Day 9 -- Triple Dog

Released: September 21st, 2010

Starring: Brittany Robertson, Scout Taylor-Compton, Alexia Fast, Janel Parrish, Emily Tenant, Aubrey Mozino

Writer/Director: Barbara Marshall/Pascal Franchot

Description: On the night of a sleepover, a group of teenage girls venture out in a competitive game of challenging dares. As the antics escalate, and the dares become more extreme, the girls unravel the truth behind a former student's rumored suicide.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

"Triple Dog" begins as your average teenage slumber party movie, and all your typical characters are there: The queen, the nice girl, the snobby girl, the follower, the girl who wasn't invited, and of course, the rebel. The structure of the movie is basically a barely-R rated version of the 2004 film "Sleepover", which oddly enough starred Scout Taylor-Compton as well.

The movie begins with the girls meeting at the party, and we are introduced quickly to our main players: Eve, the birthday girl (Alexis Fast), Sarah, the nice girl (Emily Tenant), Cicely, the snob (Janel Parrish), Nina, the follower (Carly McKillip), Liza, the unwanted weird girl (Compton), and Chapin, the rebel (Brittany Robertson). 

After a few stereotypical teenage girl discussions on how to spend the evening, Chapin (really who names their kid Chapin) decides that they should play "triple dog", which is roided-up truth or dare -- minus the truth, and adding head shaving. This is where the plot slowly becomes interesting, but the terrible dialogue writing keeps it barely watchable.

I understand that they are supposed to be talking like high school girls, but the speech felt forced and unnatural on the actresses. Only Robertson and Compton come off as compelling during long dialogue scenes. The writer appears to be trying to inject slang terms as much as possible to show the audience, 'see I know how you talk'. The terms shizz (shit) and totes (totally) are the only ones I've heard used before in real life. I'll admit some of the flat dialogue does fall on the mostly new actresses because Robertson and Compton do a solid job with what they're given.

The movie's third act is where it actually becomes an okay movie, and not one full of cliches. As we slowly find out, through some of the worst delivered questions on film, exactly how Stacey St. Claire (Julia Maxwell) died, the pace picks up as it should. This is where Robertson takes her castmates to acting school (not that she hadn't been doing it the whole movie). As Chapin spins out of control after it's revealed that she dared St. Clair to jump off the bridge to her death, Robertson turns up the emotion and actually leads the movie to a satisfactory climax.

The whole movie is unremarkable except for the performances of Robertson, and the vastly underutilized Compton. When these two square off verbally, it really shines a light on the lack of experience and/or talent of the other actresses. Compton did a great job of showing the her character's emotion without saying a word. I never though, 'I wonder what Liza's feeling.'

It was clearly a case where the lead was perfectly cast (Robertson), and Compton played the role of scene stealer. Not like Matthew Lillard, but scene stealer in a way that she played the character well in every scene she was in and you were more interested in her than the inconsistent Fast, the movie's second lead.

"Triple Dog" had moments where you could see that there was a good story and theme, but it kept getting in its own way by constantly reminding us that these were high school girls. The drama would have been better if they made the dares a little more suspenseful, and spent more time with the mystery of St. Clair's death then reminding us every so often, 'hey, remember this girl jumped off a bridge and no one knows the real story.' I was more interested in that story than the dumb conflicts between the girls.

Rating: 5/10 -- Honestly, Brittany Robertson carried this movie without her it's probably a 3, and without Compton's Ally Sheedy-like performance as the loner, it would have been a 1. Guilty pleasure for girls, but not much more to anyone outside the pre-teen sect.

The Secret Circle Review

Network/Writer(s): CW/Andrew Miller

Actors: Brittany Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Natasha Henstridge, Phoebe Tonkin, Shelley Hennig

Summary: Cassie Blake's world is turned upside down after her mother dies in a mysterious accident, forcing Cassie to move in with her loving grandmother Jane in the small town of Chance Harbor, Washington.When strange and dangerous things begin to happen, Cassie's new friends are forced to tell her their secret - they are all witches and her arrival will complete the Circle.

***
[Note: This contains spoilers, please watch the episode before hand. Thanks.] 

There's nothing better than a good mystery involving some sort of super natural power, or ability. If done correctly, the ancient back stories, and interlacing of families, allows for interesting avenues for the story to go. Good character go bad, bad characters redeem themselves, and you can repeat the process. The only caveat is that each time you change the dynamic, it needs to be plausible.

