I like this

Or, in both movie review and Facebook parlance... thumbs up. Initially met with shrugs or shudders upon its announcement, The Social Network turns out to be an absolutely electric flick. Well, maybe one qualification: beware the over-the-top buzz. Like many things that are big on the internet, it's possible to get wrapped up in the gush of purple praise and walk into the theater expecting some sort of Casablanca meets Citizen Kane mashup – the greatest film in the history of cinema.

It's not that, but is up there with the best movies of the year.

It's built on a brilliant script from Aaron Sorkin. Facebook (co-)founder Mark Zuckerberg was a fencer in real life, and on-screen his dialogue crackles as he verbally parries with friends and enemies, trading blades for overly honest observations and backhanded barbs. But the film isn't burdened with "Sorkin-speak." While everyone speaks extremely intelligently (as it does, you know, take place at Harvard ;) they're not spitting out sound bites left and right, and he doesn't resort to the trademark "walk and talks" of the West Wing and other Sorkin productions.

The action bounces from the dorm rooms where Facebook was created to the board rooms where its ownership was debated – traditionally I'm not crazy about framing stories, but here director David Fincher uses the device to maintain a singular narrative that illustrates a few points of view. So rather than a "lemme tell you a tale" vibe that plagues similar films, watching The Social Network is like living the events in the midst of their narration. Fincher kicks off the tension in scene one and never lets up on the noose. It's one of the few films that caught me off guard when the credits rolled; the two-hour run time felt like no time at all.

The performances are uniformly terrific – Jesse Eisenberg lends layers to Zuckerberg, who in less capable hands could have come off simply as a mouthy jerk instead of a complex character who's likely too smart for his own good. While it's yet to be seen how he'll play as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield shines as co-founder Eduardo Saverin. In a minor role as Mark's unwitting inspiration Erica Albright, Rooney Mara's performance should set Dragon Tattoo fans' minds at ease when she takes the role of the titular Girl. Even when one actor plays two characters (Armie Hammer digitally manipulated to portray the Winklevoss twins who may or may not have thought up Facebook first), handles both roles with ease.

Raves aside, what's the source of my earlier (admittedly minor) qualification? Well, at heart, the movie covers territory we've seen before – unchecked ambition, cutthroat business deals, etc... it relies on recency and the gee-whizness of seeing the seedy side of our digital world to set it apart from similar films. So while its "of the moment" status may deservedly create several "you like me" moments come award season, we'll have to wait and see how it holds up historically.

But the fact that the lone watchout I can offer up is that it may not go down as one of The Great Films is high praise indeed. So update your status to "is watching social network," as it's an absolute must-see.

The Not-So-Fantastic Four

I wouldn't call my hopes particularly high for this show, but ever since Heroes' descent into dreck started with their first-season finale, there's been a window for some good TV superheroes.

These are not them.

No Ordinary Family is ill-conceived and poorly executed. The characters are limp rehashes of heroes done better in The Incredibles and Fantastic Four without capturing the charm of either. Much has been made of Michael Chiklis' casting being a knowing wink to his playing The Thing in the FF movies, but to me it's just lazy, as here he plays generally the same guy without the suit of orange rocks.

Even less inspired is the family's journey to become "not ordinary." In a frenzied attempt to re-connect with his family, Dad turns Mom's research trip into a family vacation... where they cram into a small plane during a storm and crash into the Amazon. Apparently the largest river in the world is chock full of magic green wonderfulness that grants people the exact power that would complement their problems. I get that it's not easy to come up with unique powers, but that doesn't give the showrunners an excuse to make them so pat and unoriginal. Chiklis' character is ineffectual at home and work, so he becomes incredibly strong. Mom is always on the run juggling so many job and other responsibilities that naturally she turns into a speedster. The daughter character is concerned with what others think of her and – blammo – she can read minds. The son with a learning disability becomes a genius. Ugh.

During their transformations, these paper-thin characters barely blink. Dad immediately begins fighting crime, Mom breaks a cardinal rule and immediately confides in a friend, Sis whines about how she wishes she was back to boring, etc. It's clear that the creators aren't striving for a Dark Knight/Watchmen tone here, but wouldn't you think that learning you can run 800 mules an hour or survive getting shot in the next would elicit some sort of reaction past "huh, look at that?" Heroes initally sprang from a similar sense of naivete, but where that show started off charming, this one's just stupid.

