With the holiday in the middle of the week preempting Rescue Me and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ending last week there really isn’t that much to talk about this week. I guess that is a good think because I just looked at yesterday’s Live Blogging: Live Earth and it looks like I wrote a thesis paper so short today is a good thing. So here are the little thought I have of the past week of television:
Quote of the Week: “Somebody’s gonna get humped.” (Dave Holmes when it was mentioned Akon was about to perform on Live Earth)
Song of the Week: Mercy, Mercy Me (as performed by John Legend and Corrine Bailey Ray as well as Alicia Keys)
Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno III: - This may have been the most boring season yet and there really isn’t much more to say about that except it may be time to bring back Coral. You can download the whole season on iTunes.
Pirate Master: Just mutiny already. It was hinted at it again this week yet not one vote for mutiny. What was really annoying was how Louis said he would never vote for a lady but was torn because he needs Joe Don to give him any chance of winning yet never thought about voting for the creepy deadlock dude.
Promo of the Week: There a few good short films aired throughout Live Earth and below is my favorite, particularly the dating segment.
And in case you were wondering that is Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap), Rip Torn (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) and Lucy Davis (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) under the bear suits:
Pick of the Week: Greek, Monday 9:00, ABCFamily: I have already seen this (and you can too as it is free to download the Pilot on iTunes) and it is actually pretty decent although the second half lags a little aside from the scene where Spencer Grammar (who is surprisingly hot considering Kelsey is her dad) plays pool in a tank top. I should have my full first impression up tomorrow but if you decide to check it out before then, keep yourself even more entertained by trying to count the number of Veronica Mars references.
After years of just having random hot chicks host, we finally have an actual comedian host the MTV Movie Awards. But as soon as the get something right, they do something as equally wrong to cancel out the goodness, namely replacing professionally done movie spoofs with amateur ones which after seeing the final three, was a huge mistake. You know the spoofs were really bad when the best actually spoofed United 93. You know, the movie that documented the flight that went down in Pennsylvania on September 11th. But the show wasn’t all bad; here are some more thoughts on the festivities:
- We get are very first commercial free pre show and it is pretty clear the Transformers was the one that picked up the tab. I would say a good twenty minutes of the half hour was devoted to the movie. And even though I was a huge Transformers in my youth, there is no way you can get me to see a live action movie version. I have leaned my lesson from the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.
- One of the few non Transformers interviews was with Mandy Moore and the dude from The Office (I choose not to type his name not because I can’t spell it but because, well actually, that pretty much sums it up) who hilariously pull out the sarcasm when it is mentioned that Paris Hilton arrive.
- That may have been the worst opening in the awards history. Obviously someone was smoking something when they wrote that.
- At least that was saved but the monologue when Sarah Silverman has even more fun at Paris Hilton’s expense. Is it wrong that my biggest laughs of the night were when people started cheering when Silverman mentioned Hilton’s impending jail team and the subsequence look on her face when Hilton realize everyone hates her.
- We are live for the first time tonight and it seemed there were a lot more cursing then usually even if you take away Silverman’s closing song.
- The cast of Fantastic Four is out first to present. Pretty much every presenting team was a cast of a movie (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Live Free or Die Trying, License to Wed, Transformers, Hairspray). It’s like MTV doesn’t even try not to hind they are a complete industry shill. I guess they don’t have to when people like me come back every year. Not surprisingly they handed out the award for best villain to Jack Nicholson because he was prominently shown during the monologue and Jack isn’t showing up if he didn’t win. And since there were no gratuitous shots of him after the award, I bet he walked right out of the auditorium after picking up his award.
- Seriously, the Mac guy is going to be in the next Die Hard movie? Did Bruce Willis just okay this to get iPods for his family? And did he get the Windows guy a cameo?
- They really needed to black out more than they did in the Borat fight scene.
- Apropos that Dane Cook introduced all of the laughless amateur spoof. Almost as unfunny as the spoofs and Cook were those Human Giant spots. Now I know to never watch that show.
- In the rare non-cast presenting team, they took the time machine back to 1997 to team up Posh Spice and Chris Tucker.
- Is Umbrella really the number one song in the country? The live rock version is was a little better than the album version. Although Rihanna must really be talented if she can sing if we can hear her without her lips movie like at the ends of the performance.
- At least we got one good spoof with Silverman trying to find a presenter. Unfortunately it ended with another poor idea, having a random webcam user present an award.
