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Christmas TV Marathons

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I love the holidays. They are the perfect time to just laz around and catch up and different shows or movies that you have missed or to just watch marathons of your favorite shows and movies.  TVline.com and Zap2It has a comprehensive of all the marathons happening today 12/24  until after Christmas 12/26. Here are some of the ones I’ll be checking out.

Harper’s Island – I never caught this show when it was on the air and neither did anyone else but I’ve heard good things about it so I have no excuse to not watch since the Chiller channel is airing all 13 episodes from its one and only season today.

 

 

I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant – I have always been slightly curious about this show, but have never put any effort into trying to watch. OWN has a marathon today.

 

 

I have never seen this movie but it runs every Christmas eve and Christmas day on TBS. I don’t like many Christmas movies but everyone says this is a classic and has to be seen so I might just have to do that.

 

 

NBA Basketball – I don’t follow any teams but I do like watching the games every no and then so its only fitting that ABC and ESPN are going to be showing games from 12pm/11c until midnight on Christmas Day. ABC has the Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks, and the Chicago Bulls vs L.A Lakers starting at 2:30pm/1:30c, while ESPN has Boston Celtics vs New York Knicks at 12pm/11c, Orlando Magic vs Oklahoma City Thunder at 8:30pm/7:30c, L.A Clippers vs. Golden State Warriors at 10:30pm/9:30c. I might watch that Knicks game because I want to hear the crowd boo Kris Humphries but that’s if he even plays and I love Dirk Nowitzki so I’ll also be watching that Mavericks game.

Awkward – I don’t watch much on MTV but I have been told I need to watch this show because it’s pretty funny. I saw the promo when it first started and it just didn’t look that great, plus I was also a little upset because I thought my favorite web series, Awkward Black Girl, had gotten picked up by a network. Anyway I’ll give this a shot and see if it’s any good. MTV is running the entire first season on Monday 12/26 from 5pm/4c.

 

 

 

Enjoy and Happy holidays everyone.

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The Darkest Hour

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“Die Zombie.” The Darkest Hour is NOT a zombie movie but this was what a child at our screening uttered when one of the aliens was killed. This was just one of many utterances that were overheard while watching this movie. The film stars Emile Hershe (Into the Wild, Milk), Max Minghella (The Social Network, The Ides of March) and Olivia Thirlby (Juno, No Strings Attached) as people who get stranded in Moscow, when aliens start attacking Earth. The aliens come down and suck up all the energy and try to wipe out the planet. This sounds absolutely dreadful and it absolutely was. I walked out at the end of that movie and all I could say was GARBAGE; ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. I don’t think I have seen a worse movie this year. Nope that’s a lie that honor still belongs to that absolutely horrendous Drive Angry.

This movie was so bad one of my friends walked out. It was so frustrating watching this because first of all there were too many stupid characters and if you have read some of my posts you know I hate stupidity and irrationality. Things just made no sense. There were some really huge plot holes that just kept this movie irritating to me. My friend said he was at 119 and counting for number of plot holes in the story. If anyone can come up with a higher number please let me know. I wouldn’t wish this movie on anyone though so disregard that last statement. Oh one of the other awful things about this movie is that it is in 3D; FOR NO REASON. If I didn’t hate 3D before this makes it worse because there was no reason for it.  There aren’t any things flying out or coming at you. It’s a 2D movie and if you like torture and want to go see this for yourself then I would only get the regular and not waste money on 3D.

The Darkest Hour is in theaters everywhere Christmas Day.

