Tag: Headlines (Page 140 of 146)

Dancing with the Stars 9.10 — Round Five

October 20, 2009 /

117792_0291_pre

My hometown team just suffered an excruciating loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. This day started out wonderful and now I’m contemplating turning on the heater, sipping some Jameson, putting on a Sam Cooke record, and drifting off to sleep. I’m depressed and I need a remedy. Should I turn to “Dancing with the Stars” for support? Of course I shouldn’t, but it’s about to get started so I have no choice.

I have very little patience right now. Now that I’m familiar with the show, I seriously doubt that Aaron Carter is going to raise my spirits. Len Goodman better be funny and Joanna Krupa better be wearing something illegal. Ladies and gentleman, it’s “Dancing with the Stars!”

Team Dances

Natalie Coughlin with Alex Mazo (paso doble)

Is someone watching over me? Natalie Couglin is the first dance of the night! To whoever pulls the strings: thank you.

Does anybody else hate the costumes they have to wear? Sometimes I wish they just danced in their street clothes. A team’s overall body language, which enhances the characters, is far more effective. The costumes are just cheesy.

As for this dance, it was up to Natalie’s caliber. I’m not sure why the judges are so critical every time she performs. They still give her high scores, but they never seem very enthusiastic. Maybe it’s because they know she’ll move on regardless and hope she’ll take their criticism to heart.

Aaron Carter with Karina Smirnoff (Argentine tango)

The legwork was on point. The judges are raving about this one. I thought he looked too stiff, but I guess that’s what the Argentine tango is all about.

Michael Irvin with Anna Demadova (paso doble)

Finally, he didn’t suck. Aside from his robotic stutter at the end, Michael was actually engaging. I predicted he would be the next to go — now I’m not so sure.

Mya with Dmitry Chaplin (Argentine tango)

Every week, Mya glides across the dance floor with ease. She performs with confidence and rarely makes a mistake. Obviously, since the male is supposed to lead, it’s hard to compare her with the professional females. She does tend to neglect any intimacy with her partner, but she has time to hone that part. Her and Natalie are still the favorites.

Mark Dacascos with Lacey Schwimmer (paso doble)

Like the judges, I didn’t see any mistakes. I was just a bit bored by the whole thing. The judges thought Dacascos exuded an intensity that I didn’t see. With these scores, he just became the favorite on the male side.

Donny Osmond with Kym Johnson (Argentine tango)

Like Mya, Natalie, and Mark, Donny seems to spend hours practicing. You can see it in his footwork. He’s just sharp.

Everyone’s improving.

Louie Vito with Chelsie Hightower (Argentine tango)

After dropping down the leader board last week, they certainly rebounded with this routine. They created a story, which most of the other dancers avoid or forget to include. This team deserves to stay.

Melissa Joan Hart with Mark Ballas (paso doble)

She’s been playing catch up since Round Two. She finally had her breakthrough dance last week, so she really need to keep up that progress. Unfortunately, she lost her step quite a few times.

What? The judges gave her a score of 23?

Kelly Osbourne with Louis Van Amstel (paso doble)

They’re dancing to “Crazy Train” by Kelly’s father. When she gets nervous, she tends to destroy a dance’s entire mystique. I can’t understand the high scores. I like Kelly, but I thought this dance was seriously lacking.

Joanna Krupa with Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Argentine tango)

Joanna’s usual parter, Derek, is out with the flu, so Max is taking his place. They did commit one obvious mistake, but the judges don’t seem to care. I’m not sure why they’re being so nice tonight.

Group Dance

Everybody from tonight’s competition is participating in a monster hustle, popularized by the 70s chart-topper, “The Hustle.” Since the judges won’t have a say, the celebrities are letting loose.

Michael Irvin looked hilarious and, as always, Mya and Natalie Coughlin were great.

I honestly have no idea who’s going to get eliminated next as nobody was terrible. Anyway, we’ll discuss the results show in a few hours.

