I watched Mr. Troop Mom after one of our readers mentioned it. Normally I don’t watch Nickelodeon – I’m more of a “Disney’s One Saturday Morning” (sing it) kind of girl. However, tuning in to a lineup comprised of repeat episodes of “That’s So Raven,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” and “The Emperor’s New School” really started to grate on me. I mean, how many times can I watch “The Replacements” and see the episode featuring a song from a concert attended by fans of Riley’s imaginary unicorn friend “Rainbow Jumper?”:
“I’m gonna keep on jumpin‘ rainbows until the sun don’t shine
I’ll keep on jumpin‘ rainbows all the time”
I was thus pleased that I could watch Jane in the kind of feel-good, wholesome entertainment that continues to sustain me. Throw in some George Lopez and call it a day. Orale!
Character type: Authority figure
Best line: “How much do you weigh?”
Jane is great as a Ms. Hulka, of Camp Hulka’s Rock. She lifts George physically and psychologically out of his half-assed parenting rut. (In typical family movie fashion, the movie features a typical cinematic conceit: “Mommy dead, Daddy struggles valiantly to be the sole emotional caregiver.”)
In the same vein as the aforementioned family entertainment, the next item in my Netflix queue was the family drama/comedy “Tru Loved.” Apparently “Tru” is a nickname for “Gertrude.” So much better than “Gertie,” really.
The movie centers around a teenage girl whose lesbian parents uproot her from San Francisco to live in Agoura Hills, home to Linkin Park, Incubus, and an overwhelmingly homogeneous caucasian population. Someone finally befriends her, but he’s a closeted African-American who plays quarterback of the high school football team. Oh, and he wants her to be his “beard.” He puts on daily shows of making out with her in front of his group of friends, who we are led to believe are the popular group on campus. This I didn’t buy, because truly popular crowds “roll deep.” That means that there are, like, 20 BFF friends on the roster. Along the other items in my not-buying-it cart was the awful quarterbacking footage to which we are subjected. Really? They couldn’t get ONE good shot of him NOT throwing the ball like a 2 year old? Audiences aren’t expecting a Peyton Manning reel, but it’s not easy to suspend disbelief when you’re laughing at the guy’s ridiculous follow-through! Orale!
While Jane doesn’t get a lot of screen time, she is hilarious as a dancing beret-wearing artsy teacher for a scene in which Tru imagines all the mayhem and foolishness happening in the teacher’s lounge. Those of us who have been in a teacher’s lounge know that it’s just a breakroom for the working grunts so that they don’t have to face the horrors of using student restrooms – but when I was a kid, I imagined otherwise. The movie offers a refreshing, honest commentary on high school rivalries, and gets all huggy at the end with gay-straight alliances and some solid teen acting on par with DeGrassi.
Character type: Whimsical authority figure
Best line (to a colleague who happens to be Alex Mapa from Entourage):
“If you were doused with kerosene and lit on fire you couldn’t be any more flaming than you already are every single day.”
WHAT TO DO NOW?