Frqtflyr

Admittedly I'm not a fan of raunch, but I've enjoyed the American Pies and Porky's over the years. But Mindy Kaling's attempt at smart witty raunch falls flatter than (insert crass sexist joke about breasts here).

Imagine Kaling's delightful Never Have I Ever cross-bred with Sex and the City. But the problem is everything here is in your face, lacking subtlety. That includes the characters, who are reduced to tropes and stereotypes (Mindy, do you really want us to view your college stand-in as a nymphomaniac?!?). The actors are winning and establish some chemistry. But it's hard to care whether or not the rich golden girl will come out, the poor gal from the sticks will replace her lost scholarship, the Mindy character will stop admiring herself in a mirror (while boffing every jock on campus) long enough to focus on academics and please her stereotypically demanding Indian parents... The stakes may be high but the resolutions are pat and contrived.

I've heard this compared favorably to Sex Education but that does the Brit delight a disservice. I wish SLoCG had its nuanced view of growing into our sexuality. I wish it had the charm, cleverness and complexity of Kaling's high school sister, Never Have I Ever (using McEnroe as a narrator - priceless)!

What's next, Mindy, B-School or your answer to Grey's Anatomy? Or will you jump back to nursery school? One thing's for sure: You should have taken a gap year before writing this.

10 for the copious, very appealing shots of Josh Plasse in boxers. 1 for the relative charm of the leads. So why is my rating 5? Deduct 6 points for a crass leering screenplay that mistakes sex jokes and 4-letter bombs for wit and thinks itself clever by presenting romance from the (reformed) rake's point of view. For years women have justifiably complained about men writing female roles poorly. Well, the shoe - make that stiletto - is on the other foot. Otherwise nothing new here. Less than stellar supporting roles and bland production values complete the indifferent picture.

But oh, the sight of Josh Plasse in boxers - and his full Monty (from the rear)...priceless.

The original Asimov source material is, like the Dune universe, a mind-bending epic spanning centuries and thousands of light years. Not to mention that it's sacred text for millions of fans. Small wonder various adaptations before this collapsed under the weight of both expectations and financing.

The Foundation series is, above all else, a story about the triumph of science, logic, mathematical precision. Ideas. That is both the saving grace and the downfall of this admittedly handsome adaptation. Realizing they couldn't be entirely faithful, the writers opted to keep the skeletal structure, but add plot threads and maximize minor characters, all in the vain hope of adding GoT-like action to propel the ideas.

As a result, it's near impossible to follow, jumping back and forth in time and place. Nice that they trust us to understand, sure. But it makes it impossible to care about any of the characters, who are all short-shrifted in playing time. And it's still confusing! Ironically, the very ideas that capture a reader's imagination are rendered so literally that we're lost in a sea of both technobabble and authentic math and physics.

The series is wondrous to behold. It's difficult to fault the strictly physical aspects of production. But it lies there on the screen, inert, and so turgidly paced.

A noble failure.

I'm going to "skate" over some of the more obvious flaws... Yes, Casey's physics project is laughable. Yes, the message -- that talent and independent spirit will shine, and that parents and children must respect each other's dreams -- is hackneyed. Sure, this is a feel-good movie aimed at tweens. But here's an ugly secret: Many an emotionally arrested adult derives guilty pleasure from these perky underdog flicks.

The compelling reason to watch IP, however, is two old (sorry, older) pros -- and one up-and-comer. We all knew Joan Cusack could act (indeed she's one of our top comedic thespians), but who knew she could believably play an initially unsympathetic tight-assed "Type A" mom? And Kim Cattrall portrays the conniving Tonya Harding-esquire bitch (with the requisite heart of gold) admirably. Watching these two pros interact is quite the treat: Note how expressive their faces are, even when delivering (or reacting to) dialogue that skates on thin ice indeed.

Michelle Trachtenberg makes a appealing protagonist, but the revelation is Hayden Panettiere who perfectly embodies (both physically and psychologically) the driven golden girl (with that requisite heart of gold, natch). She cemented her status as a young actress to watch in Bring It On 3 (yet another perky, underrated underdog flick... that almost matched the cutes of the original). Additional kudos to the energetic monsters who portray the Jumping Shrimp and Zoe the punker pincushion who skates to Pink.

Hardly a gold medalist, and admittedly formulaic, but certainly deserving of better reviews than it received upon release. Watch those three (well, five) gals go at it and you'll agree.