Now that the Oscars are putting 10 pictures up for Best Picture, Moviefone has a few predictions for who will be leading the field.
Visit http://www.moviefone.com/oscars-academy-awards/features/oscar-predictions for all the details. Do you agree? Let us know!
Monday, December 7, 2009
How'd It Get Burned This Week - Dec. 7, 2009
More good news piling in for Nic this week!
IO9 has your first official look at Nic in Jerry Bruckheimer's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Wow... I thought his hair was bad before.
While we're talking about Bruckheimer, IESB asked him point-blank - why do you work with Nic Cage? His answer - "I think Nicolas Cage is great because he's such a good actor and he's such a good guy. He's very creative. You always want a partner who makes you look better - and he makes me look good." Click the link for the full interview, which includes details about the future of the National Treasure franchise.
In "how is this real life" news, Waleg.com reports that the UN has named Nic Cage "Global Citizen of the Year." In addition to being a goodwill ambassador for the UN's Office on Drug and Crime, Nic was adopted by Angelina Jolie, another great citizen of the world.
And Entertainment Weekly continues the controversial analysis of Nic's hair by asking "Does it wear him?" Best prose ever: "To me, it’s no coincidence that Cage, after the triumph of Leaving Las Vegas, began to star in dumb-whore action films at the same moment that he first sported his sleekly flowing, industrial-strength “cool” hair." Click the link for the full fantastic hysterical article.
IO9 has your first official look at Nic in Jerry Bruckheimer's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Wow... I thought his hair was bad before.
While we're talking about Bruckheimer, IESB asked him point-blank - why do you work with Nic Cage? His answer - "I think Nicolas Cage is great because he's such a good actor and he's such a good guy. He's very creative. You always want a partner who makes you look better - and he makes me look good." Click the link for the full interview, which includes details about the future of the National Treasure franchise.
In "how is this real life" news, Waleg.com reports that the UN has named Nic Cage "Global Citizen of the Year." In addition to being a goodwill ambassador for the UN's Office on Drug and Crime, Nic was adopted by Angelina Jolie, another great citizen of the world.
And Entertainment Weekly continues the controversial analysis of Nic's hair by asking "Does it wear him?" Best prose ever: "To me, it’s no coincidence that Cage, after the triumph of Leaving Las Vegas, began to star in dumb-whore action films at the same moment that he first sported his sleekly flowing, industrial-strength “cool” hair." Click the link for the full fantastic hysterical article.
Weekend Watch - Dec. 11, 2009
This weekend, Disney makes money and Morgan Freeman phones in an Oscar performance.
The Princess and the Frog - Disney reworks "The Frog Princess" into a story about New Orleans. This is Disney's first African-American princess in their canon, and despite a few minorly offensive stereotypes in the trailer, Oprah Winfrey's on board. Look out, Twilight - Disney's gonna make a buttload of money this week.
Invictus - Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela. Can we just give them Oscars already?
The Lovely Bones - Peter Jackson directs the book adaptation about a girl in heaven looking down on the aftermath of a grisly murder - her own. Oscar contender, for sure.
And rumor has it that Me & Orson Welles, starring Zac Efron (swoon away, ladies), may be opening wide this week. Will we at Valpo be among the lucky? We'll see...
The Princess and the Frog - Disney reworks "The Frog Princess" into a story about New Orleans. This is Disney's first African-American princess in their canon, and despite a few minorly offensive stereotypes in the trailer, Oprah Winfrey's on board. Look out, Twilight - Disney's gonna make a buttload of money this week.
Invictus - Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela. Can we just give them Oscars already?
The Lovely Bones - Peter Jackson directs the book adaptation about a girl in heaven looking down on the aftermath of a grisly murder - her own. Oscar contender, for sure.
And rumor has it that Me & Orson Welles, starring Zac Efron (swoon away, ladies), may be opening wide this week. Will we at Valpo be among the lucky? We'll see...
Tops at the Box Office - Weekend of Dec. 4, 2009
- The Blind Side
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon
- Brothers (first weekend)
- A Christmas Carol
- Old Dogs
- Armored (first weekend)
- 2012
- Ninja Assassin
- Planet 51
- Everybody's Fine (first weekend)
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Heroes Headlines: Hope!
It's alliteration station over here at The Top Pop Stop - Heroes Spoilers (don't worry; no actual spoilers on the link) is reporting that Season Five might actually be happening, albeit without Nathan (no surprise after last week's episode) or Mohinder (is he even still on this show?).