What's even more surprising is that creator Greg Berlanti fumbles the family dynamics as well, given his history with Brothers & Sisters. Previous genre shows like Lois & Clark have downplayed the superhero aspects in favor of snappy interplay, but in addition to the flat writing, the performances here are terrible. Julie Benz, much better in Buffy/Angel and Dexter, resorts to a stereotyped absent mom/businesswoman, primarily displayed by the fact that she wears a bluetooth earpiece. And Chiklis, full of fidgety gestures and hammy reactions, acts like a rabid cue ball.

A quick scan of upcoming episodes looks like they're going to run the title gimmick into the ground as well (ep 2: "No Ordinary Marriage," ep 3: "No Ordinary Ring," etc.) Here's hoping that "No Ordinary Cancellation" comes quickly. Please disperse – nothing to see here.

Lord of the Wings

You'd be forgiven if you took one look at the ads for the awkwardly named Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, with its slightly creepy CGI owls, some of them wearing metal masks and thought "Weird. Pass."

You'd also be wrong.

Well, half-wrong at least. The movie's definitely got a good dose of weird. In addition to a dizzying array of names like Eglantine, Otulissa, Gylfie, etc... they're all, well, owls. Which means a lot of 360º neck twisting and pecking and such, and that's before director Zack Snyder unleashes the head-cracking action. And the plot's a somewhat convoluted spin on the classic Joseph Campbell journey, young winsome hero discovering a larger world of adventure and all. That said, it's actually pretty good.

First, it looks absolutely beautiful. I try not to get too geeky tech boy, but the CGI is stunning. Plus, it was authored in 3D (as opposed to the recent slap-dash conversions) so it's worth strapping on the Buddy Holly glasses for. And it's got tons of Snyder's signature slo-mo flourishes when the owls finally strap on the metal talons and throw down – while the beginning of the movie is overly earnest and whimsical, the eventual battle is breathtaking.

I can see why the film's struggling, tho – aside from fans of the book series, it's a bit unclear what audience it's for. The first half of the film might work for the kids, altho the'll likely be somewhat lost amidst all the confusing names and locations. And when it shifts into full-on action flick, it might be a bit much for younger viewers, as Snyder's trademark bone breaks are even more unnerving when those limbs are covered with feathers and seconds before the chipper little owls were composing ballads.

So. Is it gonna launch the next Star Wars-level saga? Not so much. But despite the slight "what the hell is this?" vibe, it's definitely worth a watch.

Worth Watching Eventually?

So far, so maybe. The Event is NBC's fairly obvious attempt to create "the next Lost" without becoming "the last FlashForward" in terms of serialized drama. The network ran teaser after teaser in hopes of hype, but the early reviews were not so hot.

Perhaps my expectations were lowered by the bad buzz, but based on the first two eps, The Event's still got a spot on the roster.

For now.

One thing The Event's got going for it is a willingness to dole out clues. We're two episodes in, have already witnesses the titular event and gotten a sense of the forces behind it. That said, the way the show's presenting those clues is a little dizzying – seems like every other scene is preceded with supers that date it as "five minutes earlier" or "twelve years before" or "eight and a half seconds after the last flashback, divided by seven." I get trying to weave an intricate storytelling web, but it's on the edge of trying way too hard.

The Event itself and the complex conspiracy behind it? I'll stay spoiler-free, but the best thing I can say about it now is that, if handled properly, could conceivably extend the life of the show past the mini-series it sorta feels like it should be. FlashForward always felt like a single-season gimmick, and the effects of The Event potentially lay the groundwork for an interesting landscape for a few years of shows.

One hurdle that basically, well, everybody's failed to clear in trying to clone Lost is creating compelling characters. At the end of the day, Lost succeeded not on the strength of its mythology but on the backs of Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Locke, Charlie, etc... even Vincent built up a following. Jury's still out on The Event. The lead everyman, Jason Ritter, is actually quite likeable, but past that everyone else seems pretty stock. Not that Blair Underwood, D.B. Sweeney, Laura Innes, et al aren't talented, it's that so far their characters don't go much deeper than The President, The Bad Guy and The... well, I said I'd stay spoiler free ;)

So I'll stay tuned to The Event for a while. The ratings are goodish, so it doesn't seem like it's going Lone Star anytime soon and the overall plot has potential. Will definitely need to start caring about the characters over the conspiracy, but so far I'm in.

