CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 2
“Chuck Versus the Helicopter”
Written by: Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak
Directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So Sarah takes a job at the Wienerlicious just down from the Buy More to keep a close eye on Chuck, while Casey of course, is now a Buy More employee.
Dr. Zarnow (John Fleck, from HBO’s Carnivale) is brought in to take a look at the Intersect data that’s stuck in Chuck’s brain, with the intention of the good doctor getting all of those “really scary, nasty, get-killed-for-having-‘em secrets” out.
But just after seeing “Patient X”—Zarnow is not allowed to actually see Chuck during the test—the doctor is apparently killed by an NSA incinerator (which obliterates every single molecule of the target, so no body is found). And who works for the NSA, but Casey.

Thus begins the amusing, but nonetheless tense tug of war as Sarah thinks Casey’s out to ice Chuck, while Casey thinks Sarah’s the double agent. Poor Chuck’s stuck in the middle, while still hoping that his relationship with Sarah (“which isn’t even remotely real”) can actually go somewhere.
Things come to a head at the dinner that Ellie insists on having so she can finally meet Sarah. Hilarious hi-jinx ensue.

We also discover that another Intersect will be up and running in about six months’ time, and when that happens, Casey is instructed to do what he does best.
Uh-oh…

Sure, the helicopter sequence could have been better executed, but the laughs and action are still coming on strong, and while “Gone, Daddy, Gone,” the Trainspotting nod, and Them are all fantastic, the Lost reference slays them all!

Parting shot: A review of Chuck’s Pilot episode (TV Watch 2007) can be found in the Archive.

(Image courtesy of aintitcool.com.)

ILS (THEM)
(Review)

Like Open Water and Wolf Creek before it, Ils (Them) is a short, savage little number based on a true story.
In it, a French couple, Clementine Sauveur (Olivia Bonamy) and Lucas Medev (Michael Cohen), recently relocated to Snagov, Romania, are terrorized in their home by unknown assailants.

For anyone who’s read my review of Open Water (reVIEW 23; see Archive: September 2007), you may very well come to the conclusion that these sort of films don’t particularly float my boat. These are the sort of films that, even as the end credits begin to roll, I nearly always find myself asking, Well, what was the point of it all?
Here, the assailants are portrayed decidedly as Other, since the narrative’s focus is locked onto Clementine and Lucas. And since the film covers only the event itself—the aftermath limited to short blocks of text before the end credits—we don’t really get to delve into the motivations, the “why” of it.
So the film’s end-all, be-all is the tension engendered by the action onscreen. This is, perhaps, its point: to make our pulses quicken and keep us on the edge of our seats. (And on occasion, get us to jump out of those aforementioned seats.)
And if this is Ils’ point, it’s raison d’etre, then its existence is justified.

The film itself is a tense little bugger, and the credit for that achievement should go to co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud. It’s because of this skilled handling of the narrative’s suspense that I found this a better cinematic experience than either Open Water or Wolf Creek.
In addition, the fact that the next project of Moreau and Palud is the upcoming English-language remake of Khon Hen Phi (The Eye), gives me a healthy sense of anticipation for it. And yes, I am aware that Jessica Alba headlines the redux, so for me to actually say I have “a healthy sense of anticipation” for The Eye should say volumes about just how impressed I was by Moreau and Palud’s achievement on Ils. (I’m also extremely grateful that Parker Posey and Alessandro Nivola are in The Eye, so I can at least be assured I’ll be seeing some good acting.)
With The Eye, Moreau and Palud will have more of an actual plot at their disposal, and I’m curious to see how they handle a story (as opposed to the situation presented in Ils).

In the meantime though, what we ultimately have in Ils is a sobering and unnerving thrillride. After all, as with Open Water and Wolf Creek, this is the dramatized version of an actual event, with the fates of real people up on the screen for us to see.
As I said in my Open Water review, this sort of material isn’t “entertainment” in my books. To witness actual persons in this sort of context seems somehow wrong for me.
If, however, you’re up for this sort of horror, then Ils is definitely your ticket.

(Ils DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com; Them OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)