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A Look At That Patinkin-Free, Fuller-Free DEAD LIKE ME DVD!!
I am – Hercules!!
“Kelvington,” who regularly kicks in reviews of “Doctor Who” episodes as soon as they air on the BBC, here reviews the direct-to-DVD movie “Dead Like Me: Life After Death,” hitting shelves Feb. 17.
Two important things. The great Mandy Patinkin does not reprise his role as top reaper Rube Sofer. More damningly, “Dead Like Me” creator Bryan Fuller (“Wonderfalls,” “Pushing Daisies”) was foolishly not invited to participate in the project.
Still, good to see the always enjoyable Ellen Muth getting a little work!
“Kelvington” suggests the movie is not as good as the series, but still worth picking up:
First I was a HUGE fan of the original series, “Dead Like Me”. It was well written, well done and most of all intelligent. The TV Movie does well to try and follow in the footsteps of the series. But it does fall a tad short. While I by no means hated this adaptation of the show. It just didn’t feel the same. Here are a few reasons why, some spoilers contained within.
The dead don’t age, they stay frozen in time, but since the show started several years ago, when Ellen Muth was several years younger, she has aged. They did a nice job trying to down play it, but she got older, nothing can be done about that. However, her voice matured, or fell victim to some heavy smoking and got a little raspy. That could have easily been fixed in post. Did you see the Dark Knight? They can do things with voices.
The movie begins with a comic book style explanation was very well done and fit right in with the feel of the old show. However, the loss of Rube the leader of the reapers played by Mandy Patinkin was probably a loss they couldn’t afford. I don’t know if he didn’t want to come back to the part, or they didn’t want to offer it to him. Either way, the film suffers a bit from him not being there.
After a short recap of things past, and how death works, we see George, played by Ellen Muth reap a soul and send it off to it’s lights. After that we meet the new boss played by Henry Ian Cusick, you know Des from “Lost”. And when I first saw him, I said, “Hey, it’s Desmond from Lost”. Even though this casting was a bit off he fit into the role nicely. We also see the new Daisy, played by Sarah Wynter, you might remember her from “24”. She did a great job filling the gap left by Laura Harris who was not available to reprise the role. Fortunately, we got both Jasmine Guy and Callum Blue to come back to play Roxy and Mason, which helped the film a immensely.
The film could easily have been called “Dead Like Me – Reapers Gone Wild”, because we get to see what happens when the reapers break the rules, and yes even Roxy breaks the number one rule. She keeps someone alive. It’s been a while since I saw the very first “Dead Like Me”, but I clearly remember what Rube said about keeping someone past their expiration date. When George didn’t want to reap a little girl, and said she would have eighty more years left, Rube told her that’s eighty years she wouldn’t want, that souls rot and decay if left in the body. We get to see what happens when the reapers figure out that apparently there are no consequences for reaps gone wrong. George spends a great deal of the movie trying to figure out why she can’t reap a soul, while Daisy will actually break a leg to get back into acting, even if it’s not her own.
The acting is top notch, Ellen seems to play the role in a much more thoughtful way, and it really shows. I had forgotten how much I loved this character and Muth’s portrayal of her. Jasmine Guy, hits everything so perfectly you never think for a moment she’s been doing anything but playing Roxy everyday since the series ended.
We see that the reapers haven’t changed much in the past five years and that things are pretty much normal, except their new boss is more hi-tech than Rube, and uses Trio’s instead of post-it notes. I’m sure 3M was sorry to see the loss of that endorsement deal, but what are you going to do.
Finally, the tone of the movie is very different than the tone of the series, while the series had a more light touch, the movie is much more dark in feeling and it’s one of it’s few faults. I think what made the series really work was the feel, the “Wonder Falls” meets death. It isn’t until late in the film do we get a sense of the old series. And while this is not as magical as “Pushing Daisies” it is still worth renting or buying, and it really pisses me off that Showtime ever canceled this show. I hope to see many more “Dead Like Me” movies.
Just my 2¢
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1910 In 2009!!
The dead don’t age, they stay frozen in time, but since the show started several years ago, when Ellen Muth was several years younger, she has aged. They did a nice job trying to down play it, but she got older, nothing can be done about that. However, her voice matured, or fell victim to some heavy smoking and got a little raspy. That could have easily been fixed in post. Did you see the Dark Knight? They can do things with voices.
The movie begins with a comic book style explanation was very well done and fit right in with the feel of the old show. However, the loss of Rube the leader of the reapers played by Mandy Patinkin was probably a loss they couldn’t afford. I don’t know if he didn’t want to come back to the part, or they didn’t want to offer it to him. Either way, the film suffers a bit from him not being there.
After a short recap of things past, and how death works, we see George, played by Ellen Muth reap a soul and send it off to it’s lights. After that we meet the new boss played by Henry Ian Cusick, you know Des from “Lost”. And when I first saw him, I said, “Hey, it’s Desmond from Lost”. Even though this casting was a bit off he fit into the role nicely. We also see the new Daisy, played by Sarah Wynter, you might remember her from “24”. She did a great job filling the gap left by Laura Harris who was not available to reprise the role. Fortunately, we got both Jasmine Guy and Callum Blue to come back to play Roxy and Mason, which helped the film a immensely.