This why I rank "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as my favorite show of all-time. Each time Angel switched side, or Spike's eventual arc to champion, or Willow's dip into black magic, the story leading up to it was easily understandable. This has been carried on by "Angel", "Vampire Diaries", and early "Heroes". If you need to re-watch an episode multiple times, or review past episodes to figure out a twist, then it was done wrong.

Thankfully, "The Secret Circle" is in the hands of one of the best show runners/creator/human beings alive in Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek, Vampire Diaries, Scream). Like every other pilot he has been a part of, you finish the show with a very clear idea of where the show is headed.

The opening scene did a great job of setting the tone for the series. There's a bad witch (warlock?) dressed in black (of course) who kills the innocent women dressed in white (oh, CW, with your metaphorical story telling). The woman is the mother of the protagonist, Cassie Blake, played by the adorable Brittany Robertson. Seriously, she can play detached, cynical girl with the best of them. I hope the writers do a better job helping her show range then those on Life Unexpected did. This girl could easily be the Joey Potter of this generation, minus the hair tucking and talking out of the side of her mouth, with Jen Lindley's acting ability.

Once she gets to Chance Harbor, Washington, which when it's first shown, looks like the sister city of Forks, but once we get into town proper, it gives off a Capeside-Salem-Massachusetts feel. Which is perfect since the show is about witches. The show was originally suppose to be New Salem, Maine, but even the CW didn't want to be that obvious.

We meet all the typical character in a town like this: Cassie's Grandmother (The elder), Faye (the maybe-bad teenage witch), Dianna (the good witch), Adam (the brooding teen who could be good or bad; Angel), Dawn (the hidden bad witch), Charles (the big bad), and Ethan (the holder of past knowledge). Once the interweaving of the character occurs, the plot takes form. Charles is Dianna father, Dawn is Faye's mom, Ethan who was "destined" to be with Cassie's mom, is Adam's dad, and Adam is "destined" for Cassie but dates Dianna. Confused, yet?

For a pilot, they pack a lot of the interweaving in it. Some of these reveals could have been held off, but no ones tells stories like that anymore (the Vampire Diaries have blown through 6 seasons worth of characters in 2 years!). Gone are the days of the slow, introspective plot where we learn to feel for the character. Today we need to be instantly gratified with a love triangle, or a plot twist. I don't know if it's the right way or not, but I feel that we need a little more time with the character before they threw out the star crossed lovers storyline.

Now, that you've meet everyone, it is time for the reveals. In the last 15 minutes, we find out the Ethan and Dawn are working together, that Faye is just power hungry, Dianna wants to control it (I see these two flip-flopping at some point), Cassie's is the most powerful of all ("Make it stop!" Is a very simple, but apparently, powerful spell), and baddies will be coming for Cassie and her "power". The latter of which was obviously if you were slightly paying attention during the show, but you know, let's beat that dead horse one more time before the credits.

The magic in the show is nothing special, yet. It's the one thing I thought was done perfectly by the writers: To slowly reveal the power of the teenagers, while showing the devastatingly evil magic they could ascend to through their parents. The only disappointing thing was that spell were, for lack of a better word, lame. The main one they say out loud is "a drop of water/light as air," is very simplistic. If they went for simplicity, at least make it sound a little more ancient; use older, less commonly used words.

I read a review on the A.V. Club that said this show has the possibility to be "Dawson's Creek by way of Twilight", if I'm the CW, and this happens, I'm orgasming in my office right now. Those two entities have the most loyal fan bases in the last 20 years of pop culture, along with "Lost" and the aforementioned, "Buffy". The network would make untold money if that happened.

Hopefully, the Secret Circle will learn form it's predecessors and string along a narrative that is not always predictable (well, this is the CW, some of it is going to be predictable). If they achieve this, they will form a powerful combination with Vampire Diaries on Thursday.

Rating: 8.5/10. Gave you most of the background in 60 minutes, but left enough mystery to allow the show to breath, and possibly separate from the books.

Interest: Beautiful women (Shelley Hennig is much prettier than she looks in the pilot), interesting story, and Kevin Williamson. You're damn right, I'm still watching.