Young Victoria (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2009). Hard to make all the machinations of the British royal family history undramatic, but this movie gives it a shot. Emily Blunt, able as always, stars. (full review 12/25)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009). There’s a point in the third act of this movie where you think the Screenwriting 101 character arc is actually going to take over; thankfully, not exactly. Nice roles for Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick. (full review 12/4)

10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999). Had to watch this again. Thought it was bad, had wiped most of it away. Even for the good performers, the timing’s all off, the reactions are wrong. Only the location – crazy Stadium High School in Tacoma – is right.

Vineri nu prea aveam ce face, asa ca am intrat pe www.tvblog.ro si mi-am ales cateva seriale la care sa ma uit, care sunt la inceput de drum. Deja ma uitam la Gossip Girl, mi-am mai ales FlashForward, 10 Things I Hate About You si The Vampire Diaries. Si le recomand pe toate, din inima.

Sa incepem cu 10 Things I Hate About You, pentru ca despre GG si FF am vorbit.

Nu am sa vorbesc despre serial. Am sa spun cum mi se pare.

Cred ca este un serial.. relaxant. E cateodata amuzant, cateodata enervant. Din serialul acesta, cei mai speciali, mai observabili mi se par Pat si Kat, evident. Restul… de umplutura. Aceleasi lucruri ca in toate filmele/serialele cu adolescenti.

Este un film cu acelasi nume, pe care tot spun ca am sa-l vad. Il am deja pe calculator, dar nu prea am cand. Si nu din cauza temelor. M-am uitat in ultima vreme cam mult la seriale.

Deci cam asta e parerea mea. Mi-am luat toate episoadele, pana unde au ajuns, adica 10 si le-am vazut in doua zile . La fel ca si FF. Si-mi pare rau ca trebuie sa astept pana pe 3 decembrie pentru FF. A devenit serialul nr. 1 pe lista mea.

Sa trecem mai departe, The Vampire Diaries.

Sincer, imi place foarte mult acest serial, desi seamana putintel cu Twilight, pe care il urasc.

La inceput ziceam : “Nu, nu seamana deloc cu Twilight. Nici nu se poate compara”. Dar am inceput sa-mi dau seama ca are unele chestii comune. Si anume : evident, vampirii ; fata care se indragosteste de vampir si care nu afla pana la un moment dat ca e vampir ; faptul ca Stephen(Paul Wesley) nu se hraneste cu oameni, ca si Edward ; si cred ca mai sunt una,doua, acum nu-mi aduc aminte…

Oricum, imi plac foarte mult personajele si actorii/actritele care le interpreteaza. Asta e cel mai important. Cei alesi pentru roluri si-au intrat foarte bine in pielea personajelor, parerea mea. Imi place foarte mult de Damon(Ian Somerhalder), care e foarte rau. Deobicei urasc personajele negative, chiar daca sunt frumoase/frumosi. Dar Damon parca, nu stiu, are ceva aparte. Se vede ca dicolo de rautatea lui exista si o farama de bunatate, chiar daca el nu vrea sa se vada asta.

Iar actrita care o interpreteaza pe Elena, Nina Dobrev, mi se pare ca e foarte draguta. Si din nou, asta conteaza pentru mine. Pentru ca, motivul pentru care urasc Twilight, sunt actorii aia atat de prost alesi. Kristen Stewart mi se pare de-a dreptul enervanta, cu fata aia a ei de cere pumni.

Apropo de Twilight, nu mi se pare cine stie ce horror. Cand am vazut Interviu cu un vampir (cu Brad Pitt si Tom Cruise) muream de frica. Abia ma uitam, stateam cu mainile la ochi. Si chiar asa, nu l-am vazut pe tot. Doar nu era sa stau singura, la parter, dupa 12 noaptea, sa ma uit la cel mai horror film cu vampiri. Si acuma imi aduc aminte si am reflexe. )

Am tresarit de cateva ori si la The Vampire Diaries. Asa ca pot sa zic ca are un pic mai mult horror in el decat Twilight, care mi se pare ca nu are deloc. Bine, nu horror ca la Interviu cu un vampir, dar merge si asa.