Check out the link for the full story - it'll tide you over until Heroes returns in January!
Check out the link for the full story - it'll tide you over until Heroes returns in January!
Zach's Heroes Watch - "The Fifth Stage"
Previously on Heroes: Noah might be dating his old partner, Nylar – now Sylar – isn’t quite so dead, Claire and Gretchen go on the strangest road trip ever, while Samuel’s about to get all evil up in this show.
Lydia tells Samuel that she won’t spill the beans on him, and Samuel muses about hope and extinction. With Edgar gone, Samuel hires Eli the Multiple Man to be his right-hand man and take out Noah. Noah’s been trying to piece together all this business about Samuel and the compass, but he’s put on hold when Lauren drops by to pick him up for their movie night – which it turns out is actually a date. She’s intrigued by his bulletin board of super stuff, but Noah frets over the lost compass and tracks Claire with Lauren’s help. You can do that with Google Maps? Noah reveals that he’s been after the carnival for years, and Lauren gets to give the “Lying is how we live” speech that characters on this show give about every other episode.
Emotional moment: Noah bums us all out with a speech about how he’s driven everyone away, referencing the mindwipe flashback a few episodes ago. Lauren feels conflicted about this, and Multiple Man shows up. Noah uses every gun he’s ever hidden in the apartment, but Multiple Man disappears with the Primatech box of files. Noah’s pissed like Liam Neeson in Taken.
Claire and Gretchen have made their way to the carnival, the “freak show” Claire’s always felt she belonged to. Gretchen gets all cutesy about Claire being her guardian and tells Claire that she has to check out her options. Samuel’s pleased she’s visited, though, and tells her not to be scared, giving her free tickets. Samuel says he’s trying to find a more permanent way to live. He gives the girls some popcorn and tells them to explore the carnival and meet the family.
Lydia gets naked (which seems to be her superpower at this point), Gretchen gets excited, and Claire gets her fortune told – it’s all ambiguous and maybe she’s meant to be here. Claire thinks she might have a great time at the carnival as “the girl who gets sawed in half every night,” which might actually be a fun job. Somehow Samuel knows that the ladies are out of popcorn and invites them backstage for storytime with the kids. Gretchen voices concern about exploiting abilities, but Claire’s cool with it; she’s even cool with Doyle the Puppetman showing up and giving her a big hug.
After a little tiff with Overprotective Gretchen, Claire gets drafted for storytime and tells a sentimental “Once upon a time” about a frog who’s a thinly veiled version of herself. Samuel tells Gretchen that all his carnival wants to give Claire is love. Claire’s frog story ends “happily ever after,” and one of the carny kids gives Claire a hug; “they love you,” Samuel says, but when a disgruntled customer storms backstage and attacks Samuel, Claire steps in for the rescue. Samuel smiles maliciously, almost as if he planned all this.
Samuel says that life is about choices, telling Claire that he could have defended himself but didn’t want to harm the outside world. He tells her that “we can be more... we can be bigger” if they just band together and help each other, inviting her to stay for a few days and do some soul-searching. Claire tells Gretchen that she’s going to do just that; surprisingly, Gretchen understands the whole “being accepted” thing. Samuel promises Lydia he’s going to make things right, strangely suggesting that it’s not Claire he’s after. Meanwhile, the disgruntled customer is dead.
Angela visits Peter and tells him to get into the “acceptance” stage of grief. But Peter insists that Nathan’s not quite dead, and he borrows The Haitian’s power (I’m still not going to call him Rene) in order to “settle for revenge” with Sylar. Little does Peter know that Sylar’s in disguise, attacking him in the elevator and picking a fight in the basement of the hospital. Little does Sylar know that his powers don’t work right now. Actual fisticuffs ensue until Peter reaches for the nail gun, but Sylar just keeps laughing.
Peter tries erasing Sylar’s memories from the Nylar thing in front of him, and Nathan emerges, which makes the whole nail gun thing really awkward. Now-Nathan says he’s tired, and he doesn’t think he can handle Sylar much longer. Peter tells him he needs air and takes him to the roof, where they reminisce about Season One and about denial. Nathan says he can’t keep fighting Sylar and throws himself off the roof – the second time someone’s tried to kill Sylar by killing himself. Peter gets all weepy, but at the last second, Sylar gets up and walks away. Blast, it was all a trick!
Samuel gets the closing monologue – “How long can we live like this?” he asks, saying that they need to stop running and offer a home to people with abilities. At Joseph’s grave, Samuel says that he’s going to take up roots once he’s gathered the rest of the heroes. Is he so evil after all?