Reality TV, TV, TV Reality

Curb Your Enthusiasm 7.5 — Denise Handicapped

October 19, 2009 /

curb09_08

So far, this has been the funniest episode of the new season. All the actors were great, the story lines were solid, and the ideas behind the jokes were eerily funny. I’ve been entertained by this season’s previous episodes, but I’ve always managed to take issue with a plot point. “Denise Handicapped” had none of these cracks.

At a local coffee shop, Larry meets an attractive woman named Denise and they begin conversing over their mutual adoration of the violinist, Chi-Yun. Larry is attending a party were she is performing and they agree to see each other before then. Denise glides away from the table, revealing her disability. She’s in a wheelchair; Larry is in a pickle.

While out to lunch with Jeff and Rosie O’Donnell, Larry tries to pay for the meal. It looks like we have another check dispute on our hands. Unlike the verbal exchange with Jason Alexander, Rosie and Larry get physical. The scene ends with Rosie manhandling Larry’s feeble frame.

Naturally, Larry and Denise’s first date doesn’t go so well. After carrying her up a flight of stairs, their dinner conversation is awkward at best. Still, Denise invites Larry back up to her apartment later in the night. Backed into a corner, Larry accepts. When they begin getting intimate, Larry is at an absolute loss. He fumbles around like a blind basketball player while she remains completely stationary. They gradually make their way to the bedroom where Larry once again aims to please. Denise is unsatisfied throughout his whole performance, leaving Larry suspicious. Does she feel nothing because she’s disabled from the waist down, or because Larry is awful in bed? This is a classic “Curb” dilemma.

Back at his house, Larry picks up a message from the couple that is hosting the Chi-Yun concert. They don’t want Larry to come because of the unsavory comments he made about their adopted Chinese baby. Now that he can’t go to the performance, there’s no reason to continue seeing Denise. He seeks advice from the almighty Leon:

Leon: You did your dizzle on her, right?
Larry: Yeah, I did my dizzle.
Leon: That means you did your f’in thing. Bring the f’in ruckus to that ass, Larry.
Larry: Oh, I suppose you think you could’ve gotten a response?
Leon: You God damn right, Larry.
Larry: Bullsh*t.
Leon: I would’ve had that ass tap dancing, Larry. I don’t f*ck around. Give me her God damn number. I’ll go over there and twist that ass up, Larry. I’d bang that b*tch like Beckham.

Larry takes Denise to a nice restaurant in order to break up with her. However, his motives quickly change as he realizes the perks of dating a handicapped individual. They score a great parking spot and receive preferential treatment during their entire meal. On their “stroll and roll” after eating, they bump into the couple that disinvited them to the concert. Noticing Larry’s contrived sense of good character, they rescind their actions. Larry could get used to this.

Later in the episode, Larry, Jeff, and Suzie try to enjoy a day at the beach. When Suzie forces Jeff to go on a romantic walk, she asks Larry to look after their daughter, Sammy, who is playing in the ocean. At the drop of dime, Sammy begins to drown. Larry, ever the hero, begins his rescue mission. However, before saving the girl, he repeatedly tries to make sure his Blackberry is shielded from harm. By the time Larry is ready, Jeff has already retrieved his daughter. Suzie can immediately sense what really transpired. She heaves Larry’s Blackberry into the ocean, causing him to lose Denise’s number.

Larry and Leon decide to search for Denise’s house. Of course, it’s a fruitless task. Leon soon spots another woman in a wheelchair making her way down the sidewalk. Larry assumes that she must know Denise because they both, ahem, use a wheelchair. The woman, Wendy, is offended at first, but eventually warms up to Larry’s ridiculousness. Wendy also enjoys Chi-Yun, so Larry idiotically invites her to the concert.

The final scene is an outright catastrophe. Even though Larry never contacted her, Denise decided to attend. Wendy and Denise eventually meet and are naturally infuriated with Larry. The episode closes with Larry fleeing his two dates and Rosie O’Donnell. As with “The Hot Towel,” this episode ends with Larry facing an eventual bludgeoning.

We haven’t seen the cast of “Seinfeld” for some time now, but they’ll be back next week.

