Even though last night's Oscars weren't the best Oscar telecast EVER... they were still way more enjoyable than a silly montage of Oscar clips would have been if the strike didn't end and also WAYY WAYY WAY more fun than that "Golden Globes" telecast was.
So I got all my big predictions correct except for Best Actress. I changed my vote from Julie Christie to Ellen Page, ONE) because after seeing 'Away From Her' I liked Page's performance better. TWO) because I really hated Julie Christie's audio commentary. Did I mention that in yesterday's post? I'm not really sure... but her commentary was so bad it's worth speaking of again. My movie business class professor told me I should start youtube videos discussing the audio commentaries for films, specifically Oscar nominated ones... this idea could actually go somewhere. For now though, I'll just write about it.
Ms. Christie, or Julie as I like to call her, yes we are friends and on a first name basis... as I am with all of the Oscar noms from last night... had nothing valuable to say in her audio commentary. Granted I could only watch/listen for about 20 minutes before giving up, but she was just awful giving no insight into how she worked with any of her cast members... now maybe I should have listened more.. to see if she ever did say anything, but if you don' talk about them within the first twenty minutes of commentary, I doubt you will. The only spoken word about any of her co-stars was about Olympia (Dukakis). NOT ONE SINGLE WORD ABOUT GORDON PINSENT. HELLOOOO. You had to SPOON with the man... and NOTHIING!? no, 'hey, Gordon and I laughed a lot during this scene and had to do it multiple times'... or 'Gordon was a wonder to work with'... NOTHING.
And then Julie complained about not wanting to do this film. She said she was obviously glad she did... but she was really opposed to it because she didn't like the cold... (she has scenes skiing and laying in the snow) and she didn't want to learn 'Canadian.' I didn't realized 'Canadian' was a language you had to learn Julie... Yes she claifys herself and mentions learning the 'Canadian' accent. But really, you're now nominated for an Oscar... you shouldn't be complaining about anything, Julie!
I bed half a dozen other older actresses wouldn't have minded at all to have to pick up a 'Canadian' accent for a role... God only knows how many Daniel Day-Lewis has had to learn... and look at him, he's grateful.
SO, I'm going to get off of my soap box now... I hope you all enjoyed the telecast... and are anxiously awaiting the start of this year's Oscar race/season!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
OSCARS!
TODAY. IS. OSCAR. DAY! I am excited. Tonight's show is going to be a good one, I can feel it in my bones... and it should be, because the writers' strike is over so we can have the REAL oscars! I got to write an article for big lick about my predictions... and also past Oscar wins to check out and Oscar snubs that we still love.
But I hope everyone enjoys the show this fine Oscar evening... I just love love love the Oscars.
HERE is my article about the Oscars...
http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?&title=My%20predictions%20for%20Oscar%202008&id=904#
you can see the others by clicking on my name in the TAGS part towards the bottom of the page.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
V-Day
is it bad that I want to see Definitely, Maybe?... I don't think so... Even rotten tomatoes liked it better than 27 Dresses. But there was no way I could go tonight at a 720 showing on Valentines... I would be with all couples. Shooot.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Writers' Strike is OVER!
THE WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!! yippee.
i suppose this is a good ending to the bad day i just wrote about.
let's get the OFFICE back up and running@
i suppose this is a good ending to the bad day i just wrote about.
let's get the OFFICE back up and running@
VA's not so super Tuesday
Today was the VA super Tuesday, not last Tuesday... but TODAY. I was extremely excited to vote and so I had class until 6:15 and knew the polls were open until 7. This was the first time I couldn't vote in the afternoon, so I felt like I would really be there with the after work voters. SO I pull into the parking lot at 6:25 and the doors are CLOSED. Everything is dark and shut down; they've shut down the polls at my location EARLY. I immediately call my father and express my hatred towards this elementary school for shutting down early and making a very hopeful and entitled voter angry.
I come back to my apt. and yell to my roommate that I'm really pissed and I start to cry. Who knew not being able to vote would make someone cry. But the tears were also reflecting a really hectic weekend and plain exhaustion.
So where am I going with this on a movie blog you ask? Well the only thing that kept me from continuing to cry was my knowledge that I was going out to buy 'Into The Wild'. I've been waiting for this day since I first saw the film in the theaters. So I stop my crying and get my butt over to the FYE, where I have a handy dandy gift card, ready to purchase 'Into the Wild' and 'Across the Universe'. 'Into the Wild' is not there. Well I think, that's OK, I'll go to Target, use my gift card to buy 'Across the Universe' and it'll be all set. Then I start wondering, if anyone should have 'ITW' today, it would be FYE... so I'm now starring at the Coming Soon poster and I don't see it listed... so it just has to be a mistake... I get up to the register and finally notice... ALLLL the way down at the bottom is 'Into The Wild' coming March 4.
