I am not Jewish but I have an uncle who is so I know the inferiority complex one may have celebrating Chanukah over Christmas. That all changed in 1996 when even the good Christian children around the world wanted to celebrate the eight crazy nights thanks to Adam Sandler who proceeded to run down a who’s who of Jew (and one famous non-Jew: O.J. Simpson) on The Chanukah Song part 1. And apparently there were so many Jews in showbiz he recorded two more versions on 1999’s Stan and Judy’s Kid and the soundtrack for his animated holiday movie Eight Crazy Nights to round out the trilogy. And fellow Jew Neil Diamond (who for some reason never got a shout out from Sandler in any of his three versions) even recently did his own version of the song which is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
Quote of the Week: What, like the first rule of Perv Club is no talking about Perv Club. (Ronnie - Mercy)
Song of the Week: Evil Woman – Electric Light Orchestra (as sung by Jeff, Community)
Big News of the Week: Hank and Eastwick: Dead and Dead: Not that I care. And neither of the show showed up the list of The Best New Shows of Fall 2009 that I released earlier this week. And some of the bloggers who took part in the survey posted their ballots. You can check them out on their sites:
Tool Academy: Much like last season, and pretty much any reality show that have eliminations, the finale just didn’t hold weight to the rest of the season. And I was surprised they didn’t offer up a wedding to the winners like they did last season. You can stream recent episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.
How I Met Your Mother: Finally the second most annoying coupling has come to an end (more on number one in a second). Barney is much better flying solo. If the show wants to get them back for the series finale, fine, but let’s keep Barney single until then. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.
The Big Bang Theory: I actually thought they might go two for two in breaking up couples that just don’t belong together with the friends crashing on Penny’s couch finally pushing that relationship over the edge. Hurph. You can download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Castle: My favorite moment of the easily was when the NYPD, busted down the door of an elderly woman on oxygen. Highest of high comedy there especially when her cats started crawling over the boys. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.
Sons of Anarchy: I wonder with Gemma telling Clay and Jax about her attack will actually bring the two together as they may ultimately disagree abou the plan of action for retaliation. And again, no update on Skinner or Tommy Two Fingers. Did they get out of the porn studio or not? It’s odd they lingered so long on Tommy Two Fingers and not give us a resolution or even a mention of if there were any bodies found. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.
Mercy: Second favorite moment of the month, when Erica Christensen stabbed her husband in the neck. It gave me Swimf@n flashbacks. They just do not make stalking swim team groupies like that anymore. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mercy on iTunes.
Survivor: Samoa: Exile Island was the greatest twist in Survivor history. The hidden immunity idol should have been but after getting played during its inaugural introduction, I think fake immunity idols have been played more often than real ones. That all changed this season, when there was finally someone smart enough to assume there was one and looks for it before any clues, a group of people smart enough to smoke it out, and someone actually using it to save himself. And from the previews it looks like there are people smart enough to tail Russell to see if he somehow goes three for three. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.
Community: How disappointing that we didn’t get to see a werewolf. And Annie really needs to let her hair down more often. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.
Free Download of the Week: Fly Me Away - Annie Little: Amazon is taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by using a quirky pop song to haulk their products and you may have heard the song playing in the background of the new Kindle ad.
Deal of the Week: Up to 40% Off Blu-ray Hits (The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coyote Ugly)
Video of the Week: Grown Ups is technically about a thirty year reunion of a basketball team, but let’s face it, it is really a twenty year reunion of Saturday Night Live cast members (with Kevin James subbing for Chris Farley). Let’s just hope that the movie just feel like an extended SNL skit.
Next Week Pick of the Week: The Prisoner, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday at 8:00 on AMC: Sunday and Tuesday should be pretty easy to catch this mini-series as there is nothing else on although an already log jammed Monday will be more complicated with the Browns on Monday Night Football. Luckily AMC will be airing encore presentations, just none announced yet. And of course if you are interested in checking out the original, I am giving The Prisoner away on DVD and Blu Ray.