Curb Your Enthusiasm, TV, TV Comedies

(Late) Monday morning movie memes

October 19, 2009 /

It’s a typical, hazy late morning in Southern California and, as I start this, some folks in Hollywood are still rolling into work, Don Draper style, but there is already some news.

tintin

* If you’re curious about what’s been going on the set of the motion-capture Tintin movie being co-directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, and you’re a fan of Nick Frost, Screencrave has an absolute must read interview where he candidly discusses the working methods and how incredibly nervous he was having to do “real” acting. Mr. Frost seems like an easy guy to like.

* I never got into this particular geek thing, but it appears that the new “Monster Squad” remake is not a “Monster Squad” remake.

* Blu-Ray sales are good. I guess I’m eventually going to have to get that player and high-def TV to go with it. Maybe I should start a new charity, akin to Toys for Tots. “High End Home Electronics for Underpaid Critics in Need”?

* Dan Glickman, successor to the late Jack Valenti at the lobbying arm of the movie industry, the MPAA, will be leaving the gig at the end of his contract next September. As described by Variety‘s Ted Johnson, names in the running to replace Glickman include San Fernando Valley Democratic congressman Howard Berman, Disney lobbyist Richard Bates, former Tennessee rep. Harold Ford, and this guy who’s our state’s governor right now.

Not to speak ill of the dead (which is the kind of thing you say just before you do just that), but the late Mr. Valenti was an avuncular but oily character who you instinctively knew you couldn’t trust. He also drove me batty with his inane defenses of the obviously corrupt and unfair rating system. In any case, Arnold would in some ways be a step up if they want someone super high-profile, much as I would never vote for the guy for any public office and not only because he’s a Republican. Ford, who has become a frequent TV talking head since losing his state’s senate race after some arguably racist ads is someone I trust even less than Valenti or the S man and not just because he’s an outspoken conservadem…well, mostly. He’s perhaps too obviously a slick character, even for Hollywood.

Berman I don’t really know well though looking at his Wikipedia page I’m reminded of why he’s not a particular favorite of California progressives, even while claiming to be one, but he’s probably a good choice if they want to fly under the radar. Being a fairly political guy and living in Southern California for almost my entire life, I still know next to nothing about the guy except he looks to be a direct descendent of the 3 Stooges’ Larry Fine. Not many guys over sixty still sporting the Jewfro.

* As reported by the L.A. Times (via Anne Thompson), veteran producer, high flying studio executive, and long-time UCLA Film School fixture Peter Guber — noted in the 1980s as the more sane half of Guber/Peters — is getting together with digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin and Wizard magazine owner Gareb Shamus to create GeekChic Daily, an e-newsletter whose title pretty much says it all. I just signed up here and was informed that I “rock.”

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, New Media, News

“Where the Wild Things Are” rides atop the box office.

October 18, 2009 /

Where the Wild Things AreAt least this week I have some company in being a bit off the mark.  The estimated grosses for Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers’ adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” overperformed the most optimistic assessments and nailed an estimated $32.5 million. So says jolly Carl DiOrio of The Hollywood Reporter, as the significantly less jolly Nikki Finke factually reminds us that Warners chose to push the film as more of an adult picture. The decision certainly seems to have paid off.

It seems likely that the approach widened rather than narrowed the potential audience (parents with kids were likely to show up regardlesss) and added to the “cool” factor, with Cinemascore indicating that younger adults actually seem to enjoy it more than those over 25. In any case, as past somewhat deceptive campaigns I can think of attest, a certain degree of honesty in movie marketing may actually be the best policy.

Also earning more than expected is Overture’s poorly reviewed violent thriller “Law Abiding Citizen.” The macho appeal of the revenge/serial killerish premise, bolstered no doubt by the familiarity of stars Gerard Butler and  Jamie Foxx, proved fruitful with roughly $21.2-3 million estimated, depending on which sites you read.

Colm Meany, Jamie Foxx, and Gerard Butler in

In the #3 spot, “Paranormal Activity” continued to do extremely good business for Paramount with the week’s highest per-screen average ($26,530), netting an estimated $20.1-2 million on only 760 screens, still a fraction of the number of theaters showing competing flicks. As for the small discrepancies in these figures, looking at the numbers provided by Finke, DiOrio, and the Box Office Mojo chart, it sure looks like the glass-half-full DiOrio is rounding up while the glass-half-empty-and-shattered-beyond-repair Finke is rounding down.

Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell in Though it has precisely zero appeal for yours truly and got almost uniformly bad reviews, audiences are being kind to troubled Universal Studios and Peter Billingsley, the now grown-up star of “A Christmas Story,” with his feature film debut as a director, “Couples Retreat.” The relationship comedy held well and lost a very respectable 47.7% from its opening week, earning an estimated $17.9 million in its second week. Not too surprisingly, then, the #5 spot went to the PG-13 rated horror remake, “The Stepfather,” with an estimated $12.3 million. In this climate, it might have done a bit better if it held onto the R-rating of the original. Lesson for Sony: If you’re making a horror picture, throw in a few extra f-words and maybe a c-word if you can manage it, just for safety.

On the limited release front, “An Education” had a very good weekend. The Nick Hornby-scripted period memoir adaptation from Swedish Dogme alumna Lone Sherfig, making her English-language directorial debut, earned $505,000 in 19 theaters. The Coen Brothers’ adventure in domestic Judaica,  “A Serious Man,” performed its due box office mitvot with an estimated $860,000 in 82 theaters. The #2 movie this week in terms of per-screen average after “Paranormal Activity,” however, was the critically lauded Chilean drama, “The Maid.” True, that terrific $18,000 was on only one screen, but for a satirical drama from Chile, it’s a success worth noting.

Finally, I have to demand that my brothers and sisters in L.A., Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Seattle get down to their local theaters and see the blaxsploitation parody par excelance “Black Dynamite,” post haste. The film earned what a less jolly Carl DiOrio termed a “mild” $2,014 average on seventy screens for an estimated total of $141,000 for Sony’s Apparition films.  Not horrible, but not what a powerful brother like Mr. Dynamite (absolutely no relation to Napoleon D.) so powerfully deserves! And if I read one more blog commenter saying this movie has already “been done” via the disappointing “Undercover Brother” or the pleasantly fun, but not nearly so brilliant, “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” I’ll know the Man is up to his usual tricks and it’s time to take back the movie theaters!

BlackDynamiteMovieStill

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Friday movie news dump

October 16, 2009 /

It’s that time of the week when we offload the week’s last few stories.

Will Ferrell in * In the wake of his “Land of the Lost” debacle, Will Ferrell is going back to “Stranger than Fiction” territory with a more low-key form of comedy, writes Mike Fleming. “Everything Must Go” will be from first-time feature director Dan Rush and is based on a story by Raymond Carver — not an author frequently connected with hilarity though the script is apparently primarily a comedy and the premise (a newly unemployed guy’s wife locks him out and deposits his stuff on the lawn…and the guy responds by trying to sell all of it) sounds potentially pretty funny.

It’s important to remember that, once upon a time, not all comedies were expected to be laugh-riot farces and, ironically enough, they were often funnier anyhow. (The classical definition of comedy, by the way, is less about being funny and more about having a happy ending. By that definition, many black comedies are not comedies at all.)

* More from Fleming: Robert Redford’s new Lincoln conspiracy film started shooting on Monday and he has quite a cast assembled. This one could be good.

* American liberals like me complain a lot, and for very good reason, about the actions of media mega mogul Rupert Murdoch, particularly in regards to how his TV news network is essentially an arm of the Republican Party. But, it could be a lot worse. Italy’s scandal-ridden, far-right movie and TV mogul Murdoch-equivalent actually runs the freaking country and I bet Italian rightwingers cry about the “liberal media” and the evils of the Rome film-making establishment too. But, hey, at least they have health care,.

* Speaking of media moguls, Nikki Finke believes that GE may ultimately divest itself of NBC Universal, which may please ecologically minded and antiwar folks while depriving “30 Rock” of one of its best running gags. Still, Finke says it may be seven years before it’s complete, so Tina Fey & company should be able to milk it sufficiently. Also, Finke wonders about Ted Turner’s mental health in regard to Time-Warner.

* It may be last summer’s news here in the U.S., but “Up” continues to land on top of the global box office.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