There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
I do not know exactly where they find the time, but color me excited for a collaboration album between The Roots and John Legend. Hopefully Legend carved out a week to join The Roots on Late Night to perform a bunch of the songs.
Expletive lyrics have not been this catchy since Closer by Nine Inch Nails. Thank you Cee-Lo for raising my chances of getting mouth washed out with soap in the near future.
Hurmph. I actually thought something was actually going to happen, but it was all build up and no payoff from Delta Spirit. At least the song is pretty decent.
Song of the Week: Hooked On a Feeling - Blue Swede (as sung by David Hasselhoff, The Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff)
Big News of the Week: It’s Allergy Season: There are very things I hate more than allergy season. I just want to stay in bed until the first frost.
Leverage: Two themes are emerging from this season; the plot either revolves around daddy issues or a ripped from the headlines stories. This week was the latter but I assume due to budgeting, I assume they moved an off shore drilling explosion into a mine because the explosion was already pretty lame. Too bad there isn’t a real Leverage team to get payback on BP for raping the environment. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.
Rescue Me: I never thought Needles had that in him. But I wonder if there will be repercussions from above like the other captain makes it sound like (my guess is yes). And Tommy just cannot be content, I never thought the Sheila moratorium would last, but I thought it would go past one hour. And Janet should deserve some blame as she should have realized that the “goodbye” wouldn’t go well. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Rescue Me on iTunes.
Covert Affairs: Another Joe McCoy red herring. When he popped up earlier this season on The Closer I would have bet he was the killer of the week, but alas he wasn’t. Then this week I would have bet he was going to turn out to be the leak, but of course he just turned out to be another horny Congressman (and I assume a Democratic one because most Republican sex scandals involve dudes). You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Covert Affairs on iTunes.
Video of the Week: Not once, but twice, I saw a trailer this week and though “this reminds me of Showgirls.” Maybe not the best sign of things to come at the local multiplex. First, and most obvious Showgirls rip of is Burlesque which features Christina Aguilera’s acting debut and Kristen Bell. Looking at the tailer, it looks like we will finally get the answer to what Showgirls would look like would if it were written by a gay dude.
And the next one is a little bit of a stretch, but I guess it is the whole dancer gets replaced plot, but I get strong Showgirls vibe from Black Swan, the thriller from the dude who have us The Wrestler and stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Of course this movie would be from the Gina Gershon perspective. And what the frack is with that last scene in the trailer?
Next Week Pick of the Week: Memphis Beat, Tuesday at 10:00 on TNT: Memphis Beat never quite win me over, and it didn’t help being on at the same time as Rescue Me and Covert Affairs, but maybe I will catch up now that the season is ending this week.
Last week’s Comic Con got me thinking of which movies I am most looking forward to and so I came up with this list. I did limit the list to movies with a release date within the next year (sorry Avengers, though it may not have made the list anyway because I have been more of a DC Comics guy, which begs the question, whatever happened to the Justice League movie). Here are the top ten I am most looking forward to (note release dates are subject to change).
10. Everything You’ve Got (December 17): I really do not know anything about this movie other than it reteams Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd. It’s only been twelve years since Overnight Delivery (everyone remembers that movie right?).
9. Green Hornet (January 14): Seth Rogan really would not be my first choice for any superhero, but let’s face it, Kato was always the star of the show anyway. And Michel Gondry (all the great White Stripes videos) directs.
8. Machete (September 3): The first two Grindhouse movies were cheesy, low-budget fun so expect much of the same from this one.
7. Let Me In (October 1): This isn’t you younger sister’s lame vampire flick. I have yet seem the Swedish movie this is based on due to my dislike of reading (though Let the Right One In is a much cooler title), but the critics raved about it and this version stars Hit Girl as the fanged one that requests the title phrase.
6. Easy A (September 17): Let’s go ahead and file this one under guilty pleasure already.
5. It’s Kind of a Funny Story (September 24): For those that jumped on the Zach Galifinakas bandwagon after The Hangover might be disappointed by this film (if so, wait for Due Date), but being a fan dating back to his VH1 show, I am much more excited about this that an overhyped blockbuster. Though Emma Robert’s hair looks way too good to be a mental patient (but not as egregious as Mila Kunis in The Book of Eli whose hair looked immaculate despite the lack of conditioner for most of her life).
4. Thor (May 6): As previously mentioned I do not care too much with the Marvel lineup of comic book heroes, but I was a fan of Adventures in Babysitters and the little girl (whatever happened to her?) was obsessed with Thor. Plus Natalie Portman returns to nerdom for the first time since Star Wars ended.
3. You Again (September 24): Sign me up for anything Kristen Bell does, no matter how cheesy it looks. And as an added bonus, Betty White, Kristin Chenowith and Victor Garber also star.
Sucker Punch (March 25): Hot chicks with guns in a mental hospital during the fifties? How exactly is this not number one? Oh yeah…
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (August 13): Every once in a very rare while does something come out that you feel was written specifically for you. For me that has only happened twice: High Fidelity and Wonderfalls. From the look of the trailers, this movie may be the third.
Watched When in Rome over the weekend, I wasn’t expecting Citizen Kane or even Hot Tub Time Machine (which I also caught, more on that after the video, small spoiler warning if you have not seen it) but I figured that a movie starring Veronica Mars, Gob Bluth, Sonny Crockett, The Penguin, The Piemaker, and Ghostface Killah at the very least has to be watchable. But not so much despite a few funny gags. But in the movie there is a song by Matt Hires that keeps popping up on my iPod every once in awhile and I thought I’d share it.
Back to Hot Tub Time Machine, what is with all the revisionist Cleveland sports history going on lately? First Nike created the biggest did I see what I think I just saw moment possibly ever (or at least in the history of advertising) when they had Michael Jordan missing The Shot. Then in Hot Tub Time Machine, a squirrel keeps John Elway from completing The Drive. What’s next, is there going to be a Lost deleted in the upcoming DVD release where in flashsideways world we learn Jose Mesa actually earned the save in game seven of the 1997 World Series?
Big News of the Week: NBC Already Picks Up Four Shows: We are two weeks away from networks officially announcing their schedules but for the second year in a row, NBC has jumped the gun, last year they had an “in front” and earlier this week they greenlit four programs. First came word of Undercovers early pick up. The show is from J.J. Abrams which I am going to pass on because I am tired of all his high concept, low reward projects.
Later in the week NBC also picked The Event is “is an emotional high-octane conspiracy thriller” starring Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia), who hopefully shaved unnecessary facial hair he was sporting on Parenthood, the moderately attractive Sarah Roamer (Disturbia), Blair Underwood (Set it Off) as the president, and Laura Innes (the doctor with the limp on ER) as “the leader of a mysterious group of detainees.” The characters and “Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.” If NBC brings back Heroes, they can have this and Undercover as a night of high concept low rewards.
Outsourced is about an American transferred to India and hilarity ensures. I don’t think anyone in the cast was in Slumdog Millionaire so no one will recognize anyone in the cast except The Drew Carey Show’s Diedrich Bader. The third is Love Bites which thankfully not another lame vampire show but a romantic comedy anthology starring Becki Newton (Ugly Betty), who made my list of the Hottest Hot Chicks of the 00’s and Jordana Spiro (My Boys) who didn’t.
Can’t say I am exited excited about any of these though I may change my mind when I actually see some sort of promo that will presumably come during the upfronts.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Free Download of the Week: Merge Records 2010 Digital Sampler (Amazon MP3): This includes songs from Spoon, She and Him, and twelve others.
Video of the Week: For those that cannot get enough Betty White this weekend between her hosting gig on SNL and the WE Golden Girls marathon will want to check out the trailer for You Again, also starring Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garbor, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and that hot chick from the Weezer video.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor, Thursday and Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: We have hit the home stretch with the final six that have out witted, out smarted and out lasted the likes of Boston Rob, Amanda Kimmel (who was voted off for the first time in three tries) and two previous winners, Tom Weston and J.T. Thomas. Can Parvati Shallow or Sandra Diaz-Twine manage a repeat win? Will remaining Heros Rupert or Colby, who even checked out of the game even before the merge, pull out a win? Can Russell weasel his way into the final tribal just to lose to a lesser player like Jerri because he is the dumbest player in Survivor history? Will The Dragons play the reunion show? If you do not know who The Dragons are, you much watch their music video.