November 12, 2001
Well, it seems that another two weeks have passed us by, leaving some of us wiser and others of us with a burn in the shape of an exhaust pipe on our ankle. I’ve found myself especially reflective this week, wondering at the marvelous ballet of life, the opera of death, and the wine-tasting of being in a coma. Heady thoughts for a movie review column, I know, but it’s best not to forget that should we ever doze off at the wheel of our Bonneville and drive into a lake, we might end up in a coma. And on that day we stop watching the movies… and the movies start watching us. I’ll let you chew on that for a while whilst we go about our business with this week’s edition of “Ask Roland”:

Q. Roland, in light of the events on September 11th, do you think we’ve seen the end of the “Age of Irony”? Is it even possible to be ironic in the current national climate? And what will this mean for the lowest-common-denominator comedic filmmakers of the last few years?
Ted Huxley, Angel’s Rump, New Hampshire

A. Good question, Ted. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to split with the consensus here and predict that the “Age of Irony” is far from over. After all, what’s an action film without Arnold’s menacing, irony stare after the bad guy feeds his entire family to a cannibalistic new-age cult? And who would bother to watch a Christina Aguilera video if her taut, irony thighs were not on display for all to see? I predict that the “irony” look has a lot more mileage left in it, and that it’s only real threat is from the also-popular “steely” look, not the long-awaited release of the “Dr Who: The Robots of Death” DVD on September 11th.

Q. I’m so close, Roland. Years ago I realized that someone—or someTHING was trying to communicate with me during ABC’s movie of the week. It all started years back when I was watching “Another 48 Hours” on a Sunday evening, enjoying Murphy and Nolte’s comical misadventures. During one especially funny scene, where Nolte is mad at Murphy from some bone-headed thing or another, I noticed a distinct pattern of beeping during their dialogue. It took me a while to figure it out, but then suddenly it dawned on me: Morse code. What the devil could this mean? A subliminal subtext to the film? A secret message for the eagle-eared? I had to find out. I decided to rent the film to watch it again… I’d earned my merit badge in Morse code as a scout years ago, but shamefully admit that my decoding skills have slipped over the years. If Samuel Morse stood before me now, well, I imagine he’d get sick all over himself and frankly I don’t blame him. I make no excuses at my Morse coding ineptitude, and I don’t expect others to make excuses for me either. Anyhow, I rented the movie at my local Hombre Video store and was shocked to find that it contained no Morse code in it at all! Apparently whoever was behind this was choosing the ABC movie as a forum to communicate with me and me alone. So I returned to my post in front of my 35 inch Zenith TruTube set, armed with only a pen, some paper, an Amstel Light and “The Idiot’s Guide to Morse Code and Pig Latin (Doubleday, 1995)” the following Sunday night. Week after week I kept vigilant watch over the Movie of the Week, each week receiving a new coded message. But who could it be sending me these messages, Roland? The Russians? The Venusians? The Jeffersons? Is it you, Roland? So far the messages have been vague about their source. Here’s what I have so far: GNUTLE. ZEEPRO. HAMMY. ZIPLX. FZZRT. ILM. TEET. TEET. I’m so close, Roland. Maybe it’s Pig Latin.
Morris Timbaker, Oleo, Nebraska

A. Wow, Morris. Sounds like Nebraska’s a pretty exciting place to live. If I were you, I’d keep myself within the state lines and never, ever leave. I mean that.

The preceeding letters were edited for clarity and because the second one was over fourteen pages long. Now it’s time for the movies!

In Theaters Now:

Domestic Disturbance
I was beginning to think that Chuck Norris would never recover from the humiliating beating he took from the Hillbilly Twins in Wrestlemania XV, but now he’s returning to the big screen to give Stephen Seagal and Jet Li a taste of old-school box-office thug competition. Here, Norris plays a retired CIA karate guy who just wants a little peace and quiet… but some Jehovah’s Witnesses, an Amway salesman and a young woman running for city council have other ideas! Jackie Chan could learn a little something from this one about kicking someone’s ass with a phone.

Mobsters, Inc
Nobody gets tired of hilarious CGI goombas smacking each other around with frying pans and scratching themselves with ice picks, that’s the first rule of Hollywood. This kids’ classic should give Disney’s upcoming Jack the Ripper animated film a run for it’s money, and you can bet your kids will be singing “There’s a Body in the Trunk” and “Two Through The Eyes, Tony-Boy” until you want to hide the cursed CD and tell them the family dog has a taste for plastic. Maybe then they’ll finally let you take Rex on the “big walk”, eh?

Shallow Hal
Mix “Clueless” with “2001: A Space Oddity” and what do you get? I don’t know, they’re not screening this one for the critics. Way to pencil your names in on my shit list, guys.