Verdict? I remember being a bit hesitant about the idea of the carnival, and I may have even called it a hokey plot device, but I’m glad that Heroes is proving me wrong (probably the only time I’ve ever said that about this show). I continue to be in love with Robert Knepper, who’s still keeping me guessing on Samuel. Part of that is to his credit, but part of the credit has to go to the writers; this is the mark of a good villain, that we keep empathizing with him and wanting him to do the right thing for the right reasons. My sole disappointment is that we only got a sneak peek at what Hiro’s up to; the “Beam me up, Scotty!” cliffhanger has left me guessing.
Lydia tells Samuel that she won’t spill the beans on him, and Samuel muses about hope and extinction. With Edgar gone, Samuel hires Eli the Multiple Man to be his right-hand man and take out Noah. Noah’s been trying to piece together all this business about Samuel and the compass, but he’s put on hold when Lauren drops by to pick him up for their movie night – which it turns out is actually a date. She’s intrigued by his bulletin board of super stuff, but Noah frets over the lost compass and tracks Claire with Lauren’s help. You can do that with Google Maps? Noah reveals that he’s been after the carnival for years, and Lauren gets to give the “Lying is how we live” speech that characters on this show give about every other episode.
Emotional moment: Noah bums us all out with a speech about how he’s driven everyone away, referencing the mindwipe flashback a few episodes ago. Lauren feels conflicted about this, and Multiple Man shows up. Noah uses every gun he’s ever hidden in the apartment, but Multiple Man disappears with the Primatech box of files. Noah’s pissed like Liam Neeson in Taken.
Claire and Gretchen have made their way to the carnival, the “freak show” Claire’s always felt she belonged to. Gretchen gets all cutesy about Claire being her guardian and tells Claire that she has to check out her options. Samuel’s pleased she’s visited, though, and tells her not to be scared, giving her free tickets. Samuel says he’s trying to find a more permanent way to live. He gives the girls some popcorn and tells them to explore the carnival and meet the family.
Lydia gets naked (which seems to be her superpower at this point), Gretchen gets excited, and Claire gets her fortune told – it’s all ambiguous and maybe she’s meant to be here. Claire thinks she might have a great time at the carnival as “the girl who gets sawed in half every night,” which might actually be a fun job. Somehow Samuel knows that the ladies are out of popcorn and invites them backstage for storytime with the kids. Gretchen voices concern about exploiting abilities, but Claire’s cool with it; she’s even cool with Doyle the Puppetman showing up and giving her a big hug.
After a little tiff with Overprotective Gretchen, Claire gets drafted for storytime and tells a sentimental “Once upon a time” about a frog who’s a thinly veiled version of herself. Samuel tells Gretchen that all his carnival wants to give Claire is love. Claire’s frog story ends “happily ever after,” and one of the carny kids gives Claire a hug; “they love you,” Samuel says, but when a disgruntled customer storms backstage and attacks Samuel, Claire steps in for the rescue. Samuel smiles maliciously, almost as if he planned all this.
Samuel says that life is about choices, telling Claire that he could have defended himself but didn’t want to harm the outside world. He tells her that “we can be more... we can be bigger” if they just band together and help each other, inviting her to stay for a few days and do some soul-searching. Claire tells Gretchen that she’s going to do just that; surprisingly, Gretchen understands the whole “being accepted” thing. Samuel promises Lydia he’s going to make things right, strangely suggesting that it’s not Claire he’s after. Meanwhile, the disgruntled customer is dead.
Angela visits Peter and tells him to get into the “acceptance” stage of grief. But Peter insists that Nathan’s not quite dead, and he borrows The Haitian’s power (I’m still not going to call him Rene) in order to “settle for revenge” with Sylar. Little does Peter know that Sylar’s in disguise, attacking him in the elevator and picking a fight in the basement of the hospital. Little does Sylar know that his powers don’t work right now. Actual fisticuffs ensue until Peter reaches for the nail gun, but Sylar just keeps laughing.
Peter tries erasing Sylar’s memories from the Nylar thing in front of him, and Nathan emerges, which makes the whole nail gun thing really awkward. Now-Nathan says he’s tired, and he doesn’t think he can handle Sylar much longer. Peter tells him he needs air and takes him to the roof, where they reminisce about Season One and about denial. Nathan says he can’t keep fighting Sylar and throws himself off the roof – the second time someone’s tried to kill Sylar by killing himself. Peter gets all weepy, but at the last second, Sylar gets up and walks away. Blast, it was all a trick!
