Titanic: Blood and Steel

Starring: Kevin Zegers, Liam Cunningham, Alessandra Mastronardi, Derek Jacobi, Neve Campbell, Chris Noth, Billy Carter, Ophelia Lovibond, Branwell Donaghey, Martin McCann

Creator: Ciaran Donnelly

Genre: Drama, Historical, Miniseries

Rating: C

I have really mixed feelings about this show.  On the one hand, it wasn't poorly acted and a lot of elements of the plot were actually really interesting.  I enjoyed the ongoing labour and religious disputes between the different levels of people building the Titanic.  The struggles of protagonist Mark Muir (Zegers) are really interesting too, both in terms of his personal and work life.  That having been said, however, Titanic: Blood and Steel has very little to do with the Titanic, despite being about the boat.  It misrepresents history in such a way that I can't help but feel it's rather an insult to the real history here.  To the real people who built the Titanic.

Titanic: Blood and Steel is not your traditional Titanic show.  Rather than focus on the events of the sailing and its disastrous ending, Blood and Steel looks at the building of the ship and the people who invested in it before its maiden voyage.  Here we see some of the classic figures in a Titanic story, the big names that we've come to know - Thomas Andrews (Carter), J.P. Morgan (Noth), and Lord Pirrie (Jacobi).  What takes more of a focus, however, than these actual people, is the account of the very fictional Dr. Mark Muir, an Irish immigrant and American engineer who specializes in studying steel.  We also see struggles of the Irish steelworkers, lead by the McCann brothers, Michael (Donaghey) and Conor (McCann), and the Italian artisans, who worked on the boat.

Once again, the thing that really got me here was how much the focus was on highly fictionalized events.  Blood and Steel was at its best when it was looking at the very real problems that Titanic had to overcome in her making, and at its worst when it was focused on Mark complaining about the impurities in the steel.  If this series is to be taken seriously, then it's to be believed that it was these impurities that caused the Titanic to sink and 1,502 people to die, and not the whole hitting an iceberg.  In my opinion there are a lot of really interesting stories that can be told about the Titanic, both during its building and its sailing, that look a lot more at the actual history of the boat.

That being said, I don't think you need to use real people when constructing a work of historical fiction.  There is that "fiction" element to it, and it can be a lot easier to use fictional characters to depict real events.  James Cameron's Titanic is a great example of how this can happen, and I think the other miniseries out this year from the minds of Nigel Strafford-Clark and Julian Fellowes is another good example.  Both works use a basic story that we already know in order to tell us a new story.  They interweave characterizations of real people, that are largely based on documentation about them, and fictional characters, and base it around one very real event.  Jack and Rose were not in themselves real, but the way their story is told gives us an idea of the real Titanic.  Neither Jack nor Rose are elevated in their importance, they are very much the everyman type character (although, in the case of Rose, with a highly elevated class).  The 2012 Titanic is even better in this regards because it spends a lot more time looking at people who actually were real.  Blood and Steel, however, takes the name of the Titanic and a few events that occurred during its making then weaves together this very fictional story, degrading the historical figures in order to elevate the fictional ones.  In the end it just kind of struck a nerve with me.

Speaking of endings, there is also the problem of Blood and Steel's actual ending.  The miniseries ends where most Titanic works begin, with the boat embarking on its doomed voyage, leaving the viewer to wonder just which of the cast members who happen to be on the boat survive.  While I liked the idea of some of the cast being on it, the way they did this was, in a lot of ways, really contrived and a bit forced.  The speculation itself is also rather fun, in a way, but it also leaves the question open as to whether or not there was supposed to be some sort of follow up to this series - Titanic: Blood and Steel part 2.  Because of the way that they did it, it really felt like they weren't ending the series.

3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom (2012)

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Chris O'Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Nora Dunn, Whitney Cummings, Ron Perlman, Chris Noth, Sam Anderson

Director: Jordan Roberts

Genre: Comedy

Rating: B

Frankie (Hunnam) has always been the focus of two things: his brother's pranks and his brother's films.  These pranks have lead to some disastrous results, notably when he became a Youtube sensation following a disastrous incident at what was supposed to be his wedding.  Wedding called off, Frankie withdrew to the desert and did his best to cut off all ties with his family.  That is, until his brother, Bruce (O'Dowd), is released from rehab and his parents (Dunn and Anderson) insist that Frankie come to the reunion.  Bruce has decided that he wants to become a director, and his favourite person to focus on is his brother.  Frankie wants no part in it, but when he finds out that Bruce secretly filmed an encounter that Frankie had with Lassie (Caplan), Frankie must embark on a journey to regain his dignity.

