My Spring Premiere of Glee

Quick Analysis: A rather underwhelming episode with all the hype, the FOX promos department felt it was necessary to sneak peek next week's Madonna-themed episode by showing Jane Lynch's cover of 'Vogue'. It's very apparent where the back nine episodes are going to focus on and it doesn't vary much from the front 13.

Broadway enthusiasts like myself were salivating over the reunion of 'Spring Awakening' stars Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff and the addition of Idina Menzel ('Wicked'). While it's still very early and not much can be read from Groff and Menzel's characters from one episode, I was hoping for more and definitely at least one showstopper number besides 'Vogue'.

I'm sure next week's Madonna episode will undoubtedly be fun and hilarious, but just for this week, it appears the hype exceeded the content.

My Worst Oscars Telecast Ever

I'm sad to report that I was right. More on the disastrous Shankman/Mechanic production in future days because I need the time to recover from all the vomiting inducing "organic dancing" and redundant bias towards the lead acting categories oppose to the supporting ones. Don't even get me started on the abrupt ending to the ceremony. Okay, too late... the floodgates have opened. Here's what went wrong:

- Why was Neil Patrick Harris there? He was successful on both the Tonys and Emmys because he's relevant for stage and television. Here? It already looks desperate on the producer's count.

- We're then greeted by the 10 LEAD acting nominees, by name. One by one. Like this is some deranged Miss America competition.

- The awkward opening from Baldwin and Martin that namedropped everyone in the room.. twice. Thank goodness for George Clooney whose facial expression mirrored mine in how silly and trite it was.

- The organic dancing. They scrapped the original song performances for this!?! I wasn't aware of the Oscars when Snow White & Rob Lowe went on, but this has got to be a new performance low.

- By hour two, Shankman & Mechanic realized that their show is running long and started scrapping clips and showing nominees on categories. If only they were smart enough not to show a montage clip reel for the first four categories on the evening.

- Forgetting Farah Fawcett. Any questions regarding Shankman's sexual orientation were answered during the 'In Memoriam' segment by that painful omission.

- The lamps wall was terrible. It looked and felt cheap.

- They devoted 30 minutes to the lead acting categories and pretty much set no timer for the winner's acceptance speech. It was evidence Shankman & Mechanic knew what they wanted to air and in no circumstances were going to cut it.

- Therefore Tom Hanks had to RUN to his mark and announce the Best Picture winner without even recapping who's nominated.

- With all the talk about the first woman ever to win the Best Director trophy, where's the promo and tease for the first Black writer to win a screenplay award? Even Kathryn Bigelow seemed embarrassed by all the hoopla. Did they really have to play her off with "I Am Woman"?

- FOUR hours.... and it still felt rushed.

My Ten Straight Thumbs Up Movies

It's a rarity I don't complain about the films I watch. Either I've become numb and dull to films nowadays or I'm just liking everything I've been seeing- it's hard to tell. It wasn't until this past weekend when a reader mentioned to me how I liked the last ten films I've watched that I realized I haven't seen a bad film this summer. Granted, I opted out of the obvious missteps of 'G.I. Joe', 'Transformers 2' and 'Year One', but still... it's quite a feat. Here are my one-sentence reactions to those ten films:

1. Taking Woodstock- Signature detached emotions from Ang Lee with Woodstock nation as its backdrop.

2. Inglourious Basterds- My new favorite QT film is also the easiest of his films to be adapted to a stage play.

3. The Time Traveller's Wife- Just like 'The Notebook', cheesy, over the top but somehow still got me.

4. (500) Days of Summer- Best romantic comedy in years.

5. District 9- A better version of 'Cloverfield'.

6. The Hurt Locker- Will easily occupy the independent film slot at this year's Oscars and deservedly so.

7. Julie and Julia- I'm not sure who was more fun to watch- Streep over the top as Childs or Adams as a mopey wannabe.

8. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince- Full Review Here

9. The Hangover- Easiest laugh I've had all summer.

10. Up- Pixar predictably scores again.

My Barely Positive Harry Potter Review

While the familiar story of Harry Potter versus Voldemort continues to play in this stalling chapter of the ever-popular series, the latest film entry couldn't shake off the same problem its source material encountered- feeling like an incomplete prelude to a perfect final storm. On one hand, returning screenwriter Steve Kloves and director David Yates managed to hit the plot points to set up the said final chapter due out in the next two years, they've seem to forget the sixth installment is a film on its own.

But where the two most important ingredient lacked in focus, literally everyone else on the cast and crew noticeably picked it up a notch. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel's gorgeous and poetic vision is nothing short of breathtaking, so often in the lengthy film I found myself wowed and awestruck by just how a frame can be translated into an art piece hung up in a museum (Translation: 2009 Peterio Award nomination). The art direction also continued to dazzle with the addition of a few Hogwarts locations beautifully depicted while not compromising the original geography of the wizardry world.