Samuel gets the closing monologue – “How long can we live like this?” he asks, saying that they need to stop running and offer a home to people with abilities. At Joseph’s grave, Samuel says that he’s going to take up roots once he’s gathered the rest of the heroes. Is he so evil after all?
Verdict? I remember being a bit hesitant about the idea of the carnival, and I may have even called it a hokey plot device, but I’m glad that Heroes is proving me wrong (probably the only time I’ve ever said that about this show). I continue to be in love with Robert Knepper, who’s still keeping me guessing on Samuel. Part of that is to his credit, but part of the credit has to go to the writers; this is the mark of a good villain, that we keep empathizing with him and wanting him to do the right thing for the right reasons. My sole disappointment is that we only got a sneak peek at what Hiro’s up to; the “Beam me up, Scotty!” cliffhanger has left me guessing.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Zach's Gleecap - "Mattress"
With the 50th yearbook coming out and the Emma/Ken wedding a week away, Will realizes there’s a scheduling conflict with the wedding overlapping sectionals. Ken’s trying to slim down, Emma feels bad about missing sectionals, and Sue’s gone in for a little eyelift and tear-duct removal. She’s gone even more diabolical and gotten the glee club eliminated from the yearbook, maintaining her superiority complex and repeatedly doubting that the club can take sectionals.
With the threat of swirlies and “patriotic wedgies” looming over their heads, Kurt convinces the glee club that a yearbook entry would do more harm than good, but Will vows to fight for a photo in spite of The Principal’s insistence that he’s “doing them a solid.” Figgins compromises – for $1,000. Rachel’s cheery because she’s trying to get in as many yearbook photos as possible so as to better prepare for a life of being stalked by the paparazzi, but Quinn is upset that she’s losing her identity and decides to sneak into the Cheerios yearbook photo.
Will wants to buy out Figgins; his fake-pregnant wife disagrees, but Will goes ahead with it. Rachel invents a new club, the GayLesbAl (“Gay Lesbian Alliance”) in order to become the most involved student on campus; Kurt scoffs, and Rachel dreams of winning the vote for “Team Captain” to appear in the two-person photo. Rachel wins the vote singlehandedly, mostly because the kids don’t want to get vandalized. Will’s worried about this and about his fear that Ken scheduled the wedding over sectionals on purpose. But Emma says she’s in love with Ken, despite his “74 flaws as of yesterday.” Continuing Glee’s reign of hyperbole, new captain Rachel has 65 proposals and gets talked into recruiting a co-captain: Finn.
To get ready for the photo, Rachel serenades Finn with “Smile,” making me wonder who the piano player is and why he’s kind of creepy. The song gets a little too flirty, but when Finn finds out that he’s about to become the target of yearbook vandalization, he backs out and leaves Rachel on her own. It turns out to be serendipitous, because the cameraman is shooting a mattress commercial and Rachel can cry on demand. “Except for nudity and the exploitation of animals, I’ll do anything to break into the business!” The glee club is surprisingly ecstatic, mostly because they’re going to be stars and “nobody defaces pictures of celebrities.”
“Mattresses aren’t just for sleeping and fornicating anymore,” says the mattress man, who’s receptive to the idea of a singing commercial. There’s no way that they can sing so well while performing all these mattress acrobatics, but we’ll suspend disbelief, just hum along, and giggle at how Quinn is on a mattress with Kurt – a match made only in Mattress Land. But get ready for Glee to rock your socks off – Will finds the pregnancy padding Terri’s been wearing and confronts her about it. There’s an intense O’Neill-esque battle of the wills in the kitchen in which all is confessed. This pregnancy plot has been funny all season, but the laughter dies when Will walks out.
Luckily the glee room is filled with comped mattresses. In Sue’s Corner, Sue wants a holiday forcing “fatties and uglies” to stay indoors the Friday after Christmas, but she’s miffed when she sees the commercial. “Sue is right – the glee club has indeed stepped in it,” Figgins groans, because glee club contestants aren’t allowed to participate in professional activity. When Will admits that he’s thinking of leaving Terri, it’s not enough to change Figgins’s mind. “It’s over!” Sue calls.
