though there are ghosts and a murder. The latter, although discussed rather than depicted, makes PARANORMAN perhaps too serious for very small viewers. Despite the youthful characters and the playful tone, there are big grownup themes here of guilt, mob mentality and forgiveness.

Another unexpected aspect of PARANORMAN is its sweetness. It definitely has its goofy and rambunctious sides, along with some memorable gross-outs, but it also has a kind heart that runs through the proceedings, right up to the very end. Lots of characters, even ones who are initially off-putting or worse, turn out to have hidden humanity.

Although Butler’s screenplay is original, PARANORMAN bears a strong resemblance to a young adult or even a children’s novel in its structure, plot points and especially its messages. The points made by the film are all worthy and earned by what happens, but they tend to both stand out and slow things down, rather than being woven deftly into a bigger picture. This has the effect of making PARANORMAN seem warm and amusing, rather than friendly and hilarious. It’s a minor distinction, but it’s there.

The voice cast is terrific, with Smit-McPhee (of THE ROAD and LET ME IN) especially expressive as Norman and Anna Kendrick doing yeoman work as his exasperated teenaged sister.

PARANORMAN is a family film that will appeal to youngsters old enough to deal with genuine dramatic elements – a child doesn’t need to be old enough to watch DAWN OF THE DEAD to see this, but they should be at least able to cope with LITTLE WOMEN. As for adults, PARANORMAN is fun, but more a gentle tickle ghost story than a zombie spoof.

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Article Source:Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: PARANORMAN

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Exclusive Interview: THE WALKING DEAD wants the brains of Robert Kirkman and David Alpert

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:33:24 +0000

Exclusive Interview: THE WALKING DEAD wants the brains of Robert Kirkman and David Alpert

Robert Kirkman created the Eisner Award-winning THE WALKING DEAD comic book series, first published in 2003 and still running today. The comics chronicle the travails of a small group of people trying to survive after the world is overrun with the title element. When AMC commissioned THE WALKING DEAD as a series which began its run in October 2010 – Season Two is currently running Sundays at 9 PM – Kirkman came aboard as one of the executive producers and staff writers.

Kirkman and David Alpert, another of WALKING DEAD’s executive producers, are available for a quick private chat about their work on the show at the Television Critics Association press tour.

ASSIGNMENT X: What made you decide that you wanted to tell a long-running zombie story? Did you look at movies like DAWN OF THE DEAD and go, “This is too short”?

KIRKMAN: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. It was like, “Where do those people go in that helicopter? Where do they land, who do they meet, how do they carry on?” [At the time the comics were created], there was never any kind of a zombie story that maintained the same cast from novel to novel or movie to movie, and you never really got a long-term exploration of that world. That’s what I wanted as a fan, and any time as a writer you can do something that is something that you want as a fan, I think that’s a good thing. I think it means that you’re going to have a passion for that and it’s going to make the project that much better. So I set out to do the zombie movie that never ends, and that became THE WALKING DEAD.

AX: And how did you feel when it became a zombie movie of multiple seasons?

KIRKMAN: Yeah, it’s a little overwhelming. I mean, it’s a really good thing. I’m shocked any time I hear any more good news involving something that’s happened overseas with THE WALKING DEAD or some new demographic that we’ve learned about, or some kind of information – I mean, it’s just a wealth of good news that’s come from this show and it’s a really cool thing.

DAVID ALPERT: It’s great to hear that Rick Santorum has actually endorsed THE WALKING DEAD. We’re feeling very excited about that [laughs].

KIRKMAN: I didn’t know that. Is that true?

ALPERT: Huge fan.

KIRKMAN: Wow. It takes all kinds, I suppose [laughs].

ALPERT: It broadens our demographics.

AX: Has it gotten easier or tougher to make the show in the second season? Or is it about the same?

ALPERT: In some ways, it’s both. I think it’s easier because we know that the fans are going to show up. When we first were making the show, we had no idea if people were going to like it as much as we did, but the hard part is now, the bar is set so high, because [everyone] did such a great job on the first season, people loved it so much, so we’re now trying to figure out, how do we keep it going, how do we keep doing interesting new twists and turns on the genre.