This journey is what makes this film absolutely awesome, as Frankie comes up repeatedly against the not exactly sane people that inhabit his brother's world - notably rather deranged actor Jack (Noth), and the transsexual Phiyllis (Perlman).  Each character in this film is really a character - most of them you suspect might be mentally unstable and a good portion of them who you really hope aren't supposed to be realistic depictions of people, even if some of them do kind of remind you of people you know - and their actions are both hilarious and infuriating at the same time.  It's very easy to relate with Hunnam's character because the events that happen to him are in a way so clear cut that it's hard not to be mad at Bruce.  At the same time, however, once you write Bruce off as not all there mentally it becomes easier to try to make allowances for his behaviour, even when he crosses the line - which he does multiple times.

The thing that I really liked about 3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom was just how unconventional it is.  It addresses issues that, while you might see addressed normally, don't get touched on to the great length that Frankie touches on them.  I mean, it's a movie that combines the power of the internet and viral videos with hidden sex tapes and erectile dysfunction.  And on top of all that it also has this great love story underneath it.  You never really care about most of the characters in this film - you aren't rooting for Bruce or Jack or Phiyllis - but there isn't any addition to it that could have been done away with.  You are rooting for Frankie and Lassie, and they need Bruce, Jack, and Phiyllis in order to make their story work.  Plus, you can't go wrong with Ron Perlman as a transsexual.

The Perfect Man (2005)

Stars: Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth, Mike O'Malley, Ben Feldman, Vanessa Lengies
Director: Mark Rosman
Genre: Comedy, Family, Romance
Rating: D

Is there such thing as a good Hilary Duff movie?  I’ve watched a good many of her movies and I usually enjoy them.  The acting’s not great and the story’s not great, but it’s fun and there’s usually good (albeit pop-y) music.  The Perfect Man, however doesn’t really meet those standards.  The acting isn’t good, the story isn’t good, it isn’t overly fun, and the music… the soundtrack has four Styx songs.  This should be a life lesson: if the soundtrack of a movie depends heavily on Styx don’t see it.  It’s probably not worth it.

Jean (Locklear) is pretty much a serial monogamous.  She enters into relationships with questionable men then, when things don’t work out, she picks up her life and moves.  While this semi-nomadic life appears to work for her, it does not work for her two daughters, Holly (Duff) and Zoe (Aria Wallace), who both long for stability.  Once settled in their newest home Holly devises a plan with new friend Amy (Lengies) to essentially trick her mother into staying.  Using the wisdom of Amy’s Uncle Ben (Noth) Holly creates a fictional admirer for her mother, so that they won’t enter into the usual pattern.  Hijinks ensue as Holly must work to keep her mother from meeting the real Ben and dissuade Jean from considering the many advances of co-worker and Styx fan, Lenny (O’Malley).  Throughout all of this, she also meets a cute boy (Feldman) who shows interest in her, and must deal with her feelings for him in competition with her fear of getting too attached to one place.  Oh, and she comes to determine that the real Ben is perfect for her mother, despite the fact that he appears to be engaged to another woman.

Even by the standards of your typical Hilary Duff movie, this is a pretty bad movie.  The plot is ludicrous and one has to question just how Holly is capable of keeping all her lies straight (there are a few moments when it really seems like if Jean was in any way intelligent she would be able to figure out that ‘Ben’ was fake).  You also have to question the believability of Locklear as a woman with the kind of dating history that she has.  I have no problem buying her as a serial monogamous or regularly in bad relationships.  She really seems more of the type to date the hot douche (in line with the kind of men that Locklear seems to date in reality) and not the bumbling idiot.  There’s also no real explanation for why some of the men that she dates are so horrible.  Yes, Lenny is a Styx fan and that’s questionable in itself, but despite the fact that he’s not really the brightest and doesn’t have the best taste he actually seems like he’s a pretty good guy.  In the land of a Duff movie, though, balding Styx fans are not respectable potential step-fathers.  Oh, also, as the film is set in… some part of New York where the accents are particularly horrendous, this movie also features Canadian actors with really bad fake New York accents.  Between the accents and the music, it is highly likely that this film might make your ears bleed.