- Why have an Orbitz Dirty Mouth if they don’t even show the winner let along the nominees. Oh yeah, it was just for a blatant cooperate sponsorship.
- They are resurrecting the Unplugged series for Bon Jovi? Or are they reshowing one from twenty years ago?
- It was nice that MTV made fun of all the annoying people who quote Borat ad nausea with the Boratititus segment. Yes random frat boy, I’m talking to you, stop it, it is not funny when you do it.
- When I heard Mike Myers was going to win the Generations Awards I was excited thinking they were going back to their roots like the great Lifetime Achievement Awards. That was until I realized they were awarding it to Austin Powers not the unkillable homicidal maniac. What was really sad was Myers pulled out an old Wayne’s World joke with the whole sell out part of his acceptance speech.
- As much as I like Amy Winehouse, her performance was a little disappointing as it was the same as her Letterman performance and every other show of the like. They could at least show pictures of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, et al, behind her. In fact, they just released a remix of the show with Jay-Z, he was already there, he could have jumped on stage.
- I would personally like to thank whoever decided to turn Amanda Bynes into a stripper. She didn’t quite pull it off entirely, but it still worked for me.
- It was nice to see a movie that was universally panned by critics and viewers alike, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest actually took home the Best Movie award. And it is not a good sign when your live awards show actually ends two minutes early. No wonder we rarely saw the morbidly obese dude with the freakish bellybutton.
For the extended weekend I spent the whole time waterproofing my deck. Well actually I spent the whole weekend powerwashing the deck to get it in condition to waterproof it which I finally got it clean enough to do today. On a side note, I’m not entirely sure what I hate more in this world powerwashing wood or stripping wallpaper. But anyways. Since I just got done minutes ago and don’t have the time or really the will power to write anything new, I thought I’d clean out my inbox of a few press releases that have piled up but never really had a time to post. Hopefully some you find them useful:
I missed Kyle XY last year when it first aired mostly because one look at the dude with no belly button totally freaked me out. For those that didn’t find that creepy and enjoyed the first season I’m happy to tell you that the new season starts June 11th on ABCFamily. For those who missed the season, I may or may not be able to help you out with that in the near future. And if you are thinking about jumping in for the second season, here is a synopsis:
More questions arise and the risk of danger escalates in the second season of the hit ABC Family original series Kyle XY. Kyle begins to learn the truth about his past, but under the strict training of Tom Foss, he must also learn the full scope of his abilities. And all of this must be kept secret -- even from the Tragers, who just want to help him return to the life of a normal teenager. Kyle must learn to live with his double life and the unknown dangers that lurk outside the family’s walls. The peril only increases when the girl in the pod is set free and is on the hunt for Kyle. But can Kyle keep the threats away or will they come straight through the Trager’s front door? Kyle XY stars Matt Dallas, Marguerite MacIntyre, Bruce Thomas, April Matson, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Chris Olivero, Kirsten Prout and Jaimie Alexander.
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I have long since left the target MTV demografic, though I still catch the latest Real World/Road Rules Challenge, so I doubt that Vmtv is something I use. But if you still catch all there shows, this may be for you:
Vmtv is a virtual MTV world where users can create an avatar, meet new people, shop and try on new clothes, chill at the beach, club hop and hit the dance floor. Buy a virtual car and pimp it out, hit the road or the track to show off their racing skills. Become a fashion designer, make and sell their own clothing and enter the fashion challenges!
Hang out with celebrities such as the cast of Pimp My Ride, The Hills, Laguna Beach, and musical guest like Korn, Linkin Park, MIMS, Mario and more to be announced! Fans can experience Spankin New Music Week with new music, special guests and smokin' hot events all in Virtual MTV!
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One thing I have been meaning to check out for a while but it was sent to me right around the time I had finals and I may check it out later now that I ran across the e-mail again is MixSherpa.com. According to the e-mail it is a Sprint sponsored website where you can create personalized music playlists and receive commentary on your lists from the voices of MixSherpa.com, Ian Westbury and DJSupahboy5. Once you create your playlist, Ian and DJ will recommend a song to compliment your playlist choice. I should really check this one out because they offered me free stuff (although I’m not entirely sure if it for me or to give away).