KIRKMAN: The same. It’s a difficult process. I mean, I’m new to the TV world, so seeing everything that goes into it and putting it all together is a bit crazy, seeing all the different levels of work that are done by so many different people, but David’s right. That’s the thing about knowing the audience is going to be there – it makes the load a little bit easier to bear and being driven to outdo the first season is an inspirational kind of thing that helps the writing and the writers’ room be a little bit more fun, because you have a bar to exceed. So I’ve had a lot more fun on the second season, but I’ve been a lot more involved in the second season, too.

ALPERT: Also, we’re battle-tested now, so we have a cast and crew that is awesome, ready for anything. They’re really sort of Marines taking the beach and it’s like we know that there are no challenges we could give them that they’re not going to be able to handle.

AX: Is anything about the show causing you to do the graphic novels any differently?

KIRKMAN: No, absolutely not. I’m fortunate in that the comic book series is so far advanced [in story terms] past where the television show is that everything in the television show is like a re-thinking of the very early days of the comic book series.

ALPERT: It has helped you come up with different ways of doing comic books in general.

KIRKMAN: Oh, yeah. I do other comic books. My experience in the writers’ room has led to me falling in love with that process and trying to bring it into comics, and so I’ve got a new series called THIEF OF THIEVES. It’s very different than THE WALKING DEAD. It’s a much more real-world crime-oriented story, but it’s being told in a writers’ room method. I’m working with a number of other comic book writers in tandem to craft the stories together, and then much like television, where the writers’ room breaks off and everyone writes their individual episode, we’re breaking off and writing our individual issues, and it’s been a cool process so far. That debuts in February.

AX: So everybody comes up with the general ideas and it’s anthologized?

KIRKMAN: Yeah, everyone kind of contributes to their own stories themselves.

AX: Are any networks looking at THIEF OF THIEVES as a possible series?

KIRKMAN: It’s entirely possible. Who knows?

ALPERT: I think they should.

AX: Are there any characters in the WALKING DEAD television series that are especially close to your original vision? Are there any that are extremely far away from your original vision?

KIRKMAN: Everyone from the comic book that’s appeared in the show is pretty spot-on with their characterization as it appears in the comic book series, but characters like Daryl [Norman Reedus] and Merle Dixon [Michael Rooker] and Morales [Juan Gabriel Pareja] from the first season, Jacqui [Jeryl Prescott] are characters that didn’t appear in the comic book series and those are created originally for the show and have no kind of relationship to the comic book. But I think the ones that are adapted are adapted pretty closely. It’s the stories that change a little bit from the comic to the show, but the characters themselves have been adapted pretty much intact.

AX: What would you say is the world view of THE WALKING DEAD? For example would you say, “Keep trying?” or would you say, “The world will go to hell,” or would you say, “Keep trying when it all goes to hell”?

KIRKMAN: Well, for the characters, it’s a story of their journey to try and survive and trying to find some reason to carry on, and so it’s a somewhat hopeful kind of tale and it’s somewhat inspirational. I like to think that if you’re sitting at home and you’re watching THE WALKING DEAD, it’s a very dark, visceral show, but if you relate it to your life, you can always go, “Well, I’m not really happy with what’s going on with work right now, and my friend’s kind of being a jerk, but at least I’m not getting chased by zombies.” And so I like to think that the show can be somewhat uplifting in that respect.

ALPERT: You’re not getting chased by zombies.

KIRKMAN: No.

AX: Have either of you done the zombie makeup and been in any scenes?

KIRKMAN: No. I have that peeve of seeing recognizable people involved in a production cameo-ing for no reason. I always look at it like, “Oh, that’s great, you got yourself in your own movie. That’s awesome.” It just really takes me out of the project, and so I don’t really want to ever do that.

AX: But on WALKING DEAD, it seems like you could be rendered unrecognizable by the makeup …

KIRKMAN: Oh, then it’s hot and sticky and who wants to do that? I’m a little lazy.

AX: Anything aspect of WALKING DEAD that you feel doesn’t get enough attention?

ALPERT: I think we don’t talk about the humor enough.

AX: You’ve got THIEF OF THIEVES – do either of you have any other upcoming projects we should know about?

ALPERT: We’re working on the pilot for POWERS at FX right now. We’ve got a bunch of other stuff that Bob and I are cooking up.