A! Si vis-a-vis de actorul care il interpreteaza pe Damon, Ian Somerhalder, mi se pare ca seamana putin cu Chace Crawford din GG, voua nu? Defapt, are unele momente in care seamana cu Chace. Unele expresii ale fetei.

La The Vampire Diaries nu am vazut decat primele 4 episoade.Asa ca o iau mai usor pana la 10, unul pe zi, ca sa am timp sa ajung la episodul 11, ca altfel n-am rabdare. 

Va las.

Bisous!

We stumbled across this hilarious article on Cracked.com entitled “7 Popular ‘Chick Flicks’ That Secretly Hate Women”—and what a loaded title that is!

The writer takes a long, hard look at 7 very popular romantic comedies and why they have underlying themes of misogyny towards the very gender they’re supposed to attract.

The entire list is hysterical but our fave is the brutal recap of the Kate Hudson flick How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days:

By presenting us with a heroine who has the emotional empathy of Josef Mengele, that’s how. This is a character who tortures her fake lover with the subtlety of a sadistic Freddy Krueger/Leatherface/Edward Cullen hybrid; only instead of finger-knifing him in his dreams, chainsawing his face off or psychologically torturing him with her dazzlety, this playa full-on acts like a girl for ten whole days. And in this movie, here’s how a girl acts: she talks during a movie, leaves tampons in his apartment, sings Carly Simon songs, spontaneously becomes a vegetarian, makes her man miss the big game and publicly accuses him of being the source of her eating disorder. Hudson has to learn and fake all of this normal female behavior, since she’s much more special and deeper than the average woman. And we know this because she cares about politics and basketball, not like most women who only care about boys and shoes.

Burn! Oh and fear not—Twilight made the list too, of course!

It’s interesting reading this perspective on a group of “chick flicks” all at the same time. It’s not that these ideas have never crossed our own minds while indulging in the romantic comedy of the moment, but we suppose most people just gloss over it in the assumption that it’s not supposed to be a movie you take seriously anyway.

One has to wonder of course, how many of these movies (and others in the romantic comedy genre) had any women writers at all working on them. Our recent look into the sad lack of female writers in late night TV and a new report stating the same thing about all TV in general make us tend to think no.

Maybe if you’re trying to write movie or television FOR women, it would help to have some more females on board? Or maybe the problem really lies in the attempt to segregate certain movies for women at all. We’re well aware of demographics and why they’re need for marketing issues, but we can’t help but be a tiny bit insulted when you break down the elements of what Hollywood really believes appeals to all women—and the female stereotypes that are presented in most of these movies for us innocent women folk.

But then again, Hollywood also seems to believe men are only interested in dumb, mind-numbing violence and action and talking robots. Maybe we’re all just walking dollar signs to them, men and women alike. Yay equality!

Just a quick update.

Class chalet was, in the nicest possible way, terrible. Seriously, it’s like the bad aftertaste in your mouth, except, it lasts too long. Also, peishan transmitted her damn cold to me. Ugh.

Streaming results are out! And ohmagahd, I got into my first choice! AND, I get to be in the same class as Jass! (: We’re in 3 CR together ._.

There’s band tmr, and joy of joys I’ve left my scores at home.

Oh, this has been a jolly week-start indeed.

That’s about it.

Oh! Yes, I would just like to say I’m a new shipper of kat/patrick on 10 things I hate about you. They’re another one of those too-awesome tv canon ships, that are actually pretty rare. (:
Also, Ethan Peck is seriously hot (He’s the grandson of Gregory Peck, most notable for his role on TKMK as Atticus Finch) and Lindsey Shaw (Ned’s Declassified School Survival Tips) is gorgeous, so they make a pretty radical couple.

So, here, I sign off.

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“I hate the way you talk to me,
and the way you cut your hair.

