Green Lantern: First Flight

Of all the superheroes, the Hal Jordan Green Lantern is the most like Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun. Yet, Hollywood crashed and burned with the deservedly maligned 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie. As usual, DC animation far outshines their live-action colleague-rivals. The 2011 animated series was even better depicting Jordan’s ability to fly by the seat of his pants, as both a test pilot and a “maverick” member of the Lantern Corps. However, his first adventure after succeeding Abin Sur as our sector’s Green Lantern, which happened on this very day according to the DC calendar, gets a briskly energetic animated treatment in Lauren Montgomery’s Green Lantern: First Flight.

Jordan was minding his business testing experimental aircraft for his boss and Hepburn-and-Tracy-esque girlfriend Carrol Ferris when the Green Power of Abin Sur’s ring whisked him away to the dying Green Lantern’s fatal crash site. Soon, a Lantern honor guard comes looking for their comrade’s body and his successor, but they are shocked to discover he is a human earthling.

Jordan quickly learns there is a deep-seated prejudice against humans on Oa, the home of the Guardians of the Universe, who oversee the Lantern Corps. Perhaps the Trisolarans of The Three-Body Problem told them about the Cultural Revolution. Yet, there is no denying the ring chose Jordan, which theoretically is an ironclad testimonial to his virtue.

Consequently, the prestigious Lantern Sinestro offers to take the green Green Lantern under his wing, as he investigates Abin Sur’s murder. Of course, fans know Sinestro is an infamous Lantern turncoat and everyone else could probably guess as much, since his name sounds like “sinister.” Indeed, Sinestro quickly alarms Jordan’s “spider sense,” so to speak. However, none of the other Lanterns want to hear his reservations, because Jordan is only human—particularly not the hulking Kilowog, who has canine and hog-like features.

In general, Jordan is a roguishly relatable superhero and Kilowog is one of the most appealing characters who still largely flies under the radar of non-comics fans. First Flight does a nice job conveying their personality strengths and quirks, but it really excels portraying Sinestro’s devious cunning and duplicity. There is a lot of cataclysmic cosmic wrath in the climatic battle, involving an evil scheme to employ yellow power to nullify the Lanterns’ green, but the film really showcases the characters and the inner dynamics of the Lantern Corps.

Night Court: The Judge’s Boyfriend’s Dad

This is New York, so the idea of recruiting prosecutors out of prison is not so far-fetched for Alvin Bragg. They say our courts have a revolving door. That has been especially true for the Night Court franchise. Everyone remembers Markie Post from the original series, but they went through two prior public defenders before she took over the role. Losing a prosecutor should be nothing out of the ordinary for the reboot-continuation series. However, curmudgeonly public defender Dan Fielding will be a little freaked out by his new rival. As a possible consolation, he might discover a new son he never knew he had in “The Judge’s Boyfriend’s Dad, Part 1 & 2,” the two-part season premiere of showrunner Dan Rubin’s Night Court, airing tomorrow and next Tuesday on NBC.

A lot has changed since the first season. In addition to the new prosecutor, Judge Abby Stone also has a new clerk and a new boyfriend. In most respects, they are all trade-ups. India de Beaufort got a lot of laughs as Olivia, the self-absorbed, uber-aggressive ADA. However, her replacement is Wendie Malick, who played Fielding’s former stalker-tormentor Julianne Walters. Yes, she was sent to prison in a previous episode. Welcome to New York City.

Nyambi Nyambi also mines more humor from the clerk’s position than his predecessor. Plus, recuring Gary Anthony Williams often feels like a throwback to the old school Night Court (which is a good thing), as Flobert, a former judge who often subs in the various Night Court positions (which have had several vacancies) and just generally like to hang out and kvetch. He is going to have plenty of gossip, because Judge Abby suspects her boyfriend Jake might be Fielding’s secret illegitimate son, for reasons she explains in the eccentric opening prologue to “Part 1.”