Which leads me to the cast. With much to bore me with the content of the film, the ever increasingly talented cast led by Daniel Radcliffe pulled in some solid performances. It's hard not to grow on your character after six attempts and it's very evident that the cast is very comfortable in the shoes they stepped in over 8 years ago- most noticeably Tom Felton as the emotionally tortured Draco Malfoy and MVP Alan Rickman who continues to soar as Severus Snape.

Yes, the film was disappointing but it has definitely succeeded in tying me over to the action packed final chapters by other unexpected means.

My 'Wolverine' Quickie Review

After all the hoopla with the leak of this film, the hype for the public was going to be tough to meet- and boy, did this film falter. Sure, the character Wolverine was the most intriguing (and popular) part of the original X-Men series but the backstory these filmmakers came up with was so weak, they could've done it as an opening montage for the first X-Men film 10 years ago. 

Showing promise (with an opening credit sequence), the story never picked up and the action sequences never truly climaxed for me to care at all. Multiple plot twists has been always been a hard sell for me but there were a few here that were just WTF or 'too easy to call' to warrant any creative merit. 

To their credit, the filmmakers did try to bring some freshness to this franchise by bringing fan favorite Gambit into the mix but that initial appeal wore off quickly- not sure if it's the oh-so-familiar character development or the travesty that is Taylor Kitsch (aka Tim Riggins on 'FNL'). At least teasing a young Cyclops in a few scenes (the best visual effects came with Cyclops, it always has...) was fun for awhile.

That final battle between Wolverine and, umm... not to give anything away, a surprise(!) mutant played out like a round of Mortal Kombat added to the silliness and cheese factor that had me thinking how that was best visual effects shots they could've came up with. Perhaps after all is said and done, if FOX was to think about giving another mutant the 'origins' treatment, they should get one whose story isn't as rugged with wafer-thin conflicts. 

My 'Paris 36' Quickie Review

While the most obvious comparison would be to Moulin Rouge!, Paris 36 is a story about a group of out-of-work stagehands who decide to put on their own variety show for different reasons- for money, for love and to entertain. While it doesn't bill or pin itself to any of the plots in particular, 'Paris 36' still manages to get me to laugh, to sympathize and to fall in love. Like most French films, it's a feast for the eyes and for the soul. I am glad to finally recommend a 2009 film for everyone to see. 

My Quickie Australia Review

Seeing how it is Baz Luhrmann's followup to 'Moulin Rouge!', it's no surprise I was eagerly awaiting 'Australia's release. While it's nowhere near the mastery that was his last work, Luhrmann's latest effort is nothing to pout about. The throwback to old Hollywood is evident and true, down to the over-the-top villain with the skinny mustache and it seems the mostly veteran cast understood that as well. Both Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman contributed to the Clark Gable/ Vivien Leigh dymanic while modernizing their performances for this century. The film even had chapters lining an overall, arching story similar to 'Gone With The Wind's story structure.

If there's one word to summarize the film, it's ambitious... maybe even overambitious, but I expected nothing less from Luhrmann. Afterall, he threw in an added bonus. Kidman sings a little, and that's always a good thing in my book. 

My Happy-Go-Lucky

All the reviews were right. This movie did make me "blissfully happy". From the moment Poppy apologizes for not saying goodbye to her stolen bike, I knew I would have another Junebug in the works. What more is the countless amount of times her life tries to disrupt her positive outlook, she manages to derail them and make a nice spin on it. Another lesson learned from the movies, stay positive and don't take driving lessons with gap-teeth British men.

My 90210 Quickie Review

Back in the early 1990s when the much younger version of me arrived in America, a few things got me off the boat and settled into the "American" lifestyle. One of them was daily reruns of 'Beverly Hills, 90210', it's sad but it's true. I then proceed to follow this then-groundbreaking series until it's cancellation in 2000, once again sad but true. I've seen the old favorites come and go and come back again (Luke Perry), new characters that stuck around long enough before moving on to better things (Hilary Swank) and some characters that changed hairstyles more often than I change underwear (Tori Spelling), so when I heard initally the CW was going to revived the series into a spinoff, I was a little psyched how this younger and more exposed generation of viewers will adapted and accept my favorite TV zip code and to see myself how much things changed for high school on TV.

To be honest, the pilot episode was hardly a spinoff. If anything, it's a remake of the original series with a few old favorites coming back. The high profiled series debut took no time to induce heavy drama. Within 30 minutes, we've a girl catching her old frame receiving oral sex in a car, an adopted brother taking revenge on his fellow teammate but using his own sister and a blogger trashing the new girl in school- this is all before I could even remember who's who. That is one thing I believe this show is going to have to trim down on... the amount of characters it has to juggle on its plate- especially if they intend to continuously throw Kelly Taylor back in the story loop.

No doubt the breakout star here is Shenae Grimes (Sorry Tristan!). Not only does she have the most screen time, Grimes mastered the the entire 'New Girl in Beverly Hills' look pretty well. Will I watch again? Sure, but it's on thin-ice... except for you Kelly, you're in thick water (?).