Wednesday, February 24, 2010

4 Reasons Why "The Vampire Diaries" is Must Watch T.V

So, I already posted my thoughts on "The Vampire Diaries", but the show has grown so much so that I feel it deserves another post on how awesome it is. Here is why it is must watch t.v...

1. The recently announced new cast members - A few weeks ago, they announced that Melinda Clarke - the amazing Julie Cooper (Nichols, Cooper, Atwood?) from The O.C. - would be joining the show. How could it get any better than that? Right? Well, get ready - yesterday they announced that one of my favorite television actors David Anders - Super hot Sark from Alias - would also be joining the cast. BEST CASTING DIRECTOR EVER. He/she needs to win some sort of award - there are awards for casting, right?

2. The pace of the show - it moves so quickly, you can't miss a second. They could have milked the whole "opening of the tomb" for the rest of the season, instead they opened it rather quickly only to discover Katherine wasn't in it. Now the real questions remain - where is she? and what will Damon do when he finds her? I feel like it is learning from the mistakes of other shows (Lost, Heroes etc) by answering enough questions every episode to make the audience more intrigued (and less annoyed/confused). Remember the first season of Gossip Girl, how you had to watch the entire season to find out Serena's big secret and then it wasn't even that interesting? Yah. This show is nothing like that.

3. The love triangle - I love Elena and Stefan together, but I won't be terribly upset if Elena and Damon hook up. I think they did a great job an creating believable chemistry and tension between the characters as opposed to Twilight (oh by the way...I finally watched Twilight and was incredibly disappointed! My hatred of the film was mostly due to Kristen Stewart and her unbearable acting and the lack of chemistry between her and Rob - who barely even had scenes together before they suddenly fell in love. I am sorry, but if someone I barely knew told me that he is a vampire I would not go with him into the woods by myself - no matter how hot he is - which Rob is not at all hot. o.k my Twilight rant is done for now). Plus, if the triangle aspect of the show is uninteresting to you - then there are several sub-plots going on that are all equally entertaining.

4. Paul Wesley keeps getting hotter - and skinnier (which is not necessarily a good thing - he has like 0% body fat, which can't be healthy). But more than his physical hotness - I think his acting is getting better which is making him hotter. Plus, he has had more scenes as a vampire where he gets to be all bad ass which (sadly) is super sexy. Is it March 25th yet??

Spring Film Preview: The 10 Films That I Am Looking Forward To

I am not very excited by the choices of films this Spring, but I managed to find 10 films that I might check out in the theaters...

1. Alice in Wonderland - 3/5 - I honestly am not a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, I am not even sure if I know the whole story. Yet, I am excited by this film because I am a big fan of practically every actor involved in the film and Tim Burton is sure to bring originality to it. I am a little upset that it is being presented in 3-D (as is what seems like every other film this year!!) - I am not sure it will be worth suffering an inevitable headache afterwords. Hopefully it will still be worth seeing on a plain ole' 2D screen.

2. Green Zone - 3/12 - Another Iraq war film, this one about a U.S Army officer going rogue to search for WOMD's - pretty much a stale subject for a film, but luckily Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are sure to give us a kick-ass action flick.

3. Repo Men - 3/19 - The trailer is pretty awesome, the story sounds pretty original (although I heard it is just a copy of Repo! The Genetic Opera - which I haven't seen) and Jude Law is just pretty. I am there.

4. The Bounty Hunter - 3/19 - I haven't seen the trailer yet (maybe I should watch it after I finish this post...) but a friend of mine told me that it is laughably awful. Jenifer Aniston tends to make pretty crappy films (get back to television A.S.A.P!) - I actually can't think of one film of hers that I actually enjoyed. However, I have enjoyed Gerard Butler in every film he has been in (even the bad ones) - so that is reason enough for me to see the film.

5. Greenberg - 3/26 - I have seen the trailer several times (enough already!) and I think it looks like it is trying a little too hard. But I think it is a good move for Ben Stiller to move past gross-out humor and/or family friendly humor to an actual film about adults. Plus in one scene of the trailer I spotted my new crush, Dave Franco - yes, James Franco's younger brother. He is absolutely hysterical on the new Scrubs (probably the only reason that I have continued to watch it). Hopefully, he will launch to stardom soon.

6. Chloe - 3/26 - I can't tell for sure yet if I actually want to see this film, or if I am just impressed with the creepiness of the trailer. The plot is interesting if done well, if not done well - it probably should have been a Lifetime movie.

7. Clash of the Titans - 4/2 - 3 reasons I am excited: 1. It is based on the Greek mythological character, Perseus (One of my favorite characters - he is the one responsible for killing Medusa!) . 2. It stars Sam Worthington. 3. The original film - made almost 30 years ago- was awesome, so with all the advance in technology this film has to be even more so (at least in theory...).

8. Date Night - 4/9 - Probably going to be a mediocre film, but Steve Carell and Tina Fey together has to be at least moderately funny. Plus, if you check out the IMDB page for the film - there is a crazy amount of well-known actors listed, so I am intrigued.

9. MacGruber - 4/26 - o.k I am sort of joking. I can't believe they actually spent money making this awful SNL sketch into a film, but it has Ryan Phillippe in it and I am hoping he shows his comedic skills (he can be really funny...watch Homegrown). I am also hoping for a surprise cameo by Shia LaBeouf as MacGruber's son.

10. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - 4/26 - Speaking of Shia...He is obviously the ONLY reason I will see this film. I am not sure if I have seen the original, if I have obviously it wasn't that good because I don't remember it. I guess I should add it to my Netflix queue. I have to admit the trailer looks downright dumb and the title of the film is not doing it any favors.

p.s - I just remembered 2 Jennifer Aniston films that I liked - "The Break-up" and "Office Space". But I still stand firm that she makes bad films.

3 Reasons I did not like "Crazy Heart"

I watched "Crazy Heart" about a month ago and it was so mundane that I barely remember it enough to write this post. I do remember being impressed with Jeff Bridges - which is the sole reason I went to see this film (and the sole reason that I would recommend it to anyone). However, I do not believe that his performance is better than his fellow nominees this awards season. Here are reasons that I did not like the film.

1. I don't enjoy country music - It is not that the music was bad or anything - I actually enjoyed most of the songs, however they all sounded exactly the same! Which is the problem that I have with this type of music.

2. The story was bland and predictable - Has-been singer/songwriter on the verge of drinking himself to an early grave hits rock bottom, discovers the error of his ways and recovers. That is the whole story.

3. The supporting cast - I will give Maggie Gyllenhaal some credit for making her love for "Bad Blake" realistic (he was all kinds of unappealing), but I don't think she deserves an Oscar nomination for it! Since she was overlooked by Oscar for her fantastic performances in Sherrybaby and Secretary, I wont protest her nomination too much. My real problem was with Colin Farrell (you know from this blog that I am usually a big supporter). I don't know if it was necessarily his fault or if he was just miscast. I know he can do an American accent (as seen in Tigerland) but his accent in this film was almost unbearable.