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Hosts

Farrell Roth
Lon Harris

Guest

Charlotte Ross (“Drive Angry 3D,” “Glee”)

Introduction

Things got off to a raucous start this week, with Farrell asking Lon for compliments on her new feathered hairdo and not receiving the feedback she expected.

Lon and Farrell also admitted that they both saw this week’s films back-to-back, alone, on Friday evening. Sad…

In Theaters

“The Mechanic”

Directed by Simon West (“Con Air,” “When a Stranger Calls”)
Written by Lewis John Carlino and Richard Wenk
Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland

In this faithful remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson thriller, Jason Statham plays a hitman who takes on an old friend’s son (Foster) as an apprentice. However, Statham’s shadowy and duplicitous employers have other plans for the twosome, who will have to learn to work together to survive.

Lon: The film is faithful to the Bronson original, to a fault. Both films have trouble really explaining the motivations of their characters. Seems like that’s the sort of thing you would have solved in a rewrite. Still, Foster is a better pick for the apprentice than Jan-Michael Vincent in the original, and there’s a lot of well-executed action.

Farrell: It was fun, but extremely disposable. There’s really no good reason for the film to exist. The ending is also a cop-out.

“From Prada to Nada”

Directed by Angel Gracia
Written by Fina Torres, Luis Alfaro and Craig Fernandez
Starring Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega and Wilmer Valderrama

In this re-imagining of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” two Mexican-American sisters from Beverly Hills are left penniless following the sudden death of their father. Now living with their aunt in East LA, they get in touch with their roots while figuring out who and what they want to be.

Farrell: The movie is charming and intensely likable. As well, it avoids the usual pitfalls of the genre by skipping on cheap stereotypes and easy jokes. She was very pleasantly surprised.

Lon: Totally agreed with Farrell. He expected to find it cheesy and juvenile, but was won over by the movie’s good-natured sweetness and upbeat tone. He felt it worked a bit better as a coming-of-age drama than a fish-out-of-water comedy, but was entertained by the movie even when it stumbled a bit.

Commentary on Commentary

This week, Farrell discussed highlights from Jesse Eisenberg’s commentary track on the “Social Network” DVD.

Included are behind-the-scenes stories from many of the cast members, a look at David Fincher’s directing style and a look at how some of the special effects sequences were accomplished.

This Week in Netflix

“Dogtooth”

Written and directed by Giorgos Lanthimos
Co-written by Efthymis Filippou
Starring Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley and Aggeliki Papoulia

In this Greek drama (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), an unnamed couple keep their three grown children locked up in an country estate. The two sisters and one brother live in total ignorance of the outside world, isolated through mind games, deception, brainwashing and fear. When the father begins to bring in an outside woman to relieve the son of his natural urges, it upsets the delicate balance of the household.

Lon: The film is fascinatingly ambiguous, and could potentially serve as a variety of metaphors, depending on your perspective. The film is a bit too dark to be truly funny, and too strange and alien to be entirely successful as drama, but it’s interesting and ceaselessly compelling.

Farrell: This was perhaps the most unpleasant, off-putting movie experience of her life. She was disgusted by the film’s sex scenes, horrified by the graphic violence and irritated by the director’s peculiar, seemingly nonsensical choices (such as shooting the actors with their heads out of frame.) Nevertheless, she concedes that the film had a visceral impact on her, and was memorable.

Interview with actress Charlotte Ross

Charlotte is the star of the forthcoming supernatural Nicolas Cage vehicle (no pun intended) “Drive Angry 3D,” and a regular on “Glee,” “NYPD Blue” and a host of other shows.

Charlotte and Farrell discussed the making of “Drive Angry 3D” (from the groundbreaking director of “My Bloody Valentine,” among the first of Hollywood’s new crop of features shot in 3D). They also touched on Charlotte’s work in “Glee” and her recurring role on the soap opera “Days Of Our Lives.”

Closing

Next week’s show features “Winnebego Man” director Ben Steinbauer! Tune in at our new time, 6 pm PT!