Posts by Jeremy Butler

Survival, Endurance, Adversity, and Courage took on new meaning for me after No Place on Earth. They say that you can never judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes and experienced their life. Well, I haven’t walked that mile, but the documentary did give me a first-hand account of the 511 days the Stermer family spent underground during the Holocaust. After seeing what that family went through firsthand (or at least as close as I could get to firsthand) only one world truly describes my opinion: Awe.

October 1952: Esther Stermer is living a quiet life surrounded by her family. Then the Nazis come, capturing every Jewish family and taking them to concentration camps. Neighbor turns on neighbor in the clamor to survive. Esther, knowing it is only a matter of time before she and her family are taken, acts quickly trying to find a place to hide from the Nazi forces. Their refuge came in the form of an underground cave. Forced to remain there for the foreseeable future, Esther along with her children and grandchildren battle to survive against starvation, dehydration, and the ever looming danger of Nazis, achieving the longest recorded uninterrupted underground survival occurrence in history.

This is just personal habit of mine, but whenever I’m done watching a comedy special that features more than one comedian, instinctively I arrange them all in my head from least to greatest: In the case of The Original Kings of Comedy: Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley; Blue Collar Comedy Tour: Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy, and Bill Engvall; and in the case of Women Who Kill: Amy Schumer, Marina Franklin, Nikki Glaser, and Rachel Feinstein.

Amy Schumer is first up at bat with a raunchy set that covers everything from old people, interracial relations, religion, to being set up. Schumer is quick-witted, full of quips, and she does a great job of interacting up with the crowd; the downside is she rifles through every subject too rapidly, and a few of her quips get lost in the shuffle.

The shoe is on the other foot in the Donald Faison and Eve Amurri Martino-led raunchy comedy, Stag. Curious enough, for being the supposed co-leads of the movie, the focus of the film is on them less than half of its duration; Stag is basically about the background characters. The only issue with that is the background characters aren't really all that interesting when you get right down to it.

Ken (Donald Faison, The Exes) is revered by his friends as the king of pranks. Every time one of his friends is about to get married, as part of tradition he pulls a legendary prank at his would-be victim’s (the groom-to-be) stag party; everything from getting them blackout drunk and putting them in ring with a boxer to getting them black-out drunk, stuffing them in a shipping box and shipping them first class. Now it is his turn to take the plunge and his friends are thinking vengeance is theirs, and Ken is on the edge of his seat in anticipation of what they may do to him.

“Let me tell you what it’s going to be like. Irish girl, English jail. Every time you want to see your boy, every time he wants to see you, his grandma’s gonna have to load him onto the ferry and drive 400 miles. It’s gonna break his f***in heart.”

Which is stronger, the bonds of family loyalty or self-preservation? That is the question that is presented in Shadow Dancer, the espionage thriller starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough. I had high hopes for this film when I picked it up; I was expecting an unpredictable and suspenseful thriller that I would not be able to take my eyes away from. What I got was…well let’s just say I had no trouble prying my eyes away.

“The bullies tried to make us feel small; in a weird way it did just the opposite. I wasn’t afraid anymore, and Howie wasn’t alone. God has a way of giving you what you need when times get tough.”

Traditions die hard, but not all traditions are good traditions. Such is the case in Standing Up, D.J. Caruso (I AM NUMBER FOUR) tale based on the novel The Goats by Brock Cole. The film focuses on a subject that has been receiving more and more attention as the problem continues to grow: bullying. It seems like a week doesn’t go by without me hearing a story about someone becoming the latest victim of someone else’s cruelty, and good to see a filmmaker take the time to tell a meaningful story about two kids who are victims of a cruel practical joke banding together and forming a friendship that stands the test of time.

Sigourney Weaver running for the presidency? Come on, I can’t be the only one who saw that coming. No, no just joking; Mrs. Weaver herself is not running for president, but she played someone who did on TV. I am of course referring to the USA Network miniseries Political Animals, where she stars as Elaine Barrish, the former First Lady and current Secretary of State. Filled with crisis after crisis, scandal after scandal, the six-part miniseries delves into the personal and professional lives of its characters, leaving no stone unturned and no secret untouched.

The series starts off depicting the end of former First Lady, Elaine Barrish’s failed presidential run. Moments after delivering her concession speech, she tells her philandering husband, former 42^nd President of the United States Bud Hammond (Ciaran Hinds) that she wants a divorce. Fast forward two years; many things have changed; Elaine now serves as the Secretary of State to the very man she ran against in the Presidential Primaries, President Paul Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar); her former husband has been raked over the coals for infidelities and has now gone from beloved public figure to political pariah. During their marriage, Elaine was considered a cold and calculating political animal, and afterwards, her approval went through the roof. Her divorce as well as her decision to serve alongside the man who beat her has been the cause of much political speculation, with one question on everyone’s mind: Will she make another run at the presidency?

“Everything you've heard... about monsters, about nightmares, legends whispered around campfires. All the stories are true.”

Has anyone notice the fire sale that has been going on among film studios and young adult novels? Since Twilight neared its end (and before), the market is has become flooded in recent years with adaptation after adaptation, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon, especially with announcements of plans to adapt novels like Divergent, Ender’s Game, and Vampire Academy; everyone is looking for the next big phenomenon to fill the void left by Twilight. If there was a series that could accomplish that goal, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was the one that had my vote. However, after seeing it, I have some doubts. I’m not saying it can’t ultimately accomplish it, but the series will definitely need to make a few adjustments and will have its work cut out for it.

What an accurate title for this stand-up, “Whelmed But Not Overly.” The title of the stand-up resonates with me the most because it perfectly reflects my opinion of Nealon’s stand-up. I think that is reasonable to say that by now everyone has an idea of who Kevin Nealon is; you may not know him by name, but my guess is if he were to show up on your TV screen you’d go, “Hey I know him from somewhere.” For most, it would be that you recognize him from his tenure on Saturday Night Live, or as the corky resident funny man on the Showtime series Weeds, or perhaps in the background of a couple of your favorite Adam Sandler films. However, is it much harder to be the funny man in stand-up vs. on a TV show or movie; it requires impeccable comedic timing and charisma that moves the crowd. Although I am sure this not Nealon’s first rodeo, he did not deliver what was need to keep my interest.

Part of the problem for me was that during his set, Nealon came out and only briefly touched base on a wide array of subjects. No real time was spent on the importance of subject. Why is this topic worth discussing and how is it relevant to me? These are questions that the audience asks themselves during stand-up; the audience looks to comedians to be the voice for all the things that are unable to say in everyday life, but with subjects like Remember When, a subject essentially about how people’s voices raise an octave when reminiscing, he is not acting as their voice. Nor does talking about the different celebrity’s that he has crop-dusted (I did not know what crop-dusting was before this special, which either makes me innocent or entirely clueless, not sure which one yet); however, it did turns out to be one of the more enjoyable sections of the set, not really sure what that says about me, but it’s true. Ultimately the topics that Nealon discusses are not things that I really spend time thinking about, which at least in my case makes them kind of pointless.