True to form, the naïve do-gooding Stone agonizes over how to broach her supposition with both men. On the other hand, Flobert and Gurgs the bailiff offer plenty of suggestions for invasive DNA tests, which Stone will eventually go along with, for her own personal reasons.

Of course, the best scenes of this two-parter focus on Walters’ cat-and-mouse sparring with Fielding. She has the edge this series needs, since it has gone out of its way to tame Fielding. Walters also outmaneuvers Gurgs as well, when they clash over smoking on the fire-escape, which is solidly relatable workplace material.

Hyper-sensitivity will be the death of the sitcom genre, but the new shows like St. Denis Medical and Animal Control are not giving up without a fight. Frankly, it is still unclear whether Rubin and his fellow writers intend to join the battle or surrender, but at least their writing for Malick shows some signs of life.

Tobe Hooper at MoMA: Lifeforce

When the European Space Agency gets in trouble, NASA is there to rescue them. Unfortunately, everyone was already dead on the ESA shuttle, except for the space vampires in suspended animation. However, there is a survivor heading home in the escape pod. Of course, he was the one American crew-member. Perhaps that is why naked “Space Girl” (as fans refer to her) forged a telepathic connection to Col. Tom Carlson, but that link works both ways in Tobe Hooper’s cult classic Lifeforce, which screens again Tuesday as part of MoMA’s retrospective of Hooper’s 1980s films.

You would think screenwriter Dan O’Bannon (who also penned Alien and Dark Star) would have made Carlson a “Major Tom” instead. However, he was certainly on solid ground describing an unexpected encounter with a dangerous race of space aliens. Ironically, the early scenes of the space vampire’s lair on Halley’s comet have serious Prometheus and Covenant vibes. Understandably, most of the Churchill’s crew assume the three good-looking humanoids are dead—since they are not breathing. Yet, the comatose bodies still exert a strange disruptive influence over the humans.

Things will go very badly on the Churchill, but Carlson’s explanation must wait for a later flashback. Frankly, by the time he reaches Earth Dr. Hans Fallada of the ESA and Col. Colin Caine of the SAS have already figured out the aliens consume people’s lifeforce. Like vampires, their victims also turn into lifeforce-suckers, but they are not as powerful. Apparently, Space Girl ditched her conspicuously naked body, having assumed control over a chin of hosts, but Carlson can now detect her influence with even an incidental touch.

Admittedly, it is hard to explain Lifeforce, even though it obviously layers science fiction elements over the narrative bones of Dracula. However, Hooper’s film is still an under-heralded genre gem. In some ways, it represents a once-in-a-lifetime genre collaboration, including Hooper (the director of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist), narrator John Larroquette (who also supplied the voice-over intro to Texas Chainsaw), O’Bannon, special effects artist John Dykstra (notable for Star Wars in 1977 and Spider-Man in 2002), a grand symphonic score composed by Henry “Pink Panther” Mancini, and it even features Patrick Stewart in a supporting role, as Dr. Armstrong. Plus, it was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, of Cannon Films, who contracted Hooper to a three-picture deal.

Despite some excesses, like Space Girl walking through the city of London without a stitch of clothing, Lifeforce holds up nicely as a hybrid sf-horror production. Arguably, many of the scenes aboard the Churchill have a look and texture that evoke the vibes of earlier Dykstra films, such as Star Wars and Silent Running, which is very cool.

Peter Firth and Frank Finlay also develop intelligent, crisply professional chemistry in the Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee tradition, as Caine and Fallada. They embody smart, coolly competent characters, who admittedly have an awful lot on their plates. As Col. Carlson, Steve Railsback has terrific freakouts and fully commits to some over-the-top sex scenes, but if there had been a sequel, Firth’s Col. Caine would have been the one to carry it.

