The onscreen Catherine Zeta-Jones is quite the contrast to the off-screen one. While off screen, she prefers 67-year-old hubby Michael Douglas; on screen she prefers her 25-year-old nanny. Or, at least, her character Sandy in “The Rebound,” a mother of two and recent divorcee, does.

There’s a lot to like about “The Rebound,” available on DVD and Blu- ray tomorrow, but it ends up too much like typical rom-com fare than it needs to be. Director Bart Freundlich (who has directed some great episodes of Showtime’s “Californication”) talks about how he was inspired by the New York set films about relationships by Woody Allen in an interview on the DVD, but “The Rebound” never lives up to that kind of potential. It’s tame when it needs to be excessive and excessive when it needs to be tame.

Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is living a typical suburban life with her two kids and husband when she stumbles across a tape of her husband cheating on her with a neighbor. After packing up the kids and heading to the city, she meets Aram (Justin Bartha), a young coffee shop employee living in the apartment beneath hers who agrees to start babysitting for her as she works late and goes on disappointing dates. As Aram becomes more and more responsible for the children, Sandy realizes she enjoys spending her late nights at home with the mature-beyond-his-years nanny than spending them with dates who have a bad habit of talking to her while they utilize a porter potty (Eh, it’s the city. Who can judge?).

Sandy and Aram begin seeing each other but have to face a world that scoffs at the idea of their 15-year age difference. Sandy’s friends see Aram as nothing but a rebound, and she becomes confused as to whether he is or isn’t. Thus, “The Rebound” presses forward trying desperately to be the next Woody Allen pic; the problem is there’s none of the subtlety or depth of Allen’s work. (more…)

There’s no denying Don Cheadle’s charisma and talent as an actor. He’s born to do what he does. Much like Kenneth Branagh, when he speaks we don’t really want to see or hear anything else. He owns the area around him. We sense an ease in what he’s doing. He’s a chameleon who captures the voice and movements of any character thrown at him. But even Cheadle’s charisma can’t save a slightly typical and slightly partisan show premiering on Showtime tonight.

“House of Lies,” debuting at 10 p.m. EST, follows a team of management consultants led by lethal-in-a-board-room Marty (Don Cheadle). The supporting characters, however, simply fill out stereotypes. The two other men on Marty’s team exist for little more than to give some cheap, sitcom like laughs, and Kristen Bell exists as a foil for Marty. There’s supposed to be a sexual tension or, at least, tension between the two, but the script never sells the chemistry and neither do the two actors (mainly Bell, who still looks like she belongs in high school).

The show begins by thrusting us into the hectic mess that is Marty’s life. We are introduced to his ex-wife, whose management consultant team is number one (Marty’s is number two). We are introduced to Marty’s shrink father, his son who’s going through a very strange gender crisis, and Marty’s clients. Once we enter the business world Marty inhabits, the writing gets wooden and the politics go left… way left. (more…)

I have been trying to figure out how to work the Red Hot Chile Peppers’ (RHCP) 1999 hit, Californication, into a blog. I had known and liked the song for some time. Who doesn’t? But other than simply liking the song and having a general sense of what it was about, I had never listened closely. Of course, the title itself has almost the entire meaning of the song within it. I had recently read economist Russell Robert’s Hayekian novel, “The Price of Everything.” It is a simple yet spiritual characterization of the mystery of what Hayek called the “spontaneous order” in human organization.

Then, when on my Stairmaster one day listening to the song, I heard a phrase that could have been written by the Capitalist philosopher, Joseph Schumpeter. I replayed the song and then also picked up the same spiritual sense I got from the Robert’s novel. Now, when the endorphins get going in exercise, many strange thoughts come to mind. But I needed to take a closer look at the song. (more…)