I realize that there are larger issues at hand — such as health care coverage and wars in Iraq. This blog however, has always and will continue to fulfill one purpose — to entertain. With that in mind, I will go over my take on who the most attractive are in Hollywood, don’t judge.

10. Taylor Kitsch- There’s something about his rugged look, and his character in Friday Night Lights that just does me in. He’s from the South, he can whip up a good steak I’m sure, and isn’t too sore on the eyes.

9.  James Franco- I mean, he’s our generation’s James Dean. He’s sexy, talented, and has a college education. What more could you ask for?

8. Robert Pattinson- I really didn’t want to put Mr. Pattinson on my list, as attractive as I find him, merely because every other girl alive will agree with me on this which bothers me. His flannel shirts, Ray Bans, and unwashed hair just lures me into him, unfortunately his acting does not.

7. Penn Badgley- So, he’s been taken for quite a while now…. which makes me less interested in him. But I like him with Blake Lively — I can’t lie, I would like to take her place on their daily strolls through Greenwich while eating ice cream cones

6. John Legend- I really don’t even need to make my remarks, you already know…. <3

5. Justin Timberlake- He can sing, he makes clothing, he runs successful restaurants, and did I mention he is beautiful? I think he has the total package — I would love nothing more than to go for one of those early morning LA runs in the mountains with him, just substitute me for JBiel.

4. Tom Brady- He’s flipped flopped with the ladies, but that’s ok, I forgive him. He’s now with Giselle, making them the two most envied people in America. I’m sure their child is going to be ungodly … isn’t that how it always works? Keep repping Massachusetts in football and I will reconsider the duration of my stay.

3. Eric Dane- Granted, he’s gotten into his fair share of deep water this year (cough a threesome cough) but I will say this much — he looks DAMN good in surgical scrubs. Rock on Eric Dane, rock on.

2. Shia LaBeouf- Ok, so maybe he bugged the shit out of me in Even Stevens — the curly hair, the fart pranks, I just didn’t dig it. Something happened, when he went through puberty, he became unbelievably hot. Maybe it’s his chain smoking, or the slovenly dress, or perhaps the broken arms from car crashes – I don’t know what it is, but I am in love. Shia, call me.

1. Ashton Kutcher- I follow him on Twitter… I follow Demi on Twitter…. I look at their Twitpics and envy her more than I should. He is breathtaking, philanthropic, and innovative. He tops my list, without a doubt.

  Ok so this isn’t really an Ode to buddy Garraty, but that would only be because I am not sure how to write an Ode.  However after last night’s episode featuring our favorite booster I felt he deserved some FNL love.   When I first began watching FNL I didn’t much like the loud, brash man who felt he had every right to bug Coach about anything and everything surrounding the Panthers.  I mean hell it was his fault Coach had that trouble back in Season 1 regarding whether or not the Panthers were going to have to forfeit a game because of illegally recruiting Ray “Voodoo” Tatum.  Between Buddy and Voodoo it was looking like Coach Taylor and the Panthers might not even get the chance to go to state.  Plus if it weren’t for his meddling Matt would never have had to go back to being second string.  Oh yeah to say I didn’t like him would be an understatement.  Loathed would be a much better word.  And let’s not forget that he cheated on his wife, tried to bribe the women he was sleeping with, and basically told his one time golden boy, Jason Street, that because he could no longer walk he wasn’t good enough for his precious little girl, Lyla.  Does any of this not scream dirtbag?  I didn’t think so.

Before the show even began to air I was predestined not to like Buddy and oh I could repeat the excuses I used in the beginning, but the truth of the matter is that I just didn’t understand guys like him.  Or hell anyone like him.  To me they were just trying to relive a time that was no longer relevant.  I thought that their life must have really sucked to be tied so closely to their past glory days.  I couldn’t even bring myself to be interested in my own high school football team so someone whose entire self worth is wrapped up in a game he longer plays was alien to me.   But then something strange began to happen, I began to like Buddy, no scratch that I began to love Buddy.  Perhaps it started when during the last couple of episodes of Season 1 we really got to see how much he had come to respect and like the coach.  Some where over the first season Buddy became more than just a cheating, lying dirtbag.  He became a friend. 

No longer could I imagine a team that didn’t have Buddy standing on the sidelines cheering the boys on.  And when I saw the new coach in Season 2 (according to Imdb he didn’t have an actual name) push Buddy off the field and regulated him to spectator my heart broke for the guy.  He had lost everything; his family, his friend, and now his team.  But our Buddy isn’t one to take things lying down and spent the next couple of weeks do anything he could to bring his friend and the rightful Panther coach back to the field.  In the 3rd season Buddy faced what was probably his biggest challenge and that was saying goodbye to Lyla.  But once again Buddy proved what a stand up guy he truly is.  He is a man that makes mistakes and rather than run from them he meets them head on. 

But it wasn’t until Wednesday’s episode that I actually found myself cheering for him.  Here was a man that could no longer stand by and watch Joe McCoy and Wade Aikmen destroy the team that he had loved all those years.  He could no longer stand by and watch as people he had always called friends turn into people he just couldn’t understand.  And when he stood in front of his fellow Boosters and declared “I’m not a Panther any more!” my heart leapt for the courage and strength that must have taken.  Well Mr. Garraty I too am not a Panther any more.  Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.

DVD Top 10.
Bestsellerliste der Woche
von Illuminati bis State of Play

Illuminati:
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) entdeckt Beweise, dass die mächtigste Untergrundbewegung der Geschichte, ein uralter konspirativer Geheimbund, den man als ‘Die Illuminati’ kennt, wiederauferstanden ist. Kurz darauf wird er damit konfrontiert, dass die katholische Kirche, der zutiefst verhasste Erzfeind der Illuminaten, einer tödlichen, existenzvernichtenden Bedrohung ausgesetzt ist…

Nachts im Museum 2:
Seine Tage als Museumswärter sind passé: Larry Daley ist als Erfinder nutzloser Dinge erfolgreich, kehrt jedoch ins Museum zurück, als er erfährt, dass die seinerzeit zu Leben erwachten Ausstellungsstücke in den Keller des Smithsonian in New York verfrachtet werden sollen. Ruhe ist allerdings auch dort nicht angesagt, weil auch die mystische Tafel von Akhmenrah, die den Exponaten Leben einhaucht, versehentlich zum neuen Ausstellungsort transportiert wurde. Nun bricht dort das Chaos aus, und Larry muss für Ordnung sorgen…

Slumdog Millionär:
Glauben Sie an das Schicksal? Für Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) ist es der größte Tag seines bisherigen Lebens. Nur noch eine Frage trennt ihn vom 20 Millionen Rupien-Hauptgewinn in Indiens TV- Show ‘Wer wird Millionär?’

Der Womanizer:
Der Junggeselle Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) gehört zu den Typen, die drei Freundinnen den Laufpass geben. Gleichzeitig. Per Telefonkonferenz. Auf der Hochzeitsfeier seines Bruders hat er also nur ein Ziel: Er will die einzige Brautjungfer herumkriegen, die er bisher irgendwie übersehen hat. Doch der Geist seines verstorbenen Onkels Wayne (Michael Douglas) – der Connor beigebracht hat, die Frauen zu wechseln wie die Hemden – verfolgt ein ganz anderes Ziel…

Star Trek – Die Zukunft hat begonnen:
James T. Kirk ist ein rebellischer Hitzkopf im amerikanischen Niemandsland, der nie den Tod seines Vaters bei einem Angriff eines romulanischen Raumschiffs verkraftet hat. Nach einer seiner Prügeleien fordert ihn Captain Pike, einst ein Freund seines verstorbenen Vaters, auf, der Sternenflotte beizutreten. Dort macht sich Kirk zunächst keine Freunde, bis ihn eine Mission zwingt, endlich Verantwortung zu übernehmen: der Romulaner Nero bedroht Vulkan, den Heimatplaneten von Kirks späterem Weggefährten Spock…

Transformers 2:
Nachdem Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) die Welt mit Hilfe der gutmütigen Autobots vor den bösartigen Decepticons gerettet hat, freut er sich auf ein normales Leben. Als er aufs College geht, lässt er nicht nur Freundin Mikaela (Megan Fox) zurück…

X-Men Origins: Wolverine:
Hugh Jackman schlüpft wieder in die Rolle, die ihn zum Superstar machte: Wolverine – der Mann mit den unverkennbaren Stahlklingen, bemerkenswerten Selbstheilungskräften, ruppigem Charme und einer gehörigen Portion trockenem Humor. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ erzählt die Vorgeschichte Logans mit Augenmerk auf seine mysteriöse Vergangenheit, seine komplexe Beziehung zu Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) und das ominöse Weapon X-Programm. Der Zuschauer erfährt, wer Wolverine wirklich ist…