Now on Video:

The Animal
I’ve been saying for years that the Muppets movie franchise has been going down the tubes, and it looks like the Hollywood big-wigs are finally taking notice. After the dismal failures of “The Muppets and Mary Kate and Ashley’s Favorite Sleep-Overs”, “Muppet Mall Party”, “The Great Muppet Salmonella Scare”, “Muppets in a Waiting Room”, “The Muppets Meet the Yankees”, and “The Muppets Vs. The Department of Justice”, I was afraid the next Muppet movie might try to kick my elderly mother in the teeth. But thank God for small favors, because “The Animal” is the best Muppet picture in years, harkening back to the glory days of “Muppet Lambada Lesson” and “Fame”. Finally the quiet dignity behind the Muppet empire, Animal, gets his own movie. And if you don’t think watching Animal yell “Wipe-Out! Wipe-Out!” for two hours while he jumps on shit is entertaining, then my friend I think the child in you has just choked on a Duplo block.

Baby Boyscouts
Normally I’d puke at the mention of a low-rent rip-off of the hip urban hit “Baby Geniuses”, but I have to admit that this potent mix of “The Edge” and “Look Who’s Talking” kept me in stitches from the opening shot of the Columbia chick in a diaper to the closing credits scroll, which was continually interrupted so the babies could be fed and hosed down. You’ve never seen camping done like this, as the baby boyscouts are, one-by-one, eaten by bears, birds of prey, large muskies and even a moose in the film’s hysterical high-note. Kudos go to the inventive writers who mine comedy from such ingenious scenarios as having the babies try to start a campfire by leaving a soiled diaper out in the sun, only to have it explode and blow out a crater bigger than the one in Raymond Burr’s bed.

The Golden Bowl
Finally taking toilet humor to it’s logical extreme, the Farley Brothers pinch this wonderful loaf on our entertainment lawn. Here we have the tale of the four brave knights of Crapalot, played by Jack Nicholson, Buster Keaton, David Lee Roth and that fat guy from Remember the Titans. They’re on a quest to bring a holy throne back to it’s rightful place in the king of England’s bathroom, and quickly because he ate some pork that may have turned some time last week.

Television:

Alias (ABC)
ABC continues its downhill slide into network oblivion with this awful re-hash with the remaining cast members of the original Alice, the fun show about the single mom waitress and her friends at work. But everyone’s gotten predictably boring over the years, not to mention their spelling’s pretty fucked up, and to sum up this show: No Flo? No go!

Crossing Jordan (NBC)
That Michael Jordan is amazing! How on earth that guy has time to lead a fantastic basketball team to victory, star in a new hit series, and still perform his regular full-time job of endorsing every product made here and overseas is beyond me. And this is no fluff comedy, either: Jordan is a tough Lean on Me-style crossing guard, when he says stop, he means STOP!

The Big Mac Show (Fox)
Everybody loved those popular McDonald’s commercials and nobody was sadder than Roland M. they couldn’t get everybody for a regular series. But who would have thought Big Mac, of all characters, would be the big network star? Nobody, and rightly so, since this show is on UPN. But it’s still a lot of fun, despite the lame substitute characters like McFish and Shamrock Shake. Still, maybe if the show gets big enough good ol’ Grimace and maybe even Ronald himself will drop by for an episode!

Video Games:

Boy O Boy, is Roland McShyster pickled tink! Yep, you guessed it, I got my hands on a preview version of Microsoft’s Sexbox Console and some games! I’m as surprised as you are the company would mail me a preview console to review, and the dude who delivered it required a generous tip. He may not have been a mailman, but I remember seeing him in some capacity at the post office, or a picture of him, maybe. Who cares? I’m too busy gaming to ask questions or describe faces for sketch artists!

Kabuki Warriors (XB)
Before you get yourself all hyped out, be warned: Kabuki is Japanese for mime. Man, what a weak concept. All in all, it’s not bad, but c’mon, without learning all the specialty moves all you can really do is pretend you’re in a box. I tried roping my opponent, but the controls are too damned difficult, so it ends up the guy beats me by walking against the wind across the screen and nailing me with a big heavy invisible hammer. Not for me.

SEX Tricky (XB)
Now this here’s a game with power! Cut phat beats worthy of your master, the awesome DJ Tricky, or be banished to the realm of nerddom and no longer able to get into any clubs. Much better than the Super Mario rip-off where you’re Björk and have to escape the giant teddy bear.

Tony Hawk’s Prosecutor Tux (XB)
Same as the game I reviewed last week for PS2, but in this one you’re dressed like a motherfucker. Comparing it to PS2, the graphics and sound and game play and all are better, or maybe not as good, or perhaps not that much different. But the controls are definitely not the same for each game system, unless I was playing the PS2 version. It’s hard to tell with the exact same game, folks.

NFL Prime Time 2002 (XB)
Your average football game, you ask? No! This one is above and beyond expectations as the game play is generated by the computer itself. Instead, you’re Dennis Miller and you have to quickly come up with anachronistic references and jokes that sound way more intelligent than football fans could get, thus maintaining your feeling of superiority over the rest of the human race. Now this is the next century of gaming!

A mixed bag of games, true, but the power and style of the system is beyond belief. And so I give the Sexbox my highest rating ever: Good!

I hope it was good for you, too, America! Stop by in another two weeks and we'll see what we can do about that stutter of yours.