I hate the way you drive my car,
I hate it when you stare.

I hate your big dumb combat boots
and the way you read my mind.

I hate you so much it makes me sick,
it even makes me rhyme.

I hate the way you’re always right,
I hate it when you lie.

I hate it when you make me laugh,
even worse when you make me cry.

I hate it when you’re not around,
and the fact that you didn’t call.

But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you,
not even close,
not even a little bit,

not even at all.”

10 Things I Hate about You,
from “10 Things I Hate about You”, 1999.

Cameron: She never wanted me. She wanted Joey the whole time.
Patrick: Cameron, do you like the girl?
Cameron: Yeah.
Patrick: Yeah, and is she worth all this trouble?
Cameron: Well, I thought she was, but you know, I…
Patrick: Well, she is or she isn’t. See first of all, Joey is not half the man you are. Secondly, don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want.   Go for it.

Watch this scene!

10 things on IMDB

David Krumholtz. Most of you may know him as Goldstein, the pot-smoking Jew from the Harold and Kumar franchise, or as Michael, Cameron’s best friend in 10 Things I Hate About You. To me, Krumholtz will always be known as Joel Glicker, sheet-white asthmatic lover to Wednesday from the Adams Family Values (1993).

Krumholtz has been working steadily since he began acting in 1993 with Life with Mikey. He has appeared in movies and shows like Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Freaks and Geeks (1999), Undeclared (2001), The Santa Clause (1994), Ray (2004), Tenacious D. Pick of Destiny (2006), Superbad (2007), and the recent cinematic failure I Love You Man (2009). Since 2005, he has worked as the dashing detective mathematician Charlie on CBS’s Numb3rs.

As a primary member of the Judd Apatow gang you would think that Krumholtz’s future seems promising; but, aside from Numb3rs no upcoming projects are rumored. I am not prepared for a life without D.K..

David , I miss your childlike use of sarcastic schtick, your pale lanky body and your long curly eternally wet black locks.

David Krumholtz, I’m beginning to miss your face-Shassie

This weekend the Austin Film Festival hosted tons of directors, writers, actors for a few days of new material and plenty of networking.  My roommate, Scott Perry is an intern for the festival and was in charge of helping a couple visitors around town.  One of those people was Kirsten Smith.  Smith wrote “10 Things I Hate About You,” “House Bunny,” “Legally Blonde,” and most recently she produced “Whip It”.  My roommate was a little nervous about meeting her, because she has made it in the business that he hopes to go into.

Those feelings were immediately gone after his first day hanging out with Smith.  Scott is an intern, so naturally he doesn’t know everything about the festival or about the material being presented.  But what he did know, was how to have a conversation.  Smith told him that she was grateful she had been given someone to talk to while she was in Austin.  He came home telling us how cool Smith was and how he had had a lot of fun hanging out with her the whole day.  He was impressed with how easily she became comfortable in a city she had only been in for a day or two.

She surprised a house full of three college guys her second night here by taking Scott to Whole Foods, where she bought cheese, bread, crackers, and wine for Scott. And boy were those treats appreciated.  So we wanted to say thank you to Kirsten Smith, for making an internship worth while for a young intern, and for making the bellies of a few college students a little satisfied.

I’ve been rating and reviewing movies on Rotten Tomatoes. Movies reviewed include Jumper (2008), The Secret Garden (1993) and The Young Victoria (2009). I also have other movies on there that I’ve rated but not yet reviewed, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), Educating Rita (1983), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Pride and Prejudice (2005). I’ll be quite active on there in the near future adding as many movies in my DVD collection as possible, and any new ones that I see.

WHY did he have to die? I’m seeing The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus soon. It was his last movie ever.

These were some of the other movies he was in that I’ve seen.

“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”

Sad, but I feel like that quote from 10 Things I Hate About You pretty well somes up how I feel right now. I have alot going on… ALOT. I’m working two jobs (for the time being), both of which are rather demanding of my time; I’m going to school full-time; I’m trying to maintain some social contact with people; and I have a metric ton of reading, studying, paper writing, and homework to get finished. But, with all that, I don’t feel quite as overwhelmed as logic and reason and past experience seem to dictate I should be.

