I have been very outspoken when it comes to recent Family Guy episodes. Personally I believe the show is taking steps in the wrong direction.
I want to say that the best seasons of Family Guy were 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. These seasons contain the best and most remembered episodes such as Family Gay, Petarded, PTV, Fat Guy Strangler, Peterotica, Petergeist, Stewie Loves Lois, Barely Legal, Airport '07, Stewie Kills Lois / Lois Kills Stewie, 420, and Road to Germany.
The past two seasons, however, have been lacking. Something has changed. Here are some things that I've noticed from the past two seasons that need to be changed or better this season:
They just aren't funny.
For some reason the humor just isn't there. Episodes just aren't as funny anymore. The show is very dependent on their cut-away skits for their humor and they have been awful lately.
Quagmire vs. Brian.
This is something that is just stupid. I have no idea why they wanted to do this. In "Jerome is the New Black," Peter tells Brian that Quagmire hates him and Brian tries his hardest to get Quagmire to like him. At the end of the episode, the pair of them are at dinner and Brian pushes Quagmire to tell him why he hates him. Quagmire then goes on a two minute (or so) rant on why he hates him and you think that this would be funny, but actually it's quite painful to watch and not funny at all. From that point on, they're always making stupid digs at each other and arguing and it's always uncomfortable to watch.
Bring back characters.
Particularly Cleveland. Because The Cleveland Show sucks (and yes, I have seen it so I can say that). When Cleveland first left the show is when I started to notice the show going downhill. Cleveland was never a favorite character of mine, but when he's gone you kind of miss him.
In the one-hour season premiere of the 9th season, they did a clever and fun (you'd think) Who Dunnit episode where many of the characters come to a mansion and they begin to be killed off. It's a decent episode, but they kill off a lot of people. James Woods, Muriel Goldman, Diane Simmons, Jillian's husband Derek, and a couple of other characters were killed off. After seeing the episode, you wonder whether they would actually remain dead. They do. But why? You're running out of characters and with this Quagmire/Brian debacle you are limiting your character resources.
Gore is getting out of hand.
The show prides itself on its violence and blood and puke. And that's fine. But recent episodes have been taking it too far. In the season 4 episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter," Peter buys ipecac so that he, Chris, Brian, and Stewie can have a throwing up contest. It's gross, but extremely funny. "WHO WANTS CHOWDER?!" That's funny. But recent episodes focus on the gore. For example, in "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair," Stewie creates an evil clone of himself that gets loose. Within two minutes, he shoves a battery in each of Brian's nostrils then gags him, violently attacks Stewie, cuts off Brian's tail and shoves it down Stewie's throat, and literally slices a woman in half vertically with a machete while stealing her car revealing her insides (video below). It's actually painful to watch.
Focus on comedy and not animation.
There was one other point (besides when Cleveland left) when I noticed the show was going down hill… When they switched to HD. When they switched over, it seemed like they were focusing more on the quality of the animation over the quality of the comedy. Sure everything looks nice and crisp now, but I'd rather the animation quality be like it was in the 90s if it meant the comedy was better.
Fix these things and we'll be heading in the right direction. The new season premieres this Sunday on FOX. We'll see how it goes. Seth MacFarlane… this is all on you.
My new addiction. I know I'm a little behind the times. But that's just how it is: I either like it before it becomes popular and everyone else likes it, or I hate it when it's popular but then become obsessed when it's old news. I also saw it as a challenge. I'm trying to memorize all of the words and I think I've got around 80% of it down!
It's that time of the year again. No not Christmas. Please, don't remind me that that's coming. No it's premiere month on TV. And I'm so happy that my summer series like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Hell's Kitchen, and Falling Skies, for example, are coming to an end or have already ended. Why? Keeping Up With the Kardashians is amazing! I know, but there are a lot of things that I want to watch this fall; both new and returning. So I compiled a little calendar of shows I will be watching with their premiere dates and I have also included other shows both new and returning that people may be interested in.
