This, That and the Oscar Thing

Oscar Notes to You:

Worst show in recent memory and I never admit that. What was missing out of this show was a sense of cinema. They seemed to have forgotten the one key element: the movies. Lauren Bacall who's been in the business since Moses was a Cecil B. DeMille extra and Roger Corman who basically hired everyone in that damn auditorium got the bum's rush in favor of a wretched interpretive dance number and a disposable horror film montage. What a spit in the face for both of them. John Hughes tribute worked though. Steve and Alec? Eh. Some good laughs, but an overall unnecessary teaming. Neil Patrick Harris hitting the wall factor in effect starting...NOW. Speaking of throwaways, how about this year's parade of New Hollywood Dim Bulbs...Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, Sam Worthington and Miley Cyrus...please stay home next year. You obviously didn't want to be there in the first place. And spit out your goddamn gum! And what worked last year...the best actor tributes...slammed the brakes on at full force five this time around. Forest Whitaker's salute to Sandy Bullock regarding another of her forgettable flicks...yawn to the nth degree. I'm not seething because my picks were only about 50%. I'm not that invested in my sparkling predictions, though they have lost their glimmer. Pretty much like this year's Oscarcast. That all said, congratulations to THE HURT LOCKER and Kathryn Bigelow for the big win. You certainly deserved it against AVATAR. I should have taken into account that Hollywood hates James Cameron as much as it does George Lucas so there was no way AVATAR was going to win anything other than technical awards.

And as a side note that I haven't mentioned here before: Best Actor nominee for LOCKER Jeremy Renner is a former Palace Showboat Player, having performed at Pollardville in the last production of THE DRUNKARD as directed by Ray Rustigian.

I am a big fan of Spike Jonzes' adaptation of Maurice Sendak's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, one of the best-and definitely most tolerable-non-animated kid's films in the last decade. Interestingly enough, my wife and I enjoyed it more than our grandson. Could this be more of a kid's movie for adults? And just to go along with the critical consensus, Max Records' lead performance was the finest, most unaffected I've seen, definitely guaranteeing him a spot in The Hollywood Max Museum. The fact that he has no interest to act again makes this a classic case of the one hit wonder.

TV-wise, the red-headed stepchild known as NIP/TUCK ended its sensational run on FX rather quietly, but still managed to eke out some good cheap thrills along the way. May it rest in peace. BIG LOVE has an oddly truncated season, only 9 episodes long, but managed to cram a lot into very few. I don't like the brevity of the episode count so I hope it's not setting some sort of precedent for shorter seasons. Still, the final shot of the finale was well worth the wait and continues to whet the appetite for more to come. Oh, them wacky polygamists!

TV...Good!

Rumors about our dear President Bungle’s love life have flying fast and furiously lately.
One of them involves his alleged affair with the Secretary of State.
Hmmm…seems GW has a favorite side dish.
Condoleeza Rice.
Ba-dump-bump!

The end of the “traditional” TV season brought forth some pleasures great and small, but I can’t think of a better image than the EVERYBODY LOVES CHRIS finale. That included the image of Terry Crewes, playing Chris’ father Julius, singing his own rendition of I WILL SURVIVE. Sure, this is an over-used gag, going back even further than Lil’ Tommy Cruise’s underpants dance in RISKY BUSINESS. Somehow, the twist that it was that big lug Julius, home alone on Father’s Day, dueting with Gloria Gaynor with a hairbrush microphone while standing on his dining room table stage, hit all the right notes and made it unforgettable. You go, Jules!

My beloved SOPRANOS kind of petered out at the end of this season, though I heard a great analogy from cast member Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo). “THE SOPRANOS is so good, it’s in competition with itself.” If some say this season wasn’t as good as others, it’s still better than anything out there. Oh so true. And R.I.P. Vito. We have hardly knew ye. Oh wait a minute. Yeah we did. Ew.

