New to See on DVD This Week!

It’s a big week for vampires in the DVD world.  Sure to be tops on many tween wishlists, the latest in the Twilight series is out today.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and his abs are back.  Bella is drawn deeper into the triangle between vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob, while mortals are in danger of a growing dark threat.

Vampires Suck – For once, a timely spoof, Vampires Suck was actually pretty funny in parts, taking off on the Twilight films.  Jenn Proske does a really nice job as the heroine, Becca.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Nicholas Cage gets to be weird, on purpose, as master sorcerer, Balthazar Blake.  He recruits a guy who seems to be an average joe, played by Jay Baruchel.  And, they must defend New York City from arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath.

Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 – Disney is re-releasing the original Fantasia and the update from 2000.  It’s interpretations of great works of classical music, including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mickey Mouse style.

Waking Sleeping Beauty – A documentary about the resurgence of Disney animated films in the 80s.  You get a look at the changes in the art of modern animation, and how it became big business.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Here’s a movie that might have been better off animated.  It’s a live-action adaptation of a beloved illustrated novel by Jeff Kinney.  Zachary Gordon plays the wise-cracking sixth grade student trying to navigate middle school.

Knight and Day – Cameron Diaz stars as a woman who finds her everyday life tangled with a secret agent, Tom Cruise.  They end up on a mission around the world.  Lots of action, at the expense of the script.

Going the Distance – Long distance romance and comedy with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long trying to keep their love alive, as they shuttle back and forth between New York and San Francisco.

The Special Relationship – This is a movie made for HBO, but it’s as good as anything in theaters.  This is a drama about the relationships between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton.  The men are played by Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid, respectively.  It won a few Emmys, last year.

‘The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour’
‘Looney Tunes Super Stars Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth’
‘Looney Tunes Super Stars Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy’
‘Have Gun Will Travel’ Season 5, Vol. 1
‘The Lucy Show’ The Official 3rd Season
‘Parks and Recreation’ Season 2
Sid and Marty Krofft’s Saturday Morning Hits
‘Soldiers of Fortune’ The Complete Series
‘A Touch of Frost’ Season 15

Carol Competition!

I was excited, when I saw the Plain Dealer Saturday, and noticed they’re doing Bracketology with Christmas songs!  This is perfect for Mix 106.5 listeners, I thought. 

They took the top 16 Christmas Carols and have them pitted against each other.  And you can vote in round one, here.  The winners of this week’s survey will move to round two, and that will be in the paper on Saturday, I’m assuming.

The thing that I don’t like is that they don’t appear to have ranked the songs, so you have two heavyweights, like White Christmas and The Christmas Song, head to head in round one.  I’d say they’re 1, 2 or 3 seeds and should have seen each other until later in the tournament.  They also don’t have my all time favorite, O Holy Night.  But, it’s fun to vote.  And, I wanted to let you know about the survey, in case you were too busy to check out the paper Saturday.

 

New in Theaters This Weekend!

Well, we haven’t gotten to a movie yet, but I’m hopeful we will get to the theaters, this weekend.  I am going to see Santaland Diaries at Playhouse Square tonight, but that’s theatre, not the theater, to me.


I have been dying to see Tangled, since I saw the first trailers.  I love Disney movies, and Flynn Rider is maybe the cutest animated dude since Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty.  Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Lewis voice the characters.  It’s an updated Rapunzel story.  She’s spent her entire life in a tower, then meets a bandit and decides to venture into the outside world for the first time to find him.  Tangled is rated PG for brief mild violence.

Get a love story of another type, entirely, with Love and Other Drugs.  This is no Princess Diaries, with Anne Hathaway as a wild girl who won’t let anything tame her free spirit.  Jake Gyllenhaal is the charming pharmaceutical salesman who can’t stop himself from taking on the challenge.  I’m not sure if they keep saying it to get people interested in the movie, or if they’re legitimately trying to warn people, but Jake and Anne keep talking about how there’s a lot of sex in it.  Bonus points for Oliver Platt and Judy Greer as the friends.  Love and Other Drugs is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, pervasive language, and some drug material.