Thursday, September 15th
The Vampire Diaries -- The CW (7pm Central)
The Secret Circle -- The CW (8pm)
Monday, September 19th
Dancing With the Stars -- ABC (7pm)
Two and a Half Men -- CBS (8pm)
2 Broke Girls -- CBS (8:30pm)
Castle -- ABC (9pm)
Hawaii Five-O -- CBS (9pm)
The Playboy Club -- NBC (9pm)
Tuesday, September 20th
Glee -- FOX (7pm)
NCIS -- CBS (7pm)
The New Girl -- FOX (8pm)
Wednesday, September 21st
Modern Family -- ABC (8pm)
Harry's Law -- NBC (8pm)
Revenge -- ABC (9pm)
Thursday, September 22nd
Charlie's Angels -- ABC (7pm)
The Big Bang Theory -- CBS (7pm)
The Office -- NBC (8pm)
Grey's Anatomy -- ABC (8pm)
Friday, September 23rd
Nikita -- The CW (7pm)
Supernatural -- The CW (8pm)
Fringe -- FOX (8pm)
CSI: NY -- CBS (8pm)
Sunday, September 25th
The Simpsons -- FOX (7pm)
Desperate Housewives -- ABC (8pm)
The Good Wife -- CBS (8pm)
Family Guy -- FOX (8pm)
American Dad -- FOX (8:30pm)
Pan Am -- ABC (9pm)
CSI: Miami -- CBS (9pm)
Monday, September 26th
Terra Nova -- FOX (7pm)
Gossip Girl -- The CW (7pm)
Hart of Dixie -- The CW (8pm)
While promoting The Adventures of Tintin at Comic-Con in San Diego, Steven Spielberg teased us with some news on the long-awaited Jurassic Park 4.
As previously reported, there was rumors of the series being rebooted, but by the sound of it that's not the case anymore.
Steven Spielberg announced:
"We have a story, I can happily announce right now. We have a writer…. Hopefully, we'll be making Jurassic Park IV in the near future. In the next two or three years."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG, I'm so excited. So does that mean that he'll be sitting in the directors chair again. Or will he just simply stay as producer. Either way, I'm excited.
People, Jurassic Park IV is officially in-development! :)
Don't worry, don't worry, a movie review for Part 2 is coming. But this is also important.
As of right this second, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which was released 2 days ago, is on IMDb.com's Top 250 Movie List. No other Harry Potter film is currently on it.
It is currently ahead of other amazing films like Singin' in the Rain, Pan's Labyrinth, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gran Torino, Jaws, Black Swan, Up, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Die Hard, The Great Escape, Batman Begins, The King's Speech, No Country for Old Men, The Wizard of Oz, The Lion King, Slumdog Millionaire, Gone With the Wind, and many, many others.
It has a 8.7 / 10 star rating currently with 17,708 votes. I find this to be such a big deal because things don't typically stay where they are for very long. It could continue to go up if people give it a 9 or 10 star rating, or down if they vote any other way. I would say in one year, it will rest in a comfortable place due to people having already voted whether that be on the list or not. I'm hoping it does. So please vote!!
One thing we don't have to worry about is any Twilight movie making it onto the list.
And on top of the IMDb thing, Harry's been breaking some records. It currently holds the largest Friday gross and highest opening weekend… as of right now… the weekend isn't over. Even before the movie opened in the US, it had broken the record for most sold-out theaters.
So if you haven't voted on IMDb.com, vote! If you haven't seen the movie yet, see it!
**UPDATE**
As of 7/18/11 - #67 with 8.6 star rating and 34,400 votes.
As of 7/19/11 - #69 with 8.6 star rating and 41,000 votes.
As of 7/20/11 - #73 with 8.6 star rating and 45,800 votes.
As of 7/21/11 - #75 with 8.5 star rating and 49,700 votes.
As of 7/23/11 - #79 with 8.5 star rating and 52,700 votes.
As of 7/28/11 - #99 with 8.5 star rating and 65,400 votes.
It was just announced that Chris Colfer, Cory Monteith, and Lea Michelle will not be returning for season four of Glee and their characters will be graduating at the end of this next season.