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Speaking of free stuff, I was going to wait to talk about it until I actually got it, but I should be receiving a copy of That Thing You Do! Director’s Cut soon to review and here is a lengthy press release:
FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRATES THE WORK OF ONE OF HOLLYWOOD’S “BIG”GEST STARS
Two All New Two-Disc Editions Of Big and That Thing You Do Available May 8, 2007 Nearly Twenty Five Minutes Longer, Big Extended Edition Features A Huge Selection Of Bonus Materials Including Eight Deleted Scenes
That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks’ Extended Cut Includes An Additional Thirty Nine Minutes Of Footage With A Myriad Of Bonus Features
CENTURY CITY, Calif. – You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll sing! Fox Home Entertainment presents a collection showcasing the work of one of the silver screen’s most accomplished actors. With his outstanding performances and ability to charm audiences by playing the lovable everyman, two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, 1993; Forrest Gump, 1994) has become one of cinema’s most recognizable and critically acclaimed actors. Now, Fox Home Entertainment brings all-new, two-disc editions of two of his brilliant accomplishments to DVD on May 8, 2007 – Big Extended Edition and That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks’ Extended Cut. Each film is available individually for the suggested retail price of $19.98 U.S. / $25.98 Canada.
One of the most beloved comedy gems of the past 20 years, Big garnered Hanks his first Academy Award nomination and was ranked number 15 on Premiere magazine’s list of “100 Greatest Performances of All Time” for his portrayal of Josh Baskin, a boy who wishes to be “big” and virtually transforms into a childish middle-aged adult overnight. The Big Extended Edition is 25 minutes longer than the original film, includes never-before-seen deleted scenes with optional introductions from director Penny Marshall, two behind-the-scenes featurettes and much more.
Hanks steps behind the camera for That Thing You Do, his feature film directorial debut about the brief success of a fictional rock band in the 1960s. Also written by Hanks, the That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks’ Extended Cut is thirty nine minutes longer and comes loaded with special features including commentary by cast members, several all new featurettes, an HBO “Making Of” documentary and the music video for Josh Clayton’s “Feel Alright.”
DVD Features: Each title in The Tom Hanks Promotion is available in Widescreen and is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
Special features include: Big Extended Edition: • Extended cut of Big feature film with an additional twenty five minutes of footage • Big Brainstorming – Audio documentary by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg using archival audio material of the original creation of the script • Eight deleted and extended scenes with optional introductions by director Penny Marshall • “Backstory: Big” featurette • “Carnival Party Newswrap” vignette • “Big Beginnings” featurette • “Chemistry of a Classic” documentary • “The Work of Play” featurete • TV spots and theatrical trailers That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks’ Extended Cut: • Extended cut of That Thing You Do feature film with thirty nine minutes of additional footage • “Making That Thing You Do” featurette • The Story Of The Wonders” featurette • That Thing You Do Reunion • “The Wonders – Big in Japan” featurette • “The Making of That Thing You Do” – HBO first look • “That Thing You Do Title Song Submissions” • TV spots and theatrical trailers Synopses: Big Extended Edition: The classic story about a boy who grew up overnight is back in an all-new, all-grown up Director’s Cut DVD! Featuring a wish-list of never-before-seen special features including a audio commentary by director Penny Marshall, deleted scenes, five featurettes and more, this “hilarious” (Newsweek), “nimble comedy” (The Hollywood Reporter) has never been bigger! All twelve-year-old Josh Baskin wants is to be big. But when his wish is granted beyond his wildest dreams, Josh finds a new face in the mirror… his own, at age 30. Now, aided only by his boisterous best friend, he’ll have to keep the secret of his true age as he tries to fill his own oversized shoes. But as his innocent charms help him rise to the top of the adult world, Josh will face the biggest decision of his life – return to his own age, or remain big forever!
That Thing You Do: Tom Hanks’ Extended Cut: Tom Hanks writes, directs and co-stars in this refreshing, big-hearted comedy that captures the overnight triumph of an American rock band during the glory days of rock and roll. When a young appliance salesman agrees to fill-in for an injured drummer in a local talent show, four shooting stars Page 3 of 3 are born. Faster than you can say "That Thing You Do," a Play-Tone Records executive (Hanks) signs the group and catapults them to fame as their signature tune skyrockets to the top of the charts!
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Lastly, for those who won my Win a Copy of Neptune Noir Contest, I sent along your e-mails to the people who will handle the shipping this past weekend so you should be expecting that soon. If you didn’t win be sure to head over to the BenBella website to order a copy.
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?