Gosh, I had a chance to see Burlesque at a preview, last week, and I just didn’t get there.  I guess I wasn’t motivated enough, because Christina Aguilera’s singing drives me crazy.  I wonder if she could just sing a melody, she seems to sing all around it, instead.  Anyway, personal bias aside, she’s supposed to be quite good, and Cher is, well, Cher.  You know the story.  Burlesque is about a small-town girl who ventures to Los Angeles to be a star.  She finds her place in a club run by a former dancer.  Written and directed by first timer Steve Antin (a former actor).  The other girls are Julianne Hough, Kristen Bell and Dianna Agron (from Glee).  Burlesque is rated PG-13 for sexual content including several suggestive dance routines, partial nudity, language and some thematic material.


Ummm, there’s Dwayne Johnson on the movie poster, looking all angry and buff and holding a gun.  Does it really matter what the plot is?  Faster is about an ex-con who’s fixing to avenge his brother’s death after they were double-crossed during a heist.  Faster is going to be action and crime and probably a fast car.  Faster is rated R for strong violence, some drug use and language.   

Harrowing, shocking and inspiring true story of Aron Ralston, told in screenplay and direction by Danny Boyle.  James Franco plays the climber who gets trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah.  He has to take some pretty desperate measures to get out.  127 Hours is rated R for language and some disturbing violent content/bloody images.  

 

New to See on DVD This Week!

At my house, we have a tradition of watching a big blockbuster movie on DVD, after all the food and football of Thanksgiving.  This year, we’ve selected The Last Airbender.  I’ve usually seen all the blockbusters, already, but it gives me a chance to watch with my non-theater-going-husband.  Here are some of the other new things you could rent.

Eat Pray Love – One of my favorite movies of the year.  People who were really into the book seemed not to like it so much.  Julia Roberts plays a married woman who realizes her marriage is unhappy, then she takes off on a round-the-world journey to find herself.

Flipped – I don’t know what happened to this movie, it looks adorable, but I don’t think it had a theatrical release.  Rob Reiner directs and adapted the novel, by Wendelin Van Draanen.  It’s about two eighth graders who start to have feelings for each other despite being total opposites.

I’m Still Here – Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix staged a year long fiasco in which Joaquin said he was going to leave acting to become a rapper.  So weird, this is kind of a documentary and kind of a comedy.

The Winning Season – Sam Rockwell stars as a problematic basketball coach who is given a shot at redemption when he’s asked to run his local high school’s girls basketball team.

Madea’s Big Happy Family: The Play – Tyler Perry stars as Madea, writes, directs and invites his friends along.  Shirley’s five kids get schooled in financial difficulties, drugs and, most important, family secrets, by Madea.

A Nanny for Christmas – Emmanuelle Vaugier becomes nanny to busy Cynthia Gibb and her unruly brood.  Dean Cain is Gibbs’ high maintenance client.  Mayhem and romance ensue.
 
12 Men of Christmas – Kristen Chenoweth stars as a high-powered New York publicist who ends up in Montana promoting a charity calendar, after getting dumped by her boss and fiance.

The Search for Santa Paws – Another in the series of Disney’s cute puppy movies.  Santa has lost his memory, so the dogs, an elf team and two children have to stage a rescue.

The Expendables – Action packed action cast, with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li and others playing mercenaries headed to South America.  Their mission is to overthrow a dictator.

The House of the Baskervilles – Made for TV adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story, starring Ian Richardson.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed – British thriller starring Emma Arterton.  She’s kidnapped by two men and held prisoner.

‘7th Heaven’ The 11th and Final Season
‘Batman Beyond’ The Complete Series
‘Deadwood’ The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
‘Durham County’ Season 2
‘Human Weapon’ Complete Season 1 (Blu-ray)
‘Luther’ Season 1
‘Murder, She Wrote’ The Complete 12th Season
‘The The Pillars of the Earth’
‘Space Precinct’ The Complete Series
‘The Tudors’The Complete Series
‘Wagon Train’ The Complete Second Season

Yeah, I want some pie!!

I love all of our Thanksgiving feast.  I insist that we stick to the menu my Grandma Robinson made, because it was her holiday.  I love the tradition of it.  My husband has tried, over the years, to “gourmet up” my Thanksgiving dinner, but I won’t allow it. 