Too bad. They're 3 of my favorite characters. Thankfully, Santana and Puck have not been announced. It'll be likely that Puck will leave and Santana will stay, but if they both leave then I don't think there will be any reason to watch the show. Puck and Santana are my absolute favorite characters, but I also think the show won't be much of anything without Chris, Cory, and especially Lea. I'm not sure whether I'll still watch or not.
If you look at the "talent" they have on The Glee Project, you'll also realize that there is no reason to want to watch past the original cast. They're all weird. Like beyond weird. Won't watch or like them. Period.
I hope it's as good as the first one. And I hope that Rachel McAdams plays a large part as well. It wasn't a sure thing that she would return for the sequel, but they said she would make an appearance for sure.
Basically, if you haven't already caught on, I hate Michele Bachmann and I will be devoting myself for the next year and a half to persuade my readers not to vote for her. You can vote for anyone but her.
But look who I'm talking to. Disney… They see money and they'll do anything to get to it regardless of reputation.
Tom Hanks is currently promoting his new movie Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts. While being interviewed, he said that he thinks a fourth Toy Story is coming and they're working on it now.
I thought the 3rd one was going to be the last one, Disney? Even the toys seemed to think it was over. They were (spoiler alert) past on to a new owner and left Andy. Audiences were sad to see it end. It was a bittersweet ending and it was perfect. We've excepted that Toy Story was concluded, but now you're saying you want to make another? Ugh.
Where is Pixar in this? I was under the impression that Pixar was against sequels, but now all of a sudden they seem to be loving them.
Disney/Pixar movies are known to be the best in animation. At least that's what I think. They all have original and solid stories and do extremely well at the box office. Every single Pixar film has been nominated for an Academy Award (only 8 were nominated for Best Animated Feature because that category was added in 2004, they won 6; 2 Pixar films were nominated for Best Picture).
Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, WALL-E, Ratatouille, and Up are all the original works of Pixar. Each year, Pixar puts out one film. This year Cars 2 came out. Next year, Pixar will be putting out another original called Brave about a Scottish warrior. Then Pixar will be putting out a prequel to Monsters, Inc. entitled Monster University, as said, another Toy Story, and they're throwing around the idea of an Incredibles sequel. Personally, I didn't care for Cars. It's my least favorite and it had little potential - story-wise - for a sequel. I always thought that The Incredibles would have successful sequels. The first movie even sets up for one.
I'm getting off track. Regardless, Pixar puts out great movie. I trust them to do amazing sequels like the Toy Story's. I just don't want that to be their thing. Sequels can only go so far before they become old. One of the reasons that Toy Story 3 did so well was because there was a 11 year gap between 2 and 3.
Disney needs to stop focusing on the merchandising aspect and thinking with their wallets. I understand that's how business works. But eventually, things get old and over done. I don't believe Toy Story is that way since Toy Story is forever, but Toy Story had an amazing conclusion and should be left alone. If they do choose to continue, it needs to be done tastefully.
I really loathe the Tea Party. They're such a hateful group. Like ultra conservative. Like they want everyone to be white, straight, and Christian/Catholic. …didn't Hitler try for the perfect race too? Hmm…
Please Republican Party, vote a non-Tea Bagger to be your presidential nominee!
I did enjoy the third one, but I'd pick the Rex over Spino any day.
So rumor has it that the Jurassic Park series may be rebooted after years of wondering if a fourth one will ever be made.
Apparently, Steven Spielberg has been having secret meetings with a writer from I Am Legend to brainstorm ideas on how to reboot the series. It's possible that they're looking for a new storyline completely instead of redoing the first movie which is based off the book.
A reboot would work only because, by the time the movie is released, it'll be 10 years after the previous films release. Meaning that it follows my rebooting rule of 10 years between series. However, I feel as though making a reboot (or in other words a remake) of Jurassic Park is like remaking Jaws, Star Wars, or E.T. They're classics that shouldn't be messed with. For me, the reboot would have to have a completely different title in order to not be confused with the iconic original.