KIRKMAN: There are always things on the back burner and there are things on the front burner. I like to keep my hands in as many pies as possible. So there are pies on burners and hands in pies.

AX: How do you guys like to work with each other?

ALPERT: We don’t like to work with each other.

KIRKMAN: It’s a nightmare of a proposition to have to see this guy every day. We’ve had a long working relationship, I think Mr. Alpert and I really understand each other, and we work well in tandem to bring about our plans of world domination and I think it dovetails into the WALKING DEAD phenomenon in a cool way and it’s been working out so far, so I probably won’t kick the guy to the curb just yet.

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Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Exlcusive Interivew with THE WALKING DEAD creator Robert Kirkman and executive producer David Alpert

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Blu-Ray Review: ZOMBIE – 2-DISC ULTIMATE EDITION

CARL CORTEZ — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:34:42 +0000

Blu-Ray Review: ZOMBIE – 2-DISC ULTIMATE EDITION

Rating: Unrated
Stars: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Oliver, Auretta Gay, Olga Karalatos
Writer: Elisa Briganti
Director: Lucio Fulci
Suggested Retail Price: $39.98

For being such a big horror fan, I have to admit I came a little late to the party in my appreciation of Italian horror master director Lucio Fulci. I knew of his movies, seen pieces of them, but never really sat down to fully embrace the filmmaker’s offbeat sensibilities and knack for unrelentingly disturbing gore.

When it came to Fulci’s 1980 ZOMBIE, it was one of those films I completely overlooked it. In fact, it wasn’t until the last year that I finally saw the film in its entirety.

My loss.

Now, the film has been completely remastered in high-definition and it looks better than ever.

Storywise, ZOMBIE is a bit of a mess. It was designed as a sort of unofficial sequel to DAWN OF THE DEAD (in some markets it was sold as ZOMBI 2), but aside from zombies being it, there are no other ties to the George A. Romero classic.

ZOMBIE starts off when a ship floats into the New York harbor containing a big, fat zombie who apparently ate the entire crew and was waiting for lunch to arrive once again.

From here, we are introduced to a reporter (Ian McCulloch) who wants to get to the bottom of this. The daughter (Tisa Farrow) who owned this ship wants to know what’s going on as well – so they travel to the Antilles. There, the undead have risen form the ground and are hungry.

The movie’s tagline “We Are Going To Eat You” is legendary, as is the iconic zombie from the poster. The film is just a bunch of set pieces strung together with a somewhat simplistic plot, but it’s Fulci as a filmmaker who approaches things with such zest and glee, you can’t help but being sucked in.

Yes, this is unrated horror that would have earned the movie an X in its time for violence. Yet, even though it’s graphic, it doesn’t reach the uncomfortable ickiness of the SAW or HOSTEL films. There’s elegance and beauty to the gore especially in the wooden beam to the eye gag.

Fulci knew how to make his audience squirm – and this film has endless amounts of squeamish moments.

The widescreen transfer also shows off what a great looking film this is. Sergio Salvati does a wonderful job as director of photography – giving the film a much bigger look and scope that most low budget films would kill for.

ZOMBIE also boasts one of the strangest (and dare I say) hilarious kills in the history of zombie cinema – essentially an underwater zombie attacking a shark.

It has to be seen to be believed.

The disc edition imports many special features over from the DVD release from a few years ago. The new stuff though is extensive including a featurette and intro from filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talking about how this is one of his favorite films of all time.

There’s a poster and still gallery, theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio commercials.

The second disc is packed with interviews with the stars, the screenwriter, the co-producer, the cinematographer and make-up effects people.

This is as good as a it gets for such a little cult item as ZOMBIE.

Sure, nothing can beast DAWN OF THE DEAD when it comes to breaking new ground with zombies, but ZOMBIE also has a completely different look and feel to it. It’s dark, spooky and definitely unpredictable. It also knows how to balance out its ample Italian chick nudity with its optimum gore scenes.

For those who know the movie by poster alone and have never experiences the hoys of Fulci’s gore masterpiece, now’s the time to finally check it out and see what a underrated filmmaker Fulci actually was.