I seriously wanted to keep crying right then. Like, could my day get any worse? An awful exam in the AM, lack of sleep, not being able to vote and now I can't buy 'ITW'... GREAT.
so I then go to Coldstone where my roommate is working and she gives me cheap ice cream... in a NEW chocolate cake batter flavor... it is divine and I go back to my apt, turn on 'The Biggest Loser' and drink wine to drown away my sorrows.
Should we movie fans really have to put up with this writers' strike... which should be over tonight!!! AND not having DVDs released when they say they will?!?! oy vey.
Friday, February 08, 2008
two for one.
It seems like every time I update this thing, I say it seems it's been forever... and so it has been, once again. BUT I really am trying to be good about it from now on, because I have to make my own website for part of a class, and this blog will be moved over to that website hopefully. SO I will need constant info going from now on for that site...
So tonight, I'm going to give you two for the price of one. My 'Enchanted' review and one for '27 Dresses.' Both of which I wrote for my internship/now job, BigLickU.com... enjoy.
Adams leaves you ‘Enchanted’
By Jenna Hasskarl
(Nov. 26) Disney’s new animated-turned-real-life epic adventure “Enchanted” hit the big screen on Wednesday, and the main star of the film is certainly Amy Adams.
In the traditionally hand-drawn opening, Adams plays Giselle, a beautiful red-headed princess (HOORAY!), who lives in a cute bungalow in the forest and who just wants to find her one true love. James Marsden plays Prince Edward, who doesn’t realize he wants to marry because his evil step-mother Queen Narissa, Susan Sarandon, is scared of losing her crown and has kept him from ever seeing a fair maiden.
But when Prince Edward hears Giselle singing, he’s set on finding her. They meet and immediately decide to marry tomorrow! The wedding day comes; but before Giselle can make it to the altar, Queen Narcissa pushes Giselle down a well to where happily-ever-after doesn’t exist: modern day New York City.
Adams gets lost, and no one is very friendly; she gets shoved onto a Subway and ends up very downtown and even more deserted. She finds a castle on a billboard and manages to climb up and start knocking on the billboard because she honestly believes this will help her get back home.
It’s when she’s up on the billboard that divorce lawyer Robert, Patrick Dempsey, and his daughter Morgan drive by. Morgan runs out of the taxicab when she sees Giselle and tries to help. Giselle tries to get down but then finds herself hanging from the billboard. Robert is there to catch her, and still wary of Giselle’s naïve persona, he takes her home.
Giselle’s best little friend Pip, a chipmunk, is the only one to see Giselle get pushed down the well; so the next thing we know, Prince Edward is falling through the well to rescue Giselle with Pip right behind him.
Meanwhile, Robert agrees to let Giselle stay. The only problem is that, when she wakes up, his apartment is a mess. So what does Giselle do? She summons the animals, of course. So with a little yodel, all the rats, pigeons and cockroaches from NYC arrive in Robert’s apartment.
Giselle gets all of these pests to help her clean Robert and Morgan’s apartment by singing the “Happy Working Song.” (All of the songs were great.) Of course when Robert finds the pests in his apartment, he is none too pleased. All of the songs in the film are sung by Adams and Marsden themselves and are quite catchy.
Adams does a wonderful job floating around New York City, just as if she were still moving about in her animated world. Her hand motions stay whimsical and light throughout the film. It’s only when reality and New York City’s own magic affect her toward the end that her hand motions become more human.
The cast is good, but it’s Adams who shines and enchants her audience. The musical number she sings in Central Park, “That’s How You Know,” gets a couple hundred people to follow her, and you really feel captivated and drawn to her as an audience member too. And she can really sing!
“Enchanted” also has something for adults. There are more jokes about Disney clichés than one can count, and they’ll have you laughing about how silly those clichés actually are. For example, it was mostly adults in the audience who laughed at the joke about getting married tomorrow. It’ll also have you rehashing all those hours you spent watching the Disney films when you were a kid, remembering how crazy some of the plot lines in those films are too.
The only problem with “Enchanted” is the end, which is a bit drawn out. It builds you up but then leaves you hanging and wanting a bit more. I won’t give anything more away because I don’t want to keep you from seeing it.
Overall, I really liked “Enchanted,” clichés and all, and I highly recommend it. Adams’ optimistic and wide-eyed personality shines through so much that you actually believe she could have fallen out of a fairy tale. It’s a fun film to catch with friends and family this holiday season.