One difference is that I do not continue to make the mincemeat pie.  It was her thing, but no one ate it except Grandma, my Dad and Grandpa.  And, I think the guys only did it to make her happy.  Still, it does feel incomplete to me to not have that second pie.

I think we can all agree most people have pumpkin pie.  But, do you have another one too???

*****start poll*****

Poll: Thanksgiving Pie – Do You Traditionally Serve One In Addition to Pumpkin?

*****end poll*****

Cookie Time!

My food TV Friends are going to be all up in arms about the news that Ace of Cakes has been cancelled by the Food Network.  The upcoming tenth season will be the last (which means that I have six more Christmas/birthday presents for my nephew).  I’m sure Duff is going to be okay.

The good news is, it’s almost time to get the 12 Days of Cookies newsletter from the Food Network.  They send you a recipe, with a delicious looking picture, every day, starting November 29th.  If you haven’t signed up yet, you can check out some of their top holiday cookies and get on their mailing list for the 12 Days here. 

 

Theatre Review: Billy Elliot

People seem to like going to the theatre during the holiday season.  Is it the decorations?  Is it that people have more time off?  Whatever the reason, very cool for Playhouse Square to have a show as hot as Billy Elliot. 

This is the story of a boy in a small mining town in Northern England who finds that he’d rather take ballet than the boxing classes his Dad signed him up for.  It’s set against the mid-80s coal mining strike that prompted violence all over the UK.  Billy Elliot was originally a film in 2000, directed by Stephen Daldry, a little indie that earned 3 Oscar nominations.  Sir Elton John fell in love with the story and helped get it fashioned into a musical.  He did the music, screenwriter Lee Hall did the lyrics.  And, on Broadway, the production won 10 Tony Awards.

So, you go to the show with some expectations!  And, then you see Faith Prince on the bill as Mrs. Wilkinson!  There are five different actor/dancers who play Billy in this national tour.  I would expect the experience is a bit different, depending on which one you see.  I believe we saw Giuseppe Bausilio (not certain, because I was yapping, when they made the announcement).  He was very impressive, with his expressions and emoting, especially during the The Letter (sniff!) and Angry Dance.  I can’t imagine how difficult it is to stage a show with a bunch of real kids running around, trying to create chaos on stage, because it has to be controlled.  But, they do a very nice job.  I particularly liked Michael Zelonky’s energy, as Michael.  

The show is long, with one intermission.  From start to me getting back to my car, it was three hours.  I have to say that I didn’t connect with the material as much as I thought I would.  I thought it was a good show.  But, my friend Linda, and all the people around me, were going wild for it.  PD critic Tony Brown also laid down high praise.  And, with the parallels between our economic realities and what’s being portrayed with the workers on strike for a year, I’d expect to really get into it.  Not sure why, but I was just lukewarm.  If you’re into the show, don’t let my opinion sway you.  I think I was the exception, last night.

 

What's New in Theaters This Weekend?

I know that Megamind has had an heroic grip on the box office, for the last few weeks, but let’s get serious.  We all know what’s going to be on top of the list, come Monday.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is one of the most anticipated films of the year.  And, it’s good, very good.  This is Number 7 in the franchise.  Harry, Ron and Hermione are tracking down and trying to destroy horcruxes, while hiding out from Voldemort’s minions.  Check my review below.  It’s Harry Potter, but it’s dark, and bad things happen to good people/things.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality.


Paul Haggis (In the Valley of Elah, Crash) wrote and directs this crime drama about a married couple finding life is suddenly crazy, after the wife is accused of a murder.  Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks star.  Crowe gets to play manic and tortured.  This might be a sleeper.  The Next Three Days is rated PG-13 for violence, drug material, language, some sexuality and thematic elements.

Fair Game is out in limited release, which is interesting, since it’s got big stars and is an action drama about the real life story of Valerie Plame.  Naomi Watts plays the woman who was revealed to be a CIA agent, after her husband (Sean Penn *sigh) wrote a piece in the New York Times critical of the Bush Administration’s WMD tales.  I didn’t even really understand the real story, maybe the movie will help!  Ahh, who am I kidding?  I just want an excuse to look at a big Sean Penn face for an hour or so.  Fair Game is rated PG-13 for some language.