Big News of the Week: I Got Nothing: You know it is a slow week when the most headlines go to the spat between Rush Limbaugh and the White House as they battle to see who can look dumber. I could talk about the World Baseball Classic starting, but like much of the world I just don’t care unless they figure out a way to incorporate fantasy leagues. Or that Jimmy Fallon started his tenure as Late Night host, but dude just isn’t entertaining. Or I can rant on how Daylight Saving should be abolished again (see Daylight Fading). At least it hit 60 this week so I didn’t need to stay inside and find something to occupy my time.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Coalition Links of the Week: Buzz had a blast moderating the Chuck panel at WonderCon in San Francisco — check out her recap of the proceedings! (BuzzSugar)
Vance has his dukes claws up and is ready to totally defend The Bachelor's Jason Mesnick for dumping that harpy Melissa and getting back with Molly. Maybe it's a guy thing (and sees nothing wrong with it), but Vance is totally ready to take this outside. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace took another look back at the New Romantics era by taking second look at BBC America's Ashes to Ashes. (Televisionary)
Dan may have misgivings about musical comedy as a genre -- but even he is excited about the idea of Victor Garber and Kristin Chenoweth on the new show Glee. (TiFaux)
Matt's hidden camera inside the bedroom of Jennifer Love Hewitt proves she isn't actually knocked up - so there must be a little Ghost Whisperer in Melinda Gordan's future. (TV Fanatic)
Special relationship or not, we Brits get to see Lost a week or so later than our cousins across the Pond. And so, better late than never, Ben tries to make sense of The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. (TV Spy)
Don't miss any of March Sweep's big TV events with our downloadable and printable March TV 2009 Calendar. (The TV Addict)
Free Download of the Week: Oscar Wilde – Company of Thieves; I mentioned this earlier this week when I highlighted the music video, so here is a reminder to pick up the song.
Video of the Week: It seems like every funny movie made in the last four years has Judd Apatow’s name on it but those or mostly producing titled and has only also had directing and writing credits for 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Number three is Funny People which actually looks to ironically be enough the least funny, if not by design (it is about a stand up comic who is dieing). But hey, it has Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan so it should be entertaining.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Castle, Monday at 10:00 on ABC: I am not entirely sure how to gage this show. It looks entertaining but the concept seems like it would have made for a better movie plot than an episodic television show. I guess the good thing about that is I doubt the show will be around for a second season.
For the first time in a decade Mike Myers hosts the MTV Movie Awards and may be the last time the show was throughly entertaining. Here are my thoughts on this years show:
- Of course one of the reason even MTV’s Award Shows are no longer that much entertaining is all the shameless plugs, two of which made it in the first segment of the pre-show with the brunette from The Hills and The American Mall. And do teenagers even go to the mall anymore?
- Second segment and two more shameless plugs with The Search for Elle Woods and Rock Band. Yawn. And The House Bunny looks not at all watchable.
- Should I know what Twilight is? Wasn’t that a Reese Witherspoon movie? Is this a remake?
- Really, an American Gladiators sighting?
- MTV really needs to cut ties with Paris Hilton. Actually I need to cut ties with MTV.
- Now onto the big show. The last time Myers hosted TV Guide called it one of the funniest things ever on television. I don’t think if they updated the list that the 2008 version will make the list.
- Rainn Wilson, that dude next to you doesn’t even vaguely look like the dude from No Country for Old Men, he looked like Fabio with a nose job in a bad wig that vaguely looked like the bad guy’s hair from that movie.
- Holy Wallace Fennel sighting... as a cheerleader? In a crappy gum commercial. Ugg. And I thought the Hot Pockets was low.
- Should I know the dude with Will Ferrell?
- Huh, Spider-Man 3 lost to a movie I never heard of in the Best Fight? Has anyone else heard of the movie?
- FN’MTV indeed. Exactly what want to do on Friday nights, stay home and watch music videos.
- Ah, a Chewbacca winning the Lifetime Achievent Award, they should really bring that back.
- The food chick: also won’t be included in the next list of funniest things ever on television.
- Sweet, Wayne's World, complete with Garth. Naturally when talking about Garth’s nether regions, a shot of Paris Hilton, and talk of Tila Tequila going both ways, a shot of Lindsay Lohan.
- Nice of Johnny Depp to show up from back stage, too good for the common people like Will Smith. Which begs the question how did he get nominated let alone win?
- Tom Cruise presenting a Generation Award to Adam Sandler? Sure, makes sense to me. But his package looked like a highlight reel of my DVD collection.
- The Tropic Thunder thing is how you shamelessly promote something.
- Wow, presenters that are not all from the same movie. And Diddy and Lindsay Lohan doing political comedy, did that really just happen?
- Seriously, From G’s to Gents? Why?
- Brendon Frasier has reached present by himself tier? Alrighty.
- I’m getting a sense that the Johnny Depp fan club found a way to stuff the ballot. Did anyone actually see that movie.
- After hearing their new song, I guessing the Pussycat Dolls era is coming to a close. At least the Coldplay performance was decent even with the French army gear on.
- Another award to a movie I never heard of until tonight in the Best Kiss category.
- - Wait, was Robert Downey Jr. cleanly shaven when he accepted that stupid award earlier? And Transformers wins Best Movie. I really need to stop watching this crap.
It has been over a decade since the last time Mike Myers hosted the MTV Movie Awards and if I am not mistaken; his Riverdance spoof was one of TV Guide’s top ten funniest things on television ever. Granted it has been about that long since Myers has been consistently funny (I have the second Austin Powers being that specific date). No music performance announced yet, but last year they boasted both Rihanna and Amy Winehouse. I have the rundown of the nominees below and who I voted for. Vote for yourself over at MTV.com.