The Night Court Before Christmas, on NBC

Usually, a series needs a few seasons under its belt before building an episode around nostalgic flashbacks. Of course, Night Court has the benefit of its predecessors’ nine seasons in the 1980s. Yet, for its first special Christmas episode, it is only flashing back a few weeks—back when Grinchy Dan Fielding was still the unlikely Public Defender. He also kind of, sort of saves Christmas, but he is not happy about it in “Night Court Before Christmas, which premieres Saturday on NBC.

Recently, Fielding accepted an appointment to the bench in his beloved hometown of New Orleans, but he is still a weekly cast-member, so we will see how log that lasts. Abby Stone also broke up with her fiancé, so now she is “dating herself.” She gets torched pretty regularly over that, but the original show would have been harsher.

Tonight, the court is processing cases related to Santa Con, so it is packed with bad Santas. A little girl struggling with her parents’ recent divorce happened to slip her Christmas list to one of the disorderly drunks, because she would only entrust it to old St. Nick himself. Judge Abby is determined to find it, because she is hyper-into the Christmas spirit, so she enlists the reluctant Fielding. Meanwhile, “Gurgs” the bailiff is hiding her own Christmas surprise for Fielding: a personal appearance from his hero Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The second “Night Court Before Christmas” (a reference to the original series’ Christmas episode) harkens back to what made the original so popular, but also shows the limits of the playing-it-safe reboot. It is just too safe and too polite. However, viewers should give Abdul-Jabbar credit for being a good sport. He is willing to look a little silly in a surprisingly substantial guest turn, which follows in the tradition of Mel Torme’s weird appearances on the original.

Night Court (2023), on NBC

Jazz fans had our special reasons to watch Rienhold Weege’s popular 1980s sitcom Night Court. Not only was Mel Torme a regular guest star, it always started with a jazzy theme song, featuring the great Ernie Watts on alto. Unlike the family comedies that preceded it on NBC’s original “Must-see” Thursday night line-up (ironically including The Cosby Show), Night Court specialized in snarkier, take-no-prisoners humor. Sadly, several stars of the original series have left us, including Harry Anderson (Judge Harry Stone) and Markie Post (the public defender), but John Larroquette, who won four Emmy Awards as Assistant DA Dan Fielding, is alive and very much part of the new Night Court revival series, which premieres tomorrow on NBC.

Sadly, Judge Harry Stone has also passed away, but his daughter, Abby Stone, has just been appointed to the bench in his old New York City Night Court. In the pilot episode, the new Judge Stone does not think much of the current public defender, so she tries to recruit her father’s old friend and colleague, Dan Fielding, to come over to the bleeding-heart side of the Force. That won’t exactly happen, but Fielding still accepts the PD position, much to his own surprise.

The pilot episode should please fans of the old show, because it makes extensive references to Judge Harry. It also catches us up quickly, making it clear widowed Fielding’s beloved wife helped moderate his extremes, but he always kept his caustic wit, which has only gotten more acidic since her untimely death.

Even though he now defends them, Fielding continues to mercilessly mock the court’s weirdos and perverts. Obviously, that is the best part of the show. Larroquette can still milk a line for laughs better than anyone in sitcoms. He also brings a surprisingly wistfulness exploring the sadness of Fiedling’s grief. Of the first six episodes provided for review, the best is the third, “Dan vs. Dating,” wherein Judge Stone tries to coax the former ladies man back into the dating scene. Of course, Fielding is as acerbic as ever, but guest star Wendy Malick has the attitude and comedic flamboyance to hold her own opposite him. None of the regular cast-members can also say that, at least not yet.

Still, Kapil Talwalkar shows some potential as Neil, the lonely-hearted court clerk, who is desperate to up his romantic game. India de Beaufort also earns some laughs as Olivia, the self-absorbed, career-minded Night Court ADA. She is a bit of a mini-Fielding, but the show can always use more of him.

Awkwardly, the new Judge Stone and bailiff Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous have the same personality quirks—naïve and eager to be liked. That is unfortunate for Lacretta, who plays Gurgs, because Melissa Rauch, who stars as Stone, also serves as a producer and she has a lot of sitcom cred, having co-starred on Big Bang Theory (she was the one who was pregnant in about half the episodes). So, if one of them will ever be cut from the show, it is unlikely to be Rauch.

