*in my humble opinion

Like many people, especially of my age, I have to say that my favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story which is about Ralphie and his quest for a “carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time” that will shoot his eye out. This movie, with its sweet dysfunction, really holds up over the course of time. Whether it was his cruse filled father or his gut wrenching desire for that perfect gift, I could relate to Ralphie a lot.

But over the Holidays I began to think what other Holiday movies do I still love? I, of course, still love Charlie Brown and his pathetic tree, and Rudolph with his nose so bright, but those aren’t movies; they are specials. Most  “Christmas” movies are for kids and aren’t that great. Some are just awful (see Dudley Moore’s “Santa Claus the Movie”). Most of the Holiday movies I do still love are just “kind of holiday movies” as they really could take place at anytime of year. But Christmas makes a nice backdrop, and the movie studios love to release films at Christmas time when all the kids are off.
 
So here are my Top 4 favorite (kind of) Christmas Movies:

4) Home Alone 2; Lost in New York
Ok. I know what you are saying, “Why not Home Alone 1?” Well, Home Alone 1 is still a sweet family movie and a holiday favorite of everyone. Home Alone 2 I now enjoy on a different level. Home Alone 2 shows us what a truly demented sociopath Kevin Macalister really is. This time he’s not defending his home and himself from dangerous criminals; this time, he’s conning his way into the Plaza Hotel, purposely baiting the criminals to follow him so that they can fall into numerous traps that are skull-smashing and brutally violent. All in good fun, but had this been reality and not a Tom and Jerry inspired fun family romp, he’d basically be facing serious jail time and most likely manslaughter charges as numerous concussive blows to a head will actually kill a man. [Read more →]

Shaun of the Dead: Best Zombie Movie Ever

After a week of tsunamis, earthquakes, mudslides, Jon Gosselin, and David Letterman, its good to know that there is at least one school that thoroughly prepares for every possible disaster. There is still one school out there that takes the safety of it’s students very seriously. They believe in protecting them from hurricanes, and global disease, and zombies.Yes, zombies.

The emergency plan for the invasion of the Undead ( “flesh-eating, apparently life impaired individuals.”) Is not quite clear, what is clear is that in the event of an outbreak, there will be “documentation of lots of strange moaning.”

The not quite complete article is here

Wouldn’t you know it? This university is in Florida, the state which simultaneously has an incredible amount of elderly people and is being invaded by Burmese pythons. So I guess they know something about effective disaster prevention.

Fame Poster from Cinematical

Most people that know me - know that #1 - I have 23 Barbra Streisand Record Albums, and #2 - I have a dance movie collection complete with accompanying soundtracks. I’m one of those  - Oh! I wish I had continued at Miss Jan Estrella’s School of Dance when I was 10 instead of dropping out to play 10 other sports kind of people. If only I’d had the opportunity to attend Performing Arts High School - oh the places I could have gone. (although my lack of vocal talent and my inate inability towards self-discipline probably would have caused some problems)

I went to a free screening of Fame last week at Loews Theater on 42nd Street. Any true dance nut knows that this movie has been in the works ever since the 1980 original version. (yes, 1980!!!) its directed by Kevin Tancharoen, who’s cut his chops on dance videos.

And indeed - the best features of the film are the moments when these talented young whippersnappers sing, rap and leap across the stage. The sheer brilliance of the dancing and choreography, the spectacular grittiness that is still New York and some beautiful Chicago-like montages make this film a must-see for anyone in entertainment. These kids have so much heart and so much talent - I got teary smack in the middle. Naturi Naughton plays a classical pianist whose real dream is to sing and Kay Panabaker plays a young actress all too eager to fall prey to creepy guys. Even though their storylines are barely fleshed out, the montage of teen angst and the spectacular dance scenes carry the energy throughout the film. [Read more →]

I don’t follow politics as much as I should, so when trying to wrap my head around it I often relate it to things I have a much better understanding of. Here’s my interpretation of Senator Arlen Spector’s defection from Republican to Democrat:

 It was quite a scene the other night as the Senate met for a sold out crowd at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden. Crowds from all sides held up signs some with jeers like; “McCain in the Ass” and “Biden’s Nuts!” but all in all it was a calm and everyone ready for a entertaining night of good ole fashion politicking.
 