Are you tired of hearing about global warming yet?  That’s probably a global danger, we have.  This is a A documentary that takes an alternative approach to dealing with the global warming crisis, featuring the ideas of an economist from Denmark who’s been studying global climate change for a decade.  Cool It is rated PG for thematic elements.

 

What’s New in Theaters This Weekend?

I know that Megamind has had an heroic grip on the box office, for the last few weeks, but let’s get serious.  We all know what’s going to be on top of the list, come Monday.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is one of the most anticipated films of the year.  And, it’s good, very good.  This is Number 7 in the franchise.  Harry, Ron and Hermione are tracking down and trying to destroy horcruxes, while hiding out from Voldemort’s minions.  Check my review below.  It’s Harry Potter, but it’s dark, and bad things happen to good people/things.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality.


Paul Haggis (In the Valley of Elah, Crash) wrote and directs this crime drama about a married couple finding life is suddenly crazy, after the wife is accused of a murder.  Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks star.  Crowe gets to play manic and tortured.  This might be a sleeper.  The Next Three Days is rated PG-13 for violence, drug material, language, some sexuality and thematic elements.

Fair Game is out in limited release, which is interesting, since it’s got big stars and is an action drama about the real life story of Valerie Plame.  Naomi Watts plays the woman who was revealed to be a CIA agent, after her husband (Sean Penn *sigh) wrote a piece in the New York Times critical of the Bush Administration’s WMD tales.  I didn’t even really understand the real story, maybe the movie will help!  Ahh, who am I kidding?  I just want an excuse to look at a big Sean Penn face for an hour or so.  Fair Game is rated PG-13 for some language.

Are you tired of hearing about global warming yet?  That’s probably a global danger, we have.  This is a A documentary that takes an alternative approach to dealing with the global warming crisis, featuring the ideas of an economist from Denmark who’s been studying global climate change for a decade.  Cool It is rated PG for thematic elements.

 

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

By the time you get to the seventh movie in a franchise, you know whether you’re going to see it or not.  And, millions and millions of people are down with HP.  Obvs, if you haven’t seen the other Harry Potter movies, this is not going to make a lick of sense to you.  There is some deep mythology going on here.  I read all the books and have seen all the movies, and I still had to drag the book out, after seeing it, to clarify some of the plot points.

As always, I strive for spoiler free reviews.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 opens at midnight.  I was lucky to see a preview screening (Twitter: @FreeMoviesCleve).  If you’re going this weekend, expect every showing to be packed, unless you want to pay a little extra for the XD experience.

If you’ll recall, these are very dark times in the wizarding world.  Voldemort is even more powerful, there are Deatheaters in the Ministry of Magic, muggles are being persecuted.  There are no fun classes and meals at Hogwarts to attend, in fact, we don’t even get to see the school, in this movie.  Harry, Ron, Hermione and all those close to them are on the run, with a bounty on Harry’s head.  And, there are horcruxes to destroy.  I know Harry Potter is marketed at children, but you should know, more characters we care about die in this movie, characters are tortured, there are suspenseful life or death battles, and that snake is horrible!  If you’re taking kids, make sure they’re up for it.

That said, David Yates is the director again, for the last two films.  Dividing Deathly Hallows into two movies is a brilliant marketing move.  Yes, the story can support two films, and yes, HP fans will pay to see both.  It’s a shame they weren’t able to film this one in 3-D, but there are still great effects in Part 1.  The scenery is breathtaking and the cinematography is great, with that blue tinge that captures the dark mood.  It’s incredible that the franchise has been able to retain most of the actors for all the films, and the kids have all grown into wonderful actors.  They ease back into their roles and mannerisms.  I really will miss spending time with them, seeing them into adulthood. 

I, personally, didn’t want to know where the cut off would be.  I can tell you, it totally felt right.  I was thinking: “Well, that’s about all I can handle for today, this is a good spot to end things.”  And, it ended.  I agreed with most of the things I was aware that they changed.  And, I can’t wait to see what’s next.  I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 a 9 out of 10.