Things That Make You Go. . . “WTF?!?” #1

Yes, it’s yet another regular feature that I hope to do on a somewhat weekly basis, but will probably be lucky if I crank out one per month. As the title suggests, the goal will be to report on and examine odd happenings within pop culture. Admittedly, most of my “examining” will equate to mean-spirited rants and humor some may find sexually inappropriate (I’ll try and be as tasteful as possible, though).

First up, just when you thought nothing could be more out of left field than Seth Rogen working on a big-screen adaptation of The Green Hornet, comes news that Jonah Hill is in negotiations to write a screenplay and executive produce a big-screen adaptation of 21 Jumpstreet!!! I’m still trying to wrap my head around the mere idea of remaking the series for film! yeah, Hollywood will make a movie out of anything these days, but still!! This just seems more wrong than usual. Throw Jonah Hill into the equation, and you’ve got something quite baffling. Far as I can tell, the actor has no writing credits to his name, and most of his acting credits are comedies. Not to say that he isn’t capable of pulling off something like this, but the evidence to even suggest that he could is so non-existent, that I’m wondering how his name even finds its way in the studio’s talent pool.

Moving right along, we’ve got a follow-up on a story I did a while back involving a proposed sequel to Point Break. Now comes news that not only is the film moving forward, but it’s found a director . . . . Jan de Bont!! Taking place about twenty years after the first film, Point Break Indo (as it’s being called), will follow ex-special ops soldier and pro surfer Billy Dalton, who gets recruited to help catch a group of surfing bank robbers who model themselves after the Ex-Presidents from the first film. This time around, they’ll be “The Bush Administration”. The whole thing would reek of direct-to-DVD fodder if not for Jan de Bont. Still no word, though, on whether or not Keanu Reeves or Patrick Swayze would be willing to reprise their roles from the original. Hey, if Vin Diesel and Paul Walker can come back for Fast and the Furious 4 (can you believe that? F&F 4!!!), I guess anything is possible.

And lastly, There’s the season finale of Law & Order: SVU. Now, at the beginning of the season, I was pretty amped about Adam Beech joining the cast. I’ve always liked him as an actor, and dammit if we didn’t need someone to remind us that Native Americans do still exist! Problem is, they hadn’t really done anything with him. I can accept Munch not having an engaging storyline, but even Richard Beltzer got a chance to shine when Jerry Lewis played his mentally disabled uncle. Ice-T’s character had to deal with his estranged homosexual son, and said son’s murderous half-brother, played by rapper Ludacris. Benson and Stabler, their respective personal issues have been ongoing since the series’ inception. So what is there for the makers of L&W to do with Detective Chester Lake (Beech)? Involve him in the shooting death of another cop, then have him go on the run to prove his innocense. Apparently, Lake was following up on a cold cast involving rape, murder, and a few dirty cops as the prime suspect. Evidence would ultimately prove Lake innocent of the initial shooting, but when the other cop he was tracking down walks on the rape/murder charge, Lake flips out and kills the guy in cold blood! Is it safe to assume Adam Beech won’t be back next season? If he did come back, I’d love to see how they pulled it off. But it just brings up an interesting thing I’ve noticed about Law & Order; when a detective leaves, there’s always this lingering shame attached to the departure. Law & Order: Original Recipe, just saw the departure of Jesse Martin’s Detective Green who, like Lake, was involved in a suspicious shooting, and had some dirty laundry aired out, including a former gambling problem. Can any of these guys leave the badge behind with any honor and/or dignity? Yeesh!