Perhaps I’m in denial? The sad truth of how many more sleepless nights I have to look forward to until mid-November simply hasn’t sunken in yet? Yep, I think that’s it.

And now for something entirely different:

Cuddling on my bed.

When I first watched the movie I actually liked it pretty much.
I always find the Shakespeare hate against love interesting and amusing.
So I was bewitched by the idea of a modern reading of “The taming of the Srew”. The cast was pretty good and although it was really mixed up with many stereotypes… it was sweet, nice and very … .

Unfortunately American industry enjoy using a successful line until it falls and begs for mercy.
Sorry babe, no mercy for you.

A TV show called “10 things I hate about” was launched last year and boy it sucked so hard.
In fact it was so bad that I am actually creating a new category about bad movies, tv shows and books because of it.

Why is the show so bad?

Well… We deal with all the stereotypes we could get.
We have the classical dichotomy between the two sisters Bianca and Katherina.

While Bianca is sweet, nice, blond, light and all the features that are stereotyped as likable in women, she is also portrait as little stupid, shallow and superficial. With is of course… the mass idea about pretty women. That the are all air headed. Her relations with her best friend (who is just in love with her and this is the reason he is communicating with her) are again the way that pretty girls use boys with their charms but doesn’t care for them at all, her coping with the school clique… and of course the evil cheerleader.

On the other hand…
Katherina is dark haired, with dark eyes. Also she is not likable in the same way. She definitely has an opinion.
She is a feminist with all the stereotypical implantation about it. The idea is that she cares about the world but nothing in her actions shows it. She is as shallow and close-minded as Bianca. All she is interested is herself and her set of  “i-am-better-than-you”.
Which is again the classic portrayal of feminism.

After putting the nonsense about feminism aside… Katherina is absolutely inconsistent.
Her affections with Patrick Verona is old as patriarchy.
We are shown the male who will tame the shrew.
And he did.

We are tried to be convinced that she is really stubborn but her mind is easily changed from the two dominant males in her life.
Her father… Oh, Freud
And “not-her-boyfriend” Patrick Verona.
The untold idea in the show… that Katherina is lonely and bitter… and all she needs in life is a biker boy who is silent and manly, who will make her happy.
All the things she is against – patriarchy, patronizing, sexual objectifying of women suddenly go away when she is told that Patrick wants to see her in a dress.
And brother does he receives the dress he wants.
And this is just ONE example.

Even if I put these things aside…
There is not even one strong female role who isn’t comical.
Which is not just making fun of feminism and women at all but implying that in fact women are just pretending to be smart, educated or capable do take care for themselves… They only want a boyfriend and nothing more.

The show in a sentence.
It doesn’t say anything new but it is repeating the old stuff in really uninteresting way.

Yes… somebody can say that I am searching too much in a sitcom…
Maybe. But I prefer my humor well-done.

It’s that time again! Every week, we here at [Insert Pop Culture Reference] each like to share something that we loved this week. Because being a fan is all about spreading the love, and we’re all big fans of well, pretty much everything under the sun. Comment and tell us what you’ve been loving this week!

Angel: My love for the week has actually been building for a long time. When Disney first announced (after the appointment of Pixar’s John Lasseter to Principal Creative Adviser for Disney Animation) that they’d be going back to a 2-D format and producing an animated feature that would not only showcase the first black Disney princess but also bring back the directors of Aladdin, I was already salivating. I’d been eagerly watching every teaser trailer for The Princess and the Frog since before the name was changed from The Frog Princess, and I’m still counting down until when it hits theaters this winter.

This week, the first five minutes of the film leaked online.

I feel like I’m five years old again. I’m certainly not expecting the film to live up to the Disney films of my childhood (we’re talking Aladdin, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid era), but it definitely looks like it has the potential to come close.