Duplicity:
CIA-Offizier Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) und MI6-Agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) standen früher im Geheimdienst ihrer Regierungen. Derzeit haben sie in die Privatwirtschaft gewechselt, um mit lukrativen Verträgen das meiste aus dem Kalten Krieg herauszuholen. Beide jagen jeweils für ihre Bosse Tully (Tom Wilkinson) und Garsik (Paul Giamatti) einem milliardenschweren Patent nach. Keiner ahnt, dass sie eine heimliche Affäre und eigene Pläne haben…

Männersache:
Tagsüber arbeitet Paul (Mario Barth) in einer Berliner Zoohandlung und abends an seiner Karriere als Komiker. Zugegeben, seine Auftritte laufen mies… bis Paul anfängt, Witze über seinen besten Freund Hotte (Dieter Tappert) und dessen Freundin Susi (Anja Kling) zu reißen. Auf einmal läuft es auf der Bühne: Pauls Gags über Hottes Beziehungsgeschichten, nicht enden wollende Shopping-Orgien von Susi und den Pärchen Kaffeeklatsch bei den Schwiegereltern sind ein Renner…

State of Play – Stand der Dinge:
Ein junger aufstrebender Politiker und ein Washingtoner Enthüllungsreporter finden sich mitten im Epizentrum einer Reihe von Morden wieder, die nur scheinbar nichts miteinander zu tun haben. Der Kongressabgeordnete Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) ist Hoffnung und Zukunft seiner Partei – ein aussichtsreicher und ehrenhafter Newcomer, unter anderem im Vorsitz des Komitees für Verteidigungsausgaben…

Weitere Informationen, auch Top 100 Liste, erhalten Sie hier

I don’t know whether to be happy that FNL hast 11 more episodes to go before season 4 is over or be miserable.  If this were any other show I would be worried that it won’t be able to convery everything it wants in 13 episodes, but it’s not any other show.  It’s Friday Night Lights so bring it on I say.  

Those poor Lions just can’t catch a break.  First they get trounced in their first game, then the coach in their words “quits” on them, and finally their school turns against them.  Which is ironic considering how unlike the Dillon Panthers, the East Dillon Lions appear to be one rung above the marching band.  I have to admit after coming from a town where even the PeeWee Football coaches are psychotic about the sport it is refreshing to see that football players have it just as hard as the rest of us.  And if you live in East Dillon even harder.

The thing I admire the most about this show from strictly technical viewpoint is the fact that other than that small misshap in Season 2 when they pratically shoved Santiago Herrera down our throats the producers have slowly introduced new characters into the fold.  Maybe they thought we would accept them easier that way, maybe not.  And even though Season 4 has been all about change they are still holding true to the way they introduce the new characters.  As with our old favorites, the new characters are not what we first perceived them to be.  Vince a troubled young man from what I can only assume to be the poorer section of Dillon first appears as a petty criminal who uses his running skills to get away from the police instead of the opposing team.  However in this episode we learn that not only does he see a life beyond East Dillon, but we also learn that he takes care of his drug addled mother.  These aren’t stand out moments in the show, just meer glimpses into the other side of life in Dillon, Texas. 

On the other side of the spectrum we have All American good ole boy Luke Cafferty whose entire life is the Panthers.  In the first episode we saw him for all of 30 seconds which was just long enough for him to defend Julie and make excuses for JD.  If you chalked Luke up to a throw-a-way character well in After The Fall you and I were proven wrong once again by FNL and it’s abilty to tap into the talent of previous lesser known actors and actresses.  Because the scene where Luke broke down in front of our favorite principal and for all intent and purpose begged for his life or more importantly the life that he knew showed all of us that this was a character to expect alot from.  So by the time he showed up at the end and in support of his new team burned his Panthers T-Shirt we knew a new favorite had been born. 

Now you would think with new characters coming in and beloved ones growing up and on that we would be forced to watch a show that no longer resembled our favorite little show that could.  But come on people this is FNL!  You know they wouldn’t do that to us and sure enough so far they are not failing to disappoint.  Ok sure Tyra and Lila aren’t back yet but I have it on good authority they won’t be missing for long.  As we watch Tim learn to live in the ordinary we get to watch as Matt discovers his potential to be more than second string.  Along the way they will both struggle with the job of living and unfortunately we won’t be able to see Matt the whole time but I have faith that when we finally are faced with goodbye the writers will serve him with just as much justice as they did Smash and Street when they went on to their lives.   I have a feeling true loves and new teenage nymphets aside our boys will be just fine.

Ok so on to some of my favorite moments of After The Fall:

Tami letting Joe McCoy know exactly who ran things in Dillon and it wasn’t the two of them.  Go Boosters!

Our favorite booster of all showing us that loyality to the Panthers and to his friend don’t always go hand in hand.  I want more Buddy!

Landry letting Coach know exactly how disappointed he and the rest of the team were of him.

Coach Taylor having to deal with the fact that he may not having a winning team, but they were his team and he wasn’t going to abandon them.

Virgil “Big Mary” Merriweather enough said.

Anything with the Riggins boys.  I for one am grateful we didn’t have to say goodbye to Billy.

The internet is an amazing place.   Casttv.com lets you watch any show you can think of, sometimes before it even airs on regular TV.   I discovered it while searching for a way to circumvent HBO’s grip on True Blood.

Now, Season Four FNL is back and I’m not waiting this time.  Watch it so we can expound on every detail of Riggins’ return to Dillon.   It only takes him  four minutes of episode one to drop out of college and hightail it back into my life as a full-time cast member.

It’s never too late to get on board.  You can watch from Season One online or at my house.  Just let me know.

Let’s do this East Dillon Giraffes!

“East of Dillon”

October 28th, 2009

“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts…”

In the very first episode of Friday Night Lights, a “can’t lose” football team became a longshot. When Jason Street went down on the field, ending up paralyzed, the Panther football program went from being a contender for State to being a rudderless ship with a rookie quarterback at the helm. The arc of the show’s first season was watching Matt Saracen become a leader in his own right, someone who would eventually deliver a State championship to the people of Dillon, Texas even when nobody really gave him a chance.

What allowed that team to come together as it did was that surrounding Matt Saracen was not only a collection of great players (Riggins, Smash, for all of their faults) but also a football culture that bred success. Panther Football was not only just the players involved, or even the inspired coaching from Eric Taylor, but a community that rallied behind its team because there was nothing else they wanted to do on a Friday night. That culture, that once seemed so far away for Saracen while throwing footballs through a tire in his driveway, has given the football program substantial financial support, and bureaucratic power in the form of lobbyists like Buddy Garrity. While some of the elements of Panther football were political and thus avoided by Eric Taylor (and, as a result of our appreciation for his character, maligned by the audience), they were parts of the team that provided a solid foundation. “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” is as much a construct of years of success as it is about the players or the words themselves, a fact which becomes increasingly clear in “East of Dillon.”

What becomes clear in this fourth season premiere is that the first season wasn’t an underdog story at all, but rather a story of a team recapturing glory that never really left them but for those brief moments when all seemed lost. The story of the East Dillon Lions, handicapped by a biased redistricting that we were once on the other side of, is a true underdog story because this team has nothing. Not only are they handicapped by the inexperienced nature of its players, but they are also crippled by their lack of that community surrounding them – they don’t have lobbyists, they don’t have an experienced coaching staff, and they only have a few storefront signs to bring them together.

All they have is Eric Taylor, a true underdog whose only weapons are his coaching ability and the words (and the emotions behind them) that inspired the Panthers to victory for three years. With them, he needs to build not only a football team but a community around it, the equivalent to Noah’s Ark more than a texas high school football team. “East of Dillon” establishes this challenge, and tells us two things: Eric Taylor is going to make this work, and the people who are going to help him are slowly lining up to be a part of it.

And I’m already in the stands to enjoy the result.

As the new East Dillon Lions are crowding around Coach Eric Taylor, one of the players notes to Landry that the Coach sure can talk, “like some dude from an infomercial.” This is not, of course, our opinion of Eric Taylor: we know him as a skillful orator, one who can turn around a game at halftime with the sheer power of his words, so to equate him with someone selling something for three easy payments of 19.95 plus shipping and handling feels wrong. However, it isn’t entirely wrong, as at this point he really is someone who’s putting his heart into selling something that there isn’t an audience to receive. East Dillon football will have a following because it is a high school football team in Texas, but it is a team that hasn’t existed for quite some time and, more importantly, is a team that will pale in comparison to the town’s shining hope, a faster and more talented team by default in the Dillon Panthers.