After questioning whether or not the first one was good enough for a sequel, we've learned today that Fox is committed to making the second Percy Jackson book into a movie.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters has gone into production with a hopeful release date in 2012, which is surprisingly soon. Logan Lerman will be returning as Percy Jackson (since he lost to Andrew Garfield for Spider-Man) and Harry Potter 1 & 2 director Chris Columbus will be stepping down to allow Diary of a Wimpy Kid director Thor Freudenthal to give it a shot. Columbus will stay on as a producer.
It wasn't a sure thing for this movie to be made. The first one was released to mixed reviews and just okay numbers. Eventually, it did make $226 million internationally with only a $95 million production budget. Those seem like good numbers until you look at the US domestic gross which is only $88 million. Typically it depends on how well you do in the US before you decide on whether to make a sequel or not.
Another factor that make a sequel questionable was that they altered the first movie from the original book to a point where important things were left out and will make a second movie hard to understand without clarification.
Let me give a little background info first. On June 15th, the New York State Assembly passed the same-sex marriage bill for the fourth time by a vote of 80-63. Now it moves to the state's Senate where it has always died. This time, we're hoping for it to be different. Only 32 senators need to vote yes for the bill to pass and, according to new sources, 31 senators have shown support.
New York State Senator Roy McDonald made this quote:
"You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing. You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this."
Why do I want this to pass? Well, it's the right thing. But also because New York, along with Illinois, California, and Texas seem to be this country's most influential states, in my opinion. If those states can be won over, then I feel slowly but surely other states will pull through as well.
I also feel as though nationwide same-sex marriage legalization is inevitable. It will happen whether it's tomorrow or 2035. Today's young republicans are far, far more tolerant than the old farts that are in office now.
It's important to remember that although the republican party generally is against same-sex marriage, not all republicans believe that gays should not marry.
The MTV Movie Awards used to be a fun, entertaining awards show where, unlike the Oscars, the nominees are the most popular and funniest films of the year. It was just a fun show that young people can vote for and they also have performances and premieres of movie trailers and exclusive scenes.
Now, we all know my feelings on the Twilight movies. I hate them so clearly I'm biased. I acknowledge that. But they also suck, like they are terrible movies. Critics and regular movie-goers would agree. The only people who feel they should be nominated for Oscars are those biased in favor of the Twilight movies.
It all started in 2009 with Twilight. They were nominated for 6 awards, winning 5 of them. One of which, they had two nominations in one category. And Robert Pattinson won Breakthrough Performance Male… uh, no MTV, him playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter would be his breakthrough performance.
New Moon had a slow year the following year with only 4 nominations. But lucky for them, they won all the awards they were nominated for.
This year, Eclipse was nominated in 6 categories. In two of those categories, they had multiple nominations (mostly because K Stew whores herself and kisses both Taylor and Robert). Out of the 6 categories they were nomiated for, they won 5 losing only Best Breakout Star.
I should mention that for the past 3 years, the Twilight Saga has taken home the highest award of Best Movie. Yeah… it beat out amazing movies like Avatar (Oscar Nominated Best Picture), the Harry Potter series, Inception (Oscar Nominated Best Picture), Iron Man, Slumdog Millionaire (Oscar Winning Best Picture), The Dark Knight, The Social Network (Oscar Nominated Best Picture), and Black Swan (Oscar Nominated Best Picture).
I understand that the movies win because they were the most voted for, but they're being voted for by teenage girls multiple times a day while masturbating to pictures of Edward or Jacob while reading Twilight fan fiction and wearing plastic vampire/werewolf fangs. Twilight is also one of those things that you either are obsessed with or don't care about, like Justin Bieber.
MTV, having Twilight win everything is very risky. It can either make or break your show. Personally, I think the MTV Movie Awards have lost what little credibility they had by allowing Twilight to take over. …They win everything, they constantly focus all camera attention on the 3 cast members (one of which is camera shy and uncomfortable to watch -- that would be the girl with the personality of a wall), they premiere the trailer at the end of the show just to keep viewers (that shows that the show couldn't do well on its own).
