A Super Bowl Glee Half time Show - a review of Glee

So I just finished watching the super bowl Glee and the Valentine Glee so this will be in two chunks.

chunk A I loved, Chunk B I hated.

So the Super Bowl episode of glee was...A total tease, it sets up the idea of Glee going back to the days of old. Aka episode 1-13. Those first few episodes were a great series, but where the show has gone has been nothing but good. So when I say this episode is a tease, I mean that in the sense that the episode is good, the season sucks. Good character moments, good strong development that makes sense for characters. Characters who have no right being in the episode aren't present, an almost bittersweet end to a fun adventure. The only downside is the music was pretty terrible, who ever at the studio said "these kids won't know classic rock, why use it" were retarded and are teh same people who think we need a Justin Beiber song. Fuck. You. Fox.

And the other episode. Well, everything that the super bowl episode got wrong, this episode got worse. Everything SBGS got right,wrong. There wasn't a whole lot here that was right. It makes most of the characters downright unlikable, piss poor musical numbers. Music that doesn't even make sense.

This series has a problem where it wants to give the fans more of what they want. Except they don't get what they want and give them a bastardized version of it. Every inch of this show oozes with execs don't know what they are doing. Likely it is working something like this: Studio does polls, surveys and what nots(asking the wrong questions of course) and figure out roughly what some fans want. Then they look at their advertisers and who they want to reach. So they find a middle ground and tell the shows creative team here is what you should do. The creative team, being morally, creatively, and intelligently bankrupt think it's a great idea and in their heads they think it is a great way out of not knowing what to do.
The show reacts much like a show run by internet fan boys meet studio execs. It doesn't work out for anyone. So what we the audience get is a series of never ending reused storylines, (seriously, we get it, everyone is in a love triangle, square, or pentagon and it plays out exactly the way it's expected). The show likes to default to a handful of couples, I.E. Shue/Emma, Finn/Rachel, Finn/Quinn. And such any status changes are very clearly temporary and have no emotional weight. It's like someone saw Dawson's Creek. Saw the epic Joey/Dawson/Pacey Love triangle that was developed and played out over six seasons and said, you know what would be better? Doing it over the course of six episodes. And someone was like FUCK YEAH. And it all went to hell. So this series pretty much blows. In the first season they showed logic and reason behind each characters knowledge of songs, they weren't just random and they served purpose and feeling. Instead the show has become a shell of something that was once good. Much like Heroes, I hope they figure out how to tell a good story again before it all falls apart and they are canceled.


A note, unless I'm really angry(which I'm not) I usually try to avoid the F-bombs. Today I am sick and offer no inhibition about the quality. This show sucks and it really needs to fire it's entire writing team, hire a new team composed of Tehater people and Television writers(maybe some of the guys that used to work on Dawson's creek) and figure this out. Oh and if they give us that bullshit no one ever grows up nonsense where they are in high shcool for eight seasons I'm going to punch someone...

Because what would 2011 be without me giving you expectations I can't live up to

Because what would 2011 be without me giving you expectations I can't live up to.
I feel like this is a running joke, like I say I'll eventually cover YYZ and never get around to it. What can I say, I'm human. As I depart from a film or book or movie I'm less invested to care. So instead I vote that we continue the tradition of me mentioning things I want to review but don't get around to.
The Town
Never Let Me Go
Monsters
Epic Mickey for the Wii
Assassin's Creed(ps3)
Killzone 2(ps3)
Resistance(ps3)
FalloutNewVegas(ps3)
MetalGearSolid4(ps3)
BioShock(ps3)

Some of this I really will review, some of it I don't have any intent to. I guess that's up to you to decide what's what. The only thing in 2011 I am gurenteeing is that in September or November you will see the 2011 edition of the top 100 film list. And maybe like 50(?) ish percent more hookers this year. I like to keep it classy here.

And these are your 2011 oscar nominations for the year two thousand and Eleven

for each of these catagories I will be ranking the choices.