My Kind of Town

I didn't get to visit The Town opening weekend, so I won't spend too much time adding my praise to the pile – except to say that it's well-deserved. Ben Affleck not only directs a terrifically tight crime caper, he gets the best performance yet out of... himself. And while it's good to see Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner outside of the roles that made them, the real revelation is Blake Lively. Best known for lightweight roles like Gossip Girl's Serena and wearing the Traveling Pants, the drugged-up and desperate performance she turns in as Affleck's ex is terrific.

It's a little early for full-out Oscar bait, and I'm not sure that Affleck should be making space next to his Good Will Hunting statue just yet, but The Town is a really impressive achievement. In short, I like these apples.

Mr. & Mrs. Alias

While Undercovers isn't technically a reboot a la Hawaii Five-O and Nikita, there's definitely an Alias: The Next Generation feel to it. J.J. Abrams has assembled similar elements: sexy married spies, grizzled shadowy handler, wacky techie geek, etc. Not necessarily a bad thing, as Alias was great fun before getting bogged down in Rambaldi mythology and the similarly-themed Mr. & Mrs. Smith has some moments that got lost in the Brangelina Mania. Undercovers built buzz due to its diverse casting, but does it handle the hype?

Based solely on the pilot, pretty well. The two leads, the improbably named Boris Kodjoe and Gugu (short for Gugulethu) Mbatha-Raw have genuine chemistry – their banter comes off as actually marriage-y as opposed to just tightly scripted TV talk. Much has been made of casting two black actors in roles that didn't specify race; the best compliment about that choice is that you completely forget about that while you're watching it. Also kicking around is Gerald McRaney in older Major Dad mode as their handler, and Ben Schwartz (a Letterman and SNL writer) takes on the Marshall role from Alias, providing tech and jokes.

You've seen this story before – retired spies brought out of retirement for one last job that, in fact, is the first of hopefully several seasons – but it's generally well-executed. The action scenes are nothing to write home about, which is somewhat surprising given the fact that Abrams directed the ep. And while there may be some stories that span a couple hours, the showrunners have said that Undercovers will be generally mythology-free. After Alias went out with whimper instead of a bang and Lost almost crumbled under its own weight, making the show a bit more accessible may be a good thing, altho it does all feel a little "lite."

That said, there's definitely decent potential here – once freed of the expository needs of the pilot, it'll hopefully develop into a breezily fun little adventure hour. Worth a watch.

Hawaii I-Dunno

I never watched the original show, altho I assume that like many 70s cop dramas, it was pretty bad. Regardless, I didn't bring much baggage to this reboot's pilot, save for the fact that I don't get CBS' fascination with Alex O'Loughlin – his acting's as flat as his abs.

So while I was open to the idea of Hawaii Five-O, I dunno that it's worth adding to your regular rotation of channel surfing.

The plot can be summed up pretty quickly: buddy cops meet cute and start off squabbling before bonding over bullets. In what I suppose amounts to a twist, this time neither one goes by the book. O'Loughlin's character ignores rules in an attempt to avenge his father's murder, and Scott Caan smartasses his way through pretty much every situation. While their banter's nothing you haven't seen before, the two leads do have decent chemistry – Caan's casual spin on his Entourage and Ocean's characters help liven up the proceedings. Also milling around are a pair of buddy cop cousins: one a disgraced former cop played by Daniel Dae Kim, lucky enough to land another show that shoots on location in Hawaii, and a freshly promoted junior cop played by Grace Park, oddly enough cast in another show where she takes over a role previously played by a man.

They spent a bunch of money on the pilot, and it shows – great locations, lotsa explosions, etc. And they must've spent a bunch of money on the script, as Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Fringe, Star Trek) don't come cheap, but it doesn't really show – it's literally "you killed my father, prepare to die." Supposedly there are some multi-ep arcs in the works, which could help, otherwise it's a by-the-numbers procedural. Overall, It's like a throwback action movie every week: a few funny lines, some glimpses of skin, a torrent of bullets that somehow don't hit the main characters, etc...

Worth a watch if you like that sort of thing – entertaining but inessential.