Happy Birthday Lisa Kudrow! And Other Miscellaneous Thoughs

Happy 46th Lisa Kudrow! For those of you who don't know, I'm a big, no, INSANE, fan of the show Friends. Lisa obviously played the ditzy blonde Phoebe Buffay and I would like everyone reading to have a brief moment of silence, nay, remembering, the character gone too soon (please Warner Bros., make a movie!). She's also had the most critical success with the movies, especially in The Opposite of Sex. But alas, Lisa failed to get an Oscar nominaiton because the Academy would not recognize her outside of Friends (even though Helen Hunt WON an Oscar for the underappreciated As Good As It Gets). Other notable films: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Analyze This, and Kabluey. Also hilarious on The Comeback and her web series Web Therapy. Keep it coming, Lisa!

Other Miscellaneous Thoughts: I hate this weird sort of format-y thing that EW.com has got going on. It seems more mass-produced and less homey than before. Any thoughts on that? If you're reading, please DO comment!

West Side Story (Broadway)

As many of you can already tell just by looking at the picture of the Sharks/Jets on the top of my blog, I adore West Side Story (Le adoro, for you Spanish speaking readers). I saw it on Broadway today (a little late, but hey the original cast is still all in tact).

Comments
1. Karen Olivo is a deity all in her own. Her tall, maternal-yet-sexy look is beyond Tony-winning. A complete scene stealer.

2. Jerome Robbins choreography is still as amazing as ever, if not better.

3. I'm looking forward to many years of Josefina Scaglione, you?

4. I'm still torn whether I like the Sharks or Jets. I'm leaning toward Sharks.

5. I would have like to have heard I Feel Pretty instead of Hoy Me Siento Heromsa. Also, with my only 3 years of Spanish I could only catch some of the Spanish songs.

Side comment- When Tony was (Spoiler Alert!) shot by Chino, the audience obviously gasped. But then proceeded to whisper for an incredibly long time and becoming unruly before an individual audience member told them to (thankfully) shut up. Strange.

Overall, I would place this first, ahead of the only other two musicals I've seen which are Chicago and, my first, Jersey Boys.

So, have you seen it yet? If not, do! If you have, comment! If you haven't, feel free to comment anyway!

The Aughts

The Aughts (2000's) are coming to the close. Why they're called the Aughts I may never know, but what I do know is this list I have compiled of the actors/actresses/films that represent the decade. Well, here it is:

The Actors (in no particular order)
Matt Damon
Leonardo DiCaprio
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Sean Penn
George Clooney

The Actresses (in no particular order)
Meryl Streep (uh, duh!)
Anne Hathaway
Renee Zellweger
Kate Winslet
Cate Blanchett

The Films (in no particular order)
Almost Famous
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Dark Knight
Juno
Memento
Chicago
Moulin Rouge!
Mean Girls
WALL-E
The Hurt Locker

Your thoughts? Please share in the comments section!

The Emmy's Part Deux

Jennifer Aniston has been nominated! Which sort of proves 30 Rock can get nominations even for its lesser episodes... sorry Jen, but it was the episode, not you! (FRIENDS=obsession if you haven't realized.)

Jennifer Aniston=Amore

30 Rock managed to pull off 22 nominations. The better news: Jane Krawkowski is nominated! I love Tina Fey, but I hope that she does NOT win this year for her role as the lovable Liz Lemon. The show is one of my favorites, but I think it's not too much to ask that Mary Louise Parker finally take the award.

Best scripted show in some time.

For the actors I'm rooting for Steve Carrell winning the award come September and in the supporting category it would be foolish to vote for anyone whose name isn't Neil Patrick Harris. Drama wise I'm not so savvy about the nominees. But I'd like to see Holly Hunter and Gabriel Byrne take get some Emmy love and Hope Davis/William Hurt in the supporting categories.

Note: If Drew Barrymore doesn't win come September, the Emmys should be discontinued.

EMMY's

Emmy predictions come out tomorrow! It's nice to have nominations announced in July to get through the rut following the Oscars. The only wrong the Emmys can do in my eyes is to ignore Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in Grey Gardens. It would be nice to see Jennifer Aniston get a nomination for her work on 30 Rock, but not very likely. Guest actor/actress categories are typically dominated by older actors (i.e. Cloris Leachman for Malcolm in the Middle), but they could throw her a bone, don't you think? I'd like her to join Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry by getting an Emmy nomination after their (amazing) work on Friends, the best sitcom in the last 50 years. Any opinions? Please share in the comments section!

Dammit Janet!

A couple nights ago The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on Fuse or one of those channels I never watched. I tuned in while playing on the computer but once I heard Susan Sarandon start singing I was captivated. Who knew she could switch from raspy to angelic through song? And I loved how big her brown eyes could get, especially when she had the newspaper over her head. And Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me! I'm not usually that impressed with Susan Sarandon, but man she was 100% perfect for this movie!

Oscar- The Other Five Best Picture Predictions

It's time for the could-be-maybe-nots of this section. These films now have a better chance at snagging a nomination come Oscar season, but who knows.


THE COULD-BE-MAYBE-NOTS
Amelia- Oscar does love biopics, but the trailer for this film looked particularly flat (maybe I'm just a Swank-hater). And it is a biopic about a woman, that's why this film's future isn't so clear right now.


If Swank gets a Best Actress nomination, she will have gotten a nomination every 5 years since 1999. Yuck.



Shutter Island- Martin Scorsese's newest effort has a mouth-watering ensemble cast (Patricia Clarkson, Leonardo DiCaprio), but it's a hit or miss with this kind of psychological thriller material. The names alone however may be enough to push it to a nomination.


I'm not gonna lie- I'm a big Leo fan. Can this role finally bring him Oscar like The Aviator should have back in 2004?



Avatar- James Cameron FINALLY returns to film after he proclaimed himself king of the world in 1997 and pretty much stopped working. What a jerk. But he's back! He has created an entirely fictional world using some state of the art technology or whatever. I'm not really sure how this will piece together, but this man is a genius so everything should work out smoothly. Bonus- Australian soon-to-be-megastar Sam Worthington stars in Avatar!


No words to describe how much I am anticipating this film.



The Informant!- I'm predicting a good year for Matt Damon. After no new releases in 2008, he's back and has some of the best directors on his side. The Informant! has Soderbergh and with 10 Best Picture slots to fill, this (dark) comedy could quite possibly get nominated.


Packing on the lbs. usually works for Academy members


The Hurt Locker- Strong reviews for this film indicate it may have a chance of getting nominated. And with 10 Best Picture nominations, Academy members will have to look past December and November releases.


Can The Hurt Locker overcome an early release date?

Oscar- Five Best Picture Predictions

I'm well aware that there will be ten nominees for Best Picture this year, but I've decided to tackle one half tonight (the definites), and the other half later (the could-be-maybe-nots).



THE DEFINITES
Nine- There is no, I repeat, NO, way this film cannot score a Best Picture nomination. When you add up Daniel Day-Lewis, a slew of Oscar hotties, Rob Marshall, and a faint Fellini memory, then you have struck Academy gold my friend!


WHOA! 6 OSCAR WINNERS


Up- It's inferior to WALL-E, sure, but it's one helluva flick. The Academy would not dare pass up Up after the outraged that they sparked when they failed to nominate its Pixar predecessor. And Up is one of Pixar's highest grossing films, further cementing its status as an Oscar heavyweight.


What's that I see! Is it a nomination?


Invictus- Clint Eastwood felt the snub of the Academy last year with "prestige drama" Changeling and "good old vintage Clint" Gran Torino managing to evade any nominations for the four time Oscar winner. He's back this year with a sort-of bio-pic with Morgan Freeman (Oscar loves them some Freeman) and Matt Damon (who, if things go smoothly, can have quite the impressive resumé by the time 2009 wraps).


"Matt, you better not screw this up for me like Angie."


The Road- Cormac McCarthy's next novel-to-movie film is missing the Coen Brothers, but a strong cast (Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce) and the anticipation of the movie's release should lead it down the red carpet on Oscar night. The one con is that it may suffer the same fate as another post-apocalyptic drama, Children of Men.


Crazy hair worked with McCarthy's
No Country For Old Men, so why not here?


The Lovely Bones- It's the same (albeit slightly altered) formula that Nine is using: a director Oscar is fond of (Jackson), Academy Award winners and nominees creating an ensemble to die for (Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz) and it is an adaptation of something that was adored, a best-selling novel.


Sarandon's longing for Oscar after
nearly 15 years of nothing.

Gwyneth Paltrow Vs. Saving Private Ryan

I re-watched Shakespeare in Love yesterday with a friend of mine who had never seen it and, despite all of the hate it and Gwyneth get from the blogs, it still holds up today as fresh, funny, romantic, and one of my favorite films of all time. The ensemble is alive and manages to get the most out of a master piece of a script. I'll never understand those who hate Gwyneth Paltrow's performance in favor of the more predictable and less-interesting role that Cate Blanchett had in Elizabeth. I'm a big Blanchett fan but, compared to Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth does not hold up at all.