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Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Blu-ray Review – ZOMBIE – ULTIMATE EDITION

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Exclusive Interview: Michael Kelly chats CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:27:40 +0000

Exclusive Interview: Michael Kelly chats CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR

CRIMINAL MINDS, now in its sixth season, is the CBS procedural drama/thriller in which a team of FBI profilers pursue serial killers throughout the United States. Since the network has had great success spinning off other its other crime-solving shows, with three editions of CSI and two of NCIS currently on the air, it’s not surprising that they’ve brought forth CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR which debuts tonight.

The difference between the two series is both in their settings (the original team are based in Washington, D.C. and the SUSPECT team are in San Francisco, though both shows are shot in Los Angeles) and in their characters. In CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, the profilers are led by Forest Whitaker’s Sam Cooper, whose experiences in Afghanistan have left him a changed man. Other team members are played by Janeane Garofalo, Matt Ryan and Beau Garrett, but arguably the most unusual member of the squad is Jonathan “Prophet” Simms, who has done prison time for murder.

Michael Kelly, the Philadelphia-born/Georgia-raised actor who plays Prophet, has portrayed lot of people with guns before: police detectives in the TV remake of KOJAK and in Clint Eastwood’s CHANGELING, a soldier in HBO’s acclaimed miniseries GENERATION KILL and an FBI agent in an arc on THE SOPRANOS. Kelly talks about what makes Prophet different, along with some other roles that have left their mark on him.

ASSIGNMENT X: In CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, your character Prophet has a past that, in what we’ve seen so far, seems to make everybody except Forest Whitaker’s character Sam Cooper a little bit nervous about him …

MICHAEL KELLY: Yeah. My character did do six years in prison, but he killed a child molester and it was someone that I knew, and it was [in] the organization that I was working for at the time. Basically, my character tells this guy to leave town, he doesn’t leave town and he has a gun and he draws a gun, and I knew he was going to draw a gun, and I shoot and kill him. I put the gun down and I turn myself in. It’s later, when I go to prison, that I find God and become a minister in prison and really start doing some great things and then get information for Cooper and he goes to the warden and tells the warden about this guy who’s about to murder, he did more than one murder, and that’s when I meet Sam, and Sam and I have spiritual talks in prison and he brings me out. The team, a few episodes in, is very comfortable with me. I don’t think that anyone’s really that apprehensive about working with me any more. They know that I might have a little bit of a hot streak in me, but as Sam says in one of the episodes, “He’s not going rogue.”

AX: Your character is nicknamed “Prophet.” Does he just interpret facts in a very perceptive way, or does he actually have any gift of foresight?

KELLY: No, I don’t think that it’s actual foresight. I think having lived and slept with the criminals for six years, it gives you a certain insight. Just from the research that I’ve done on prisoners, the guy’s looking at someone across the room and he knows what [the man across the room] is going to do – you know what the criminal is going to do. And I think that he just brings that attribute to [his work] and just hearing the million stories that he heard in prison, about a million different ways guys do a million different things.

AX: Now, doing a show about profilers, are you finding yourself now profiling either the people in your life or characters you’ve played?

KELLY: [laughs] It’s funny – I guess everybody brings their work home with them all the time, and I do. When the publicist [Ronnie Chasen] was killed in Beverly Hills, the next day we were all in the trailer and we were all talking about how awful it was and everything, but we also were all like, “Well, I think this. I mean, you think about it – she stopped at a light there. You would have had to come in and …” You find yourself asking, “And why? What was the motive?” You find yourself looking at high-profile crimes and trying to figure them out.

AX: You’ve played a lot of people in sort of law enforcement – well, GENERATION KILL is the military rather than law enforcement – but are you drawn to those roles, or is that just how you often get cast?

KELLY: I don’t know. I think that, first and foremost, I always look at if it’s a project that draws me in, or the pedigree on a project, and a director or what have you, and after that, then I get into the character and I guess just characters I can really identify with. And I think I’ve kind of tried to make a mix – I think I’ve just become more known for the roles that are [law enforcement/military – laughs].

AX: Well, in the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, you’re playing a security guard with a gun – he thinks he’s law enforcement, but isn’t.

KELLY: [laughs] Exactly. That was one of the best times I’ve ever had on a film set. It was such a great character to get to play, and to work with [director] Zack Snyder was just absolutely thrilling. That was his first movie, and he exploded after that. That was really unique and hopefully I’m going to get to work with Zack again soon. We’ve talked about doing it and crossed paths a few times, but hopefully I’m going to do his next one.