27 Dresses: Always a bridesmaid…
By Jenna Hasskarl
“Always the bridesmaid and never the bride” should be Jane’s (played by Katherine Heigl) middle name or official life slogan. She’s the girl we all dread being. Instead of being a bridesmaid for maybe five weddings tops, Jane has been a bridesmaid for 27 weddings. Not only is that a lot of weddings, it’s a lot of money this young New Yorker has got to spend on dresses.
Predictable and sometimes a little over-the-top, “27 Dresses” does deliver a cute and entertaining romantic comedy. Mainly, Heigl and James Marsden, who plays her love interest Kevin, are the best parts about the movie.
Heigl, who has been all over the Hollywood scene lately and recently got married herself, is selfless, loveable and cute; we want her to succeed. And we actually don’t mind that she’s been in 27 weddings because we see that she’s actually good at organizing the show.
Jane falls in love with weddings when she’s a small child at a family member’s nuptials. The bride has torn her dress and little Jane has got the perfect idea: to use her sister’s hair ribbon to put the dress back together and save the day.
Although the outcome is totally unrealistic for a kid to pull off, she’s then asked to carry the train down the aisle -- and that was the start of her love for weddings.
Now into her later 20’s, Jane is still in love with weddings and even manages to be in two at the same time. Marsden’s character catches her frantically changing in the back of a taxi on the way to the second wedding, where, as she does at the first one, spends just enough time to give a toast or participate in a cliché wedding dance, then she’s back to the other and repeats this process all night long.
But Jane also has dreams of her own. She’s in love with her boss (Edward Burns), who then, much to Jane’s dismay, happens to fall in love with and propose to Jane’s sister, Tess (Malin Akerman).
With her dreams shattered, Jane tries to be supportive as she plans her sister’s wedding and goes along even when her sister steals all of her own ideas for her dream wedding.
“27 Dresses” also lives up to its genre name of romantic comedy thanks to “The Devil Wears Prada” scripter Aline Brosh McKenna, who serves up plenty of fun and witty banter for Heigl and Marsden. Even the slightly overdone sing-along to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” in a bar is fun and leaves you smiling.
Judy Greer plays Jane’s best friend Casey, whose witty antics deliver laughs as well. She seems to always play the best friend in these sorts of movies, so hopefully some day she can move up to leading lady status.
The other real shining star of the movie isn’t on screen but off. Catherine Marie Thomas, the costume designer, created 27 beautiful, outrageous and/or down-right awful bridesmaids dresses that give the movie some real character.
Overall, “27 Dresses” could have been a bit more daring with its script but Heigl and Marsden are just so darn likeable that you don’t care so much about the predictability of the film. And for anyone else out there who has noticed that Marsden never gets the girl, or at least the girl he sets out for, his luck may change! (I’m not really giving anything away, am I?)
Let’s face it: Jane must be the prefect bridesmaid if she’s organized, selfless and willing to wear these awful dresses for you on your special day.
So tonight, I'm going to give you two for the price of one. My 'Enchanted' review and one for '27 Dresses.' Both of which I wrote for my internship/now job, BigLickU.com... enjoy.
Adams leaves you ‘Enchanted’
By Jenna Hasskarl
(Nov. 26) Disney’s new animated-turned-real-life epic adventure “Enchanted” hit the big screen on Wednesday, and the main star of the film is certainly Amy Adams.
In the traditionally hand-drawn opening, Adams plays Giselle, a beautiful red-headed princess (HOORAY!), who lives in a cute bungalow in the forest and who just wants to find her one true love. James Marsden plays Prince Edward, who doesn’t realize he wants to marry because his evil step-mother Queen Narissa, Susan Sarandon, is scared of losing her crown and has kept him from ever seeing a fair maiden.
But when Prince Edward hears Giselle singing, he’s set on finding her. They meet and immediately decide to marry tomorrow! The wedding day comes; but before Giselle can make it to the altar, Queen Narcissa pushes Giselle down a well to where happily-ever-after doesn’t exist: modern day New York City.
Adams gets lost, and no one is very friendly; she gets shoved onto a Subway and ends up very downtown and even more deserted. She finds a castle on a billboard and manages to climb up and start knocking on the billboard because she honestly believes this will help her get back home.
It’s when she’s up on the billboard that divorce lawyer Robert, Patrick Dempsey, and his daughter Morgan drive by. Morgan runs out of the taxicab when she sees Giselle and tries to help. Giselle tries to get down but then finds herself hanging from the billboard. Robert is there to catch her, and still wary of Giselle’s naïve persona, he takes her home.
Giselle’s best little friend Pip, a chipmunk, is the only one to see Giselle get pushed down the well; so the next thing we know, Prince Edward is falling through the well to rescue Giselle with Pip right behind him.
