VH Corner

Funny People is the only one that looks good in the wide releases. Out of the limited releases, the quirky love story, Adam appears to be the most interesting, and the documentary about Oz films would be interesting to catch on cable.

Nationwide Releases

Funny People
Collector
Aliens in the Attic

Funny People
Directed: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill
Trailer

Synopsis: A wealthy comedian-turned-movie star is dying, and he hires an up-and-coming stand-up comedian to write jokes for him, while also mourning the one woman he let get away.

My Take: I do really enjoy Judd Apatow movies, and his movies continue to become more mature, unlike the movies made by his “crew”.

RT Score: 65%
RT Consensus: Funny People features the requisite humor, as well as considerable emotional depth, resulting in Judd Apatow’s most mature film to date.

Continue reading “Movies Opening July 31″

Tags: Adam, Adam Sandler, Alban Ukaj, Aliens in the Attic, amy irving, Andrea Roth, Arta Dobroshi, Ashley Tisdale, Chan Wook Park, Collector, Dal-Su Oh, Daniella Alonso, Dennis Hopper, Doris Roberts, Eric Bana, Eriq Ebouaney, Fabrizio Rongione, Flame & Citron, Frankie Faison, Funny People, George Lazenby, Ha-kyun Shin, Henry Thomas, Hugh Dancy Rose Byrne, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Jeremie Renier, John Schultz, jonah hill, Josh Stewart, judd apatow, Kang-ho Song, Karley Scott-Collins, Kevin Nealson, Leslie Mann, Lorna's Silence, Louie Psihoyos, Luc Dardenne, Madeline Zima, Mads Mikkelsen, Marcus Dunstan, Max Mayer, Mercedes Cabral, Michael Reilly Burke, Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Ok-bin Kim, Ole Christian Madsen, Peter Gallagher, quentin tarantino, Robert Hoffman, Robert Wisdom, seth rogen, Stine Stengade, The Cove, Thirst, Thure Lindhardt, Tim Meadows, Untold Story of Ozploitation!

I give the director credit for making the movie as exciting as it was to watch based on the book it came from. This book filled in a lot of backstory about Voldemort, but did spend most of the time with Harry watching various memories from Dumbledore and other people’s past that had to do with Voldemort. That doesn’t really make for an exciting screen translation. It was interesting to read though. That was half the book while the other half was filled with the kids growing up and acting on their feelings towards each other or just others in general. I love that part of the book since young love can be hilarious, heartbreaking and stupid all at the same time. I thought that part of the movie was done really well, but did take up a good portion of the first half of the movie.

Continue reading “Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince”

Tags: daniel radcliffe, david yates, emma watson, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Jim Broadbent, rupert grint

It is just reality shows this upcoming week and none that interest me.

Season Finale: The Bachelorette, Deadliest Catch, Next Food Network Star

Not My Thing

Real Housewives of Atlanta
Channel: Bravo
Time: 10/9c
Starring: Kandi Burruss, Sheree Whitfield, NeNe Leakes, Kim Zolciak, Lisa Wu Hartwell
Premieres: Thursday, July 30
Trailer

Synopsis: Backstabbing, drama, shopping, drama, gossip spreading, drama, big hoop earrings and more drama.

My Take: I can see the fascination and draw, but it would be too much for me after about five minutes.

Continue reading “TV: Week of July 27″

Tags: Emme, Kandi Burruss, Kim Zolciak, Lisa Wu Hartwell, Luke Conley, More to Love, NeNe Leakes, Real Housewives of Atlanta, Sheree Whitfield

The wide releases are pretty sad and most likely movies that didn’t want to try too hard to compete against Harry Potter.  At least one limited release look good, In the Loop.

Nationwide Releases

The Ugly Truth
G-Force
Orphan

The Ugly Truth
Directed: Robert Luketic
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Cheryl Hines, John Michael Higgins, Nick Searcy
Trailer

Synopsis: A guy must teach a woman how to play all these games to “catch” the man of her dreams, but of course they’ll end up together in the end.

My Take: I like the two leads, but the story looks very unappealing.

RT Score: 15%
RT Consensus: Despite the best efforts of Butler and Heigl, The Ugly Truth suffers from a weak script that relies on romantic comedy formula, with little charm or comedic payoff.

Continue reading “Movies Opening July 24″

Tags: Anna Chlumsky, Answer Man, Armando Iannucci, Bill Nighy, CCH Pounder, Cheryl Hines, David Rasche, G-Force, Georg Friedrich, gerard butler, Gina McKee, Herbert Fritsch, Hoyt Yeatman, Import/Export, In the Loop, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jack Huston, James Gandolfini, Jaume Collet-Serra, jeff daniels, John Hindman, John Michael Higgins, Jonas Pate, Kat Dennings, katherine heigl, Keke Palmer, kevin spacey, Laura Ramsey, Lauren Graham, Lou Taylor Pucci, Maria Hofstatter, Mark Webber, Mimi Kennedy, Nick Searcy, nicolas cage, Olivia Thirlby, Orphan, Pell James, penelope cruz, Peter Capaldi, peter sarsgaard, Robert Luketic, Sam Rockwell, Shrink, steve buscemi, Susanne Lothar, Tm Hollander, Ugly Truth, Ulrich Seidl, Vera Farmiga, Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis

I shouldn’t be interested in a show that follows a group of British teenagers. I can’t get into Gossip Girl or the relaunched  90210. I ignored this show when it first came out. It aired on BBC America last year while already airing earlier than that in the U.K. I had heard good things about it, but couldn’t get myself to even try it out. Then for some odd reason, I decided I needed to see what the fuss was about it. There are three seasons, each with 10 episodes a piece. I pretty much watched all three seasons in one weekend. That was over a week ago. I am ready to watch more, but I don’t even know if there will be any more.

Continue reading “Skins”

Tags: skins

Torchwood! Torchwood! Torchwood!

Torchwood: Children of Earth is on five nights in a row starting on Monday night and ending on Friday. If you have BBC America, I recommend that you watch it, even if you haven’t watched the previous two seasons. It is excellent and you can pick up the back story of previous seasons after this miniseries event has you hooked. They are available on DVD.

Season/Series Finale: Samantha Who?, Chopping Block, Kings, Primeval

Pick of the Week

Torchwood
Channel: BBCA
Time: 9/8c
Starring: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Kai Owen
Premieres: Monday, July 20
Trailer

Synopsis: All the children of Earth keep stopping at the same exact time and then all start chanting, “We are coming.” Creepy!

My Take: I have seen it and it is fantastic. The show is a spin-off of Doctor Who, but is sexier and funnier. This miniseries focuses more on the thrilling and darker aspects of the show, but I hope it gets more people hooked on it.

Tags: Aidan Turner, Annabel Scholey, Being Human, Children of Earth, Dylan Brown, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Gordon Ramsey, Gregg Chillin, hell's kitchen, Jason Watkins, john barrowman, Kai Owen, Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey, Sinead Keenan, torchwood

Two movies I want to see come out this week. The most recent Harry Potter and 500 Days of Summer. I really like Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so I hope it is adorable and not too quirky.

Nationwide Releases

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Directed: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Jim Broadbent
Trailer

Synopsis: The sixth in the series where Harry learns about the childhood of Voldemort while the kids all fall in love.

My Take: I have to see all the movies since I loved the book series. I’m also curious how they’ll make an action-packed movie when most of the book was spent in flashbacks.

RT Score: 84%
RT Consensus: Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.

Continue reading “Movies Opening July 17″

Tags: 500 Days of Summer, Adam Brody, Aron Gaudet, Bill Knight, Boaz Yakin, clark gregg, daniel radcliffe, david yates, Death in Love, emma watson, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Jackie Bisset, Jerry Mundy, Jim Broadbent, Joan Gaudet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Joshua Lucas, Lukas Haas, Marc Webb, Matthew Gray Gubler, Minka Kelly, rupert grint, Way We Get By, zooey deschanel

Christine has a boring job at a bank as a loan officer. She really wants a promotion to assistant manager, but her boss is being a jerk. Even though she has experience, he threatens to promote new guy, Stu, because he’s aggressive even though he doesn’t know everything yet since Christine still has to train him. Christine has a great boyfriend who likes her, even though she used to live on a farm, which apparently is the worst thing in the world according to his rich mother. She has to deal with many headaches in her day-to-day life before a gypsy woman makes it even worse.

Continue reading “Drag Me To Hell”

Tags: Alison Lohman, David Paymer, Dileep Rao, Drag Me To Hell, justin long, Lorna Raver, sam raimi

ABC continues to burn off the rest of its canceled shows. Dirty Sexy Money now has its turn on Saturday nights to air the rest of its episodes.

Pick of the Week

Leverage
Channel: TNT
Time: 9/8c
Starring: Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge
Premieres: Wednesday, July 15
Trailer

Synopsis: A group of con artists pull jobs to screw over the big guys and help out the little ones.

My Take: It is great summer, escapist fare with a good cast that has great chemistry. Also, the second season is filming in Portland!

Continue reading “TV: Week of July 13″

Tags: Aldis Hodge, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Beth Riesgraf, Christian Kane, Dark Blue, dirty sexy money, Dylan McDermott, Gina Bellman, leverage, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael & Michael Have Issues, Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, Nicki Aycox, Omari Hardwick, Timothy Hutton

I find it funny that Bruno is Certified Fresh. I heard people have been walking out of this movie due to it being too gay. Apparently they missed the trailers and the point.  There are a couple more Certified Fresh movies in the limited releases–Soul Power about the concert that went with the Rumble in the Jungle and Humpday about two guys trying to make porn.

Nationwide Releases

Bruno
I Love You, Beth Cooper

Bruno
Directed: Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen
Trailer

Synopsis: Bruno is a gay Austrian fashion designer who wants to make it big in U.S.

My Take: Borat was offensive and hilarious. I imagine this would be the same.

RT Score: 70%
RT Consensus: Crude and offensive, but with ample cultural insights and gut-busting laughs, Bruno is another outlandish and entertaining mockumentary from Sacha Baron Cohen.

Continue reading “Movies Opening July 10″

Tags: BB King, Beth Cooper, Bill Withers, Blayne Weaver, bruno, Chris Columbus, Hayden Panettiere, Humpday, I Love You, Jack T. Carpenter, James Brown, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Joshua Leonard, Katilin Olson, Larry Charles, Lauren London, Lynn Shelton, Mark Duplass, mark harmon, Patrick J. Adams, Paul Rust, Ryan Devlin, Sacha Baron Cohen, Soul Power, tricia o'kelley, Weather Girl