With Breaking Dawn: Parts 1 and 2 (don't get me started on the unnecessary 2 parts) coming out this year and next year, it's needless to say that I will not be watching 2012 and 2013's MTV Movie Awards. If MTV had a soul, they would be a lot of focus on the final Harry Potter movie. Harry has been around for 11 years and has gotten little recognition. Over the past 10 awards shows, Harry Potter has only been nominated 18 times and won twice, both going to Tom Felton the past two years for Best Villain. So, in basic terms…
Harry Potter Series - 10 awards shows - 18 nominations - 2 wins - one movie left
Twilight Saga - 3 awards shows - 19 nominations - 14 wins - two movies left
And don't give me that "clearly that means Twilight is better" because it's not. The Harry Potter series has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards and has an average IMDb.com user rating of 7.4 / 10 stars. The Twilight Saga has zippo Oscar nods and an IMDB.com average rating of 4.9 / 10 stars.
Honestly, I don't know how this rant became a debate of Twilight vs. Harry Potter. My focus was Twilight and MTV's Movie Awards. I hope I made my point. Basically, MTV, I'm starting to think Twilight pays you to let them win. Either that or you need to improve your awards show and regain your credibility.
I'd understand a Harry Potter fan crying over the final trailer because it's been like 10 years with the movies and 14 years with the books. But I don't get crying over 3 years of Twilight movies coming to an end. I don't think this is necessary. Everyone knows I'm on Harry's side of all Potter vs. Twilight arguments, but I'd hope Twilight fans would even agree with me on this. Twilight - 3 years. Harry Potter - 10 years. I would hope that people would be more attached to Harry at this point over sparkly vampires.
This chick needs to stop reading Twilight fan fiction and move on with her life!
Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.
(out of four stars)
I must say that this is the best X-Men movie to date. I enjoyed the original trilogy, but this movie had it going on.
Honestly, I'm not even sure I can criticize this movie in any way.
I loved that they were able to tie a real historical event in America and X-Men together perfectly. I learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis in 8th grade, but I never really understood it. The only this I remembered about it was that it was called "The Cuban Missile Crisis" but the conflict was actually between the US and Soviet Russia. This movie, while being laced with fiction, helped me get the gist of what my 8th grade teacher was trying to explain. See… movies can be educational.
At first I wasn't sure about James McAvoy as Professor X, but he definitely grew on me. In fact, they did a great job with this cast, including Kevin Bacon. I must comment on the range of accents and languages that Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and Kevin Bacon had to pull off for their roles. I understand that Fassbender is in fact German, but he did have to speak Spanish during his scene in Argentina and he did it perfectly. I also enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Nicholas Hoult's (Beast) performances.
My one disappointment was that Xavier was paralyzed in this movie. First off, I should say that they did it in a great way. I looked up how it was actually done in the comics and that was stupid. Something about an alien dropping a rock on his legs. In the movie, Moira (who is a human) gets upset and begins shooting at Magneto with Xavier standing somewhat behind him. Magneto deflects her bullets. One of which ricochets and hits Xavier's spine. What's great about this is that we know Magneto deflected it and it happened to hit X. To Magneto, human Moira shot him, which makes him despise humans even more.
Now, why am I disappointed that he was crippled? Because by the end of the movie, I was hoping for a sequel and hoped that if they didn't cripple X, then they'd be somewhat obligated to make another to depict that.
Now, if you've made it this far into the review and you've seen the movie, I hope you'd agree with my thoughts on the movie. If you haven't seen the movie and you've gotten this far… WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? Go see this movie!!! It's amazing and I want it to make money so they realize they need to make another!!
Fun fact: the movie makes two cameos; neither of which are creator Stan Lee who normal appears in all movies based off his comics. One of which is obvious and I absolutely loved but will not spoil. The second is while Mystique is lying in bed for Magneto. Magneto tells her that she is too young so she changes her appearance to that of her older self played by Rebecca Romijn, who appeared as Mystique in the original trilogy.