Who Will Win: Transformers Who I Voted For: Superbad
I would scoff at the inclusion of the Pirates movie because I and everyone I know panned it, but I thought that about the second one, but it won last year. But I still think the nerds will come out in force for Transformers, which I didn’t see because I didn’t want my childhood destroyed again by Michael Bruckheimer.
Best Male Performance Will Smith - I Am Legend Shia LaBeouf - Transformers Denzel Washington - American Gangster Matt Damon - The Bourne Ultimatum Michael Cera - Juno
Who Will Win: Will Smith Who I Voted For: Michael Cera
My vote for Michael Cera was more because I wanted to vote for his Superbad role, but Juno will have to do.
Who Will Win: Javier Bardem Who I Voted For: Javier Bardem
How is Venom nominated but no Sandman? That may be the biggest snub of the year. Not that anyone could beat the creepy dude from No Country for Old Men.
Best Comedic Performance Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Adam Sandler - I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Jonah Hill - Superbad Seth Rogen - Knocked Up Amy Adams - Enchanted
Who Will Win: Seth Rogan Who I Voted For: Adam Sandler
This may come down to the Apatow guys with Rogan edging it out thanks to Hill’s sub par job on Saturday Night Live. Granted with my name, I am required to vote for Sandler.
Best Fight Matt Damon vs. Joey Ansah - The Bourne Ultimatum Tobey Maguire vs. James Franco - Spider-Man 3 Hayden Christensen vs. Jamie Bell - Jumper Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet - Never Back Down Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan vs. Sun Ming Ming - Rush Hour 3 Alien vs. Predator - Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem
Who Will Win: The Bourne Ultimatum Who I Voted For: Spiderman 3
In a measure of full discloser, the only fight here I saw was from Spiderman.
Who Will Win: Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey Who I Voted For: Ellen Page and Michael Cera
I think I say this every year, but they need to kill this category.
Breakthrough Performance Zac Efron - Hairspray Seth Rogen - Knocked Up Jonah Hill - Superbad Michael Cera - Superbad Chris Brown - This Christmas Nikki Blonsky - Hairspray Megan Fox - Transformers Christopher Mintz-Plasse - Superbad
Who Will Win: Christopher Mintz-Plasse Who I Voted For: Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Vote McLovin, if only for his PSA with Kristen Bell.
Best Summer Movie So Far Iron Man Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Sex and the City: The Movie Speed Racer The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Who Will Win: Iron Man Who I Voted For: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I guess this replaces last year’s lame Best Movie You Haven’t Seen, but the Studio’s are Paying Us Big Bucks to Promote Them. Of these, only one has actually been released so far, so this is still lame.
When you are given the nickname Scooter McGavin you are required to enjoy anything by Adam Sandler. Sandler has made this easy by making movies that are essentially the same where he plays some sort of buffoon who screams and breaks things while being, or being surrounded by, sophomoric morons. Even his much touted serious role in Punch-Drunk Love didn’t deviate that far from the formula.
On the other hand Reign Over Me was truly Sandler’s chance at a serious role where he plays a former dentist who has shut himself off from the world after his wife, three daughters and dog were on one of the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers. Yeah, the role did call for Sandler to scream a couple times, but instead the screaming came from a place of pain, not for comic effect of a raving buffoon.
But the movie really belongs to Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as Sandler’s college roommate who has since lost touch with him after graduation even after trying to get in touch with him after September 11th to give his condolences. That is until a chance encounter with Sandler who is now channeling Bob Dylan with unkept graying hair whose mood can change on a dime if he thinks you are even coming close to bringing up the event he has spent nearly five years to forget.
This comes at a point where Cheadle looks to be hitting his midlife crisis. He can’t talk to his wife, Jada Pickett Smith (The Nutty Professor), anymore, he routinely creates a “chance” encounter with a psychiatrist, Liv Tyler (Empire Records), in his building so he can ask her questions about a “friend,” and an off kiltered patient is making his job harder when she makes advantages toward him. Running into an old college roommate who doesn’t talk to anyone, rides around scooter everywhere with his earphones blaring, and spends his free time (which seems to be every minute of the day) either remodeling his kitchen or playing Shadow of the Colossus the most normal thing in his life all day.
Does Sandler shine in this serious role? For the most part. There is a scene at the end where Sandler goes into scream mode where I couldn’t help laughing even though I felt bad because of the seriousness of the scene. But there are two very strong monologues he does give in the film which are up there with Cheadle very strong performance.
