0

WALL-E - The Best Reviewed Movie of 2008?

Posted by Vogt
at June 26, 2008

What movie should you see this weekend? Wanted is surprisingly good, and will likely beat your expectations. I can honestly recommend it…  but the clear winner is WALL-E.

So far the little robot that could has a 98% tomatoemeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes with over 40 reviews. Actually, only one reviewer gave a negative critique. It helps to know that Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star also gave M Night’s The Happening a three out of four star review… Point is, WALL-E is the best reviewed mainstream release so far this year. We’ll see how it holds up after the weekend as 100-150 more reviews will likely be added to the database. But I’m sure it will remain above 90%. Wanted is currently scoring 68% on the tomatometer.

Best Reviewed Mainstream Releases of 2008 (so far)
1. WALL-E 98%
2. Iron Man 93%
3. Kung Fu Panda 88%
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall 86%

Celebrity Film
0

Teens Choose Justin, Miley, Gossip

Posted by Vogt
at June 17, 2008

Gossip Girl Cast

OMFG. Consider the Gossip Girl word sufficiently spread.

The CW hit received a leadingand whopping14 nominations this morning for the Teen Choice 2008 Awards.

Chris Brown checked in with nine nods, Miley Cyrus (who will host the ceremony) scored four nods, and perpetual nominee Justin Timberlake racked up three.

Timberlake is the awards’ winningest artist, having aggregated 21 surfboardsthe event’s laid-back hardware of choicesince 1999.

This is the 10th annual incarnation of the adolescent-friendly kudos, which spreads the wealth among film, TV, music, comedy, sports and fashion. Fox will broadcast the two-hour bonanza Aug. 4.

Musical guests and presenters will be added in the coming months. Here’s the complete list of nominees:

MOVIES

Choice Movie: Action Adventure

Choice Movie: Drama

Choice Movie: Chick Flick

Choice Movie: Bromantic Comedy

Choice Movie: Comedy

Choice Movie: Horror/Thriller

Choice Movie Actor: Drama

Choice Movie Actress: Drama

Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure

Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure

Choice Movie Actor: Comedy

Choice Movie Actress: Comedy

Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller

Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller

Choice Movie: Villain

Choice Movie: Breakout Female

Choice Movie: Breakout Male

TELEVISION

Choice TV Show: Drama

Choice TV Show: Action Adventure

Choice TV Show: Comedy

Choice TV: Animated Show

Choice TV: Reality Dance

Choice TV: Reality Music Competition

Choice TV: Reality Beauty & Makeover

Choice TV: Celebrity Reality

Choice TV: Looking For Love

Choice TV: Reality Competition

Choice TV: Game Show

Choice TV Actor: Drama

Choice TV Actress: Drama

Choice TV Actor: Action Adventure

Choice TV Actress: Action Adventure

Choice TV Actor: Comedy

Choice TV Actress: Comedy

Choice TV: Personality

Choice TV: Breakout Show

Choice TV: Breakout Star Female

Choice TV: Breakout Star Male

Choice TV: Male Reality/Variety Star

Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star

Choice TV: Villain

MUSIC

Choice Music: Single

Choice Hook-Up:

Choice Music: Male Artist

Choice Music: Female Artist

Choice Music: Rap Artist

Choice Music: R&B Artist

Choice Music: Rock Group

Choice Music: Breakout Artist

Breakout Group

Choice Music: Love Song

Choice Music: R&B Track

Choice Music: Rap/Hip-Hop Track

Choice Music: Rock Track

FASHION

Choice Male Hottie

Choice Female Hottie

Choice Red Carpet Fashion Icon Female

Choice Red Carpet Fashion Icon Male

COMEDY

Choice Comedian

SPORTS

Choice Male Athlete

Choice Female Athlete

Choice Action Sports Female

Choice Action Sports Male

Celebrity Stories
0

Who should play Jeannie on the big screen?

Posted by Vogt
at June 13, 2008

I Dream of Jeanie The big screen adaptation of I Dream of Jeannie has been years in the making. Now a script writer is attached, so who knows, maybe we’ll see it in theaters in the next few years (IMDB.com lists a release date of 2010). And something tells me we’ll probably see a belly button or two.

Producer Sid Ganis is bringing Rita Hsiao, who scribed Mulan, on board to rewrite the script for a movie based on the 1960s series. Ganis is psyched for Hsiao’s vision of the character — a Jeannie who’s smack in the middle of modern times.