BIG LOVE’s season ender was much more satisfying, though it had to try harder in the position it was in. Any show that can get an audience to care about the creepy lifestyle known as polygamy is aces in my book. I can’t wait for next season. If you can find it, there is a fantastic article about Harry Dean Stanton in the June 2 issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. He truly is Da Man.

HOUSE ended on another high note with another season finale that is better than any episode it has aired the entire year, just as it has before. It seems that the producers prefer the non-traditional (read: "edgy") storylines to finish out the year while trotting out the medical MATLOCKs the rest of the time to appease the AMERICAN IDOL worshippers. Still in all, excellent episode.

As for the summer, RESCUE ME on FX has returned with a vengeance and HBO’s DEADWOOD, in its possible last season. I also look forward to LUCKY LOUIE, possibly a very funny show, and to a much lesser extent, ENTOURAGE. I find those little bastards annoying.

Oh, and on network TV there’s….uh….well, nothing. What else is new?

Blog Jam

With oil prices spiraling out of control, the search for alternative energy sources
continues...

Gee, looks like it's a lock for President Bush (aka GW Bungle) to go down in history as
WORST PRESIDENT EVER. Congrats and kudos, Mr. Pressydent. This guy's so bad, Nixon just popped his head out of his grave and said, "Jesus...and they called me Dick..."

Well, let's go onto the world o' show biz, shall we?

The more I see of Brandon Routh, the new Superman, the more skeptical I’m getting about the whole shebang. Not only does he resemble the love child of Tom Cruise and Jason Schwartzman, but what is the deal with the damn curly-Q? If this movie is costing almost 300 mil, can’t they spend a few bucks to make this nimrod’s hair look a little less like an inverted Alfalfa from OUR GANG? As for Kevin Spacey as Luthor, I feel like I’ve been there, done that. Well, shucks, wasn’t he Dr. Evil in the pre-title sequence of AUSTIN POWERS: GOLDMEMBER? Maybe Kev needs the bucks after the Bobby Darin fiasco. I ain’t no Spacey hater by any means, but the return of Superman to the screen needed a different villain than Lex-baby. Brainiac, perhaps-even a lesser known opponent would have been acceptable. It worked pretty decently for Batman last year. Ah, me. What’s an aging geek to do?

TV has perked up once again with the return of THE SOPRANOS and HBO’s latest triumph, BIG LOVE. Who knew one could be so enthusiastic about a Bill Paxton show? This is a gem in the making, the story of polygamists walking the earth among us-or another version of I LED THREE LIVES retitled I WED THREE BRIDES. Paxton is married to Jeanne Trippelhorn, Chloe Sevigny and Gennifer Godwin and, well, let’s just say wackiness ensues! This is one fine damn cast. Along with the leads, you get Harry Dean Stanton, who I thought dropped off the edge of the earth, as the smarmy cult leader, the great Mary Kay Place, and the dynamic duo of Bruce Dern and Grace Zabriskie as Paxton’s parents. The best HBO shows involve sort of variation on the family, whether it’s THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, ROME, even, to some extent to THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW. BIG LOVE is no exception, taking what could have been a one-note sitcom premise and instead taking a willing audience for a nice bumpy ride in the country. What fun.

Other shows worth my interest:
The Travel Channel’s ANTHONY BOURDAIN: NO RESERVATIONS
Round the world hi jinks with everybody’s favorite new alcoholic ex-junkie. Yippee!

E’s THE SOUP
A reworking of the old TALK SOUP show with Joel McHale. Much better than VH-1’s BEST WEEK EVER. Snide, snarky, snotty…and other adjectives that begin with sn…also balls out funny.

My friend, Grant-Lee Phillips (see SPECIAL GUEST STAR: LARAINE NEWMAN) who has been playing the troubadour character on THE GILMORE GIRLS since its first
season, will be featured in this May 9 finale. According to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Grant will open the Stars Hollow Troubalooza, a town concert that will be a prominent part of the episode that will also include Neil Young and Sonic Youth. That’s my boy!

Well, that's all for now. After all, this is a blog, not a goddamn manifesto.