Much of “East of Dillon” is spent establishing just how different life on the two sides is, and sort of preparing us for the fact that we, like Coach Taylor and like Landry, are likely going to be spending more time East than we are West. With Tami as Principal, it’s not as if we’ll be abandoning the Panthers entirely, but our interest lies in the Lions, and much of the interest we currently have in the Panthers is likely to shift with time. When we meet a decent human being who plays for the Panthers, Luke, who tries to stop J.D. from bothering Julie at a party, my immediate reaction is that he’ll eventually become part of the Lions. When Julie going to West Dillon becomes a point of contention for parents, her decision to follow her friends to East Dillon is all but inevitable. The show’s epicentre has always been Panther Football, but that is about to change, and this episode is about convincing us that this is the right thing to do – J.D. becomes awkwardly inappropriate when sober and pathetically petty when drunk (which actually fits with his previous experience with drinking), his father has become more annoying that Buddy Garrity ever was (his satisfied smile during the parents’ meeting riot was disgusting), and Wade Aikman becomes a golf-cart riding power freak who we love seeing played with by Tami with the coin toss (designed to keep her away from the Lions game). I don’t think there’s any viewer who feels as if there’s any reason, dramatically, to stick with the Panthers.

But yet we can still empathize with those who are not so quick to make that decision. Based on the condition of the school, we can’t entirely blame Tami for being a hypocrite in hoping her daughter will stay at West Dillon, as she wants what is best for her daughter’s education. And considering that the Panthers have a substantial stadium and a real chance of winning, can we blame anyone for feeling like that is the better use of their friday night, especially when it’s been part of their falls for the past number of years? The parents’ resentment, and the town’s shunning of the Lions, is not entirely surprising, but it puts us as the audience on the wrong side of many of the show’s characters. This creates an ideal underdog scenario where, with Taylor at the helm and the entire town against them, we want them to succeed for more reasons than just the tendency for people to support sports teams down on their luck.

The episode spends more time on those broad elements than it does on individual players, as the Lions are still largely an assortment of random characters we’ve yet to really meet. We got our introduction to Vince early on, running from the Cops and thus running right into a “Cops and Jocks” program as a running back; it was a rote introduction, but considering what else the episode had to accomplish I was impressively attached to the kid by the time the episode came to an end. And we, of course, know Landry, and can use his starting position as a sign of just how bad the team around him is (as funny as that scene with Matt was, it was also kind of true to how the show was using Landry’s character in the football setting). But at this point, we still haven’t met the Quarterback, Olsen, which tells us one of two things: either he’s going to get replaced by someone with more personality in time (perhaps the backup from the Panthers?), or else the show is simply waiting until next week to tell us more about him. I’ve stayed low on spoilers this season, so I’m sure there’s been something in casting, but it definitely raises some questions about how this team will come together.

And, just so we’re clear, it will come together, although the show is taking it at a very smart pace. There is nothing more hard for a coach than effectively quitting, but Taylor’s decision to end the absolute rout when his players are bruised and beaten to the point of being unable to stand is the right choice for the show’s arc. To rush the characters to some sort of miraculous victory would have felt false: it made sense for Saracen to save the day in the pilot because it set expectations he couldn’t meet, therefore creating considerable conflict in the weeks ahead, but here the Lions are entirely without expectation and rightfully so. They are not good at the game of football, and their problems go beyond nervous jitters to fundamental inexperience. But you can see in them, in that moment as they sit telling Coach Taylor that they’re all good to go even when they’re clearly not, that this game has made them Lions in a way that the Panthers are Panthers. This doesn’t make them a good football team, but it has made them a team, and one that can begin to grow from the ground up in the weeks ahead.

The other major threads of the episode were the false swan song of one character and the actual swan song of another. For Tim Riggins, going off to college was supposed to be his dream, but with Lyla Garrity gone off to Vanderbilt and his ability to sit through Homer non-existent, he abandons college in order to return home to Dillon. What he finds when he comes home, of course, is that the old Tim Riggins has died: his brother has moved on with a wife and his baby on the way, he no longer has football to stabilize his life, and outside of picking up cougars in bars he really has no more purpose in Dillon than anyone else. However, Tim returns to Dillon not because anything in particular drew him there but because that is his home, the place where he wants to be. It was all he wanted, to be able to come home, and yet he finds that it’s not the same place he left only a month previous and that he’s going to need to adjust to its changes.

However, both because of his situation and because he’s still listed in the show’s main credits, one senses that he will be able to do so. Tim has trouble motivating himself more than he has trouble fitting in, and as we saw when he was bunking with the Taylors he is capable of fitting in so long as his actions are not misinterpreted. He’s a slick kid, and you feel as if his struggle with Billy is not that Tim has no place in his life (Riggins’ Rigs feels like something Tim could easily be a part of) than rather that Tim needs a life of his own so as to separate their two paths. Billy is right to be frustrated with Tim’s refusal to stick with College, just as Tim is right that he in some way never wanted any of it. We can say all we want that he should follow off to college because many of us have university educations, but the reality of a town like Dillon is that not everyone leaves, and that not everyone can be like Smash Williams or Jason Street in finding lives outside of its borders. The episode using Tim smartly, both depicting his struggle with both Homer and Billy and helping introduce a new character (the cougar’s daughter, who turns out to be the anthem singer for East Dillon) who perhaps too omnisciently raises questions of the character’s identity – Taylor Kitsch is great in this role, so having him back full time is great.

But we don’t have Zack Gilford back full time as Matt Saracen, and the show isn’t hiding that fact. Matt has stayed in Dillon for Julie and his grandmother, but we see in this episode that both are in some way starting to fall away from him. He is still a Panther, but only as the delivery boy for Panther Pizza (a particularly demoralizing point from the writers there), and while he is still Julie’s boyfriend he is no longer part of her world. His grandmother’s dementia has yet to cripple her entirely, but here it’s a sad reminder of how far Matt has fallen: she can’t imagine a world where Eric Taylor isn’t coaching the Dillon Panthers, and where her grandson isn’t taking the field as quarterback. While Riggins left behind what he found wasn’t fulfilling in order to return to a life he knows, Matt has resigned himself to remaining in Dillon and is paying the price for it. He goes to a Panther football party and becomes that awkward older boyfriend who gets into a fight with the young jock over a girl, and he’s told at Dillon Tech that he lacks a point of view with his art, something that Chicago never told him.

Perhaps he, like Riggins, would have come back from Chicago after a time, as they too might have felt he had no perspective with his work, but it seems unlikely. His art is a reflection of his world view, and right now his world view is caring for his sick grandmother, losing a connection with his girlfriend, and delivering pizzas to his former teammates. It’s no surprise that his art was better and more meaningful when he was drawing to escape this town, drawing to make something of himself: when he draws now, he is drawing to make the best of a bad situation, one he chose himself at the end of last season against the wishes of many viewers (myself included), and that is not going to result in the most inspirational work possible. If the East Dillon Lions are struggling because they have no community around them, Matt Saracen is struggling because the community around him is not the one he could have had, and that regret deep down is being suppressed by his love for Julie and his grandmother in order to avoid the guilt of having left them both behind had he gone to Chicago. But that’s going to tear him apart with time, and what we see here is someone who is anything but happy, and who for all of his love of both Julie and his grandmother cannot stay in Dillon forever.

The show has always been a complex mediation of sadness and personal triumph, and you can sense the writers want to avoid emphasizing the former point too heavily. The episode features plenty of humour to break up the tragedy of it all, the ramshackle East Dillon Field House looking like a depressing relic of a previous era before being turned into a joke by the raccoon in the locker and Matt getting some nice comic scenes with Julie (“I think we can acquiesce that this is a Panther party”) and Landry (cheering him up by reminding him that he might suck less than the Lions). But what works about this show is that they never hide those moments, pretending as if one joke or one triumph could hide just how long this road is going to be. They also know, however, when those moments wouldn’t even be possible, which is why the East Dillon Lions only make it to half time as opposed to getting their first W of the season.

I knew coming from last season that this was a near perfect setup. When the show was finishing its third season, I and many others wondered where it could go from there: they had already been to State twice, and they had said goodbye to many of the existing characters, and the show was heading towards saying goodbye to Riggins and Saracen as well. However, when the redistricting scenario emerged, and Eric Taylor was assigned to coach the team, and we got that final shot of Tami and Eric on the dilapidated East Dillon field, it all felt legitimately perfect. Here is a chance to return to the roots of the show, starting a football team from the ground up, while having a built-in rivalry and several clear loglines (the first game between the two teams, the chance to meet new players, etc.) ready to go. So when they confirmed that a fourth season was really happening, it was the most I’ve been excited about a season of the show ever (since the second season was tainted in advance by Landrygate).

