Sunday, August 29, 2010

There once was Glee and Family


I don't watch Modern Family
But wanted it to lose to Glee
I guess I can't judge
And don't hold a grudge
But it seems much more ordinary.

There once was a show that got Lost

So Mad Men the Emmy did score
I'm sorry, I think it's a bore
It was a great mystery
Will go down in history
I wish Lost did not get ignored

There once was an Emmy for Claire



Apparently Claire Danes was great
In a role that's so Emmy bait
So was she delirious
With her "like, for serious"
Or is she still Angela Chase?

There once was a Clooney named George



George Clooney is a total badass
His intentions are really first class
His speech can't be beat
Kept it short and sweet
And even peppered in some sass.

There once was an incestuous system



Awards shows should not win awards
Although I can't say I was floored
It's way too inbred
Voters are brain dead
No surprise that The Tonys scored.

There once was a show I won't watch




I know people love Breaking Bad
But it seems unmercifully sad
Was rooting for Fox
Or Chandler, who rocks
For either of those I'd be glad.

There once was an opening salvo


So this year I'm pulling for Lost
In hopes that Mad Men will get tossed
But Mad Men won writing
Uphill Lost is fighting
It's chances might begin to frost :(

There once was a stale category


Since the first reality Emmy
It has played out predictably
The Amazing Race
Always took first place
But Top Chef broke the streak – whoopee!

There once was a big bang upset



With people like Carell and Baldwin
As really big time competition
The Big Bang guy won
People said "come on!"
His PR team was on a mission.

There once was a Family and Glee


Modern Family went two for two
It started to look like a coup
But then Jane Lynch won
And her speech was fun
Before off the stage she was shooed.

There once was an Emmy host named Jimmy


Jimmy opened the show with a bang
By performing with the Glee gang
Then grabbed a guitar
And while breathing hard
Wished to himself he hadn't sang.

Monday, August 23, 2010

There once was a Pilgrim named Scott



Unless you played video games
You might think this is pretty strange
It's anime meets
And within Michael Cera's range.





They've made movies that are slavishly devoted to their graphic novel source material before – sometimes you score a 300 and sometimes you get stuck in Sin City. Fortunately, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is way more of the former, as it's full-tilt fun from the first minute on.

The movie sums up a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley, hitting the high points of the six-book cycle. It's the oldest story in the world: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy has to fight girl's seven evil exes, evil exes explode into coins when boy punches them, and so on. That's right – in addition to other visual flourishes like captions appearing on screen and cartoon hearts appearing over characters kissing, Scott Pilgrim comes off like a slacker version of Super Mario Bros.

Michael Cera delivers another patented performance as the sorta-nerdy-sorta-cool-vaguely-effeminate-emo-type-guy, but in this case it's pretty much perfect casting. The rest of the cast scores, too, particularly a couple cameos by Chris Evans and Brandon Routh. And director Edgar Wright steps outside of his previous parodies to deliver a film with similar visual sizzle but a different kind of emotional connection. At heart, Scott Pilgrim is a fairly standard twentysomething story, but the inventive style, videogame trappings and underlying sweetness elevate it to another level.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

There once was a plan: Eat, Pray Love



This story of personal journey
Does not make all that great a movie
There's some great food porn
Overall I'm torn
On whether this flick's worth your rupees.





Full disclosure: Julia Roberts stayed at one of our honeymoon hotels in Bali while shooting the "love" part, so I entered the theater with more than your average amount of goodwill for the film.
Fuller disclosure: I still didn't love the movie.

It's based on the autobiographical book by Liz Gilbert, a woman who loses herself in a marriage and sets out to visit three different destinations (Italy, India and Bali) to find herself again. Along the way, she befriends a spunky younger woman and is mentored by a wise older man... three times in a row.

Eat Pray Love is sumptuously shot, generally well-acted and has some powerful moments, but the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Each section feels like a start-to-finish mini-movie, which is a little jarring when you're charting a yearlong journey of self-discovery. After "Eating" her way through Italy, where she meets fabulous friends, devours amazing food, and self-actualizes about her body image, it's odd that when she arrives in India, it feels as if none of it has happened – Liz is back to the morose and withdrawn mess she was when she started.

On top of that, the movie absolutely grinds to a halt in "Pray." Second act problems aren't unique for films, but when forty minutes of your movie revolves around someone psyching themselves up to meditate, you're in serious trouble. Things pick up a bit in Bali, although that's basically because the movie morphs into a fairly traditional romance. A couple of complications ensue, but the ending is nothing that you won't see coming.

Eat Pray Love... Watch? I'm gonna say cable. Netflix if you're invested in the book. It's certainly enjoyable, but also not memorable.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

There once was a spy they called Salt



While mostly a silent avenger
This Salt is a spy to remember
The crowds should be rushin'
To this sexy Russian
Too bad the critics didn't concur.





Bourne. Jane Bourne.

Angelina doesn't speak much in Salt, but if she did I bet she'd eventually get around to introducing herself as such. Because from the central identity crisis to trademark shaky-cam, Salt's very much in the mold of the Matt Damon adventures. But what it might lack in originality it more than makes up for in visceral thrills, as a few seconds after the credits it turns into a super solid thriller that's well worth watching.

The movie's centered around a mystery teased in the trailer and poster – is Evelyn Salt a spy, good guy, bad guy or all of the above? It takes several twists, turns and triple crosses to get that answer, and it whips along at a powerful pace that's energetic without being frantic. Jolie is terrific – more a force of nature than a character, but as she strides through her scenes all guns and cheekbones blaring, she totally dominates the screen.

There are sequel rumors rumbling, and even though it's not performing terribly well domestically, future stories are set up nicely and I hope we get the chance to check them out. See it on the big screen if you get a chance, but it would hold up at home as well. Don't let this Salt slip through your fingers – it'd definitely be bad luck.

Monday, August 2, 2010

There once was a dream called Inception



The director of the Dark Knight
Apparently only does right
While the top keeps spinning
Count Oscars it's winning
He should be the king of the night.