In a Hollywood Reporter story, Ganis said of Hsiao’s meeting with the producers, “She has a terrific, bright, fresh approach to Jeannie’s story, with a twist and turn along the way. She captured all of our imaginations in the telling of it.”

I’m geeked because Hsiao was also brought on board to rewrite 2007’s Enchanted and 2004’s 13 Going on 30, two of my favorite romantic comedies in recent years.

Ganis has no qualms about the movie taking time to evolve, noting that Jeannie is a “beloved and iconic character,” and they want to get it right and stay loyal to the TV series. Once a script is in place, they’ll work on a director and cast.

Hmmm … let’s think about this. Just for kicks, I looked up Barbara Eden, who played Jeannie in the TV series. She’s been working steadily through the years, and recently had gigs on Army Wives, George Lopez, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I think she’d be great as Jeannie’s mom in the movie. Larry Hagman is still around, too, having done a stint on Nip/Tuck in 2006. Let’s find a role for him in the movie.

As for who should play Jeannie, Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars and Heroes springs to mind. She’s got the sassy thing down cold, her belly button is cute, and she’s already made a successful leap from TV to movies, with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. (At least, I thought it was successful.)

For Major Nelson, that’s a tough one. Maybe Peter Krause? John Krasinski?

Who would you pick to play Jeannie and Major Nelson?

Celebrity TV
0

An update on the new Muppet Movie

Posted by Vogt
at June 9, 2008

The Muppet Show
I’ve been waiting for a good Muppet movie for years, it seems. I hearken back to the days of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, so while Muppet Babies and retelling A Christmas Carol with Muppets is nice and all, I just want me some good old-fashioned classic Muppet antics. So it was with great excitement that I read that the latest Muppet adventure is taking the franchise right back where I loved it. Think of Muppet Movie, Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan as the original Star Wars trilogy. Then someone came along and made a Star Wars Christmas Special and some made-for-TV Ewoks movies, but it just wasn’t the same.

Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, who brought us Forgetting Sarah Marshall, are spearheading this Muppet revival and have just turned in their first script. I like the idea of Segel and Stoller doing this movie because they’ve proven they can do edgy humor. I’m not saying The Muppets should be rated R, but PG or PG-13 even wouldn’t be bad for the franchise. The question is if Disney can allow the Muppets to stray from kids-only fare back to their days of being cutting edge and cool. Then put them back on TV in a weekly show like we’ve been teased about for years!

The new Muppet movie promises to be about the gang getting back together to put on a show and save the studio (hey, that sounds refreshingly familiar actually) and promises to feature all the Muppet heavy-hitters and cameos galore. I just picked up Season Three of the original series (I hope Muppets Tonight gets the DVD treatment eventually, too) and it’s just as goofy and entertaining now as it ever was. I can’t help but think that under the right guiding hands, The Muppet Show could be revived and as fun and relevant today as it ever was. Just think of all the awesome guests they could have, and the fun they could have ragging on reality television, celebrity antics, paparazzi craziness and the list goes on and on. Muppets Tonight was a pretty good ’90s revival, following largely the same format as the original, but it just didn’t seem quite as sharp or witty; Kermit has to be the center of it all for it to work.

Hopefully, this new movie can find an audience in today’s market and does the Muppets proper justice. So many people forget that those original movies, and even the television show, weren’t tailored exclusively for kids. For creator Jim Henson, he had Sesame Street for his kid-oriented material, and The Muppet Show for the rest. In fact, Kermit used to pull double-duty on both, and other Sesame Street characters made appearances on the Muppet shows and the movies. Unfortunately, the two franchises are under different ownership now, so it seems pretty unlikely we’ll see Big Bird trying to hitch a ride in the new movie.

I never really understood why Disney felt the need to take the Muppet franchise in the direction they did once they acquired the original rights to it. Disney has plenty of childrens’ properties, so why turn the Muppets into just another children’s franchise? The original charm of the Muppets was that they lived in “our” world, interacting with people and our environment. Muppets on the subway, or trying to flag a taxi is much funnier than Muppets on a pirate ship to me.

Offering only classic remakes and genre films featuring those characters takes away from what made them work in the first place. I’m not saying never do something like that, but for too many years those films and representations have been the only appearances the Muppets have been making. Kermit and Piggy and all the rest are great because of their established “real” personalities. And as they are all “actors,” they can take on these other roles seamlessly, or not so seamlessly to even more humorous results.

And then big screen success can lead to small screen revival. And if they’re ever looking for a snarky incredibly handsome television blogger to make a guest appearance on the show, I’m just a bicycle or balloon ride away.

Celebrity TV
Next Page