And right now, it’s living up to its potential by taking things slowly: while we get some sense of the rivalry between the two teams it is largely assumed rather than demonstrated, as the East Dillon team has too many problems of its own to really be concerned about what’s going on across town (note that we never learn how the Panthers did in their first game, leaving it behind as soon as Tami rigs the coin toss). The show knows how much this premise reinvigorates the show, giving it a chance to introduce new characters and return to these key themes of community and the “team” dynamic, but it isn’t rushing into either, and is coupling it with the post-football stories that worked so well last season. It makes for the kind of show that you can’t help but love, one with a clear sense of its own identity but rife with characters who are struggling to say the same – it’s the setup for what might just be the show’s best season yet.

Cultural Observations

• There’s been no question in my mind that Buddy Garrity would end up in East Dillon before long, but the show is smart not to have him rush over. Ever since he began getting pushed out of the way by Joe McCoy last year, it was clear that Buddy’s place at the ear of the Head Coach of the Panthers had been overtaken, but it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t be willing to admit that. Sitting in that meeting as Tami is manipulated into abandoning her husband’s first game, avoiding her gaze and looking mighty unhappy, or running after Wade’s ridiculous golf cart, Buddy Garrity is no longer a Panther, but he’s still a resident of Dillon and a lover of football, and his skills would be most useful over at East Dillon High.
• Last season, the show dropped a number of characters without much notice, but that was okay since the second season wasn’t nearly as impressive as the first. This year, though, to not have a single mention of Tyra rings false, although it makes sense considering Landry was otherwise occupied being our one familiar face on the Lions. I know Palicki won’t be back this season (I think, at least not except to appear once or twice) due to scheduling issues, but I don’t want the show to ignore her presence as they did Santiago’s.
• And while I don’t like her character that much, I do want them to bring back Minka Kelly’s Lyla at Christmas or Thanksgiving, both to comment on Tim’s position as well as to offer an excuse for more Buddy – we got a mention of her here, but not much more than that.
• The anthem singer (whose I believe was Becky, played by Madison Burge, although I could be wrong) both looks a little bit like Adrianne Palicki from certain angles (as she was walking away from Riggins’ car it hit me) and had the perfect singing voice for East Dillon: good, but not great, reflecting the school’s second-hand status. I loved how Riggins’ walk of shame from her mother’s bedroom was soundtracked by her practice for the anthem, made for a bizarre sequence especially when you realized she was really singing it.
• I’m not entirely sure what to make of Stan Straub, but it’s hard not to appreciate the humour in the role (or, more accurately, the humour in Coach Taylor’s unwillingness to see the humour in the man’s behaviour). He idolizes Taylor in a way that’s more endearing than annoying, and it helped bring some levity to the team’s struggles early on.
• Jeremy Sumpter got a lot of mileage out of playing an immature kid with all of the pressure of the world on him, but he’s now perhaps even better at playing an immature kid with less pressure but just as much insecurity – he still holds a grudge for being pulled from State for Saracen in their emotional loss at state, a sign that being the definitive QB1 for the Panthers has not removed some of his deeper issues – I don’t know how often Sumpter will be around this year, but I think there’s more to see in this character.
• The scene of the Lions sitting in the locker room before the game, their limbs shaking and one of them singing eerily, was like the football equivalent of Death Row, and was brilliantly shot (much like the entire episode) by Peter Berg.
• Edit: I cannot believe I didn’t recognize Vince as (WHERE’S) Wallace from The Wire, Michael B. Jordan – I feel so ashamed.

 Once again Peter Berg and Jason Katims prove why Friday Night Lights is perhaps the best show on television right now.  Season four brings us back to Dillon, Texas or better yet East Dillon and folks lets just say the Lions have a long way to go before they reach greatness.  Which can we all agree that there is nothing better than watching the underdog prevail?  For a minute there, just a minute mind you, I was worried that I might feel torn between my beloved Panthers and my newly beloved Lions.  But then I realized that it wasn’t the Panthers that I loved, it was the players, the people, and of course the coach.  They weren’t my Panthers any more.  They belonged to someone else and you know what?  They can have them.  Because if there is one thing tonight’s episode showed me and that was no matter what the Panthers were nothing without Coach Taylor. 

    What happened to sweet little JD?  Last season he was this delicate little boy who needed protecting from the big bad world.  he was shy and quiet and even a little submissive.  But boy how a year can change things, he seems to be channelling DW Moffett’s  arrogant smirk (whom I love to hate by the way).  Now he is arrogant, self assured, and apparently a dog considering he was hitting on Julie even though he knew she was dating Matt.  Speaking of Matt, it is looking like the decision to stay behind and not go to college isn’t working out so well (which as we all know will eventually pave the way for Zach Gilford’s eventual exit).  The poor guy just can’t seem to catch a break.  First he gives up art school to take care of his grandma, who sadly seems to be slipping even more, played to perfection by the lovely Louanne Stephens.  Then he is stuck going to Dillon Tech who apparently doesn’t like his, I wish I could draw as well, and delivering pizzas to ex-teammates.  I for one will be sad to see Zach Gilford leave but as with FNL by the time he does leave we will be ready and excited for the character to move on with life. 

  Ah the guy who used to be Tim Riggins is wandering just as aimlessly now as he was when he was in high school.  To be quite honest it never rang true for the character to go off to college for me at least.  He always seemed more of a home town guy.  Which is ok and not in the least bit tragic.  Because here is the thing about FNL, it’s an honest show and it takes the characters and leaves them in a place that rings true.  FNL doesn’t cater to flashy gimmicks to get people to watch it or big grandoise stories to keep them watching.  It simply goes on with life as it knows it.  When a special guest star comes on (like last nights Alicia Witt) they know that they are playing a character that is a real as any one you would meet in a small town.  After the inital “Hey isn’t that…?” you forget they are a big name and get down to the business that is life in Dillon.

  Poor Coach and Tami, if it isn’t one thing it is another.  Tami is stuck as the prinicpal of West Dillon while her husband is across town coaching at the horribly under funded East Dillon and although she knows that the redistricting is a wildly unpopular desicion she has to grit her teeth and do the responsible thing.  Which apparently seems to be sticking it to Joe McCoy and the new coach (forgot his name, sorry) in a small but definite act of revenge.  Ok it may just be me but I believe only Connie Britton can make the phrase “Flip the coin” sound unbelievably sexy.  Eric sure as hell agreed.  Didn’t you just want to take Eric in a hug and tell him everything was going to be all right?  He sure has an uphill battle to fight this season and if it were any one else I may have been worried, but since it is him I’m not.  I know the East Dillon Lions may not reach the glory that the Panthers know this season, but I have a feeling that one day Lions football will be just as big as it’s more loved brother school.

Moments that deserve special mention:

Landry asking his teammate if he needs a toy to keep his attention.  Classic Landry.

Matt & Landry throwing the football and reminding us so subtly that even though they have come so far at the heart of it all they are still the same friends they were back in Season 4.

Julie calling JD a jerk.

Tim & Billy Riggins fighting as real brothers do.  All Billy wanted was a better life for his brother and instead he has to sit by and watch all his hard work get thrown away.

Any scene with Kyle, Connie, & Aimee.  Yes real families to act that way.

Buddy Garraty, Buddy Garraty, Buddy Garraty.  Need I say more?

So there you have it.  Friday Night Lights is back and I for one couldn’t be happier.  Now I just have to find an East Dillon Lions T-shirt.

  On Wednesday October 28th Direct TV will begin airing Season 4 of Friday Night Lights.  Those of you who have to wait for NBC to get off their respective asses and wait til next year to watch.  I am so sorry for you guys because I for one will be spending every Wednesday night with East Dillon.  OMG did I just say East Dillon?  Whoa that was weird.  For all of you who have not watched this gem of a show your are missing one of the best acted, directed, produced, and written shows, ever.  And no I am not jsut saying that because I am a fan of the show.  I am saying it because it’s true.  Don’t believe me?  Watch it, go ahead I’ll wait for you to see I am right. 

Ok so I won’t wait, but I’m still right.  The usual reaction I get when people find out that I wath FNL is one of shock because it seems the general public has the impression that it is just another high school football show.  To that I say has there ever been another high school football show?  Yes I know that back in the 90s Ben Affleck starred in a little known show on NBC called Against The Grain but even that wasn’t a high school football show.  So I really would like to know what show these people are referring too and where was I when it was on.  In fact the only football show I remember was on HBO called 1st & 10 and that was definitly not a high school show. 