Jessica Alba… who would've thought you'd take a lead role in a movie like this!
I loved the first and second Spy Kids movies. I hated the third one… mostly because the gorgeous Alexa Vega only had a small part and because the movie was made for 3D with their stupid, unnecessary 3D tricks.
This doesn't look terrible. I feel like their trying to hook on a new generation and I'm sure it'll work. I'm really glad to see Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara reprise their roles.
Will I see it in theaters? Probably not. Will I rent it? Most likely. I'm a child at heart.
Check out the video above from ABC's Primetime: What Would You Do?
To be completely honest, I'm surprised at how supportive the other guests were given that they in the middle of red state Texas. Minus the douchebag who high-fived the waitress, but then lied and said he high-fived her about good food or something. If you're so against it, then don't take it back and lie about it when you're out-numbered and have the production crew blur out your face because you're embarrassed and don't want America to hate you. That shows that you're not proud of what you believe in.
What would I do?
After mentally getting over my fear of confrontation, I would say something. Knowing me, I would get all worked up and start letting the swears spew out of my mouth. If I didn't say something directly to her, I would most definitely search for a manager!
Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.
(out of four stars)
I have so much to say about this movie and I don't even know where to start or how to organize what I want to say so I'm sorry if my writing about this movie is a little bi-polar.
The movie was good. It had good action, a lot of Johnny, and the Pirates supernatural-mentality that we've all become accustom to.
Let's start with the story. Basically it picks up some time after Pirates 3. It is unclear how much longer, but long enough for Barbossa to become part of the Royal navy. And before you ask
there was absolutely no reference to Will and Elizabeth (Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley) in this movie.
Jack travels to London to find the person who has been impersonating him in order to find a crew searching for the Fountain of Youth. He finds Gibbs and rescues him before being brought in front of Uncle Vernon King George and finds out that Barbossa is working for King George and is in search of the Fountain of Youth. The King requires that the English find it before the Spanish. Jack escapes from the King and employment from Barbossa and finds the impersonator. It turns out to be a former love of Jack's, Angelica played by Penelope Crúz. She turns out to be the daughter of the evil pirate Blackbeard who is searching for the Fountain of Youth to prevent some dumb prophecy about being killed by a one-legged man. Oh, that reminds me, Barbossa now has one leg and lost the Black Pearl to Blackbeard who shrunk it with magic and put it in a bottle. How ironic.
Jack is now aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship which he controls telepathically with his sword, as a member of his crew. They're in search of a mermaid whose tears are required for the ritual that coincides with the Fountain of Youth. They manage to catch one and it falls in love with a rebellious member of Blackbeard's crew which creates a cute little side story. In the end, they all make it to the Fountain - Barbossa's English crew and the Spanish included - and a fight begins. Barbossa stabs Blackbeard, taking Blackbeard's sword, while Jack is preparing the chalices for the ritual. The plan originally is for Angelica to give her life for her father to survive, since the ritual requires a sacrificed life. Jack tricks them into drinking the wrong chalices killing Blackbeard while Angelica survives. The End. Oh and then Jack abandons Angelica on the island that he was left on by Barbossa.
So like I said, the movie had great action scenes, but that was most of the movie. Many of the scenes were unnecessarily long on top of being unnecessary. Sadly there was no action scene as epic as the Kraken in Pirates 2 or the Maelstrom in Pirates 3. I found the action similar to that of the first one, so it wasn't terrible. The fight at the King's Palace killed me though; how he found while trying to get a hold of the pastry. Kind of lame and pointless.
I am not a fan of Penelope Crúz so even before the movie was released, I was worried. She didn't really do anything for me. AND it really didn't help that she was pregnant. We hardly ever saw her body and when we did, it was a stand-in played by her sister. So a lot of the movie was close-ups of actors meaning above the stomach which is very unlike Pirates movies.
I didn't like that Barbossa's leg was cut off and I hate that the trailers for the movie steered us wrong. They cut the trailer together to make us think that Blackbeard was the one-legged pirate. Now, if Barbossa's character returns for future films, he'll always have one leg which I don't care for.