Meanwhile, Robert agrees to let Giselle stay. The only problem is that, when she wakes up, his apartment is a mess. So what does Giselle do? She summons the animals, of course. So with a little yodel, all the rats, pigeons and cockroaches from NYC arrive in Robert’s apartment.
Giselle gets all of these pests to help her clean Robert and Morgan’s apartment by singing the “Happy Working Song.” (All of the songs were great.) Of course when Robert finds the pests in his apartment, he is none too pleased. All of the songs in the film are sung by Adams and Marsden themselves and are quite catchy.
Adams does a wonderful job floating around New York City, just as if she were still moving about in her animated world. Her hand motions stay whimsical and light throughout the film. It’s only when reality and New York City’s own magic affect her toward the end that her hand motions become more human.
The cast is good, but it’s Adams who shines and enchants her audience. The musical number she sings in Central Park, “That’s How You Know,” gets a couple hundred people to follow her, and you really feel captivated and drawn to her as an audience member too. And she can really sing!
“Enchanted” also has something for adults. There are more jokes about Disney clichés than one can count, and they’ll have you laughing about how silly those clichés actually are. For example, it was mostly adults in the audience who laughed at the joke about getting married tomorrow. It’ll also have you rehashing all those hours you spent watching the Disney films when you were a kid, remembering how crazy some of the plot lines in those films are too.
The only problem with “Enchanted” is the end, which is a bit drawn out. It builds you up but then leaves you hanging and wanting a bit more. I won’t give anything more away because I don’t want to keep you from seeing it.
Overall, I really liked “Enchanted,” clichés and all, and I highly recommend it. Adams’ optimistic and wide-eyed personality shines through so much that you actually believe she could have fallen out of a fairy tale. It’s a fun film to catch with friends and family this holiday season.
27 Dresses: Always a bridesmaid…
By Jenna Hasskarl
“Always the bridesmaid and never the bride” should be Jane’s (played by Katherine Heigl) middle name or official life slogan. She’s the girl we all dread being. Instead of being a bridesmaid for maybe five weddings tops, Jane has been a bridesmaid for 27 weddings. Not only is that a lot of weddings, it’s a lot of money this young New Yorker has got to spend on dresses.
Predictable and sometimes a little over-the-top, “27 Dresses” does deliver a cute and entertaining romantic comedy. Mainly, Heigl and James Marsden, who plays her love interest Kevin, are the best parts about the movie.
Heigl, who has been all over the Hollywood scene lately and recently got married herself, is selfless, loveable and cute; we want her to succeed. And we actually don’t mind that she’s been in 27 weddings because we see that she’s actually good at organizing the show.
Jane falls in love with weddings when she’s a small child at a family member’s nuptials. The bride has torn her dress and little Jane has got the perfect idea: to use her sister’s hair ribbon to put the dress back together and save the day.
Although the outcome is totally unrealistic for a kid to pull off, she’s then asked to carry the train down the aisle -- and that was the start of her love for weddings.
Now into her later 20’s, Jane is still in love with weddings and even manages to be in two at the same time. Marsden’s character catches her frantically changing in the back of a taxi on the way to the second wedding, where, as she does at the first one, spends just enough time to give a toast or participate in a cliché wedding dance, then she’s back to the other and repeats this process all night long.
But Jane also has dreams of her own. She’s in love with her boss (Edward Burns), who then, much to Jane’s dismay, happens to fall in love with and propose to Jane’s sister, Tess (Malin Akerman).
With her dreams shattered, Jane tries to be supportive as she plans her sister’s wedding and goes along even when her sister steals all of her own ideas for her dream wedding.
“27 Dresses” also lives up to its genre name of romantic comedy thanks to “The Devil Wears Prada” scripter Aline Brosh McKenna, who serves up plenty of fun and witty banter for Heigl and Marsden. Even the slightly overdone sing-along to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” in a bar is fun and leaves you smiling.
Judy Greer plays Jane’s best friend Casey, whose witty antics deliver laughs as well. She seems to always play the best friend in these sorts of movies, so hopefully some day she can move up to leading lady status.
The other real shining star of the movie isn’t on screen but off. Catherine Marie Thomas, the costume designer, created 27 beautiful, outrageous and/or down-right awful bridesmaids dresses that give the movie some real character.
Overall, “27 Dresses” could have been a bit more daring with its script but Heigl and Marsden are just so darn likeable that you don’t care so much about the predictability of the film. And for anyone else out there who has noticed that Marsden never gets the girl, or at least the girl he sets out for, his luck may change! (I’m not really giving anything away, am I?)
Let’s face it: Jane must be the prefect bridesmaid if she’s organized, selfless and willing to wear these awful dresses for you on your special day.
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