You know that the MTV Movie Awards have become a complete skill for the movie industry if you check out the category they stuck in at the end Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet. Then the movie that garnished the most nominations, along with 300, was a movie that everyone panned, but who’s third installment in the series is also coming this summer. With that said, I’ll still be tuning in June 3rd mostly because for the first time in what seems like forever, an MTV awards show may actually have a host that may be funny in Sarah Silverman. Here are the nominations and you can always head over to MTV.com to cast your vote or Yahoo.com to vote for your favorite fan submitted spoofs:
Maybe it is a generational thing, but I have never understood the whole Borat phenomenon. Same with Will Ferrell, someone really needs to tell explain how they actually find them funny. But with that said, I have a feeling there will be a Borat sweep. Personally as a big fan of homoerotic history, 300 was the best movie here.
Who Will Win: Will Smith Who I Voted For: Gerard Butler
You can trace the point when the Movie Awards started to suck to when they started nominated the same actors that the academy awards did and here you have four actors nominated for the characters they have played. What ever happened to Most Desirable Female? But anyways. Even though he was great in the first, Depp seemed to be mailing it in with the second, so I go with Butler. But I got to wonder what was his gayer role, 300 or Phantom of the Opera.
Breakthrough Performance Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine Lena Headey, 300 Columbus Short, Stomp the Yard Jaden Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness Justin Timberlake, Alpha Dog
Who Will Win: Abigail Breslin Who I Voted For: Columbus Short
Justin Timberlake’s inclusion here begs the question how can you actually have a breakout performance in a movie no one saw? Not that it matter, Breslin will runaway with it because all the future stars of To Catch a Predator most likely liked her stripper routine a little to me. Since I’m against the exploitation of eight year olds, I went with Short not for Stop the Yard per say, but I loved his performance on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Best Comedic Performance Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Will Ferrell, Blades of Glory Adam Sandler, Click Ben Stiller, Night at the Museum
Who Will Win: Sacha Baron Cohen Who I Voted For: Adam Sandler
Well Click was the only movie on this list that I actually saw so that is the easy choice. For further reasons why I would vote for Sandler, take a look at the name of this blog.
Who Will Win: Tobin Bell Who I Voted For: Bill Nighy
If I’m not mistake, Bell won last year and that will most likely continue not just this year but next. Hopefully there may be some Saw fatigue so Nighy wins as he was the lone bright spot in an otherwise bland movie. Although if he does end up winning, the award should also go to the CGI people that created his tentacle beard.
Best Fight Jack Black & Héctor Jiménez vs. Los Duendes (Wrestling Match), Nacho Libre Gerard Butler vs. The Uber Immortal (The Spartan/Persian Battle), 300 Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian (Naked Wrestle Fight), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Will Ferrell vs. Jon Heder (Ice Rink Fight), Blades of Glory Uma Thurman vs. Anna Faris (Super Girl Fight), My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Who Will Win: Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian Who I Voted For: Gerard Butler vs. The Uber Immortal
Who would have though that Best Fight would be the gayest category ever? They might as while send these montages to the Secretary of Defense in hopes of overturning their Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet Evan Almighty (June 22) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 15) Hairspray (July 20) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13) Rush Hour 3 (August 10) Transformers (July 4)
Who Will Win: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Who I Voted For: Transformers
Yeah, this was pretty worthless. And where’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?
to round out the trilogy. And fellow Jew Neil Diamond (who for some reason never got a shout out from Sandler in any of his three versions) even recently did his own version of the song which is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
flashbacks. They just do not make stalking swim team groupies like that anymore. You can stream recent episodes on 
: Amazon is taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by using a quirky pop song to haulk their products and you may have heard the song playing in the background of the new Kindle ad.
(The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coyote Ugly)
movie? Is this a remake?
, he looked like Fabio with a nose job in a bad wig that vaguely looked like the bad guy’s hair from that movie.
lost to a movie I never heard of in the Best Fight? Has anyone else heard of the movie?
, complete with Garth. Naturally when talking about Garth’s nether regions, a shot of Paris Hilton, and talk of Tila Tequila going both ways, a shot of Lindsay Lohan.
wins Best Movie. I really need to stop watching this crap.
being that specific date). No music performance announced yet, but last year they boasted both 
didn’t deviate that far from the formula.
) as Sandler’s college roommate who has since lost touch with him after graduation even after trying to get in touch with him after September 11th to give his condolences. That is until a chance encounter with Sandler who is now channeling Bob Dylan with unkept graying hair whose mood can change on a dime if he thinks you are even coming close to bringing up the event he has spent nearly five years to forget.
), anymore, he routinely creates a “chance” encounter with a psychiatrist, Liv Tyler (
), in his building so he can ask her questions about a “friend,” and an off kiltered patient is making his job harder when she makes advantages toward him. Running into an old college roommate who doesn’t talk to anyone, rides around scooter everywhere with his earphones blaring, and spends his free time (which seems to be every minute of the day) either remodeling his kitchen or playing 
the most normal thing in his life all day.![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my 