AX: Does this dojo set play an important part in the series?

KELLY: I think it has an atmosphere that carries through our work. This is [both the actors’ and the characters’] training ground, this is where we come to learn new stuff, this is where we come to train one another for different things, and it’s just the way Forest says in one of the episodes, it’s a way for us to blow off steam and just kind of get aggressions out. Like Janeane was asked, do you carry stuff home with you? Sometimes you can just let it all explode in here after work.

AX: It’s also very grungy, like the characters just show up and do what they come here to do, but none of them ever think, “You know, maybe if we sanded down the walls or gave it a new coat of paint …”

KELLY: [laughs] I just think you see us as a team that works around the clock and we really do. I don’t think the appearance of [the dojo] crossed any one of our minds. I think it’s just, when you get here, you work.

AX: And are you finding that you and/or Prophet have a particular familial role within the ensemble?

KELLY: I guess you’d call him the uncle. [laughs] No. Both Matt and Beau are younger than me and I think in my regular everyday life, I try to tell them whatever life experience I’ve had that might help them in their lives, when they come to me and they’re like, “What about this?” I try to help and give advice. My character is a very giving person, so I don’t know that I have an actual familial role, but big brother I guess you could call him.

AX: You’ve done some really high-profile films. You co-starred in CHANGELING for director Clint Eastwood. How was working with him?

KELLY: Oh, man. I can honestly say that was the greatest experience of my life. Clint is the most amazing director and has assembled the greatest team ever. When they say “a well-oiled machine,” that is the ultimate definition. That was someone I’d idolized my whole life. I looked up to him as an actor, and then a director later in life and when I got that call that I got to do that movie, I was just blown away.

AX: As a director, Clint Eastwood has a reputation for going, “We’ve got it, good, let’s go.” But apart from him, film usually takes a little longer to make and has a slower pace than network series television – even HBO usually takes a little longer.

KELLY: Yeah, [GENERATION KILL] was six months for seven episodes.

AX: Do you like the faster pace of series television because you get to do a lot of change-ups and more material, or do you like being able to take the extra time that feature films usually afford?

KELLY: I certainly personally enjoy getting a film, having a script for a month or two before [shooting] and really working that script and figuring everything out. I was really, truly thrown into this, and I wasn’t used to it. I’d been doing film for quite awhile and I wasn’t used to, “Ten pages tomorrow?” [laughs] and trying to prepare for that, not just memorizing, but trying to prepare what my character would do in this situation. That’s been the biggest challenge for me. So I certainly enjoy the luxury of time on a film. But I really, really love this. You know, you hear people saying these things, I think you hear it a lot, but I can honestly say that this is like family. We are all really good family. It’s just amazing – people comment all the time, “God, I can’t believe you guys really get along like that.”

AX: Did you have to do any research or physical training for this part?

KELLY: You know, I definitely did some research definitely on the FBI, but like you said, I had played that type of role before, so I sort of already had a base knowledge with guns, obviously, and handling of weapons and that sort of thing. For me, the real research on this was the religious aspect and creating this character who finds religion in prison. That’s been the hardest and most challenging thing for me.

AX: Do you find that Prophet talks about religion in a different way than he talks about, “Let’s investigate this bloodstain on the floor”?

KELLY: Oh, yeah, definitely. For me, sometimes the crime is just the crime and then we talk about the crime as a crime, but we’re trying to figure out the killer and his mind. For me, that religion is more heart and the other is more brain, if that makes sense.

AX: Do you have any other projects coming up?

KELLY: I have a great movie coming out, ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, which is going to premiere early March. It’s Matt Damon, Emily Blunt – George Nolfi directed it. It’s a really cool story. It’s a thriller, it’s got a political story and a love story. I saw an early version of it and it’s really amazing, really good.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Exclusive Interview: Jake Weber channels the end of MEDIUM

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:22:19 +0000

Exclusive Interview: Jake Weber channels the end of MEDIUM

For seven years on MEDIUM, Allison Dubois, played by Patricia Arquette, has seen and heard dead people, an ability she’s used to help the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney’s office. Her three young daughters all share some version of her gift. The only person in the household who doesn’t have psychic qualities is husband and father Joe Dubois, played by Jake Weber. Joe may at times be bewildered, skeptical or even totally exasperated, but he is unshakably loyal and loving, attributes that have had the character rated in multiple polls as one of the best spouses on TV.