I loved the missionary, Phillip, but I'm disappointed he didn't have a larger part. I also loved the little love side-story that was going on between him and the mermaid. I wish they had embellished that a little more. They also didn't really give them an ending.
I was disappointed that the Black Pearl wasn't a huge part of the movie. And why the hell was it in a bottle? And why the hell did this movie have zombies?! I'm sorry I'm being so picky. I just had very high expectations for this movie and I tried going in unbiased and open-minded. I'm sorry if the negatives are outweighing the positives.
I also really had a problem with Richard Griffiths being in this movie. If you don't know he plays Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter series and I just thought it was bizarre to take a iconic character from one series and stick him into another movie filled with iconic characters. For some reason I found it weird and didn't much care for it.
As a stand alone movie, I thought that On Stranger Tides was pretty good. If I were compare it to the other Pirates movies, I would say that if the original trilogy were the American Pie trilogy, then On Stranger Tides would be the Naked Mile or Band Camp. Why? Because something felt… off. It didn't feel like a regular Pirates movie; it was missing something and I haven't yet decided what that something is.
How would I have made this movie differently? Made it longer, included the Black Pearl, no zombies, no behind-the-scenes pregnant leading lady, larger love story, and no cheesy 3D shots. That's just a start too. I could be way more pickier.
So yes, On Stranger Tides, is a good movie although you think I'm lying based on my pickiness. It had its flaws, but it was still very entertaining. Could you wait for it on DVD? I suppose. If you do see it in theaters, don't see it in 3D. I didn't, but I can imagine it would be hard to tell what's going on. Besides 3D sucks. :) Do I want to see more Pirates movies? Yes, I do. I can't live without them at this point and now I know to be more open-minded. They could also do a better part on their end though. ;)
I do recommend seeing it however, but just enjoy it and take it as it is.
The past couple of days, I've been watching my seasons of Boy Meets World; one of my all-time favorite TV shows. It brought back so many memories from my childhood. I used to watch this on TGIF and when it was on Disney Channel all the time. I really miss those days.
What's funny is that I was watching season four one night and I watched 17 episodes in row and I cried seven times during that marathon. So many happy memories. I wish this show continued… :'(
Mark your calendars! James Cameron's 3D-re-release of his groundbreaking, Oscar-winning film Titanic will be on April 6th, 2012 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. Yes, technically, the ship sank early in the morning on April 15th, but I'll deal.
Why am I so excited! This is my all-time favorite movie and I have never had the privilege of seeing it in the theaters. I was 8 at the time of its original release. I'm not so much excited for the 3D since I hate 3D, but it's James Cameron and he can do no wrong!
Check out the above video which is an extended promo of ABC's newest and highly anticipated series, Charlie's Angels!
It looks good, right? I'm hoping that it survives its first season. The first and second seasons of a series is crucial to its survival.
If you didn't notice Drew Barrymore is producing it. So it has a lot of potential. Drew Barrymore also produced the 2 movies. What would you choose? A third movie or a television series? Personally, I'm all for the third movie. I've actually been praying to the movie god for one, but I guess a television series will temporarily fill that empty angel-less hole in my heart.
Remember Samantha Mumba? I loved her songs "Gotta Tell You" and "Baby, Come On Over."
She was supposed to have a new album out by 2010, but it never came and she announced that she's retired her music career to focus on her acting career. Interesting… I haven't seen her in anything worth watching… Hmm…
We all thought it could happen and sadly it has. Last week, ABC pulled the plug on Brothers & Sisters after just finishing its fifth season.
I've been hooked on the show since the middle of the second season so am I upset about this cancellation? Yes. I'm borderline weeping. But was I one of those viewers that saw that the end was near? That would also be a yes.
So why did they actually end it?
Several things. Budget cuts is probably the biggest reason. Budget cuts led to Emily Van Camp's (Rebecca) random departure at the very beginning of season five and Patricia Wettig's (Holly) unnecessary departure a couple of episodes later. Budget cuts and storyline issues also led to the demotion of Balthazar Getty from main cast to minor recurring character beginning in season 4. What was stupid was that his character, Tommy, was one of the 5 children in the family and the show is called Brothers & Sisters.