Everyone was pumped for the night, but nobody was expecting the curveball Senator “The Spectacular” Arlen Spector had coming later that evening. During a Lumberjack Match between Harry Reid “My Fists” and Mitch “Machismo” McConnell, Spector interceded with a hand full of salt apparently blinding McConnell by accident.
 
After the match as Machismo verbally berated Spector in front of a sold out crowd slapping him across the face, then turned to walk away. As he did Spector became enraged and locked in his famous “Spectator” sleeper hold. As the rest of the G.O.P. attempted to stomp Spector off “Mad Man” Biden lowered from the rafters wearing his face war paint and proceeded to save Spector with the help of his Louisville Slugger.

[Read more →]

This article by Mark Walsh from Online Media Daily poses that very question. Analyst Laura Martin, who works for Soleil Securities, estimates that Hulu will cost TV networks $920 in advertising dollars.

The continued success of Hulu and others will increasingly tempt people to give up their $100 cable subscriptions and just go with what’s online. The funny thing about it, is that Hulu is owned by NBC Universal - a network which had to scrap all of its network 10pm programming for the Jay Leno show because of declining ratings.

I haven’t had cable for almost 7 years - which is incredibly funny considering that I’ve WORKED in cable for the past 7 years at Lifetime and Oxygen Media. I even have a hard time watching regular television because I will not watch a 1 hour television program that is 17 minutes of commercials (YES, 17 minutes at the very LEAST). An online program has maybe 4 commercials in it - 1 at the top and bottom, and maybe 1 if you have to refresh the screen. So yes, I missed SUnday’s VMA’s and I had to hear all the gossip from people at work.

When you pay a $100 cable bill - that money is divided between the provider (Time Warner or Cablevision i.e.) and each cable network. For instance, ESPN gets $2 a month, Lifetime -  maybe $1.00, Golf Channel - maybe .40 cents. No way I’m paying for cable channels that I have no interest in watching. I’d rather pay for the channels that I will watch.  Since the cable networks won’t allow for a scenario like that, I’d rather just watch the programming I want to watch online or even at the gym.

I’m about to catch Beyonce teaching Kanye West a lesson in respect by going online to MTV or Youtube and watching her speech at Sunday’s VMA’s. Kanye - please, stop drinking Henessey in public. Your little 10 year-old self would not be happy if someone had done that to New Edition 20 years ago.  [Read more →]

Is life a haphazard series of events or are we all part of a grand design, much bigger and greater than we could ever know?

This is one of the questions that’s explored by author, Rachel Simon, in her recent memoir, “Building a Home with My Husband.”  This book was part of my summer reading and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever been through a home renovation.  Even if you haven’t remodeled a house, there’s still a lot of insights this memoir has to offer about life, love and relationships.

To stimulate conversations among her readers, Rachel Simon has started the @Home Book Tour.  Basically, if you live in the Delaware or Philadelphia area, Rachel can arrange a personal home visit for 12 or more friends who have read and purchased her book.  For those who live further away, the author can schedule a visit via phone or website for at least 6 friends gathered together in one home.  These visits are free and in an e-mail, Rachel wrote, “I hope to do as many of these as possible.”

For more information, go to http://www.rachelsimon.comand click on the Rachel @Home Book Tour.

I was watching TV (as I’m known to do on occasion) and I saw commercial for the Schick Quattro For Women Trimstyle. For those of you who don’t know what it is it a razor that also has a trimmer on the other end of it. Now while this is marketed for Men as a beard trimmer, when marketed to women they call it a “bikini trimmer”.

