Exactly. This was always the weakest part of the show for me (probably most guys). Veronica mentions numerous times that being a PI makes you cynical about relationships - then makes the same blunders her clients do with Logan. Despite the fact that her cynicism early on - like with Troy - paid off.
I enjoy it for the mysteries and capers, especially Veronica undercover (cosplay slut and nerd-hag in “Wrath of Con,” Betty in “Betty and Veronica”), or teaming up with Keith (The ep with Patty Hearst when she goes from quoting Vacation, to the Bionic Woman, to Paper Moon in all of two minutes is adorable). And the character was truly one of the craftiest I’ve ever seen on television - the late Don Lamb was right about that.
I like the relationship angles in it. It rounds out the show and she needs these people (despite her protests to the contrary). If it were JUST a mystery show and she were celibate? It’d still be good. I think that’s what I liked about the movie: while there was a lot of relationship-y stuff going on, it felt tangential and really only took up screen time at the end.
I would say that’s fair. I didn’t think Logan was that great, but he was definitely better than Duncan, who I thought was the most boring teenage boy ever to walk the earth.
He was! And hilariously, Duncan was supposed to be popular, charismatic, and smart - even in the flashbacks before Lilly’s death, you never really got that. Dohring was a better actor, but the character was just irredeemable by the time they tried to move him up to leading man (I had similar issues with Spike). I’d have rather seen VM with Weevil, who was at least as bright as her despite the lack of book larnin’. I don’t think she ever actually proved Weevil guilty of a crime, even when she knew he was; he was always a step ahead.
Loved the movie. Spent most of my time laughing out loud over the in jokes.
As to the relationship thing - Veronica herself isn’t all sweetness and light. She just controls herself a hell of a lot better than Logan - who does have a whole subscription of issues. Duncan WAS bland and Piz is just too nice. The movie made it sound like Veronica and Piz had gotten back together and hadn’t been dating straight for nine years - and THAT would have not been believable.
It would have been interesting to see different casting for Duncan - after all, this is a guy who took out a hit on Aaron Eccols. Dohring wasn’t just the better actor, he got the better lines and he was simply more charismatic.
I liked it but have a couple of decidedly minor quibbles with it.
Piz works for Ira Glass’s NPR show, “This American Life” which as every nerd knows is based in Chicago. Despite that, Piz lives with Veronica in NYC. WTF? Either have Piz work for a NPR show in NYC or have Veronica go to law school and be recruited by a big firm in Chicago. Easy peasy, but the movie didn’t do it.
While the movie had an appearance by local Neptune lawyer Cliff McCormack, it didn’t give him any good lines. Cliff’s appearances on the show were always brief but memorable, with Cliff saying something funny, sharp and snarky. In the movie he was just part of the furniture. Better than nothing, but not much.
their relationship made no sense. How’s this play with the next gf talking about exes? “Whoa, you were together seven years? Why’d you end it?” “She missed dinner with my parents to help a friend wrongfully accused of murder.” “Um, what?” “It was an old boyfriend.” “Yeah, but from at least seven years ago, right?” “Well…yeah.” “Did you think he did it or something?” “Not really. I was pretty sure he was innocent, too.” “So…?” “There was something between them!” “Oh, they were still in touch, talking all the time? You think she was cheating?” “Not really - she hadn’t seen or talked to him in about six years.” “Err…” “Whatever, okay! She missed dinner with my parents to help him!” “Was dinner a big deal or something? Their anniversary or some milestone?” “They were meeting for the first time.” “…seven years after you started dating?”
I’m pretty sure that they broke up shortly after the end of the show, then only got back together about a year before the movie started. So yeah, still kind of weird that she hadn’t met his parents, but at least they hadn’t been together most of a decade.
I think the “free rental” might have something to do with the debacle over the Flikster/Ultraviolet movie download for backers. A lot of people had problems trying to get the content and I know that Rob Thomas was scrambling to make sure backers were able to watch the movie online as promised.
Nope. That was totally to give him some Richard Gere vibe, I’m assuming because they couldn’t think of a reason for him to wear a tux at some point. Logan in a military environment? Logan successful in a military environment? I’d sooner believe he was a cadet with the Federation…
I did. Oh, not as a sterling example of military discipline and a walking advertisement for our armed forces, but it made logical sense to me that Logan would seek the enforced structure of the military. At the point we left off the show, Logan is pretty much at a low point in his life - his family is shattered, his friends (Dick aside) have abandoned him, and even Veronica seems like she’s finally had enough of his issues. And he’s very aware of how low he’s sunk. At the same time, he’s also become all too aware that all this stems from his own self-destructive tendencies - he can’t blame anyone for himself.
So I can easily buy that Logan realizes, finally, he needs to fix his life, and that he can’t do it all on his lonesome. Given his lack of a support network due to aforementioned lack of friends and family, joining up seems like a pretty reasonable course of action. He’d hardly be the first fuckup to turn to military service as a last-ditch effort to straighten out his life.
I liked that they took his character in that direction. It felt to me like an organic way for Logan to become the more-mature (although still somewhat fuckup-y) man we see in the movie.
(And I didn’t even think he looked good in his uniform.)
The problem is he was a bit out of shape. Losing the weight made him look a bit sickly, where if his previous weight had been muscle it would have worked fine. I was actually pretty surprised at how fit the guy playing Dick was - he’s been nowhere near as busy as Dohring, so I could see him going to seed a bit.
And he wouldn’t be the first fuck up to turn those fucked up issues into a successful military career. I have an old sort of friend from high school, and if you had told me when he was fourteen that he’d be an Air Force Colonel I’d have laughed at you - total screw up (smart though - really smart). He went National Guard to help pay for school, went Active Duty after finishing his undergrad - did it at a time when deployment while in the Guard wasn’t a huge risk - and from there has had a very successful career.
And yeah, he looked like he lost weight a little fast - the uniform in particular made him look sickly (he looked better in the t-shirt).