Lina: My love of this week came up and took me by surprise.  As a lover of the original movie and strong advocate of the fact that this show probably never should have been made in the first place, having seen it I can’t say that I hate it. While not high art in the slightest, 10 Things I Hate About You is cute and a frothy, but still has the pop-culture and real world news ribboning that makes it fun and I kind of can’t help but wonder why I didn’t watch it sooner.  Part of this is the fact that I don’t actually watch the ABC Family channel (neither does my fourteen year old sister, which says a lot about that channel as a whole) but given the fact that when I watched the first season of their original series Greek and found it to be light and cute and just what I needed to get me through finals I figured it couldn’t be all bad. Sure it is missing some of the charm of the original (mostly in the form of the edginess) but the literal, straight-from-Shakepeare that was the 1999 film has found new life in this series and a new audience in people who will want to watch the movie (or who loved the movie and will watch the series). I don’t see them as being the same thing, but I like them both separately. Ethan Peck (who plays the TV series’ resident bad boy Patrick Verona) will never be Heath Ledger but he doesn’t try to be which is important and frankly, he’s cute enough all by himself. The charm and the enthusiasm these actors bring to their roles more than make up for the sometimes cringe-worthy elements of the script. Which says a little can go a long way.

Leshia: X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #1 dropped this week, the first part in a two-part miniseries continuing the adventures of everyone’s favourite ’50s-era supergroup.

Not the first time Namora's rocked the undead look

It was essentially a glorified issue #12 that happened to also star the X-Men, but that’s certainly not a bad thing if it manages to raise the team’s profile some.  The subplot with Venus, for example, is going to make little to no sense to anyone not already following the team’s adventures, or at least keeping track of things over in Incredible Hercules (another of the very few must-read titles Marvel’s currently putting out).  Still, the story hits all the right beats, and Jeff Parker does a great job of handling the giant dogpile of mutants currently bumming around Utopia island, even putting his own spin on Uncanny X-Men’s ubiquitious “Fraptions”.  The storyline’s very clearly one meant to be wrapped up in all of one more issue while setting the stage for the Agents backup stories in Hercules, but it’s good news for anyone still mourning the ongoing series’ cancellation.  It’s also interesting seeing the X-Men going up against the team that’s currently occupying the “weird” niche in the Marvel universe that they pretty much created back in the day.  There’s even a fun little backup story of dubious canonicity featuring the First Class X-Men team, a nice callback to some of Parker’s earlier work (as well as awesome oldschool costumes for the Agents).  Fingers crossed that all this exposure in other titles can one day pave the way for a volume 3 with Marvel’s quirkiest, weirdest, most downright fun team.

SAMANTHA is an accomplished performing ASCAP writer, who’s original songs and stellar vocals can currently be heard on such hit TV shows as the CW’s “Gossip Girl,” “Life Is Wild,” also MTV’s “Laguna Beach,” “Punked,” “My Super Sweet Sixteen” and ABC’s “10 Things I Hate About You.” Sam has also written, sung and placed original songs for the Warner Telepictures and ABC film and television library’s with her song “See You Never” released March 2009 on the new WB Telepictures Music  (Volume 1) “Think Inside The Box.” Sam has also leant her versatile vocals to Sony Playstation and Electronic Arts huge hits “God of War,” “Twisted Metal Black,” “Wild Arm’s 3,” and “Everything Or Nothing” and has the distinction of being invited to join the Esteemed Leonard Cohen circle, embarking on an exciting project as one of his two backup vocalists for a project in late 2006. A powerhouse singer, writer and live performer, currently residing in Nashville TN, Sam continues to grow and explore her georgous sonic landscape on her brand new self titlted  Pop/Electronica CD that has just  been licensed in it’s entirety to MTV. Add accomplished Voice-Over Artist with an international following for her nominated animation work as the lead on the smash cartoon series “JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS” guest staring roles on “THE TRANSFORMERS” and her work as the British voice of a young Peter Pan’s mother in Steven Spielberg’s feature film “HOOK” Sam looks forward to continuing to lend her Vocal, Voice-Over and Song-Writing prowess to many more exciting projects to come. Be sure to catch Samantha Saturday, October 17 at the 2009 Comic and Horror Festival in Nashville, TN. For some TRULY OUTRAGEOUS info on Samantha, be sure to visit: http://www.samanthanewark.com.