Actor in a Leading Role


3.* Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
1.* Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
5.* Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
2.* Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
4.* James Franco in “127 Hours”


Actor in a Supporting Role


1.* Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
6.* John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
4.* Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
5.* Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
3.* Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role


5.* Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
3.* Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
4.* Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
1.* Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
2.* Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actress in a Supporting Role


4.* Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
3.* Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
2.* Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
1.* Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
5.* Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film


1.* “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
No.* “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
2.* “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction


4.* “Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
5.* “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
3.* “Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
1.* “The King's Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
2.* “True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography


2.* “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
3.* “Inception” Wally Pfister
4.* “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
5.* “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
1.* “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design


1.* “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
4.* “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
3.* “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
5.* “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
2.* “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing


1.* “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
3.* “The Fighter” David O. Russell
5.* “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
4.* “The Social Network” David Fincher
2.* “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)


* “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
* “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
* “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
* “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
* “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)


* “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
* “Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
* “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
* “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
* “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing


1.* “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
4.* “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
3.* “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
2.* “127 Hours” Jon Harris
5.* “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film


1.* “Biutiful” Mexico
2.* “Dogtooth” Greece
* “In a Better World” Denmark
* “Incendies” Canada
* “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup


2.* “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
3.* “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
1.* “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)


3.* “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
4.* “Inception” Hans Zimmer
2.* “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
5.* “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
1.* “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)


* “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
* “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
* “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
* “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture


2* “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
3.* “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
6.* “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
10.* “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
1.* “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
7.* “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
5.* “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
8.* “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
4.* “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
9.* “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)


1.* “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
* “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
* “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
* “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
* “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

\Short Film (Live Action)


* “The Confession” Tanel Toom
* “The Crush” Michael Creagh
* “God of Love” Luke Matheny
* “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
* “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

\Sound Editing


2.* “Inception” Richard King
3.* “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
1.* “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
4.* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
5.* “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing


1.* “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
3.* “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
5.* “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
2.* “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
4.* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

A triumphant celebration of Humanity - a review of The King's Speech

As the days roll closer to and pass oscar season, you'll hear more about this film. It is a film that is going to be leading the charge and for good reason. The King's Speech is the story of the Duke of York, his rise to the status of King and dealing with his Speech impedement. This is one of those great experiences where you want to talk about it about the end of time and yet you don't want to spoil the experience for anyone else. Let's be frank though, I should likely qualify the experience I had so that I can give some kind of credence to calling myself a reviewer. The music is quite good. It has such poise and grace that it sets up the entire experience without trying. It is one of those great soundtracks where the first time you watch you might not notice it, but by the end of the second you will be in love. I know, that's a lot of hyperbole to say that it was great, but whatever. If you didn't get it by now this isn't a review so much as a love letter explaining why I love this movie. The acting is simply sublime. Colin Firth out does himself here and is quite moving and personable. Geofrey Rush does a great job here as well and really reminds us why he is so brilliant. And then there is Helena Carter who is the true gem here with her most understated performance, ever. I wasn't overly impressed by the directing but I can't say I was anywhere near disapointed by it either.
This is an absolute A. Easily one of the two best films of the year.

You know you're in good company with this cast - a review of The Company Men

It seems like I'm doing this more often lately, walking into movies blind based on a poster and a convienent time. I'm not complaining, I've just found it odd. So when you enter a movie like Company Men, you have certain expectations. By you, I of course mean me. But hey, I could be you. Ya neva' know. Comapny Men is a strange little event. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it was so quiet and so submerged by big ticket oscar winners like Social Network, King's Speech, and True Grit that no one really focused on it. For those of you who don't know, and frankly, why would you, this is a movie about our current economic hardship. It is about the second great recession and it is a fairly human and humbling experience. It follows, primarily, three men. Chris Cooper, Ben Afleck, and Tommy Lee Jones. The Majority of time is spent with Ben Afleck. Ben represents our everyman in this situation even though he isn't. He's a fairly well respected and high ranking employee so he is understanbly suprised when they let him go. He goes through the culture shock of not knowing what to do when you can't find a job. He is humbled by his experience. Next we have Tommy Lee Jones, now it is about an hour into the movie before both he and Chris Cooper loose their jobs. But once they do they each take a different path on figuring out what to do with their lives. Chris takes a darker path that i don't want to spoil. And Tommy takes a brighter path, using the events to empower himself. It is an uplifting movie about hope and about rising above your situation and not surendering to it. Then there is the supporting cast that just adds a great level of sub plots to the piece. Maria Bello, Craig T Nelson, and Kevin Costner all do their parts to match the bar set by our three leads. And really the acting here is what will keep you coming back. The story is fairly predictable and not at all unexpected response, a far better effort than Wall Street:we need more money, but it is this uninspired story that never allows it to leap above the pack. Further, the music doesn't stand out. So when your main draw is your actors, you've certainly got a fine piece. And in many ways this film succeeds for that matter, but in the same vein as the Expendables, it just doesn't go that extra mile to prove it's worth.
Overall this is a B experience. Certainly not a disapointment, just not as great as it could have been.