From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V9 #13 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Wednesday, January 27 2010 Volume 09 : Number 013 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Livia and Eve [cr ] [chakram-refugees] Variety review, Spartacus [KLOSSNER9@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:05:24 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Livia and Eve 'Livia' starts off quite well, with Xena and Gabrielle thawing out in their ice cave. They go in search of Eve and find a village whose incredibly helpful people, in about three sentences, volunteer that Xena 'died' 25 years ago, that Livia is the emperor Augustus' 'bitch' and that she's killing the followers of Eli. How helpful. Oddly, they don't seem to know that Octavius is Augustus, but this doesn't matter since Xena instantly recognises Augustus on sight, even though he's turned into a different actor, same with Eve/Livia. Augustus is about to marry Livia, however Ares is having an affair with her, not realising she's Eve. There could have been some nice suspense there waiting for pennies to drop. Eve, sorry Livia, gets seriously PO'd though, when Ares instantly loses all interest in her as soon as he sees Xena. And then Xena drops her in it with Augustus. And then Ares realises Livia is Eve, which makes her a target for the gods. Altogether, Livia has a major beef against Xena. 'Eve' is not an episode I like very much. It's incredibly gory to start with, possibly too much so. The director, Mark Beesley, previously did some excellent eps - A Necessary Evil, Maternal Instincts, Armageddon Now, Once Upon a Future King, Be Deviled and Amphipolis Under Siege. But I think in this ep he went over the top with the nastiness at the start. The writing wasn't all that great either - the writers were Strayton and O'Neill (_not_ the same O'Neill who co-wrote Armageddon Now 2), whose first Xena episode was Seeds of Faith, another ep I'm not very fond of. Ares' flip-flops between Xena and Livia are not very convincing. In fact, in this episode he's just no fun at all. Oh, and for some reason I find Virgil even more annoying than Joxer. He's just too pretty in a college-jock kind of way. And Xena's sidekicks are even dumber and more annoying than usual - Gabrielle sneaks off to try and appeal to Livia's better nature when it's patently obvious Livia doesn't have one - Joxer goes off to rescue Gabs, gets discovered, gets in the way of Xena's chakram shot and runs onto Livia's sword; Virgil gets all emotional and bitter and twisted about that. Xena keeps saving Livia/Eve from people who want to kill her, including Virgil. Oh yes, and Virgil and Gabby are always pratting on about Eli and his message of peace. And Xena starts losing it _again_ and praying to Eli to show her how to be a peaceful warrior. Or something. That is just so Season 4, Xena, this is Season 5. You got much better advice from Krishna. Follow it! But anyway, after deciding she's gotta kill Livia, Xena finds she can't (what a surprise) and Livia is about to kill Xena when Eli (or his mate Michael) zaps her with a mind-ray from outer space and bombards her with clips from past episodes which takes all the fight out of her. (Clip shows have that effect on most intelligent life, actually). Fortunately for the followers of Eli, Augustus has lent Xena some troops to counter Livia's renegade squad (it seems Augustus didn't take Xena's threats against him in 'Livia' personally). So Livia, seeing she's outnumbered (and feeling the after-effects of Eli's mental tasering), takes off for the hills. To be continued, obviously... cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:16:36 EST From: KLOSSNER9@aol.com Subject: [chakram-refugees] Variety review, Spartacus Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Series -- Starz, Fri. Jan. 22, 10 p.m.) By _BRIAN LOWRY_ (http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=b io&peopleID=1695) 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' Filmed in New Zealand by Tapert Donen Raimi in association with Starz Media. Executive producers, Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen, Steven S. DeKnight; producer, Chloe Smith; director, Rick Jacobson; writer, DeKnight. Spartacus - Andy Whitfield Batiatus - John Hannah Lucretia - Lucy Lawless Doctore - Peter Mensah Crixus - Manu Bennett Ilithiyia - Viva Bianca Glaber - Craig Parker Varro - Jai Courtney Sura - Erin Cummings Presumably the title "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" was chosen for Starz's latest dramatic foray because "300: Blood and Sand" or "Gladiator: Sand and Blood" wouldn't clear legal. In any event, there's scant resemblance between this dreadful blend of those recent movies and the program's ostensible namesake, as the show tries to adopt "300's" visual style and -- despite spilling buckets of gore -- proves woefully pale by comparison. Indeed, when the smoke clears from this blood-splattered battle, the survivors will likely stand and sheepishly plead, "I'm not 'Spartacus!' Please, don't confuse me with 'Spartacus!'" Just to put this appraisal in context, the original 1960 classic remains a personal favorite, and I'm extremely fond of the other aforementioned efforts -- so this hardly represents an aversion to swords and sandals. There is, however, considerable irritation over such a brazen, at-times-laughable attempt to piggyback on their success. A Thracian warrior, the strong-willed man eventually christened Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) joins with the Romans to fight off a common enemy, but winds up being thrown into the gladiatorial arena when he refuses to obey their commands. Separated from his woman (Erin Cummings), he essentially girds his loins to endure all manner of torment in order to survive, on the outside chance the two might be reunited, which includes bonding himself to gladiator master Batiatus ("The Mummy's" John Hannah) and his steely trainer, Doctore (Peter Mensah, whose "300" cameo provides a promotionally advantageous link). What ensues, alas, is the gladiator's life as filtered through the gauzy lens of a Calvin Klein ad. Sure, there's some graphic sex and modest court intrigue among the haughty Romans, but nothing to approach the worst moments in HBO's "Rome." ("Xena's" Lucy Lawless -- the wife of series producer Robert Tapert -- loyally chips in as Batiatus' lustful spouse, who has an insatiable hunger for gladiators and, like the rest of the cast, scenery.) Written by "Smallville" alum Steven S. DeKnight, lines of dialogue at times appear to uncomfortably echo those earlier movies, which is less irksome than it would be otherwise, because the less-familiar exchanges ("My boot will find your ass in the afterlife") are frequently risible. Unlike the sex, no one could call the violence gratuitous, since it's the sole reason the show exists -- an excuse to artfully spray slow-motion patterns of entrails and severed limbs across the screen. To be fair, the program does improve marginally after the premiere, but by then the bar's set so low a three-legged horse could clear it. And while one can hardly expect a budget on the scale of "Avatar," the stylized, washed-out backgrounds and crowd sequences simply aren't up to the standards of a young-male audience weaned on better. Thus far, Starz has relied on presold titles (first "Crash," now this) to ease the marketing burden in launching original dramas, but if the pay channel wants to become a serious presence under just-installed CEO Chris Albrecht, future endeavors will need to exhibit a few brains to augment the brawn. Until then, "Spartacus" earns a big, very bloody thumbs down. Camera, Aaron Morton; production designer, Iain Aitken; editor, Jonno Woodford-Robinson; music, Joseph LoDuca; visual effects supervisor, Charlie McClellan; casting, Lauren Bass, Annabel Lomas, Faith Martin. 60 MIN. ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V9 #13 *************************************