1. Who inspired you to become a performer? When I was a little kid living in South Africa, I was introduced to this child star from Scotland named Lena Zavaroni. I knew from the tips of my toes and all of my being that I wanted to sing and have a career in show business. She was a huge inspiration and the idea of following in her footsteps lit me up from the inside.

2. Who is the one person you haven’t worked with that you would like to? I would love to do guest vocals on a Massive Attack album and maybe something live with them too. It would be so amazing to work with those guys.

3. Do you have any strange or unusual talent that no one knows about? I can sing the names of all 50 states in alphabetical order.

4. What is the weirdest thing you’ve read about yourself and where did you read it? At school someone slipped a note in my locker and told me I had a big ass and then put hearts and kisses. I guess it was a compliment, but I never knew who wrote it and if they were being mean or liked me. Nothing weird has been written that I know about in the press so far.

5. Favorite website? I’m kind of addicted to Facebook right now and I love to Google random stuff.

6. Favorite musician/singer? For me, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, and k.d. Lang are three of m y favorite singers and performers. I’m a fan of so many different genre’s of music. The CD’s that happen to be in my car right now are Lady Gaga, Goldfrapp, & Madonna. I have a super long list of musicians I’m a fan of on my Myspace page from The Raconteurs to Ricky Lee Jones to Nine Inch Nails.

7. Favorite TV Show Theme Song? The “Jem” theme song of course

8. Favorite kind of shoes? I’m all about the high heels, if I could get away with wearing them to work out in I would. I love the whole platform look that is in right now, much easier to last in and I LOVE, LOVE BOOTS!!!!

9. Favorite pastime? I’m a bonafied porch monkey, any excuse to hang out with people I love and sit on the back deck with some red wine or a chocolate martini. I also love those days when it’s raining and you have no place in particular that you have to be and you can just sit in bed with the window open a little and hear the rain and watch a marathon of “Law & Order: SVU” or “America’s Next Top Model.”

10. Superman or Wonder Woman? Wonder Woman, I’m all about girl power.

FlashForward: Channel 5 (Recorded 28th Sept Watched 4th Oct)

This was the first episode of a new high concept US drama series in which the entire planet’s population blacks out for two minutes (and 17 seconds) and has a vision of their future.  It’s an intriguing premise, but my main question during the show was whether that glamorous blonde model lady was really likely to be a terrorist.  I don’t want to judge a book by its cover, but I’m guessing it wasn’t very likely.

And the plot itself? Well, the writers have a difficult job to achieve in the opening episode of these kind of programmes as they have to set the scene and establish the concept, as well as trying to make an hour of gripping television.  I’m not entirely sure that they succeeded, and none of the characters are compelling at the moment, but it’s definitely interesting enough for me to give it time to bed in.

I have to give a special mention to the FBI agent who, within a few hours, was able to check every CCTV camera in the world, and then pick out a single person in a sports arena, who wasn’t even visible.  That’s quite an impressive morning’s work.

10 Things I Hate About You: Fiver (R 30th Sept W 4th Oct)

After watching the first episode, last week, it took less than a minute of this second episode before I decided that I really shouldn’t be watching this and deleted it.  There’s nothing wrong with it per se, I’m just very much in the wrong demographic, and I felt slightly wrong for even having recorded it.

Life: ITV3 (R 30th W 4th Oct)

‘3 Women’ – Charlie has a new (temporary) partner, so I can only assume that Sarah Shahi is still on maternity leave.  Having written that last sentence, I realised that I’m just assuming, so I did a quick google and she really was pregnant. Maybe I really should be a detective.