Now some of you may remember a movie by the same name that was directed by Peter Berg and this show would be a continuation of that movie without actually being that movie.  Instead of Billy Bob Thornton (who did a wonderful job in that role by the way) as the lead character we have the horribly underrated Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor.  And reprising her role as the coaches wife (albeit with a different name) Connie Britton brings a realism that is just not seen on television or hell even movies any more.  Now most shows that feature a high school delegate the adults to background cameo roles that show up only when a lesson needs to be learned, but FNL wouldn’t be the same without Eric and Tammy Taylor.  They are in essence the heart and soul of the show.  When they hurt, we hurt.  When they are frustrated, we are just as frustrated.  Their joys are ours and well you get the point.  Here is a couple that the audience can relate to on more than just a will they or won’t they scenario.  They argue, they fight, and they love better than any couple I have seen. 

   Now like any show that features high school kids FNL has its own cast of diamonds in the making.  Seriously did anyone see Taylor Kitsch coming?  Or could have possibly guessed that Adrianne Palicki would turn, along with the awe-inspiring Jesse Plemmons, a story that had all the possibilty of going horribly wrong into one of the most touching storylines ever.  And who’s heart didn’t break when the perpetual underdog Matt Saracan (played with such heart by Zach Gilford) finally brokedown and yelled at his coach for all the disappointment he had had to endure from the people who were supposed to love him.  Now I will be honest that Aimee Teegarden’s character Julie Taylor irritated the hell out of me, but that was more because I remember being just as selfish and juvenile as she was at fifteen.  FNL also has a way of introducing new characters in such a way that you don’t feel as if they are replacing our old favorites, but instead they are folded into the show so quietly that after a while you feel as though they have been there all along.  That isn’t to say that when a character leaves you feel as though they were never there in the first place, but instead you feel as though that character has just moved on with life as if it were the normalist thing in the world.  And in truth that is exactly the way it is in real life.  People come and go from our lives but for the time that they are there they were important and they meant something. 

  When the lights finally do go out on FNL (and trust me that will be a sad day) Peter Berg,Jason Katims, and yes even NBC can sit back and be proud that even though it was a show that was loved by few it was loved and deserved more than it received.  And although we fans of the show will be sad to see it end atleast we will be able to believe that in some part of the world life in Dillon, Texas goes on and our beloved coach is telling a new crop of football players “Clear Eyes Full Hearts Cant Lose.”

Der Womanizer

Bitte Lächeln – und Knips! Machen Sie sich ein Bild von Mode-Fotograf Connor, der seine Freiheit liebt und seine Freundinnen nach Lust und Laune abserviert.

In der Nacht der Ex-Freundinnen führen ihm drei ganz besondere Geister alle seine gescheiterten Beziehungen vor: Der Womanizer.

Auch eine junge Bankangestellte bekommt es mit übernatürlichen Erscheinungen zu tun, als eine alte Zigeunerin sie mit einem mächtigen Fluch belegt. Ob Drag Me to Hell der Verbannung entkommen kann, flüstert Video Buster Ihnen in der Filmkritik.

Gespenstisch geht es dann weiter, denn dort werfen die Halloween-Collection und ein Star aus Trick’r Treat ihre Schatten voraus.

Top-Film: Der Womanizer
Der Junggeselle Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) gehört zu den Typen, die drei Freundinnen den Laufpass geben. Gleichzeitig. Per Telefonkonferenz. Auf der Hochzeitsfeier seines Bruders hat er also nur ein Ziel: Er will die einzige Brautjungfer herumkriegen, die er bisher irgendwie übersehen hat… Filmperlen Bewertung ***

Filmkritik: Drag Me to Hell
Verflucht! Sam Raimi kehrt zurück in unsere heimischen Player. Höllisch gut oder zum Gruseln schlecht?

TOP 10 bei Video Buster:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman schlüpft wieder in die Rolle, die ihn zum Superstar machte: Wolverine – der Mann mit den unverkennbaren Stahlklingen, bemerkenswerten Selbstheilungskräften, ruppigem Charme und einer gehörigen Portion trockenem Humor. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ erzählt die Vorgeschichte Logans mit Augenmerk auf seine mysteriöse Vergangenheit, seine komplexe Beziehung zu Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) und das ominöse Weapon X-Programm. Der Zuschauer erfährt, wer Wolverine wirklich ist.

Slumdog Millionär
Für Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) ist es der größte Tag seines bisherigen Lebens. Nur noch eine Frage trennt ihn vom 20 Millionen Rupien-Hauptgewinn in Indiens TV- Show ‘Wer wird Millionär?’. Doch was in aller Welt hat ein mittelloser Youngster aus den Slums von Mumbai in dieser Sendung verloren? Und wie kommt es, dass er auf alle Fragen eine Antwort weiß…

Duplicity
CIA-Offizier Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) und MI6-Agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) standen früher im Geheimdienst ihrer Regierungen. Derzeit haben sie in die Privatwirtschaft gewechselt, um mit lukrativen Verträgen das meiste aus dem Kalten Krieg herauszuholen. Beide jagen jeweils für ihre Bosse Tully (Tom Wilkinson) und Garsik (Paul Giamatti) einem milliardenschweren Patent nach. Keiner ahnt, dass sie eine heimliche Affäre und eigene Pläne haben…

Männersache
Tagsüber arbeitet Paul (Mario Barth) in einer Berliner Zoohandlung und abends an seiner Karriere als Komiker. Zugegeben, seine Auftritte laufen mies… bis Paul anfängt, Witze über seinen besten Freund Hotte (Dieter Tappert) und dessen Freundin Susi (Anja Kling) zu reißen. Auf einmal läuft es auf der Bühne: Pauls Gags über Hottes Beziehungsgeschichten, nicht enden wollende Shopping-Orgien von Susi und den Pärchen Kaffeeklatsch bei den Schwiegereltern sind ein Renner…

The International
Im Mittelpunkt steht die Entschlossenheit von Interpol-Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) und der New Yorker Staatsanwältin Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), eine der mächtigsten Banken der Welt zu Fall zu bringen. Während sie eine Reihe illegaler Aktivitäten aufdecken, folgen Salinger und Whitman der Spur des Geldes von Berlin nach Mailand, New York und Istanbul. Bald schon befinden sie sich mitten in einer hochriskanten Hetzjagd rund um den Globus, bei der sie durch ihre kompromisslose Hartnäckigkeit auch ihr eigenes Leben aufs Spiel setzen…

Defiance – Unbeugsam
Kriegsjahr 1941: Zu Tausenden werden Juden in der Sowjetrepublik Weißrussland von den Nazis ermordet. Darunter auch die Eltern und weitere Familienangehörige der drei Bielski-Brüder. Um ihre nackte Haut zu retten, fliehen sie in die undurchdringlichen Wälder der Umgebung. Als sich die Kunde ihres Partisanenkampfes gegen die deutschen Besatzer verbreitet, stoßen immer mehr verzweifelte jüdische Landsleute zu ihnen. Unter der Leitung von Tuvia Bielski bereitet sich die Notgemeinschaft auf die unabsehbar lange Zeit im Versteck und den harten Winter vor…

Willkommen bei den Sch’tis
Der Postbeamte und Südfranzose Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) wird unfreiwillig in den rauen Norden versetzt – zu den Sch’tis, wie die ‘Ureinwohner’ wegen ihres Dialekts genannt werden. Zwei Welten prallen aufeinander! Schnell merkt Philippe, dass er den Sch’ti-Dialekt zwar überhaupt nicht versteht, die Menschen aber unglaublich herzlich sind…

Der fremde Sohn
Los Angeles, 1928. Die alleinerziehende Mutter Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) verabschiedet sich morgens von ihrem Sohn Walter und geht zur Arbeit. Am Abend ist der Neunjährige spurlos verschwunden. Fünf verzweifelte Monate später bringt ihr die Polizei einen Jungen, doch Christine ist überzeugt: das ist nicht ihr Sohn! Die Behörden tun alles, um Christine zum Schweigen zu bringen, aber die kämpft unbeirrt weiter. Ihre Suche nach der Wahrheit bringt einen Sumpf aus Korruption und Lügen ans Licht, erschüttert die Öffentlichkeit und verändert L.A. für immer…

Appaloosa
Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) und Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) werden als Unterstüzung gegen die Herrschaft des Ranchers Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) in einer kleinen Stadt angeheuert. Schnell bekommen sie die Situation in Griff. Als jedoch die junge attraktive Witwe Allison French (Renée Zellweger) anreist, ändern sich die Pläne für die beiden…

Hilde

Hilde
Hildegard Knef geht einen langen Weg, bis sie zu sich selbst findet: Aus bedrückenden familiären Verhältnissen gelingt ihr der Sprung in die Schauspielausbildung, doch in den letzten Kriegswirren zählt nur mehr das blanke Überleben. Nach Filmerfolgen und Fehlgriffen, falschen und richtigen Männern, lähmender Langeweile in Hollywood und einer turbulenten Hass-Liebe mit dem deutschen Publikum muss die Kämpfernatur Hilde lernen, dass manchmal andere Dinge zählen als der Ellenbogenkampf im Showbiz: In ihrer eigenen Geschichte und im Inneren ihrer Seele findet sie die Substanz für die ‘Hilde’, auf die sie selbst aber auch das deutsche Publikum immer gewartet hat… Einer der deutschen Lebenswege nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Hildegard Knef war die Sünderin, ein Kinotraum, ein Weltstar, eine Ikone. Und sehr, sehr cool. Dies ist ihr Leben.

Filmperlen-Tipps zu Halloween
Die lange (Film-) Nacht des Grauens…
Ob Sie nun einen privaten Halloween-Abend planen und zu Ihrer orange-schwarzen Dekoration neben einem ekeligen Büffet mit Kürbissuppe noch die richtig unheimliche Filmkost reichen möchten, oder sich ganz einfach mal wieder im Heimkino erschrecken lassen wollen: Video Buster hat viele höllisch gute Vertreter und einige ‘Geist-reiche’ Filmvorschläge versammelt. Grausige Gestalten, schauderhafte Schauplätze, mörderische Träume. Nebel zieht auf… das Böse stirbt nie. Oder doch?
Bloß nicht erschrecken lassen – buh!
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Saw (2004)
Gothika (2003)
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Stanley Kubricks Shining (1980) Filmperlen Bewertung ****
The Fog – Nebel des Grauens (1980) Filmperlen Bewertung ****
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Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Filmperlen Bewertung ****
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Tanz der Vampire (1967) Filmperlen Bewertung ***
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Dracula (1931) Filmperlen Bewertung ***
Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). Filmperlen Bewertung ***    Mehr über Video Buster erfahren Sie hier:  Video Buster – Erleben Sie Hollywood mit dem Filmtipp der Woche!

Willem Dafoe

by Rob Keyes – Screenrant.com

Not long after the announcement that Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins were cast in the lead roles in the upcoming adaptation of John Carter of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ series of novels, we found out the talented Willem Dafoe would be playing an important character in the film(s) as well.

At the time, we knew that Dafoe would be playing the role of Tars Tarkas, a big green Martian who eventually befriends the Kitsch’s John Carter, after an unfriendly beginning to their relationship. Tarkas is a warrior and leader of his people and a very unique one at that because he, against the laws and norms of his society, shows compassion and sympathy, and even had a child secretly with the woman he loved (child bearing is a major criminal offense of his people) – he actually believes war isn’t the answer for his kind.

Taylor Kitsch

Dafoe also confirmed that the movie will be a combination of live-action and heavy CGI, something that was already hinted at during the casting announcements.

The films are said to mesh live-action and computer-based animation together in a way similar to what James Cameron has done with his eagerly anticipated Avatar. With Disney and Pixar behind the project and the promise of a series of movies on the same scale of Pirates of the Caribbean, I have high hopes for John Carter of Mars and what it will eventually look like on screen.

Lynn Collins

Amazon Specials!

Filming is due to start in January on the adaption of John Carter of Mars. Willem Dafoe is set to play Tars Tarkas, a many-limbed green Martian warrior who befriends Carter (Taylor Kitsch) after he gets mysteriously transported from Civil War-era America to the Red Planet.

“I’ve seen renderings,” said Willem when talking about the look of his character. “This is Disney, anyway, but it’s Andrew Stanton. And, I’ve seen a lot of the designs and things, and I’ve just started to do prep work now. I’m doing a play in New York, so I’m kind of preoccupied by that, but I’m starting doing scans and things like that, but it’s going to be a real full-on… Well, I’m nine feet tall with four arms, but, just from the scheduling, I’m going to do the stuff.”

As Stanton himself told us earlier this year, “John Carter” will be the “perfect definition of a hybrid movie,” integrating live-action and computer-based animation. Co-star Lynn Collins (Wolverine), who will play humanoid Martian princess Dejah Thoris, has already started hair and makeup tests and told us her look will be akin to the “best-tan-you-can-ever-imagine.”

How will Dafoe and the CGI be integrated?

“Well, we hope. And, also, they’ll use my face, but they’ll enhance it in a way–both after and before–in a way that I may not be recognizable. But, I’m good with that. It’s particularly cool, because he’s a creature, but he’s got this huge range of character. And, he does cool things in the movies.”

He then went on to talk about the language and culture of the Martians.

“There’s a whole period where we’re going to work with the language and the movement, and find out how I’m going to be nine feet tall, and all that stuff…like, a long period of time where we’re going to go to Thark school, you know what I mean? We’re going to create our culture. So, it’s going to be very cool. These guys know how to do this, and they’ve got great people. And, the designs and things are just mind-blowing.”

“It’s got some stuff to it,” he said in deep contemplation. “It’s got a point of view.”

“I don’t want to say it’s political,” he hinted, “but in the same way that ‘Tarzan’ isn’t just about a man in a loincloth…”

Sounds like this could be quite a deep film with a very cool look.

Source: AICN & MTV

A entrega do Scream Awards 2009, teve algumas surpresas, e reconhecimentos, True Blood, Watchmen  e Star Trek merecidamente.

Para quem não sabe o Scream Awars, é a premiação mais famosa voltada a SCI-Fi, filmes de terror, Quadrinhos e Fantasia.

THE ULTIMATE SCREAM (Melhor Filme)

Arraste-me para o Inferno
Deixe Ela Entrar
Star Trek
Transformers: A Vingança dos Derrotados
Crepúsculo
Up

melhor filme de fantasia
“Coraline”
“Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe”
“Crepúsculo”
“Up”
“Watchmen”
“X-Men Origens: Wolverine”

melhor filme de horror
“Dead Snow”
“Arraste-me para o Inferno”
“Sexta-Feira 13″
“Deixe ela entrar”
“Dia dos Namorados Macabro 3D”
“Splinter”

melhor série
Battlestar Gallactica
Dexter
Fringe
Lost
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
True Blood

melhor atriz em filme ou série de ficção científica
Moon Bloodgood; “Exterminador do Futuro 4: A Salvação”
Eliza Dushku; “Dollhouse”
Megan Fox; “Transformers: A Vingança dos Derrotados”
Lena Headey; “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”
Katee Sackhoff; “Battlestar Galactica”
Zoe Saldana; “Star Trek”

Melhor ator em filme ou série de terror
Bruce Campbell; “My Name is Bruce”
Michael C. Hall; “Dexter”
Kre Hedebrant; “Deixe ela Entrar”
Justin Long; “Arraste-me para o Inferno”
Ryan Kwanten; “True Blood”
Stephen Moyer; “True Blood”

 melhor atriz em filme ou série de terror
Jennifer Carpenter; “Quarentena”
Jaime King; “Dia dos Namorados Macabro 3D”
Lina Leandersson; “Deixe ela Entrar”
Alison Lohman; “Arraste-me para o Inferno”
Anna Paquin; “True Blood”
Monica Potter; “The Last House on the Left”

melhor ator revelação
Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Taylor Lautner (Twilight)
Robert Pattinson (Twilight)
Chris Pine (Star Trek)
Will.I.Am (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation)

melhor atriz
revelação
Anna Torv (Fringe)
Zoe Saldana (Star Trek)
Lorna Raver (Drag Me to Hell)
Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Lina Leandersson (Let the Right One In) 
 Malin Akerman (Watchmen)

melhor roteirista de quadrinhos
Brian Michael Bendis (Dark Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man)
Joe Hill (Locke & Key)
Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman, Batman and Final Crisis)
Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Justice Society of America)
Mark Millar (Wolverine: Old Man Logan,  Kick-Ass)
Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina)

melhor filme baseado em quadrinhos
“Dragonball Evolution”
“Punisher: War Zone”
“The Spirit”
“Watchmen”
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

melhor diretor
J.J. Abrams; “Star Trek”
Tomas Alfredson; “Deixe ela Entrar”
Michael Bay; “Transformers: A Vingança dos Derrotados”
Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson; “Up”
Duncan Jones; “Moon”
Sam Raimi; “Arraste-me para o Inferno”

melhor vilão
Eric Bana as Nero; “Star Trek”
Cam Gigandet as James; “Crepúsculo”
Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush; “Arraste-me para o Inferno”
Liev Schrieber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth; “X-Men Origens: Wolverine”
Alexander Skarsgrd como Eric Northman; “True Blood”

This Saturday Night, October 17th at 7:30pm

Winner 2008
Santa Fe Film Festival ~ Film For Change Award
Nashville Film Festival ~ Perry Award – Best Film
Sedona Film Festival ~ Directors Choice Award
Texas Black Film Festival ~ Best Feature Film
Reel World Film Festival ~ Best Feature Film
Sedona Film Festival ~ Best Feature Film

A Giancarlo Esposito Film

Gospel Hill

Hosted by Baltimore Screenwriters:
Jeff Stacy and Jeffrey Pratt Gordon

Starring:
Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, Julia Stiles,
Danny Glover, Taylor Kitsch, Rza & Nia Long

Doors open at 7:15pm – Premiere Screening at 8:00pm.

Admission $8

Please Note:
The Senator seats 900 and ample tickets will be available at showtime.

A former sheriff and a former civil-rights activist revisits
the 30-year-old death of another civil-rights worker.

Residents of the neighborhood of Gospel Hill, in the southern town of Julia,
are being forced out of their homes to make way for a new multimillion-dollar
development. Race relations are strained similar to thirty years ago when a
black civil rights activist was assassinated. The lives of the characters
intertwine as they touch on issues of race, eminent domain, and the
power of the human spirit to overcome the pain and hatred of division.

http://www.gospelhillthefilm.com

Attendees must be 21 years of age with
valid ID to purchase alcoholic beverages.

* * *

I’m going to make you my Wee-yotch!

– Chase Collins

This is the first time in memory watching a Renny Harlin movie. The Covenant has a reputation of being the gayest straight witch movie ever to be created on celluloid. There are endless sequences of the boys being shirtless or even less and a man-on-man mouth rape. The rest of the film, however, is god-awful.

This movie tells the convoluted story about the sons of Ipswich, a powerful Wiccan sect that have been in the shadows ever since the Salem Witch Trails. It was believed that there were five descendants that survived.

We are introduced to four of them; Caleb (Steven Strait), the leader of the sons with Pogue, Reid, and Tyler (Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway, Chace Crawford) that try to keep their supernatural powers under control.

Things change when a hidden, powerful fifth force threatens the kids at the Spencer boarding school.

There is nothing redeemable about this movie. The action sequences were clunky. You could actually notice that these people were on wires. The dialogue is atrocious. The acting was wooden. The only thing about this movie is the endless sweaty, shirtless scenes with the male cast members.

Judgment: A generic movie that should have a soft-core gay porn flick.

Rating: **

James Purefoy (Solomon Kane), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3, Sideways) and Mark Strong (RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes) have officially boarded John Carter of Mars, according to Heat Vision. Haden Church had mentioned he would be in it a while ago.

Andrew Stanton is directing Disney’s adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins star in the film, alongside Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker.

The film centers on a Civil War veteran (Kitsch) who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars, where he becomes embroiled with the planet’s warring people.

Church plays Tal Hajus, an ambitious and vicious Thark warrior who is biding his time to be a ruler.

Purefoy plays Kantos Kan, the captain of the Xavarian, the kingdom of Helium’s grand warship. Strong is Matai Shang, the ruler of the Thems with godlike status.

All in all it is shaping up to have one hell of a cast.

Source: MovieWeb

Mark Strong, James Purefoy y Thomas Haden Church -tal y como especuló este mismo verano el propio actor- se unen a John Carter of Mars, adaptación de la novela de aventuras que será el primer filme de acción real del director Andrew Stanton. Anteriormente la película ya contaba en su reparto con Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West y Polly Walker. El filme narrará las aventuras de un veterano de la guerra civil norteamericana que se encuentra a sí mismo misteriosamente transportado a Marte, donde participará en la propia guerra que asola el planeta rojo. Disney planea lanzar el esperado filme en el verano de 2.012.

Wednesday

The 9/8c time slot is the busiest on my grid this year. In fact, I’m glad I upgraded to a third HDDVR at the beginning of this month since it’s the one time of the week when I’m recording six shows simultaneously. I’m sure the full slate won’t survive through October, but at least I’m prepared.

ABC – It appears ABC is making an attempt at assembling a sort of “Super New Wednesday” with a full slate of new shows. I certainly hope it doesn’t meet the same fate as the schedule from a couple years ago when we got hooked on Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money, only to have the writer’s strike kill their freshman seasons, a fate they never recovered from.

Kelsey Grammer makes another attempt at his triumphant return to network television in a sitcom with a premise that sounds almost exactly like his FOX failure from two years ago, Back to You. Successful guy loses success and has to learn to live with a family he has ignored. My love of Frasier means I’ll check out at least a couple episodes, but I doubt this one will last. In an odd coincidence, Grammer’s Back to You co-star Patricia Heaton stars in The Middle, another traditional sitcom that also marks an attempt to show us that network television understands what it’s like to be affected by our current recession. Both shows premiere September 30th.

A less traditional hour of programming follows, starting with Modern Family, a show that follows three families in a documentary style (think The Office) and features an exceptional cast including Ed O’Neill (Married with Children) and Julie Bowen (Boston Legal). As many of you know, I’m a big fan of comedies sans laughtrack, so I have high hopes for this one. Following Modern Family, Courtney Cox returns to network television with Cougar Town. I haven’t learned much about the show, but it was created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) so I think it has a much better shot at success than say….Joey. These two shows premiere September 23rd.

Rounding out the night, we have Eastwick, a re-imagining of the 1987 movie The Witches of Eastwick and the John Updike novel of the same name. Be careful when setting this one on the DVR, I would hate for you to end up with a late night showing of 2005’s The Witches of Breastwick.

CBS – Criminal Minds returns in its normal slot for a fifth season on September 23rd. Minds has quietly become a very consistent performer for CBS, which surprises me considering how little support it got when it started. If you haven’t watched this at all before, I would recommend checking out an episode–each week is pretty self-contained so it isn’t hard to jump on.

Comedy Central – The boys are back October 7th for the second half of South Park Season 13, and plenty of ultra-topical shenanigans will be there. Following South Park is a new live-action show called Secret Girlfriend. The show is basically about a group of guys partying and attempting to get laid. I have no idea if it will be good, but the network only ordered six episodes so I’ll check it out.

DirecTV 101 – Continuing their partnership with NBC from last season, DirecTV gets the exclusive premiere of Friday Night Lights season four, starting October 28th. Dillon is in for some big changes with Coach Taylor headed to the newly re-opened East Dillon High School to lead the Lions. Taylor “Gambit” Kitsch and Zach Gilford return, although Gilford will likely make a mid-season exit a la Smash and Street before him. For those who haven’t figured it out yet, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as Eric and Tami Taylor are the best couple on television. Also, have no fear FNL fans, DirecTV and NBC have already inked a deal that ensures 13 episodes for this season and another 13 next year. Game on.

Discovery – Mythbusters picks up for the second half of season seven on October 7th. From the look of this story, they busted a few windows making the episode in March of this year.

FOX – Are you watching Glee yet? If you aren’t, I’m not sure you’ll need me to tell you to. FOX has declared a media war on anyone who thinks this is just another lame attempt at a tv musical. If creator Ryan Murphy’s name isn’t enough to get you on board, I don’t know what will work. Murphy’s nip/tuck helped start the cable drama revolution a few years ago and now that he’s done with it, he’s decided to do something kids can watch too. In addition to normal promotion, The songs will be taking over iTunes each week, and two albums are already scheduled, with the first one dropping in November. Glee premiered September 9th.

FX – As I posted last week, nip/tuck returns October 14th for its second-to-last season. I would have said penultimate season, but I’m tired of people saying penultimate.

MTV – Real World Road Rules Challenge is back again to meet our need for some sweet guilty pleasure tv. My advice is to DVR it, fast forward through the manufactured drama bullshit, and just watch the challenges. The show premieres September 30th.

NBC – Mercy is yet another new medical show, and normally I wouldn’t give it the time of day. However, it has James Tupper from the ill-fated Men in Trees, so I can’t help but tune in. Apparently, nurse shows are the new surgeon shows–what a super original idea!

Dreary, disappointing prequel arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray this week.

Since his introduction as an adversary for the Incredible Hulk thirty-five years ago, the Marvel Comics character Wolverine has come to symbolize a particular type of comics storytelling. Far from the gifted aliens, self-improving millionaires or brilliant scientists who traditionally make up the bulk of comics’ protagonists, the mutant known simply as “Logan” had powers thrust upon him, not once but twice. He was born a mutant and later subjected to military experiments that enhanced his natural abilities even further. His adventures are violent, uncomplicated, and thick on the spy/military tropes found in drugstore paperbacks and B-movie combat actioners. 

Wolverine as a superhero is not a genius, not a strategist and not even much of a thinker, really. He’s a brute force of nature with no end of machismo, a lowbrow hero for our ever-increasingly lowbrow culture. So if X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not an especially well-thought movie, if it places its expensive emphasis on action over clarity of plot and characterization, then in a shabby sense it’s true to its subject. Does that make it a good movie? No, though its vast array of flaws and mistakes makes it a bad one.

Directed by Gavin Hood (Rendition), the film opens with a visually and narratively murky prologue that shows Logan (Hugh Jackman) as a young boy escaping the murder of a man who may be his father. He’s abetted by his playmate Victor (Liev Shreiber), who also may or may not be his brother. Possessed of special healing powers that make them both more or less immortal, the two go on to serve in every major conflict of the next 130 years, depicted in the film as a thrilling opening credits sequence. In time they’re recruited into a special military unit composed of mutant soldiers whose leader, Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston), encourages their bloodlust. Logan quits the group when their – and Victor’s especially – savagery pushes him to his ethical threshold.

He finds solitude in a new life working in Canada’s logging industry, and romancing a local school teacher (Lynn Collins). But her apparent murder at Victor’s hands drives Logan back into Stryker’s influence. Offered the chance to have all memory of his dead love erased, he volunteers for an experiment to coat his bones with a special alien metal called “adamantium,” that will make him virtually indestructible. Once so empowred, the rest of the film is Logan seeking revenge against Victor and Stryker, and liberating Stryker’s gulag of mutant prisoners on Three Mile Island.

As their most popular character, Marvel has revised and re-imagined their hero’s origin story multiple times over the years, the better with which to entice audiences into buying “now it can be told…”  comic “events.” Possibly as a consequence, the script by David Benioff (Troy) and Skip Woods (Swordfish) has a lot of complicated and tangled back story to address while keeping the action moving. But like the recent Watchmen, their screenplay puts spectcle above narrative, so that fight scenes (or, more frequently, Victor’s cruel execution of his targets) are constant and prolonged. That’s at least true enough to the genre: the basics of the superhero story has always boiled down to “come for the action, stay for the pathos.” Comic books are by design a visual medium, and character depth is actually a fairly recent development in their history.

Still, for an action movie the special effects should be better – really, they have to be for the film to be worth the audience’s time and money. And for a film both prefacing and expanding on the already profitable X-Men movie franchise (composed so far of two good movies by Bryan Singer and one terrible one by Brett Ratner), they should be better still. Instead, the fight sequences – and there are many - are redundant and blurred, with CGI that’s convincing only about half the time. It’s hard not to think that with such an expansive cast, many of whom also have super powers, the money was spread too thin. A scene in which Logan toys with his new metal claws while at a bathroom counter is especially unconvincing. Likewise the effects showing many of Shreiber’s leaps and twists and the powers of Will.i.Am’s teleporting soldier John Wraith. Most unconvincing, given the carnage, is the lack of blood onscreen, obviously removed for the sake of that crucial PG-13 rating.

Jazz hands, with claws: Jackman

Making his fourth screen appearance as the hirsute Logan, Jackman is serviceable as always, but he’s seldom given anything to do except respond to events surrounding him. For an action hero he’s curiously passive until circumstances demand his attention. He’s also never entirely sympathetic as a character, as there’s no explanation for why he fought in so many wars or why he feels repulsed by his “brother’s” violence in the first place. After 150 or so years together, you’d think he’d know his constant companion better. Jackman is also given to striking dubious poses before running at his enemies, throwing his arms and legs into weird Tai Chi-like contortions that often look mannered.

Shreiber, playing the borderline feral Victor as a method exercise in animal snarl and pent-up menace, nevertheless shows again why he’s among the most underrated American actors working right now. Ryan Reynold’s (Definitely, Maybe) charm is underused as the wisecracking ninja Wade, while the normally wooden Kevin Durand (3:10 To Yuma) is effective buried beneath layers of fat suit padding as The Blob. Collins (True Blood) as Logan’s doomed love Kayla Silverfox does the best she can with a stock role that begs for further development. Despite an intermittent gumbo drawl, Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) overachieves as the fan favorite mutant Gambit, a character whose appearance in a Bourbon Street nightclub is one of the film’s few truly suspenseful moments.

It’s no coincidence the film appears on home video so quickly. It debuted at the top of the box office with a strong $87 million opening weekend but sank quickly thereafter as comics fans gave only lukewarm response. And no wonder.  Wolverine is not a good film, but perhaps more importantly it is not a good film even for the kind of movie it is. Logan may not be a genius, but his long-awaited solo feature shouldn’t be so dumb.

-Michael Kabel
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

(Note: A previous version of this review appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

Four men I can’t get enough of in Hollywood. Who cares if they harbor feminine characteristics. I like men with dainty features and long-ish hair!

Zac Efron

Erik Von Detten

Taylor Kitsch

Kevin Zegers

Hello, homies! I know I’ve done pretty much nothing but NDTD on the old blog lately, but fear not—after October, my life returns to normalcy and I will throw myself back into this blog with a ferocity that will FREAK YOU OUT, okie doke? In the meantime: SCOOP!

You can check out the opening 3 minutes of Sorority Row here. It looks…precisely the way I thought it would look, which is to say, retarded. Anything that bills itself as”Audrina Patridge’s new slasher flick” sure isn’t aiming high, is it? Hey Andy from Step Up 2–what are you doing in this movie??

Dread Central brings loads of clips from The Final Destination to the table. I’m not watching any of them because I’m saving it all for my D-Box experience with Henri in 2 weeks! After which, something astonishing and magnificent will appear on this blog–an actual review! Of a movie!

Lundy’s coming to the Dollhouse!

True Blood’s Stephen Moyer and Lily Collins are joining Paul Bettany in Priest.

Cutie Mila Kunis talks about Aronofsky’s Black Swan, costarring Natalie Portman.

Shutter Island, the Scorcese/Dicaprio joint that has me SUPER excited by the creepy-ass trailer, has been pushed back to February 9th from October 2nd. This news makes me relieved that I won’t miss the premiere for silly nuptial purposes, which I genuinely found perturbing. My priorities are wack, y’all.

But in the grand scheme of things, I’m still screwed, because now Zombieland has been moved to October 2nd. Hollywood, when are you going to learn to work around my schedule? Gah!

The Exorcist blu-ray? Will not suck.

Ju-On’s Takashi Shimizu has picked his next project, a horror flick about a haunted song. I don’t actually care, but it’s a slow news day (tuesday).

Another cool still from Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones.

Getcher spoilers on Smallville, Supernatural and Dollhouse here. And they’ve got the trailer for Smallville S9 here. Hey io9, I’m still waiting for that job offer…?

Marla’s new boyfriend Sam Worthington talks about everything that didn’t work about Terminator Salvation (uhm, duh) and everything that will work about Avatar in this interview. He reads about himself on the internet! SAM WORTHINGTON, YOU HAVE A VERY FUN GIRLFRIEND LIVING IN HOUSTON, TEXAS AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW IT YET. Come meet her! She’ll buy you beer!

What has two thumbs, no life, and an awesome shot-by-shot breakdown and analysis of Christopher Nolan’s Inception teaser? This guy. Definitely worth a look. JOSEPH! GORDON! LEVITT!

Daaaang! John Landis + Simon Pegg + grisly murder flick = a movie I will totally see!

Okay so this isn’t exactly the type of scoop that’s usually covered here on DIH, but whatever! It’s my blog and I can squee if I want to. chuckbassgaykissomg! Look who captured my attention after a lackluster season…

et fin, check out my weekly movie roundup on 29-95 for loads more info on Dinner for Schmucks, Spider-Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D., Robert Zemeckis’ atrocious plans for a Yellow Submarine remake, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Inception, Taylor Kitsch’s infernal hotness, and Bryan Singer’s seeming inability to make a movie that isn’t a remake, part of a franchise, or Valkyrie.

Okay, so who’s psyched for the Gambit movie? I know I am. I haven’t heard much about it, but I know that Taylor Kitsch signed on to play the sexy Cajun mutant in three more films (Hallelujah!). Personally, I think that Taylor pretty much nailed his cameo as Gambit in Origins, except for his accent. That was my only complaint. As a southerner who traipses to New Orleans every now and then, I can attest that Gambit’s accent ended up sounding more garden variety Southern/Country than Cajun. There’s a b-i-g difference. What happened to Gambit’s signature Cajun accent? The thick, rogue-ish jargon that made cartoon Remy so entertaining was barely there in the movie. I’m chalking this one up to not enough preparation on the movie maker’s part, and hopefully they’ll get Mr. Kitsch some help in this department for the next three movies. If he gets the accent, he’ll nail the part. He looks (in my opinion, at least) a ton like Remy LeBeau, and has that boyish, sexy charm that makes Remy so endearing to fans. In other Taylor news, Gambit’s going to Mars as Taylor Kitsch signs on to play the title character in Disney’s upcoming adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s classic, campy sci-fi tale. His fellow Origins star Lynn Collins has signed on to play Dejah Thoris, John Carter’s love interest. These two didn’t have many scenes together in Origins, so I’m interested to see how their chemistry works out. Since I recently read -and came to love- the first two books in the John Carter of Mars series, I’m really hoping that Disney doesn’t drop the ball on this one.