MEDIUM spent five years on NBC, ending on a cliffhanger on both sides of the camera before the series was picked up by CBS for another two seasons, which will come to an end this Friday night. This interview with Weber was conducted when it was not known whether an eighth season might be forthcoming. The actor, whose film career includes starring roles in U-571, WENDIGO and the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, sounds philosophical in any case.

ASSIGNMENT X: Was everyone at MEDIUM on pins and needles about the seventh-season renewal, or did you have a good feeling?

JAKE WEBER: No, every year it’s always been a question mark, and this was no different. I’m happy to be back. It always seems to be a drama – a friend of mine said his favorite soap opera on TV was the renewal of MEDIUM the year before, when we switched networks.

AX: Your character Joe has gone through an awful lot on the work front. He had some very funny, surprising interactions with his increasingly unhinged immediate supervisor.

WEBER: Oh, yeah, Joel Moore [as Keith Bruning]. He’s a very good actor, he does a lot of work, he was in AVATAR. I liked working with him – he’s fun to work with. He’s a funny guy and he likes to improv, which I like to do.

AX: Do they let you know when Joe has a big B storyline arc coming up?

WEBER: It just varies on the storylines that [creator/executive producer] Glenn [Gordon Caron] is coming up with. It’s not like sometimes they want to do more for Joe and sometimes they want to do more for Scanlon – it’s just how things happen in the imaginative process of the writers. I don’t think there’s a real design to it. I think it’s more just random, honestly.

AX: Now, there have been a couple of episodes where Allison has either died or been comatose –

WEBER: Really?

AX: As you know. Do you try to change up Joe’s reactions?

WEBER: Everything that could possibly happen to this woman has happened. I think they do a pretty good job of giving her new afflictions. But certainly, it’s not Joe’s first rodeo [laughs]. He’s been in that arena a couple of times. As I say, I don’t think they sort of repeat themselves as they find new weird things, like one time she can’t hear, then the next time, she can’t see without glasses. It is turning a little bit into a Monty Python sketch, though [laughs]. But they’ve always done a good job of imagining new scenarios for her.

AX: And the young actresses playing the three Dubois daughters are getting taller and taller. Are the twins Madison and Miranda Carabello still sharing the role of youngest girl Marie?

WEBER: Yes. They’re eight years old now. Those kids are great. We’ve grown up together. They were two years old when we started. For as long as they can remember, we’ve been all hanging out, so we’re close. They’re like my little surrogate kids.

AX: Has that been good preparation in any way for being an actual parent?

WEBER: Oh, yeah, I guess they came along before my boy did. Oh, it’s all the same, it’s kids. You play with them, you tickle them, you goof around with them, you tease them and they’re happy.

AX: Have you talked at all to DAWN OF THE DEAD director Zack Snyder since making the film?

WEBER: No, I haven’t seen Zack since the movie that we did together. I see he’s doing well. His movies are great. I’ve been watching his movies. Zack’s a great guy, he’s a very talented guy. And he’s a good man, too. He’s good to the people he works with.

AX: Anybody you’d particularly like to work with, given your druthers?

WEBER: I just saw John C. Reilly. He did such a good job in CYRUS, and I’ve always thought that he’s fun. He likes to improv, I like to improv – I’d love to work with him one day. I think he’s a terrific actor.

AX: Had you made your peace with the idea of cancellation awhile back?

WEBER: You know what? I have a [real-life] family now. It’s lovely to work with these [MEDIUM] people, [but] there’s a whole world out there. I’m really happy to be in this world [of MEDIUM],, but when this is over, I look forward to trying to get something else.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FINALE? LOVED IT? LIKED IT? WANTED MORE? LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK BY LEAVING A COMMENT BELOW.

CLICK HERE for ASSIGNMENT X’s exclusive interview with the MEDIUM girls – Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark and Madison & Miranda Carabello

CLICK HERE for ASSIGNMENT X’s review of the MEDIUM Series Finale

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

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Exclusive Interview: Jake Weber channels the end of MEDIUM

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