Perhaps I should make a comment on the programme itself while I’m here.  Although, I don’t really have a great deal to say about it.  It’s an enjoyable enough hour of  television, but I could honestly take it or leave it.  The most interesting thing about it is the way that the tone of the show has shifted so much since the start of season one that you’d barely know it was the same series.

Eastbound and Down: FX (R 1st Oct W 5th Oct)

This was the first episode of a new comedy series that one of the broadsheets compared favourably with Alan Partridge and Curb Your Enthusiasm.  In which case, it was was almost inevitable that it was going to disappoint, and it did.  I found it staggeringly unfunny.

It’s the story of Kenny Powers, an egotistical and bankrupt (morally and financially), former baseball star, who returns to his home town.  There’s a knack to being a successful unlikeable comedy character; you have to be either unlikeable but somehow still likeable or unlikeable but really funny.  Powers is neither, he’s  just crass but boring (crass and funny would have been more than OK).  Strangely, I’ll probably give this another go; sometimes when a comedy is ‘different’ it can take you a while to tune in to it.  Let’s hope for a drastic improvement then.

Important Things with Demetri Martin:  E4 (R 1st Oct W 5th Oct)

Episode 2.  I really wanted to like it.  I didn’t.  I deleted it.

How Not To Live Your Life: BBC HD (R 6th Oct W 7th Oct)

‘Don Goes Gay’ – This could have been another stereotypical, ‘let’s laugh at the gays’, half hour of comedy, but it ended up being the funniest episode yet.  Instead of being freaked out by someone assuming he was gay, Don decided that he must be gay and fully embraced becoming a ‘gayman’.  The results were hilarious and were clearly poking fun at his preconceptions of what it meant to be gay.

I have watched a few movies recently and thought that the actor in it has a fantastic career ahead of them so decided to make a top 10 list of those actors. With a few reasons why  I think they will keep progressing and go on to do great things (potentially), from the movies I have seen them in. I decided to define the young actor, as an actor under the age of 30.

10. Robert Pattinson

Age: 23

 Will Robert ever be able to get away from Edward Cullen? Its going to be a massive task especially as the Twilight series is still going to go on for another two installments after New Moon is released in November. I am sure only time will tell as Robert gets older and depending on the choices of movies he makes.

9. Shia Labeouf

Age: 23

Shia has already been touted the next big thing for a few years now and he still only 23 years old. With Transformers being a big box office hit, then going on to star in the sequel with Disturbia and Eagle Eye in between. He so far has seemed to go a bit more towards the action/thriller genre so will be interesting to see what he does in the next few years. He is currently filming Wall Street 2 which should be a different direction for him, I will very much look forward to seeing that one.

8. Channing Tatum

Age: 29

 First came to attention in Step Up and Shes the Man, he has headlined to films this year, G.I. Joe and Fighting (I am yet to see both of these) but I still think Channing has a lot of potential on the acting front. I really did totally fall in love with him in She’s the Man as he was just so lovely in it, especially as he was a footballer as well which kinda helped.

7. Freddie Highmore

Age: 17

 The youngest actor in the list who will soon have to attempt the difficult task of going from child star to actor. But if his young performances are anything to go by he has a very bright future. Staring with Johnny Depp twice in  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland. The later of which showed what a bright young talent he is.

6. Michael Cera

Age: 21

 The geeky cute guy you cannot help but like seems to be the type of character Michael plays, in Superbad and my favorite Juno. He really has that adorable edge down with his geekiness. I really do just think that there is something about Michael that is quite difficult to explain, he just seems to have a cute charm going on about him.

5. Ryan Gosling

Age: 28

Ryan already has received an Oscar nomination and been in some high profile movies with some big name actors and actresses including Anthony Hopkins in Fracture, Sandra Bullock in Murder by Numbers. His most well known performance so far has to be as Noah in The Notebook. Ryan just has to keep building after being nominated for an Oscar for his role in Half Nelson. He does not seem to want to stay “mainstream” and took on a tricky role in Lars and the Real Girl. So hopefully he will keep selecting interesting films which call for him to put in a good performance.