Big News of the Week: May Sweeps in Full Swing: It’s is may and the networks are bringing out the big guns: Barney appears on The Price Is Right (How I Met Your Mother), the Heroes fast forward five years, Veronica Mars returns, My Name Is Earl has Smell-a-Vision (check the latest issue of TV Guide for your sniff card), Smallville goes noir, Tyra Collette returns to Supernatural, and next Sunday NBC gives us Saturday Night Live in the ‘90s: Pop Culture Nation. With all that, there will be only one Pick of the Week which you will have to wait until the end of this post.
One thing you won’t be seeing during May Sweeps is Drive which Fox pulled. I believe I called that before it ever aired. So you can add that show to The Lone Gunmen, Undeclared, Firefly, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Keen Eddie, Wonderfalls, The Jury, The Inside, Point Pleasant, Reunion. But anyways. And the 9th Green may even get into the sweeps fever with an upcoming contest. I haven’t gotten the prize(s) yet so I don’t want to jinx it by telling you what it is, but be sure to keep a look out for it. As a hint, even though the name may fool you, the prize has nothing to do with the dude who sang 3 AM. (Scooter's Note: If the deal falls through, I will disavow that the last sentence ever happened)
Heroes: Well that sucked massively. Yeah I knew from the moment the shard of glass entered Peter’s head he wasn’t actually going to be dead, but a fan of good acting can hope that he was actually killed of the show. Then the episode ended with a potential jump the shark moment when Hiro came face to face with Future Hiro. Anyone who has seen Back to the Future if you were to meet your future self it would rip a hole in the time/space continuum. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
RW/RR Challenge: The Inferno III: I probably laughed a little to long after Rachel lost to Jenn. Really, how can you lose three straight after being up 2-0? She was definitely right to leave in shame without saying goodbye to anyone. Check out the latest episode over at MTV.com or download at iTunes.
Lost: Yawn. Have Sun and Jin ever had an interesting flashback? But that’s not to say the episode was a complete wash with the return of Eyepatch dude. I theorized a couple weeks ago that Miss Cleo was a little to eager to commit suicide and that that they knew they would come back. Even as far back as season one I theorized that Boone, Ethan, and the Federal Marshall would be what was down in the hatch. But I backed off those theories realizing that then they couldn’t possibly bring everyone back. But there was Eyepatch dude and I really doubt he just so happened to have an eyepatch over the same eye.
The other big news was random chick from the skies’ reveal that the flight was already recovered with no survivors which brought back all the purgatory rumors. My theory is that whoever wanted the plane to crash in the first place staged a fake crash so no one would keep searching foe them. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Survivor: These have got to be some of the dumbest contestants in the history of Survivor. Which is a good thing because you never know what they are going to do leading to many unpredictable episodes this season. First you had the Alex/ Mookie braintrust who, upon finding Yau-Man’s immunity idol, come up with a plan to out Yau instead of just stealing it for themselves. That may have been the dumbest move ever.
Then you have the weakest alliance ever. Yau and Earl are tight. Then you have Cassandra who is loosly ties to the Earl/Yau tandem and to Dreamz. Then there is Stacy and Boo who are complete outsiders. It should be interesting next week to see if they stick together or someone aligns with Alex to gain control of the game. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
My Name Is Earl: Certainly there was going to be a drop off after the hilarious Norm MacDonald episode last week, but not by much. It was great to see Earl issue out his own brand of karma this week including inadvertently helping the teachers blow up a student’s care. And as grating as Randy sometimes gets, him pouring out some chocolate milk in memory of a fallen teacher was classic. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com or download at iTunes.
Next Week’s Pick: Veronica Mars, 9:00 Tuesday, The CW: The latest talentless female with a name no one knows has been added to a group that won’t be around in two to three years so that means it is time for the best show on television to finally comeback. If you have yet to check out the show, there is no better time than this week to give it a try (you can always download the whole season on iTunes). It has been eight weeks since Ronnie has solved the Dean’s murder and Parker and Logan looked like they were becoming more than friends. And we will get are first taste of a standalone episode of the show. All leading up to the season finale which some who have\ seen it are calling the best episode in the history of the show which is high praise considering the two previous five star season finales, as well as A Trip to the Dentist and Donut Run and this years gold standards, Spit and Eggs and Mars Bars. Naturally Vee and crew are also the Promo of the Week:
. You know, the movie that documented the flight that went down in Pennsylvania on September 11th. But the show wasn’t all bad; here are some more thoughts on the festivities:
