Intelligence

RTL CBS Entertainment Channel held a press screening of the Intelligence pilot episode earlier tonight, and I was able to attend. The CBS television show's first episode was watched by 16.49 million viewers on its first airing in the U.S. and is the highest-rated debut of the 2013-2014 television season. Here's a quick, informal review of the pilot. 

Scruffy heartthrob Josh Holloway, best known as Sawyer from Lost, stars as Agent Gabriel Vaughn, an operative of Cyber Command. He has been implanted with a supercomputer and is able to draw on satellites, the internet, security cameras and recording devices, making a wealth of knowledge instantly accessible. His boss, Cyber Command director Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger) hires ex-Secret Service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory) to protect Vaughn, something neither are initially keen on. Rogue Chinese agents, led by Jin Cong (Will Yun Lee) plan to implant a similar chip into an operative of their own, kidnapping scientist  Shenendoah Cassidy (John Billingsley) and forcing him to do their bidding. Meanwhile, Vaughn is intent on getting to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of his wife Amelia (Zuleikha Robinson), a CIA agent who was apparently turned and was complicit in the Mumbai bombings. 

Creator Michael Seitzman's intention was to build a TV show around a "modern Six-Million-Dollar Man", and the premise is reminiscent of the action-comedy series Chuck (sans laughs) and even more than that, Jake 2.0. The show has something of a 90s techno-thriller vibe, marrying a pared down cyberpunk sensibility with post-Bourne espionage thrills. It's relatively solid but it really isn't nothing we haven't seen before. The characters are very much stock archetypes, the protagonist being a highly decorated patriot who's skilled, sexy and reckless. He has a dark and troubled past (TM), seeking to unravel a personal mystery. He's paired with the beautiful newcomer who wants nothing to do with him - we're told that she single-handedly fought off four assailants while on the protective detail of Sasha and Malia Obama. And of course there's the no-nonsense boss lady running the show. It is pretty rote.

Vaughn's ace up his sleeve is an ability called "rendering", a process which pulls data from every available source and allows Vaughn to reconstruct a virtual crime scene, frozen in time and fully annotated, in his mind, his own imagination filling in some of the blanks. It is presented slickly and is sufficiently futuristic. We are also shown that this technology has its limits, keeping Vaughn from turning into a hyper-connected superhero. In addition to that, we have the expected fisticuffs and gunplay and some of the fights are decently choreographed.

Holloway is handsome and charming, by no means a great actor but a dependable choice to carry an action-oriented television series. A good deal of the dialogue is quite cliché: for example, upon meeting Riley Neal, Director Strand tells her to "take a walk with me" as they stroll through Cyber Command headquarters, allowing Strand to deliver some exposition. Vaughn and Neal bicker and will supposedly warm up to each other over the course of the show. He's still pretty attached to his presumed-dead wife, but you can bet there'll be a "will they or won't they" possible romance between Vaughn and Neal. It's also pretty hard to take an agency named "Cyber Command" very seriously. Points for an unexpected and plausible reveal midway through the episode, though.

Overall, it's high-tech and fairly entertaining, but nothing cutting edge. There is every chance that it could eventually develop a rich mythology and use its premise in creative ways, but honestly, it's pretty unlikely as what I've seen so far is kinda run of the mill.

Make Your Move

For F*** Magazine

MAKE YOUR MOVE

Director: Duane Adler
Cast:   BoA, Derek Hough, Izabella Miko, Wesley Jonathan, Will Yun Lee
Genre: Musical, Drama
Run Time: 110 mins
Opens: 14 November 2013
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)

         We’ve all heard of the Die Hard on an X  formula: Speed is Die Hard on a bus, Under Siege is Die Hard on a battleship, Sudden Death is Die Hard in a hockey stadium, Air Force One is Die Hard on the Presidential plane and so on. Here’s a formula even more popular than that one: Romeo and Juliet with an X. Gnomeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet with garden gnomes, Upside Down is Romeo and Juliet with metaphysical fantasy, Warm Bodies is Romeo and Juliet with zombies and The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride is Romeo and Juliet with anthropomorphic safari animals. Make Your Move is Romeo and Juliet with dancing, in New York. Okay, so maybe West Side Story has laid claim to that premise.

            Donny (Hough) is a New Orleans dancer fresh out of jail and looking to make a new start. He evades his parole officer (Dan Lauria) and travels to New York, where his foster brother Nick (Jonathan) has set up a hot new underground club called Static. Nick’s ex-partner-turned-rival Kaz (Lee) has established the swanky joint Oto in competition; both no longer on good terms. Kaz’s sister Aya fronts a crew called Cobu which incorporates taiko drums into their dance act. Naturally, Donny is smitten and falls headlong for Aya, their budding romance in defiance of their respective brothers’ endeavours. Complicating matters is Michael (Jefferson Brown), a sleazy Wall Street broker who co-owns Oto with Kaz and who has his eye on Aya.

            Writer-director Duane Adler is no stranger to dance movies, having previously written Save the Last Dance, Step-Up, Make It Happen and The Way She Moves. These films are known for great dancing and simplistic, teen-friendly storylines. Make Your Move is consistent with those entries in Adler’s filmography in that respect. However, this Korean co-production (made with the involvement of S. M. Entertainment) deserves credit for upping the visibility of Asian talent in Hollywood without over-politicizing the matter.

            The film takes a while to get into gear, opening with a series of unwieldy exposition dumps. You’d think the makers of a dance movie would know the importance of showing and not telling. Some of the dialogue is also rather cringe-worthy. However, this reviewer has no complaints about the dance sequences, choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo, Yako Miyamoto and Nick Gonzalez. These manage to be energetic and elegant when required and are enhanced by Gregory Middleton’s beautiful cinematography, the lighting and composition in a good number of shots pleasantly artful. There’s fire dancing and confetti raining down to justify the use of 3D; we saw the 2D version.

            Derek Hough, Dancing with the Stars pro and brother to Julianne, appears to want to follow in his sister’s footloose footsteps in pursuing a film career. He is very much a cookie cutter pretty boy and more acting lessons are in order, but his physicality and impressive footwork are definitely up to par. K-pop superstar BoA makes her Hollywood film debut here, busting a move, beating a drum (she is Beat of Angel after all) and looking great while at it. Her line delivery is stilted in parts and she has a tendency to sound whiny, but the effort she’s put in is evident and she’s able to muster a decent amount of chemistry with her co-star.

            Will Yun Lee, last seen as Harada in The Wolverine, has been working steadily in Hollywood, with stints on TV shows like Witchblade, Bionic Woman and Hawaii Five-0 as well as in films like Die Another Day and the Red Dawn remake. It’s nice to see him not playing a North Korean military figure and he does a good job as the concerned older brother and savvy business owner. The film touches on the practical concerns of running a club, grounding the story in some reality. Wesley Jonathan, whose previous dance movie experience comprises Steppin: The Movie and B-girl, generates adequate brotherly banter and tension with Hough as our Benvolio/Mercutio mashup analogue. Jefferson Brown chews the dance club scenery as a supremely slappable slimy corporate type, scoring “villain you love to hate” points.

            Make Your Move is corny and cheesy – at one point, BoA does a “dance of angst” – but it’s corny and cheesy in the honoured “nobody puts Baby in a corner” tradition. There’s an earnestness beneath the “star-crossed lovers, yo” story we’ve seen hundreds of times before and yes, while it is an excuse to string together a series of dance numbers, at least there’s a story to begin with here. There’s enough in Make Your Move to appeal to both the American and Asian markets (look out for K-pop star Jung Yunho’s cameo) and as far as silly romantic flicks go, you could do worse.

SUMMARY: If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief from the nightclub rafters, Make Your Move manages to be charming and visually engaging in spite of a plot that’s been used a thousand times since Billy Shakes popularized it with his obscure play.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong