American Idol Results Week 2

Well I can't say I'm too surprised with the results. First off I thought that Allison was the best so she definitely deserved to go through. Then even though Kris didn't really get very high praise from the judges he was real good as well. The only one I'm not so sure about is Adam. As I said in my other post I didn't really like his performance. It seemed like he was shouting for the entire thing. If I had my choice I would have put through Megan Joy because she was a lot better than Adam. let's hope that Megan gets a spot in the wild card show.

American Idol Week 2

Jasmine Murray (Love Song) - It's kind of funny last week one of the judges told a contestant that they should sing this song. But what's funnier is Jasmine should not have sung this song. Vocally it was OK but it doesn't really show off her voice.

Matt Giraud (Viva La Vida) - It's hard to put your own spin on a song. But I think he did a decent job. I don't think he has the strongest voice but he tried his best to make the song his own.

Jeanine Vailes (This Love) - Two people in a row doing pop/rock songs. And like Matt it didn't work that well. She has a real good voice but this was just a very bad song choice. I can understand choosing a fun song but you need one that can show off your voice. Overall it was just not a good performance and I think she just blew her one chance.

Nick Mitchell/Norman Gentle (And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going) - This guy is interesting. He has a good voice but he likes to do that Norman character and try to make people laugh. A few moments he was pretty funny like when he got right up to the logo in front of the judges table. Vocally I thought it was all over the place but I think he would have done a better job as himself. I think he'd do better overall if he dropped the Norman character.

Allison Iraheta (Alone) - This is a real tough song to sing. You have to put a lot behind it and really believe what you are singing. I thought she did a good job with it and she really belted it out. It was definitely better than I thought it would be. At times there were even shades of early competition Kelly Clarkson.

Kris Allen (Man in the Mirror) - This is a very tough song to sing. But I think he did a real good job with it. I don't think it was the wrong song for him and I thought he sang it pretty well.

Megan Joy Corkrey (Put Your Records On) - What is with the modern pop songs tonight? But despite that I think she did a good job with it. I think there were one or two moments where it fell a little flat but it didn't hurt the rest of the song. She took a risk with this song and I think it paid off.

Matt Breitzke (If You Could Only See) - Oh look another pop song. And this was just not the right song for him. Another guy with a real good voice but he chose something fun doesn't show it off. Parts were good but it comes to a bad song choice. I also agree that it was a bit dull.

Jesse Langseth (Bette Davis Eyes) - I agree with Simon that she doesn't have much of a chance of winning. There was nothing exciting about the song. It seemed a bit boring and forgettable.

Kai Kalama (What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted) - Finally something other than a modern pop song. It was good vocally but it didn't really thrill me. Not a bad performance but not a great one either.

Mishavonna Henson (Drops of Jupiter) - Do I really need to say it? ANOTHER FUCKING POP SONG! And another not so great performance. It was decent vocally except a few places where it kind of fell flat. Yet another case of bad song choice.

Adam Lambert (Satisfaction) - Choosing a song like this is almost as bad as choosing a modern pop song. It is one of the best songs ever written but nothing by Mick Jagger is going to show off your voice. It seemed like he was just shouting the whole song. It looked like he was having fun but let's hope he has fun on the plane ride home.

Movie review: Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder

Into The Wild Green Yonder is the fourth and final Futurama movie. A few years ago someone suggested to Matt Groening that he make a movie version of the show. After some negotiation they settled on making four straight to DVD movies. The first one, Bender's Big Score, was released in November of 2007. Then the second movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs, was released in June of 2008. The third movie, Bender's Game, was released in November of 2008. Now the fourth and final movie Into The Wild Green Yonder was just released on February 24.

For those that aren't familiar with the series Futurama it revolves around the main character Philip J. Fry. Fry accidently falls into a cryogenic tube and wakes up 1000 years later. He is in a world where space travel, aliens and robots are common place. In fact his best friend is the foul mouthed, beer drinking, kleptomaniac robot Bender. He works as a delivery boy for his distant nephew Professor Hubert Farnsworth. The main love interest of the story is Leela (voiced by Katey Sagal from Married With Children). The interesting thing about her is that she only has one eye. There are many other characters that are just as interesting. The series lasted about 72 episodes before it was canceled by Fox.

So now with the movies they have said they were going to wrap up the series. The plot of this movie concerns Fry who suddenly finds himself with the ability to read people's minds. He then finds out that he has to help save the universe and help to restore life to the dead parts of space. There is also a subplot of Leela becoming an environmentalist that helps to move along the story.

Of the four movies my personal favorite is the first one Bender's Big Score, but this one would definitely rate second followed by Bender's Game and The Beast With a Billion Backs. The voice acting was as good as it usually is. Now Futurama was never one of those shows to have you clutching your sides with laughter and instead revolves around more subtle jokes and jokes that usually cater to nerds, Trekkies and people into science fiction. As a nerd myself I can say I definitely appreciate the humor. But if you are expecting side splitting humor then this is not the movie for you. However there is one running gag with a leech constantly attaching itself to Leela's body that gave me some pretty good laughs.

The plot of the movie is pretty good as well. It did a good job of keeping you wondering what would happen and how they would wrap up the series. However I can say that I'm a little disappointed with the ending. I won't spoil anything but it's one of those endings that leaves you wanting more, but unfortunately there won't be any more. The rest of the movie was well written and had some real good dialogue.

Now the overall look of the movie is consistent with the series. Unlike the other movies I watching this one on Blu-Ray. This really helped the colors to pop and for the finer details of the animation to really stand out. But if you watch this on DVD you won't miss out on too much but if you have a choice check it out on Blu-Ray.

If you are a fan of the series then I don't think I need to tell you to check out this movie. But if you aren't a fan then I recommend checking out the DVDs of the series before diving into the movies. If the series itself doesn't grab you then the movies aren't going to do much to change your mind.

My score: 8.0/10

Oscar Winners

I'd like to comment on the winners of the Oscars. First off Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture. As I said in my review this was a real good movie. Of course my personal favorite of the 5 nominees was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But Slumdog had a very good human story and was very well put together and very well written.

Best Actor went to Sean Penn for Milk. He did a really good job but my personal choice was Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon. But aside from Sean Penn I would almost rather have seen the award go to Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

Best Actress went very deservedly to Kate Winslet for The Reader. Of the 5 performances this one was my favorite. Although there was a lot of buzz around Meryl Streep for Doubt I think they made the right choice.

Best Supporting Actor went, as everyone expected, to Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. I personally don't think it was the best out of the 5 performances. I just think that because of his death everyone had a soft spot for him and gave it to him for that reason. I think that if he was still alive he probably wouldn't have won and might not have even been nominated. I think if I had to choose someone else to win it would probably be Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt.

Best Supporting Actress went to Penelope Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona. I was a little surprised by this at first but looking back at her performance she really deserved to win. My personal choice was Taraji P. Henson for Benjamin Button but the range of emotion showed by Cruz was done so well that she is very deserving of the award.

Best Director went to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire. This one wasn't too much of a surprise given how well shot and how well put together the movie was. I think David Fincher did a fantastic job with Benjamin Button but Danny Boyle was very deserving.

The last award I'm going to mention is Best Foreign Language Film. A lot of people, myself included, thought that it would go to Waltz With Bashir. Waltz With Bashir was a very powerful animated movie from Israel. It was done in an animation style very similar to A Scanner Darkly and I was going to review it but decided not to because there was no way I could give it a score because I felt I'd do it a disservice. But instead the award went to Okuribito from Japan. I haven't seen this movie but it would have to be very good to beat out a movie as powerful as Waltz With Bashir.

The last thing I'm going to talk about is Hugh Jackman who hosted the awards this year. At first I was a bit skeptical about someone who's not a comedian hosting. But overall I thought he did a pretty good job. The two musical numbers he did were well performed and well put together. Even though a few times you could see him fighting back laughter. But I did notice that he wasn't on stage nearly as much as other hosts usually are but given that he's not a comedian it makes sense. So he did a decent job but I'd like to see the spot go to a comedian next year.

TV review: American Idol Week 1 Results

For the most part I agree with the results on the show. Both Alexis and Danny did really good jobs. I personally would not have put Michael through on the strength of that performance. But I think people put him through just because he's a nice guy. Let's just hope in the future he can pick better songs or he might be one of the first to get kicked off the top 12. Instead of Michael I think that Ricky should have been sent through since he did a much better job with his song.

TV review: American Idol Week 1

One thing I've done for a while is to give my opinion of the performances on American Idol. I will also tell you what I think of the results when they come. However I don't watch the results shows because they are like 55 minutes of filler before they tell you the results. So below is what I thought of each performance:

Jackie Tohn (A Little Less Conversation) - The beginning part of the song was good when she was singing slower. But after that it just fell apart I think she's going to go home. Also what is with those pants? They look like they were painted on.

Ricky Braddey (A Song for You) - I thought he did a very good job. They say it's a hard song but he made it sound easy. At first I thought it was a bit safe but he really belted it out.

Alexis Grace (I've Never Loved a Man) - I thought she did a good job with the song. Plus she injected her own personality and made the song her own. Very solid performance.

Brent Keith (Hick Town) - This is the time when you want to show off your vocals. This is not the song you do that with. His vocals were OK but it comes down to a real bad song choice.

Stevie Wright (You Belong With Me) - I don't know what happened but I think it was pretty bad. The pitch was just off for the whole song and it sounded really bad.

Anoop Desai (Angel of Mine) - It was good, just good. It didn't blow me away or anything but the vocal was good. He does have a good voice but I didn't get too much out of the performance.

Casey Carlson (Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic) - This is a hard song to sing. I remember somebody tried to sing this a few years ago and it didn't work. This is another case of that happening. The vocal just wasn't good at all. Yet another case of a person being killed by their song choice.

Michael Sarver (I Don't wanna Be) - When Bo Bice sang this song he did a real good job. This guy didn't do that good of a job with this song. This is the kind of song that you sing later in the competition not for your first song.

Ann Marie Boskovich (Natural Woman) - This is a very hard song and if you sing it you have to really belt it out. She didn't belt it out and Kelly Clarkson has nothing to worry about. I think the vocal was good but nothing about it made it that memorable.

Stephen Fowler (Rock With You) - If you are going to sing Michael Jackson there are much better songs. This is another one that sounded like karaoke. It was just flat and lifeless and it doesn't matter if you remember all the lyrics if your vocals aren't up to snuff.

Tatiana Del Toro (I'm Saving All My Love for You) - First off I have to say that this girl is annoying as hell. I personally hope she doesn't go that far because seeing her on TV every week would really try my nerves. Secondly you gotta have some major balls to sing Whitney Houston and if you do have you have to slay it. She did not do that it just seemed like a flat and lifeless performance. Plus I think the pitch was all over the place so hopefully we won't have to put up with her for another week.

Danny Gokey (Hero) - This was a bit of a reserved performance but it was really good. It's interesting some parts of his performance reminded me of Taylor Hicks which is a very good thing because I loved Taylor. I think had I been able to watch this live I would have voted for him.

Game review: Left 4 Dead

There have been many games made about zombies over the years. But the new game from Valve does things a bit differently. Left 4 Dead is a cooperative game at heart. You play as one of four survivors trying to make your way to safety through hordes of the undead. The game was made with the Source engine that powered games like Counter Strike and Half-Life 2. You can either play the game locally with up to four players on one system, via system link or on Xbox Live.

The meat of the game is in the campaign mode. You play one of four different campaigns that are wrapped up to look like a zombie movie. It starts with a movie poster and it shows the players names like it would actors playing the part. Then each campaign is divided into five different sections where you have to get to a safe house. If a player dies they can be brought back to life by finding the closet they are in and letting them out. And if a player should die and not make it to the end it will show their name as "In Memory of..."

The weapons in the game are pretty standard. There is the standard pistol (with unlimited ammo), the Uzi, the M-16, the standard shotgun, the auto shotgun and the sniper rifle. All of these handle pretty well and do about as much damage as you'd expect each weapon to inflict. Of course if you choose to sniper rifle you are limited to how many shots you can fire and if you pick the shotguns you are limited with your range and how fast you can reload. But thankfully you do have a melee attack you can use that will help you when you are trying to reload.

Now teamwork in this game is key. If you don't stay together and trying to help the other players you are going to regret it. If you wander off you'll quickly find yourself in a not so favorable position with no one to revive you. But thankfully if one of your teammates has a health pack they can use it on you to regain your health. But be careful because those packs can be pretty few and far between.

The campaigns can be played solo with the computer filling in the other players. But the AI isn't as good as it could be. Lots of times they will wander off on their own or you'll be dying right next to them and they won't help you. So after a while it becomes more of hindrance than anything else. So this game is really best played with real people.

Aside from the campaign there is a versus mode. In this mode up to eight players take the role of either survivor or infected. If you are one of the infected then you play as one of the "special infected" that each have different abilities and would take a while to go into them all in detail. This mode is a lot of fun and I found it more enjoyable to play as one of the zombies and try to kill the humans.

One downside of this game is that it is really short. Each of the four campaigns can be completed is as little as half an hour. This means that you can complete the whole thing in about 2 hours. For a game with a $60 price tag this isn't what you'd call getting your money's worth.

But the developers of the game wanted to encourage people to play through multiple times. So they included what they call the AI Director. This makes it so each time you play through the AI that controls the zombies will behave differently depending on multiple criteria. I did find that each time through it felt a bit different but after a while the computer does start to get a bit predictable.

Now the graphics in this game are pretty good. Don't expect to look at something like Gears of War or Oblivion when you play this. The zombies all look pretty standard and don't have a huge amount of detail. There are some nice effects when you shoot off their heads or blow off their arms and legs but other than that its really nothing to make your jaw drop. Now considering the shear number of things that can be happening on the screen at once the frame rate holds up pretty well. I only noticed a few times where I saw any slowdown but it doesn't enough to make the game unplayable. The environments are pretty generic and will show some damage from bullets and explosives over time.

This is one of those games that is best if just rented. If you are one of those people that think you will play it over and over then you might want to consider picking it up used or on eBay. But I found that you can get pretty much everything this game has to offer in a rental.

My score: 7.5/10

Movie review: Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married is the latest movie from director Jonathan Demme who you might know from films like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. It stars Anne Hathaway in a role that has gotten her a Best Actress nomination. She plays the character of Kym who gets out of rehab to go to her sister Rachel’s wedding.

Of course what movie about a wedding wouldn’t be complete without the dysfunctional family? It doesn’t really help that Kym herself is a bit dysfunctional already. So this leads to a lot of interesting situations. Like one where Kym gives a toast at the rehearsal dinner and doles out some brute honesty.

She kind of does have a reason why her family doesn’t exactly care for her. Something happened in her past that her sister and her parents still resent her for. It becomes one of the main focal points of the fights in the movie.

The movie is well written and the acting all around is pretty good. The stand out, of course, is Anne Hathaway. She does a really good job of playing this character that is just trying to spend some time with her family and hopefully make it up to them for what she did in the past when she was self-medicating herself. I would say that she definitely deserves her Oscar nomination even though I don’t think she has much of a chance of winning.

One interesting thing about this movie is it was filmed almost entirely with handheld cameras. So you get some real interesting camera angles and you get this sense like you are someone just observing what is going on with everybody at the wedding. I think it was a good choice by Demme to use this because it really helps to draw you into the scenes and make you feel like you are a part of them.

This was a good movie even though the pacing was a bit slow. It is just shy of 2 hours long and I think they probably could have trimmed it down a little without losing too much. I think there were a lot of scenes that you could call filler and fluff like watching the people in the wedding band play. Now one of the guitarists is Demme’s son so of course he will get some screen time. But had they cut out a few scenes here and there the movie probably would have flowed a bit better and would have drug on at times.

I still say this is a good movie and it’s worth watching. If anything watch it to see Hathaway’s performance which is the best one she’s given since Brokeback Mountain.

My score: 7.5/10

Movie review: Revolutionary Road

A lot of people have talked about the movie Revolutionary Road. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in their first movie together since Titanic. Along with the Golden Globe that she won for The Reader she also picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for this film. Many people thought she would get the double Oscar nomination but that didn’t happen.

The movie is based on a novel by Richard Yates in which a young couple moves into a new house in 1950s suburbia. The drama then ensues when they start having troubles managing their marriage and raising two kids. Of course it doesn’t help that Leo’s character is a total jackass. But he’s like a lot of men who work a job that they don’t like so they can support their family.

One day the two of them decide that they are going to move to Paris. She’ll work while he stays home and figures what he wants to do with his life. This all goes well and good until a few things throw wrenches into their plans. Then as you’d figure their marriage which is already a bit unstable starts to fall back into its old habits.

The movie also stars Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon in a role in which he is nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. It is directed by Sam Mendes who you’d know from movies like American Beauty and Jarhead. It is very well written and very well directed. A good portion of the movie is spent watching the two main characters argue. I think arguments are one of the hardest things to write and the ones in this movie come off very well. A movie argument could very easily come off as fake or forced but you really believe how angry these people are at each other.

I am personally pretty surprised that both Leo and Kate Winslet didn’t get Oscar nominations for this movie. They were both just outstanding. There were some moments when Leo’s character really flies off the handle and it made me wonder where inside himself he was able to draw that out. Now as I said in my previous review I believe that Winslet’s best performance was the one she gave in The Reader and this movie doesn’t change that opinion. But I think this one is an easy vote for her second best performance.

If there are bad things I can say about this movie it’s that the pacing was a bit slow at times. But the dialogue helps to move it along pretty well. People who aren’t really used to or into these kinds of movies might find it boring but I didn’t in the least. The movie is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and with how well it is written I wouldn’t be surprised for it to be a serious contender for that award.

Lastly I will just say that this was a good movie overall and it is definitely worth a watch.

My score: 8.0/10

Movie review: The Reader

Previously I have reviewed 4 out of the 5 films nominated this year for Best Picture. The last one on my list to see was The Reader. It stars Kate Winslet in her award winning role. She won the Golden Globe and is nominated for the Oscar. The movie also stars Ralph Fiennes in a very good performance as well. The movie follows Fiennes as he recounts a love affair that he had as a young boy with Winslet’s character. This affair doesn’t last long but he runs across her later at a trial where she is defending herself against war crimes.

Their love affair starts out pretty standard with them meeting every day to have sex. But eventually Winslet gets the character of Michael to read to her. This becomes a regular thing where he will get a different book and sit and read to her before they make love. But given the fact that she is an adult and he is still pretty young they don’t exactly have the most stable relationship and this shows. One thing I will say is if you are at all shy about nudity you might want to stay away from this movie as there is quite a bit of it both male and female.

The sex scenes are also filmed very well. At first Michael is just a boy discovering what it is all about but then the real passion he feels is brought forward and then near the end of their relationship you can see their issues rise to the surface as the passion has gone out of the act.

The movie kind of exists in two parts. The first part is of Michael as a young boy when he meets Hanna and they start to see each other. After that is over the second half of the film focuses on her trial and the events in both of their lives afterwards. There have been a lot of movies made regarding the holocaust and this one is quite different from the rest. At the onset you don’t even know that this movie is going to deal with that subject matter. But then when it does it doesn’t throw it in your face or try to get too graphic or depressing. There is a pretty powerful scene where Michael is walking through one of the camps but it is pretty somber and is more about his reflection on the person he used to know.

I guess I have to talk about Kate Winslet’s performance. All I can say is she was brilliant. One thing is in movies accents are usually hard to pull off but she does a good job with her German accent and it doesn’t come off as forced or fake. She really pulls you into the role and makes you feel sympathetic for her character despite the things in her past. Of all of the movies I have seen her in this by far her best performance. She right now is my pick for the Oscar for Best Actress. A lot of people think it will go to Meryl Streep for Doubt but Winslet’s performance was a lot more subtle and deep and emotional.

I definitely recommend this movie. It is probably not one that will appeal to everyone but is a very good romance movie with a bit of a different angle. Now will this movie win Best Picture? I don’t think it will as my pick is still The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But if anything can unseat that or Slumdog Millionaire it is this movie.

My score: 8.5/10

Comment: PS3

I just bought a Playstation 3 and I have a few things I would like to complain about. First off this is a high definition system and it didn't even come with any high definition cables. I had to go out and buy an HD component cable for the system. Secondly and I think the system's biggest problem is it doesn't upscale games that are in 720p. For those of you that don't know there are varying levels of HD video. There is 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. If you have an older HDTV like I do then it only supports 480p and 1080i. Now with the Xbox 360 if a game is in 720p it will upscale the quality to 1080i. But the PS3 goes the cheap route and decides that you don't need good quality video. So what it does is downscales the video to 480p which is on the very low end of the HD spectrum and barely qualifies as HD. In fact I was playing the demo of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and it made my eyes hurt after a while. So in the future if a game is on both 360 and PS3 and the PS3 version has this issue then I will get the 360 version for sure.

Now I signed a petition online for Sony to fix this problem. Right now it only has about 350 signatures. For this thing to get noticed that number is going to have to go way up. So I will post the link to it here and I encourage anyone with a PS3 or anyone who is just a gamer in general and doesn't like seeing those of us that can't afford to upgrade our TVs to get the short end of the stick.

http://www.petitiononline.com/PS31080i/petition.html