(The actual hedge and bush trimming in the commercials as empowered attractive women walk by is hysterical watch it again incase you missed it)

While I’m all for bikini trimming, it just made me think how far we have come and what television is willing to advertise now. Not to sound old but I remember when the first condom commercial aired on TV, or at least I remember it being controversial if I didn’t exactly see it. Which according to the internets was in 1991 by the Fox Network. Since then Condom ads are pretty common although Fox, the ones who broke the original barrier (no pun intended), recently opposed a commercial by Trojan for thier “Evolve” campaign depicting men as pigs, unless they are willing to use a condom. Fox opposed this commercial because they say it had nothing to do with the health benefits of condoms. I can’t help but think it also has something to do with the fact that since 1991 they’ve created a niche market as the voice of Conservative America (see Also Fox News).; More can be read on that particular commercial here in a NY Times Article

and the commercial can be seen here;
[Read more →]

I’ve been awaiting Julie and Julia since I first heard about it a year ago. Food, Love, Writing, Julia Child - it’s like Nora Ephron read my 12 year old dreams and created this movie just for me. And I’d like to thank her for all the great food porn and the shots of Paris in the 50s. She even borrowed some of Julia Child’s kitchen to put you right smack in the world of French Food in the mid-century.

And for the Julia Child part of the story - I think anyone will find an inspirational and lovely little piece. But the modern day story left me unsatisfied, despite some smart moments and the immensely adorable boyfriend played by Chris Messina. (there’s a slight chance you’ll remember him from Vicky Christina Barcelona)

Julie and Julia is 2 stories side by side - the story of Julia Child and her ascent to bringing french cuisine to the common housewife, and Julie - who spent her 20s writing a half-written novel no one wanted to publish before spending her days talking to 9/11 asthma victims from a cubicle.

You’ll be awfully surprised, as I was, to find out that Julia Child didn’t marry until she was almost 40 years old (she blames her height - so do I JULIA! So…do…I…). [Read more →]

District 9 won last weekend’s box office over G.I. Joe AND the Time Traveler’s Wife (who could imagine?)
I saw it this week, I went in with a lot of expectations and preconceived notions about what it would be like and what it was about. Aliens come to Earth not as invaders but as refugees, “Yawn” right? I mean we all saw Alien-Nation. I kind of expected a hodgepodge of sci-fi Alien films I’ve seen before; E.T. with a bit of Starship Troopers thrown in for good measure. All of those notions and expectations were blown away.

The movie centers around the refugee camp of Aliens in Johannesburg South Africa. The locals call the aliens Prawns because well they resemble prawns, but they are also seen as bottom feeders and treated as such. The camp after 20 some odd years is starting to be relocated away from the urban populace of Johannesburg to a “safer” and “more comfortable” location for the Aliens (read “away from humans”). Of course things get complicated from there, as a safe and orderly relocation would make one boring ass movie.

On the surface District -9 is about Aliens and spaceships and explosions. But when you dig deeper it’s really about humanity. It’s about how we have a nasty habit of treating other people as less than human, and if these people happen to not be human it would be even easier. I couldn’t help but think about a recent read of mine the book “What is the What?” by Dave Eggers about a Sudanese refugee (Valentino Achak Deng) and his trials and tribulations. He and his people are basically chased from their homes and forced to live in camps in another country, and eventually even chased from there to another camp. He’s a “Lost Boy”, he’s a lone boy with no family to speak of walking across the desert. Many people treat him and his fellow “Lost Boys” as the lowest of the low. Like many displaced people cross the world people might want to help them, just as long as they don’t have to deal with them. The similarities between the Aliens and human refugees all around the world is hardly accidental by any means, but I never expected it to be so powerful.

The acting is good, the effects are superb (as you may expect from any movie produced by Peter Jackson) and the story is magnificent. It flows back and forth between Docu-style story telling and traditional movie narrative. It may possibly be the best movie I’ve seen this year and I can’t recommend it more.

For more info see: http://www.d-9.com