Five Questions

The Bachelor Pad Weatherman reveals all: Jonathan Novack spills on his tell-all,his comedy career and Ali

Jonathan Novack in his Bachelor Pad pose.
Photo by Kevin Foley/ABC
Jonathan Novack back in his real weatherman days.
Say it with Novack's latest T-shirt!

Jimmy Kimmel and everyone else may refer to him as "The Weatherman" but we still think of Jonathan Novack as our hometown heartthrob.

He may not have won Ali's heart on The Bachelorette, but he's returning to TV Monday in a hybrid reality competition and dating show called The Bachelor Pad (airing on ABC at 7 p.m.). Novack gave an exclusive interview to CultureMap about Houston, his future, and his thoughts on Ali and Roberto.

CultureMap: This must have been a crazy summer for you. What are you up to now that The Bachelor Pad is wrapped?

Jonathan Novack: I've been out to L.A., where I had some meetings, shot the 'Men Tell All' episode, found a place to live in West Hollywood and did some stand-up at the HaHa Comedy Club.

I also just had a show last week at the Houston Improv with Slade Ham, who was headlining. I did about 10-11 minutes — it was awesome, went really great. Next week, Aug. 12-15, I'm performing at The Laff Spot opening for Jimmie Walker.

Since the show, I started blogging, tweeting, I've been delving into social networking, selling T-shirts that say 'I heart the weatherman' to benefit the ASPCA, trying to figure out some charity-type things I can do, seeing what I can get involved with out in L.A. I've been in Houston for three years and it's hard to leave. I feel rooted here, I'm bummed. I've got a lot of friends here, it's been a really good time in my life.

CM: Have you always wanted to break into the entertainment business?

JN: I've been in the news business on-air for nine years, and I've always wanted to do entertainment-type stuff, whether it was an Antique Roadshow segment on Channel 2 or hosting the local version of The Biggest Loser. I feel like now is the time to see if I can bridge over to entertainment.

If I'm in Houston the challenges are much more difficult. People know me now, I've got my agent, a publicist, and if I want to go I've got to do it now. I'm sticking with TV though, auditioning for hosting gigs and things like that.

CM: What did you think about The Bachelorette finale? Do you think Ali made the right choice with Roberto?

JN: I said it from the beginning, from when I got sent home, people would ask me who I thought Ali would be with or should be with and I said Roberto. He was the most stand-up guy in the house, and they seemed to have a connection. I'm glad it worked out for Ali — I couldn't be happier for them.

CM: Is it different to watch yourself on these shows? Was there anything they didn't air that you would have liked to show?

JN: It's tough to watch, when I see it on TV, to be honest. It's interesting. It's totally different than seeing myself if I'm doing a weather cast. For starters I have no control. Since I've started in the news business I've always been the one to put a story together, and with this I have to kinda sit back and see what gets aired.

As far as what didn't make it to TV, there was a thing that happened between Jesse B. and Craig M. I don't think people realized Craig M. was trying to get into a fight with him and for that reason people thought it was just me and him, but the only reason I said anything to Ali was because the guy was seriously off his rocker and trying to start stuff with everyone. I don't know if they had the time to show a lot of that, though.

CM: How did you come to be on the show?

JN: I was nominated for the show a year and a half ago and they called me up. I never watched it, I didn't know who was on it, but I did a little investigating. I knew Ali and Gia, and was hoping one of them would be Bachelorette, but you don't know who it's going to be, so you go into it as an experience, and maybe it'll work out with whoever they pick, but you have to just say, "Hey, this is a life experience and lets see what happens."

Check out a Pad peek and get more of the shirtless Novack:

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Movie Review

Glen Powell stumbles in remake of sci-fi classic The Running Man

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Glen Powell in The Running Man.

For all its cheesy ‘80s greatness, the original version of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very loose adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. For the new remake, writer/director Edgar Wright has tried to hue much closer to the story laid out in the book, a decision that has both its positive and negative aspects.

Glen Powell takes over for Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, a family man/hothead who can’t seem to hold a job in the dystopian America in which he lives. Desperate to take care of his family, he applies to be on one of the many game shows fed to the masses that promise riches in exchange for humiliation or worse. Thanks to his temper, Ben is chosen for the most popular one of all, The Running Man, in which contestants must survive 30 days while hunters, as well as the general population, track them down.

Given a 12-hour head start, Ben earns money for every day he survives, as well as every hunter he eliminates. Since he only has a relatively small amount of money to use as he pleases, Ben must rely on friendly citizens who are willing to put their own lives on the line to help him. That’s a task made even more difficult as the gamemakers, led by Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), use advanced AI to manipulate footage of Ben to make him seem like a guy for which no one should root.

Co-written by Michael Bacall, the film is shockingly uninteresting, working neither as an exciting action film, a fun quippy comedy, or social commentary. The biggest problem is that Wright seems to have no interest in developing any of his characters, starting with Ben. Our introduction to the protagonist is him trying to get his job back, a situation for which there is little context even after we’re beaten over the head with exposition.

The situation in which Ben finds himself should be easy to make sympathetic, but Wright and Bacall speed through scenes that might have emphasized that aspect in favor of ones that make the story less personal. The filmmakers really want to showcase the supposed antagonistic relationship between Ben and Dan (and the system which Dan represents), but all that effort results in little drama.

Ben has a number of close calls, and while those scenes are full of action and violence, almost every one of them feels emotionally inert, as if there was nothing at stake. It doesn’t help that Wright doesn’t set the scene well, making it unclear how far Ben has traveled or who/what he’s up against. There are times when Ben feels surrounded and others when he can walk freely, weird for a society that’s supposed to be under almost complete surveillance.

Powell has been touted as a movie star in the making for several years following his turn in Top Gun: Maverick, but he does little here to make that label stick. With no consistent co-star thanks to the structure of the story, he’s required to carry the film, and he just doesn’t have the juice that a true movie star is supposed to have. Nobody else is served well by the scattershot film, including normally reliable people like Brolin, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Lee Pace.

The Running Man is a big misfire by Wright and a blow to Powell’s star power. On the surface, it has all the hallmarks of an action thriller with a side of social commentary, but nothing it does or says lands in any meaningful way. Schwarzenegger’s one-liners in the original film may have been goofy and over-the-top, but at least they made the movie memorable, which is way more than can be said of the remake.

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The Running Man opens in theaters on November 14.

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