 

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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

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I have not read this book, nor have I watched the Swedish adaptation of the books so I went into this movie not really knowing much about the story. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a film based on the first book in Stieg Larson’s Millennium series trilogy. The film is directed by David Fincher (Social Network, Seven) and stars Rooney Mara (Social Network, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Daniel  Craig (007, Cowboys and Aliens) and Christopher Plummer (The Beginners). Craig plays Swedish journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who loses a libel case against a big billionaire and is ordered to pay damages and fees. He soon meets Henrik Vanger, who commissions him to investigate the murder of his great-niece, Harriet, whom he believes was murdered by a family member 36 years before. Blomkvist asks Lisbeth Salander, a researcher and surveillance pro, to assist him with his investigation. From there they delve deeper and deeper into Vanger’s family dynamics and secrets and discover a serial killer that has been at it for many years.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was great. Rooney Mara DID HER THING. Well deserved Golden Globe nomination indeed. Like I have been told happens with the book, the film starts off a little slow. I would say for maybe the first 20 – 30 minutes there is some questioning about when it will pick up but then boy does it pick up. There is so much build up in the story that it had me on the edge of seat the whole time. I think I said “Oh s***” over a dozen times to myself the whole movie. I love suspense thrillers and this did not disappoint.

There are some gruesome elements to the film though. There is a pretty nasty rape scene and crime photos of women that were tortured and murdered as well as lots of violence. There are also a couple of sex scenes with plenty of Mara in the nude. If you are a prude and not comfortable with nudity I would wait until you could Redbox it and fast forward through those scenes because the movie is definitely worth watching. I don’t know how it compares to the book or the Swedish adaptation and I don’t care. I’ll make that comparison after I finish reading the book and watching the Swedish version but for now as a stand alone movie it was wonderful.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is in theaters everywhere now.

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SAG and Golden Globe Nominations Announced

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LOVE AWARDS SEASON!!!!!! Things definitely kicked into gear with the announcing of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Golden Globe awards last week. SAGs were announced on Wednesday with The Help leading the way in the film category with 4 nominations. Viola Davis is nominated in the lead actress category for her turn as Aibileen Clark in the movie while Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer got supporting actress nominations for their respective roles. The cast of The Help is also nominated for motion picture ensemble. Yay for Melissa McCarthy picking up a nomination for her role in Bridesmaids. Modern Family leads the television pack with 5 nominations. Dexter, which is having its worst season to date, and 30 Rock are both next with 3 nominations. The Golden Globes also announced its nominations last week. On this list however, The Artist leads with 6 nominations with The Descendants and the The Help trailing with 5 nominations. Ricky Gervais will help bring in the night as host for the third time. I can’t wait to see all the people that he skewers at the show. My goal is to watch all nominated movies by the time the Oscars roll around. The SAG awards will air January 29th, 2012 on TNT and the Globes air January 15th, 2012 on NBC. Full list of nominations below.

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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol or Mission Impossible 4 is one of the best straight action movies I’ve seen this year. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.  It is almost the best of the series. MI3 directed by one of my favorites, J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Star Trek), is the best to me. This one is a very close second though.

The film directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Iron Giant) is your standard action formula film. The IMF team; Jane Carter (Paula Patton), William Brant (Jeremy Renner) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), led by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is framed for a bombing at the Kremlin by a crazed mad man intent on the world going into nuclear war. They have to go out to investigate and clear their names while the Russian police are after them.

The action is wonderful. Crazy landscapes, death defying stunts, crazy cool gadgets, beautiful international locales make up the backdrop of the movie. The shots in Moscow, Mumbia and Dubai were especially beautiful. There is a scene shot in Dubia with Tom Cruise scaling the tallest building there that is something crazy. Cruise is one insane man. All of the stunts for the Ethan Hunt character were done by Cruise himself. He did a great job of  with those. The spy gadgets are pretty nice as well. Don’t get me wrong they are no James Bond but they were pretty nice. The vehicles in the movie were also crazy. Hotness.

The supporting cast was pretty good. I would say that this is the reason that this movie didn’t move up to number one for me. Simon Pegg (Shaun of The Dead, Hott Fuzz) and Jeremy Renner (The Town, The Hurt Locker) were good. Renner was greatly underused in this movie. If they make another movie and Cruise’s character has the same team, I would like to see them give Renner more to do. Paula Patton(Jumping The Broom, Precious) does not ruin the movie like some were thinking. She’s not the best actress but she isn’t awful. Her role in the movie is that of a supporting player and the story and action move along so quickly that you don’t really dwell on her acting. Go see this movie, It’s definitely a must if you like action movies and liked the other Mission Impossible films, just like I said in my Fall Movie Guide.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol  opens in IMAX on Friday 12/16 and everywhere 12/21

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Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man Trailer

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Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, is a film based on Steve Harvey’s best selling book of the same title. The movie has a plethora of stars on it including  Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Meagan Good, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown, Kevin Hart, Terrance J., Regina Hall, Romany Malco, and Jerry Ferrara. It shows a group of women and men in various relationships who aren’t having any luck finding luck in love. When a self-help book comes out they use it help them figure out how they can make them better.

The trailer reminds me of a black version of He’s Just Not That Into You, a movie I absolutely hated. It also reminds me Two Can Play That Game with Vivica A. Fox. I don’t know about this movie. Kevin Hart is pretty hilarious but this looks a little terrible. Meagan Good is just such a bad actress. She seriously hasn’t been good since Eve’s Bayou and she was like 11 when she did that. With all that said I’ll be seeing this. What do you guys think?

Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man hits theaters April 6th, 2012.

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“That Shh Crazy, Ain’t It Jay?” Watch The Throne Tour With Jay-Z and Kanye West

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I know this is not the norm that I usually post on but I mean technically this is something I watched. It just wasn’t on television, in a theater, or online. The Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch The Throne tour made its way to Houston,TX as part of their 24 city tour and delivered one hell of a show. Maybe one of the best shows I’ve seen.

Doors for the show opened at 6pm. I got there at 7:30 and the lines to get in went on for some blocks.  Our seats were in the nosebleed section but this didn’t matter because no matter where you were in the arena it was a good seat. The show kicked off at about 9:15pm when they came out and did H.A.M. and Who Goin’ Stop Me Now. They started on opposite sides of the arena with Jay-Z on the main stage and Kanye West on a stage set in the middle of the floor.  The stages both ascended high into the air above the crowd and the screens on the stage flickered with images of dogs and sharks. The crowd was sooo hyped up and on their feet and never really sat down the entire time.

They then went into the Otis Redding sampled song, Otis, and then on to other Throne favorites Welcome To The Jungle, Gotta Have It and Where I’m From. With each song there were flames and lasers and lots of booming but those things didn’t distract from the main focus, the wonderful tag team on stage.

Jay-Z and Kanye performing "Otis"

Jay-Z then did his hit Jigga what, Jigga Who from his Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life album. After this song he gave the stage over to Kanye who then commanded the stage with his hits Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Flashing Lights, Jesus Walks, All Falls Down and Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix). Kanye’s outfit of choice for the night was a black over-sized t-shirt emblazoned with a picture of his face on it,  gladiator skirt, black leather leggings/tights and black high tops. Jay came back out for Diamonds as he is featured on that record. They then went back and forth on the stage and did more of their solo hits. It was in this segment when Ye’ was doing his song All of The Lights that I thought we were gonna get a full on meltdown. The lights weren’t all on and Kanye started the song up 3 times before the lighting people got it right put them up at full blast.  Meltdown avoided. Still not sure if that was real or something he does every night for that song.

They hit the last 30 minutes of the show when they got back together to do Jay’s 99 Problems. They then went into their final songs from the Throne album, No Church in The Wild (one of my favorite songs on the album), Lift Off (another favorite of mine), and N****s In Paris. I was hoping that maybe the 8 month pregnant wife of Jay-Z, Beyonce would come out and give a vocal on the song Lift Off that she is featured on since they were in her hometown but sadly no Beyonce.

The guys then went out on their latest single, N****s In Paris. I hated that song when I first heard it but I love it now. The crowd was exceptionally hype for this song as we knew it was going to be the end. They did the song and stopped at the line “and they going gorillas, huh!” then they started it again finished the song out and walked off stage. The arena started clapping for an encore and they came out again to……… N****s In Paris. At first I thought are we not going to get a different song, but then I thought what other song could they go out to. So I just Kanyeshrugged and danced my butt off the 4 more times they did the song. At maybe the 4th time they did the song, Jay-Z tells everyone to come up to the stage. Security tried to stop people but Jay-Z told them to leave the people alone and we all continued to rock. The crowd was so hyped that some girl threw her gold pump on the stage (it got handed back to her by Ye’) and someone else threw a joint on the stage. Oh Houston.

Epic show. It was well worth the wait and the price and Jay and ‘Ye didn’t disappoint at all. They did a total of 38 songs and that doesn’t include the 4 times they did N****s In Paris and were on stage for a little over 2 and a half hours. They were done at midnight with the crowd only wanting more. I was so pumped for the rest of the night and was up until about 2am. I had barely had any sleep for work the next day but it was sooooo worth it.

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Awkward Black Girl Episode 11

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It’s that time of the month again. The new episode of Awkward Black Girl has arrived. They redeemed themselves last month with episode 10.2 after what was the dreadful Halloween episode 10.1. See if the upswing continues on this new episode.

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My Guilty Pleasure: Holiday Movies

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The Thanksgiving holiday just ended and that means holiday music, television and movies are going to be everywhere and everything is in reruns. During this time when there isn’t much to watch I secretly love watching holiday themed tv movies. Not just any holiday themed movies, the romantic ones that Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and now ABC Family specialize in. I don’t know what it is about these movies that I like. They are seriously the cheesiest. All I know is that while I was channel surfing on Thanksgiving Day, I flipped to Lifetime and discovered them showing holiday movies. I quickly perused the guide and found that I had watched every single movie that they were showing that day; in fact I had watched every single movie except one that Lifetime was running the entire weekend. WTH? When did that happen? That’s when I realized I secretly enjoy these movies. They always have the same formula. It always calls for a single, widowed, divorced or in a relationship with the wrong person man or woman who is a workaholic; has a name with a Christmas theme like Nick, Noelle, or Joy; a Christmas Eve or Christmas deadline, and some kind of mixup that makes them fallout at the end before they finally get together at the end. You may also, if you choose to, add a child who has sent a letter to Santa or some local radio/tv station wanting a new mommy or daddy for Christmas; or a twist on A Christmas Carol that gives them some kind of alternate life.

I’m excited to get to the new batch of movies that are going to be rolling out. Lifetime is about to start their Falalala Lifetime of holiday movies, ABC Family is doing their  25 Days of Christmas and Hallmark Channel is doing a countdown to Christmas. They always play some of my favorite ones like A Diva’s Christmas Carol which stars Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) and Borrowed Hearts that stars Roma Downey (Touched By An Angel) and Eric McCormack (Will and Grace). If you get excited over holiday movies check out the holiday schedules on Hallmark, ABC Family and Lifetime.

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For Better Or Worse

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For Better Or Worse is a new show from Tyler Perry based on two characters, Angela and Marcus, from the movie Why Did I Get Married? The show is about Angela and Marcus, a married couple played by Tasha Smith and Michael Jai White, and all the things that come with their drama filled relationship which include dealing with Marcus’ baby’s mother, Keisha (Kiki Haynes) and her dating Marcus’ friend and business partner, Richard (Kent Faulcon). The cast is rounded out by their friends Leslie and Jason, played by Crystal Stewart (Miss USA 2008) and Jason Olive (The Game). I liked Why Did I Get Married? I thought it was one of the better thought out and acted Perry films. So when I saw that this I optimistically thought that maybe Perry  would get it right with this show. I don’t know why I thought this since all of his other shows are pretty much the worst. This show has calmed down Angela and Marcus’ over dramatic nature from the movie but not by much. Angela is still over the top and loud but not towards Marcus, just everyone else. Leslie is pretty much a kept woman who lives with her boyfriend of 3 yrs, Jason who wants nothing to do with marriage. It’s your basic structure of married, just started dating and living together couples that they have on these relationship sitcoms. I could deal with the poorly written out characters if the dialogue was at least semi funny. It’s not in the least bit funny. This show is kind of like The Game in that they are going for a more adult audience and dealing with all those relationship situations. The difference between those two shows is that even as bad as The Game has become, it’s still better than this mess. Over the top acting and bad writing. Can I please get the 45 mins of my life I spent watching this back? If you like Tyler Perry’s stuff then more than likely you’ll like this.

For Better or Worse airs on TBS Friday nights at 10/9c.