4. Ben Barnes

Age: 28

 Recently came to my attention in a massive way with his performance in Dorian Gray. I thought he was just fantastic heading the movie, which while it was not the best thing ever made he still made a very good impression as an actor. I then caught him as Prince Caspin in Chronicles of Narnia and was more impressed. I cannot wait to see more from Ben and catch up on already released movies such as Easy Virtue. Now Ben would seem to have his career in his own hands and could do many different roles from what he has done so far.

3. Zac Efron

Age: 21

 Zac has to be one of the most well known young actors and he is still on 21 years old, all down to the High School Musical franchise. But he has branched out recently starring in 17 Again and has some very different projects in the works away from High School Musical and even musicals in general as he also starred in Hairspray. He dropped out of the remake of Footloose a few months ago in order to change the direction he is going in. So if Zac can change his path and get more serious roles under his belt to help show that he can do different things. He has even stated himself that he wants to move away from the teen heart throb and do more serious roles. Hopefully we will see that from Zac as it is going to be so difficult for him to do this.

2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Age: 28

 A former child star who is really starting to make his mark in the past few years. I remember first seeing him in 10 Things I Hate About You and thinking he was very good in that movie. However more recently catching him in 500 Days of Summer really made me think WOW he has something very special and so much potential to do great things in film. I definitely think Joseph can go in many different directions now and I hope that he continues to do movies that I enjoy to watch for different reasons.

1. Jim Sturgess

Age: 28

 Probably a big surprise to be at the top of my list, I have only seen him in two movies as well but was so blown away by him I think he could pretty much do any different roles. The first film I saw him in was Across the Universe which I just found incredible and Jim was fantastic in it. Not long after that I watched 21 and thought he was brilliant in that as well starring opposite Kevin Spacey. I am trying to catch up on movies Jim has already done which I have missed and look forward to what he is going to come up with in the future. He is definitely an actor I am going to be keeping a very close eye on.

A good movie is an unpredictable one. When there is a twist that you spend all night thinking about after seeing the movie, you know the film has some lasting features. However, when you can see the plot of a movie a mile away, the film suffers. The genre that suffers the worst from this is the romantic comedy.

A fatal flaw with most romantic comedies is that they all, for the most part, end the same: the two main characters get together. Despite all trials and drama and the guy messing up, he always runs off after her in the last five minutes and they end up snogging on some road, airport, bus stop, or train station. It leaves all the guys feeling uncomfortable, all the girls wishing the actor was with her, and all the avid moviegoers weeping for the future.

Case in point: “10 Things I Hate About You.”

I know a lot of people love this movie. When I saw it, it was with a room full of girls who were telling me to be quiet as I pointed out what was about to happen. The problem with the trailer, as with the movie, is that it tells you everything in advance. There’s no surprising twists, no interesting characteristics. Basically, there is no reason to see the movie.

Even with actors like Heath Ledger, the characters are bound to be two-dimensional, and if they aren’t two-dimensional, the become so. Ledger plays the usual bad-boy image, ready to take a challenge for money, and Julia Stiles is the stubborn, free spirit that refuses to be an average teenage girl. By the end of the movie, Ledger is not a bod-boy and Stiles is an average teenage girl. Usually, character development is a good thing in films, but in romantic comedies such as this, it feels like a chore.

Let’s compare “10 Things I Hate About You” with a newer film called “All About Steve.”

You already know what happens. Sandra Bullock’s character is going to chase after Bradley Cooper’s, he’s going to push away too hard, but realize she’s the one for him before it’s too late, and they get together at the end, roll credits.

Good romantic comedies are hard to come by, but usually they rely more on the romance or the comedy side of the spectrum, but often those can be considered a different genre all together.

Compare.

“Cruel To Be Kind” by Letters to Cleo:

“Every Time We Touch” by Cascada: