Can't Wait: G.I. Joe Retaliation

What do you get when you mix in The Rock, Channing Tatum, oh and...Bruce Willis?  G.I. Joe: Retaliation. I can't wait to see this film this summer.  It opens on June 29th and looks to pack a punch.  Directed by Jon M. Chu, this film looks to be his first major action film as he directed "Step Up 2: The Streets", "Step Up 3D" and the documentary "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never".  Shall we wager any bets that there might be a dance segment in this film?  I'd love to see RZA, Adrianne Palicki and Byung-hun Lee get down and do a little Gangnam style dancing. Enjoy!

2013 Oscar Winners

Here it is - in case you missed it last night...results from the 2013 Oscars.

Winners:

Best Motion Picture: Argo
Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Adapted Screenplay: Argo, Chris Terrio
Original Screenplay: Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Original Score: Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Original Song: "Skyfall," Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth; Skyfall
Best Animated Feature Film: Brave
Best Animated Short Film: Paperman
Achievement in Cinematography: Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Achievement in Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Achievement in Costume Design: Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling: Les Misérables
Best Live-Action Short Film: Curfew
Best Documentary Short Subject: Inocente
Best Documentary Feature: Searching for a Sugar Man
Best Foreign-Language Film: Amour (Austria)
Achievement in Sound Mixing: Les Misérables
Achievement in Sound Editing: Zero Dark Thirty & Skyfall
Achievement in Film Editing: Argo
Achievement in Production Direction: Lincoln

Saying Goodbye to Richard Briers (1934-2013)

So sad as I just wrote about the british comedy/drama "Monarch of the Glen", one of the main talent of the show, Richard Briers, passed away today due to a long time suffering of emphysema. 

Here's a bit more about Briers from The Huffington Post:

Briers starred in the 1970s sitcom "The Good Life" as Tom Good, a man who decides to quit the urban rat race for a life of self-sufficiency in suburbia. The show, which contrasted the back-to-the land Goods with their conventional neighbors the Leadbetters, made stars of its core cast – Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington – and is regularly voted one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time. Broadcast in Britain between 1975 and 1978, it aired in the U.S. as "Good Neighbors."

Briars also starred in the comedy-drama "Ever-Decreasing Circles," the Scottish Highlands drama "Monarch of the Glen" and a host of other shows.

In later life he became well-known for Shakespearean roles. He joined director Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 after deciding, he said, that "I had gone as far as I could doing sitcoms."

For Branagh he took on roles including King Lear, Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" and the buffoon Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

He also appeared in several Branagh-directed films, including "Henry V," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Hamlet," "Peter's Friends" and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."

Branagh remembered Briers as "a national treasure, a great actor and a wonderful man. He was greatly loved and he will be deeply missed."

Can't Wait: Safe Haven

By now, ya'll know that I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy/drama.  And well, Nicholas Sparks always hits that sweet spot that makes me purge gallons of tears so on that note, Safe Haven - can't wait to see it.  Plus, you have the incredibly talented director Lasse Hallstrom who brought us the other tear-jerker, Dear John.  So, if you add in the element of hotness with Josh Duhamel (uh, didn't you heart him in "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" and "Life As We Know It"?), in a romantic drama, you definitely got my attention and my money.  It was very clever to release this film on Valentine's Day, so it's on my list to see ASAP. Be still my beating heart, I know he's a married man, whatevs.

Go See: Side Effects

Wow, this was an unexpectedly very good psychological drama.  Steven Soderbergh is a master of illusion, suspense and conniving-ness (is that even a word?).  And of course he has the credits list to prove it - "Contagion", "Oceans Twelve" (and "Oceans Thirteen"), "Traffic" to the oldie but goodie, "Sex, Lies and Videotape".   He seems to like to work with the same folks as Channing Tatum starred in this film and he was in Soderbergh's "Magic Mike".  Ditto on Catherine Zeta-Jones who was also cast in "Traffic" and "Oceans Twelve".  OH! and let's not forget Jude Law, who played the tortured psychiatrist in "Side Effects" but can also be seen in "Contagion". I think the only one who hasn't worked with Soderbergh is the other lead, Rooney Mara.  (Do correct me if I'm wrong!)

So go see it - it might change the way you view anti-depressant drugs and the effects it could possibly have on you or someone you know.  Or it might not change your view.  I'll leave that up to you!

Julian Fellowes in "Monarch of the Glen"

 
All hail to the Barron Fellowes of West Stafford.  Who, you say?  AKA Julian Fellowes.  Maybe, who again?  Ummm, duh, the creator, writer and director of the highly acclaimed Masterpiece Theatre "Downton Abbey" that we are all obsessed with.  Okay, let me take a breath now.  If you're fan of this highly dramatic show, then you will highly appreciate this fun-loving comedy called "Monarch of the Glen" that Julian Fellowes plays a main character on, as "Kilwillie".  Who knew he was better known as an actor before creating possibly one of the best dramas on TV right now.  Also starring Richard Briers, Susan Hampshire, Alastair Mackenzie, Alexander Morton, Hamish Clark, and the lovely Dawn Steele.  Don't despair - even if none of these names sound familiar to you, know that Julian Fellowes is involved and you'll enjoy this hilarious comedy about running an estate in Scotland called Glenbogle.  (The series was loosely based on Sir Compton Mackenzie's "Highland Novels" and aired on the BBC. I currently watch it via Netflix.)

20 Years? "Sleepless in Seattle"

Wow, has it really been twenty years since "Sleepless in Seattle" first came out?  It's truly hard to believe.  Where does the time go?  Don't answer that!  This by far is one of my most favorite romantic comedies ever.  With a huge ensemble cast, how could the late director Nora Ephron go wrong?  You've got Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Rob Reiner, Rita Wilson, Victor Garber, Ross Malinger, Carey Lowell, David Hyde Pierce, Francis Conroy, Rosie O'Donnell and Gaby Hoffman.  Whew, is that enough for you?

Some of the best quotes:

"Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental." -Annie Reed

"A ho! A ho! My dad's been captured by a ho!" -Jonah Baldwin

"Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic." -Sam Baldwin