In fact, the new Judge Stone is the new Night Court greatest weakness. Yes, her father always tried to see the best in people, but he was also an old “friend of Stan Carlisle,” so he always recognized when someone was trying to pull his leg. His street smarts are dearly missed in the fourth episode, “Justice Buddies,” easily the worst episode of the initial half-dozen, about a pack of woke brats who try to occupy the court. Fiedling is trying to exploit the situation for his own benefit, which is reasonably in character, but that leaves nobody to deflate their juvenile leftist posturing. Frankly, it is just nauseating to watch their tantrum play out.

The Librarians: The Television Film Franchise Goes Weekly

Flynn Carsen is a librarian Kramer would approve of. He does not spend a lot of time putting newspapers on big wooden sticks for cheapskates trying to save a quarter and probably doesn’t even know the Dewey Decimal System. Instead, he spends his time tracking down magical items to keep them out of the hands of potential evil-doers. The protagonist of TNT’s hit television movie franchise The Librarian is now a recurring character in their new regular series, The Librarians, note the plural form, which debuts with back-to-back episodes (The Librarians and the Crown of King Arthur and The Librarians and the Sword and the Stone) this Sunday (promo here).

Carsen has two last names and twenty-two college degrees. The perennial student was chosen by “the Library,” the mystical apostolic successor to the great Library in Alexandria, now hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library in New York. Having held his own in a series of adventures, Carsen is rather put out when the Library recruits Col. Eve Baird, a no-nonsense counter-terrorism operative to be his Protector. However, he will reluctantly accept her help when the shadowy Serpent Brotherhood starts assassinating all the weird genius rivals he beat out for his current globe-trotting gig. In fact, the only former candidates still surviving are the three oddballs who never made it in for their interviews.

Jacob Stone is an unassuming laborer in the Oklahoma oil fields, who writes scholarly articles on medieval art and history under an assumed name. Ezekiel Jones is a thrill-seeker, who likes to steal the things Stone writes about. Cassandra Cillian has savant-like powers of memory and superhuman computation, but it might be linked to the tumor that will eventually kill her. Together with Carsen and Baird, they will track down several Arthurian relics the Brotherhood needs to control the magic they intend to let loose upon the world.

The Librarian one-offs might have been popular, but they must have skewed toward a decidedly younger demographic. While the premiere episodes, directed in a straight forward manner by Independence Day producer Dean Devlin, never descend into outright slapstick, the dominant acting style practiced is decidedly broad. This is especially so for Noah Wyle’s Carsen and hammy John Larroquette, joining the Librarian world as Jenkins, the curmudgeonly manager of the Library’s branch office (evidently in Portland of all places), who is clearly being set up to serve as the Giles-Watcher to the three new recruits. However, Rebecca Romijn demonstrates decent action chops and an appealingly down-to-business screen presence as Baird.

The villains are not bad either. Matt Frewer returns to chew a bit of scenery as the Brotherhood’s immortal overlord, Dulaque and Lesley-Ann Brandt’s unfortunately named Lamia is a promising femme fatale. It is hard to judge from just two episodes, but John Kim and Christian Kane at least seem comfortable in the parts of Jones and Stone. In contrast, Lindy Booth may need some time to figure out how to breathe life into Cillian, a passive naïf character written somewhere between a door mouse and door mat.

Guys of my generation probably would have loved this show when we were twelve years old. There is magic and adventure, but it feels old fashioned in a 1980s network television kind of way. To an extent, it is like the Friday the 13^th series, with fantasy trappings instead of the supernatural horror (it also lacks the evil antiquing show’s distinctive vibe). It is harmless and might serve as a productive stepping stone for Romijn, but it will underwhelm most adult genre audiences. For franchise fans, the first two episodes of The Librarians debut on TNT this Sunday (12/7).