Another reason, in my opinion, was season five's uninteresting storylines that only seemed to last a span of four episodes. Season one dealt with William's death, his mistress, and her daughter, and Ojai problems; season two had Justin's addiction problems, Kitty and Roberts's wedding, Sarah's divorce, Tommy's affair, and Ojai problems; season three featured Justin and Rebecca's relationship, Ryan, Kitty and Robert trying to have/adopt a baby, Kevin and Scotty's wedding, and Tommy trying to take back the company from Holly aka Ojai problems; and finally season four had Ryan causing trouble, Sarah landing herself a French guy, Kitty getting cancer, Kevin and Scotty trying to have a baby, Justin in medical school, Rebecca being pregnant, and - you guessed it - Ojai problems.
What did season five have? Hmm… well Nora opened the season with getting a job at a radio station but that lasted for like 5 episodes, then they stopped talking about it. Robert died and Kitty was sad for a while. Sarah and Luc's wedding storyline lasted like 2 episodes. Scotty had an affair in one episode, then, apparently, everybody forgot about it. Kevin and Scotty adopt Olivia who I didn't particularly care for. Holly lost her memory, which you'd think could last a while to try and get her memory back, but no, she left. Robert died so Kitty became alone, but then found some (who I actually really liked). Saul is HIV positive, then lands himself a boyfriend who looks like a pedophile (and is the same guy who gave him HIV). Turns out Michelle actually did have Kevin and Scotty's baby after telling them that she miscarried. That lasted like 2 episodes. Justin goes through like 3 girlfriends but they only last like 2 episodes. Then, spoiler alert, for 5 or so episodes, we question whether Sarah is actually William's child. Turns out, she's not. Major blow to fans. Then in the seriesseason series finale, Kitty becomes pregnant.
To be completely honest, it wasn't a very drama-filled for me. There were high hopes though, particularly with Kevin and Scotty's baby, Scotty's affair, and Sarah's paternity. But I feel like they went about them all wrong.
I think what ruined the season the most for me was that Calista Flockhart aka Kitty aka my favorite character decreased her screen time at her request before the season's production even began. It was partially because Rob Lowe thought he was funny and wanted to be on Parks & Recreation (which I don't think he's a comedic actor whatsoever) so he left which gave Calista the opportunity to decreased her screen time since her storyline was a blank slate. Basically, this season was about 2 brothers and a sister since Tommy was gone. Kitty kept "going to D.C." and then when they write her in, they made stupid excuses for her. I guess I'm gonna have to watch Ally McBeal to get my Calista fix.
When season five started, I honestly knew the end was near. With Tommy, Holly, Julia, and Rebecca gone, there wasn't much for them to work with. But every series has bad seasons. *cough* This season of Family Guy *cough*. I hoped that since the show was still getting a decent amount of viewers, ABC would pick it up for one last season so they could end it properly and respectfully. No. The now-final episode could be interpreted as a series finale to someone who watches the show un-religiously. It ended on a positive note and Nora gave one of her season-finale-family-bonding speeches, but the show didn't tie up loose ends which is why I hoped for one last season. Naturally, my favorite character Kitty announces that she's pregnant with my favorite of her boyfriends Seth's child that he doesn't want and then they pull the plug. There was also Saul and Jonathan's wedding to look forward too…not really, for me though. I'm also disappointed that Sally Field's character Nora never got re-married. Yes, they ended the season with her and Beau Bridges happily together with their daughter Sarah's approval, but it was never final.
Now we need a new ABC drama that is family-friendly, gay-friendly, and busting at the seams with drama. That'll take a while. And I'm picky.
Brothers & Sisters had a great run. It was a great show that was drama-filled with sex, divorce, death, cheating, politics, family, and, of course, wine. I'm extremely disappointed to see it go and I wish it had a proper send-off. I will miss it dearly and will look back on it fondly.