The film could easily have been called “Dead Like Me – Reapers Gone Wild”, because we get to see what happens when the reapers break the rules, and yes even Roxy breaks the number one rule. She keeps someone alive. It’s been a while since I saw the very first “Dead Like Me”, but I clearly remember what Rube said about keeping someone past their expiration date. When George didn’t want to reap a little girl, and said she would have eighty more years left, Rube told her that’s eighty years she wouldn’t want, that souls rot and decay if left in the body. We get to see what happens when the reapers figure out that apparently there are no consequences for reaps gone wrong. George spends a great deal of the movie trying to figure out why she can’t reap a soul, while Daisy will actually break a leg to get back into acting, even if it’s not her own.
The acting is top notch, Ellen seems to play the role in a much more thoughtful way, and it really shows. I had forgotten how much I loved this character and Muth’s portrayal of her. Jasmine Guy, hits everything so perfectly you never think for a moment she’s been doing anything but playing Roxy everyday since the series ended.
We see that the reapers haven’t changed much in the past five years and that things are pretty much normal, except their new boss is more hi-tech than Rube, and uses Trio’s instead of post-it notes. I’m sure 3M was sorry to see the loss of that endorsement deal, but what are you going to do.
Finally, the tone of the movie is very different than the tone of the series, while the series had a more light touch, the movie is much more dark in feeling and it’s one of it’s few faults. I think what made the series really work was the feel, the “Wonder Falls” meets death. It isn’t until late in the film do we get a sense of the old series. And while this is not as magical as “Pushing Daisies” it is still worth renting or buying, and it really pisses me off that Showtime ever canceled this show. I hope to see many more “Dead Like Me” movies.
Just my 2¢
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isn't as awesome as a lost talkback would be.
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WHERE IS?
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was okay. just okay. i loved the series, but this movie was very disjointed and actually didn't really seem to know what it wanted to be. kinda worth the watch, but if you have something better to do... go do that, instead. oh yeah, and BRING ON THE LOST TB!!
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A noble attempt to recreate something unique, but just short of the target.
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was pretty damn awful...it's like all the distilled crap of the character and none of the charm. Really though, they couldn't find a more petite actress too, unless we were only seeing what Daisy looks like to normal folk...heh
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...who played sisters on 24
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I just saw this a few days back, and I can't even begin to describe how worthless it is. It will make you like the show LESS. The writing is atrocious, the acting is limp and worthless, and the bottom line is that it just feels different. In the bad way. The rules of the show's universe don't seem to apply, which would be fine unless they made such a big deal about the rules in the show. Which they did. No explanation is given for Rube's replacement, and his story is barely a story. Laura Harris' replacement for Daisy is the worst, and manages to make a character 2 dimensional, who the writers worked so hard to give dimension in the end of the series. GAH!!! Please just avoid this film if you're a fan. Because the movie in your head is better in every way. Rube's in mine.
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for a gay guy, fuller definitely has a great eye for what men like in women
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To me the three most important characters in Dead Like Me where George, Joy and Reggie Lass. Those characters where always the heart and soul of the show and I'm happy to say Joy and Reggie are both in the movie.
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thanks
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I loved the original series, it was fun and quirky, had that Fuller feel to it. All that is missing from the movie. It's ok but they should not have recast Daisy, it just doesn't work, and the whole subplot with 'Desmond' is way off beat.The review in the post above is very generous.
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Did I see TDK? Uh yes i Did. and they cant do anything w/ voices if they didnt want to fix friggan Bale's batman voice...godawful.
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a real story would be why she hasn't really worked since the series
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She must sound like a guy. And what's up with the picture of the Nazi? It's disturbing. And not in the usual manner.
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Feb 05, 2009 8:04:25 AM CST
As long as George is dropping F-bombs and Mason is a fuckup, I'm
by spyguy
And if Henry Ian Cusick can't be the Eleventh Doctor on DOCTOR WHO, at least he's doing projects like this. Of course, I wouldn't say no if he becomes the Twelfth Doctor in a few years or so after Matt Smith leaves...
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I loved the series and this movie just kind of sipped in under the radar. This movie was very much like what happens when the soul reaches it's expiration date...it begins to rot. It may LOOK and SOUND alive but it was dead inside. The film even LOOKED less alive. It was also strange (and forced) hearing the characters throw F Bombs around seemingly for no better reason then that they could. The new Daisy fell flat. The guy that replaced RUBE was just plain a let down. I kept waiting to find out that he was Satans minion and was trying to throw off the cosmic balance and that RUBE was being chained in Limbo...strangely enough th eonly time I felt this movie had genuine heart was with the dying cat sub plot. It may sound strange but those scenes, as bizarre as they were, held the only emotional content that felt real. All in all a pale shade of the series.
Now, since REAPER takes place in Seattle like DLM did Id like to see Ellen Muth do a crossover cameo...that would be cool. -
Is a douche. Always has been a douche. And always will be a douche. An overated one at that. Himnot being in this is actually a GOOD thing. Fuck him.
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I would have watched this had it not been for what I'm hearing here. I have no desire to rape my late 20s.
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...of seeing this. It's like it's past it's sell-by date now. The only reason to see it would be some sort of bizarre nostalgia for the early-to-mid 00's, which would be pretty sad and lame. Ellen Muth needs to get over it and try something new.
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Loved the show and have been waiting fucking forever for this to finally come out. It sucks that Patinkin is out and that Daisy had to be recast, but the actors were busy (I have read an interview with Patinkin saying how upset he was that his work on Criminal Minds prevented him from coming back for this) and its better to recast than to not do the project at all. Plus, Showtime has said that if the dvd does well enough they would strongly consider bringing the series back.
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