“VICTORY,” Sue writes in her diary, but Quinn rains on her parade when she extorts Sue for a spot on the squad and in the yearbook photo – and for a glee club page. Emma tells Will he needs to sort out his own life before he solves glee’s problems, confessing that she understands where Terri was coming from. Since he slept on the mattress, Will is forced out of coaching glee, and he tells the kids to go take their picture – cue Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” telling us that maybe everything’s going to turn out all right.
Verdict? Glee’s darkest hour. With only one more week left in this half-season, it’s difficult to see how this is all going to turn out okay in the end, but at least some of the biggest secrets are coming out. While this episode didn’t quite live up to the hype that some of my friends who (to paraphrase Bill O’Reilly) watched it live, “Mattress” was still pretty intense. But, with the exception of Sue’s scenes, it didn’t quite feel like an episode of Glee. Perhaps next week – Glee’s curtain call until April – will see a return to form such as we know and love.
With the threat of swirlies and “patriotic wedgies” looming over their heads, Kurt convinces the glee club that a yearbook entry would do more harm than good, but Will vows to fight for a photo in spite of The Principal’s insistence that he’s “doing them a solid.” Figgins compromises – for $1,000. Rachel’s cheery because she’s trying to get in as many yearbook photos as possible so as to better prepare for a life of being stalked by the paparazzi, but Quinn is upset that she’s losing her identity and decides to sneak into the Cheerios yearbook photo.
Will wants to buy out Figgins; his fake-pregnant wife disagrees, but Will goes ahead with it. Rachel invents a new club, the GayLesbAl (“Gay Lesbian Alliance”) in order to become the most involved student on campus; Kurt scoffs, and Rachel dreams of winning the vote for “Team Captain” to appear in the two-person photo. Rachel wins the vote singlehandedly, mostly because the kids don’t want to get vandalized. Will’s worried about this and about his fear that Ken scheduled the wedding over sectionals on purpose. But Emma says she’s in love with Ken, despite his “74 flaws as of yesterday.” Continuing Glee’s reign of hyperbole, new captain Rachel has 65 proposals and gets talked into recruiting a co-captain: Finn.
To get ready for the photo, Rachel serenades Finn with “Smile,” making me wonder who the piano player is and why he’s kind of creepy. The song gets a little too flirty, but when Finn finds out that he’s about to become the target of yearbook vandalization, he backs out and leaves Rachel on her own. It turns out to be serendipitous, because the cameraman is shooting a mattress commercial and Rachel can cry on demand. “Except for nudity and the exploitation of animals, I’ll do anything to break into the business!” The glee club is surprisingly ecstatic, mostly because they’re going to be stars and “nobody defaces pictures of celebrities.”
“Mattresses aren’t just for sleeping and fornicating anymore,” says the mattress man, who’s receptive to the idea of a singing commercial. There’s no way that they can sing so well while performing all these mattress acrobatics, but we’ll suspend disbelief, just hum along, and giggle at how Quinn is on a mattress with Kurt – a match made only in Mattress Land. But get ready for Glee to rock your socks off – Will finds the pregnancy padding Terri’s been wearing and confronts her about it. There’s an intense O’Neill-esque battle of the wills in the kitchen in which all is confessed. This pregnancy plot has been funny all season, but the laughter dies when Will walks out.
Luckily the glee room is filled with comped mattresses. In Sue’s Corner, Sue wants a holiday forcing “fatties and uglies” to stay indoors the Friday after Christmas, but she’s miffed when she sees the commercial. “Sue is right – the glee club has indeed stepped in it,” Figgins groans, because glee club contestants aren’t allowed to participate in professional activity. When Will admits that he’s thinking of leaving Terri, it’s not enough to change Figgins’s mind. “It’s over!” Sue calls.
“VICTORY,” Sue writes in her diary, but Quinn rains on her parade when she extorts Sue for a spot on the squad and in the yearbook photo – and for a glee club page. Emma tells Will he needs to sort out his own life before he solves glee’s problems, confessing that she understands where Terri was coming from. Since he slept on the mattress, Will is forced out of coaching glee, and he tells the kids to go take their picture – cue Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” telling us that maybe everything’s going to turn out all right.
Verdict? Glee’s darkest hour. With only one more week left in this half-season, it’s difficult to see how this is all going to turn out okay in the end, but at least some of the biggest secrets are coming out. While this episode didn’t quite live up to the hype that some of my friends who (to paraphrase Bill O’Reilly) watched it live, “Mattress” was still pretty intense. But, with the exception of Sue’s scenes, it didn’t quite feel like an episode of Glee. Perhaps next week – Glee’s curtain call until April – will see a return to form such as we know and love.
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