Saving Private Ryan was obviously the front-runner in 1998 so Shakespeare's win was a surprise to everyone. It's certainly a good movie, great even, but it is filled with those war cliches and the ensemble (Vin Diesel... really?) cannot match that of Shakespeare in Love. Also, being more inclined to the actresses, I have to say "Where are the ladies!?" when I watch Saving Private Ryan. If Spielberg had lost the directing Oscar to Madden that year I could understand that the statuette was completely bought by the Weinsteins, but Saving Private Ryan got its due as did Shakespeare in Love, the best motion picture of 1998.

So all of you out there that hate this performance and Gwyneth in general, just re-watch the film and you'll see the magic still on screen 11 years later.

14 Movies To See Before You Die- Funny or Die

I just read on Entertainment Weekly that the guys over at Funny or Die (Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to be exacty) made a list of the 14 movies to see before you die. There list was:
1. Goodfellas
2. Election
3. The Man Who Would Be King
4. Tin Men
5. Cinema Paradiso
6. Nights of Cabiria
7. Airplane!
8. Series 7: The Contenders
9. The Exorcist
10. Mail Order Wife
11. Rear Window
12. The Sound of Music
13. Tron
14. Flirting With Disaster

I felt obliged to make up a list and I did so before looking at the comments section and this is what I came up with:
1. The African Queen
2. Bonnie and Clyde
3. Dial M For Murder
4. The Lion King
5. West Side Story
6. Memento
7. Shakespeare in Love
8. All That Jazz
9. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
10. A Few Good Men
11. Good Will Hunting
12. Terminator
13. American Beauty
14. Jurassic Park

(BTW- I use the name "Mike" on EntertainmentWeekly.com)
After I posted my list I looked at what other people had suggested and found a lot of the same movies, especially: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Almost Famous, and Moulin Rouge! I'm a little surprised and extremely delighted by the love for Moulin Rouge! out there on EW.com. So what do you think? Do you have a top 14? If you are reading this please comment!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July! I just got back from the city because I went to go see the Macy's fireworks. Typically explosions of colors aren't that exciting, but I love going on the train, even if it means running with your friend and their parents while each of you carries a rolled up chair contraption on your back. It was better than expected, but my expectations were pretty low compared to some people I saw setting up tripods acting if Meryl Streep herself were to appear in the air with the fireworks. Now before I went I decided to have a little Indpendence Day celebration with the film True Lies. That's sort of American, right? An Austrian hulk of a man defeats terrorists- it's the poster movie of the American spirit, right? I'm a big James Cameron fan (except for Titanic... Is that weird?) and Arnold Schwarzenegger is quickly becoming my favorite body-builder turned actor turned Governator. Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold are hysterical as well, but Schwarzenegger, when teamed up with Cameron, is one of the most surprising scene stealers. So, which movies did any of you few readers watch? Independence Day perhaps? Please leave comments to tell me how you celebrated the Declaration of Independence through film!

Twelfth Night

Last night I saw Twelfth Night (hence the no posting) and the whole Shakespeare In The Park thing is the best thing since sliced bread. Sitting outside watching these performers bring the Bard into modern day New York City is just hard to wrap my head around. It's like a concert at Jones Beach- sitting outside makes everything better! Anne Hathaway was simply a delight and has one of the best Shakespearean tongues ever (yes, it is indeed it's own language). Everything about the production is so well done and has been worked on so meticulously that it is 99% perfect. What is the 1% that bothered me you ask? I absolutely hate when people crack up at every line just to prove to their fellow audience members that they understand Shakespeare's jokes. We get it. You understand the irony and the humor of the 1500s. I'm sure the actors enjoy it but to me it's a desperate cry for recognition. Luckily the couple next to me were certainly not Shakespeare snobs as they should be called. Right before intermission, the man turns to his wife and says "Who's that guy!? And who's with him!?" He was talking about Andrew and Olivia's Uncle, Sir Toby- characters that had been in much of the play already. Those are the kind of people I enjoy watching these sorts of things with. Also- the people that laugh at the word "bosom" are pretty entertaining.

Olivia de Havilland turns 93

Before I begin writing about the wonder that is Olivia de Havilland, I would like to take a moment to mention Karl Malden who will be sorely missed.

Back in 1916 on July 1st, Olivia de Havilland was born in Tokyo Japan (I just found that out today too!) One year later, the most infamous sibling rivalry in Hollywood would begin when Joan Fontaine was born. Despite her struggles with her sister, de Havilland has brought life to many great characters on the silver screen. My absolute favorite performance of hers is in Gone With The Wind. I'm all for the African American recognition at the Oscars, but my personal vote would have been for de Havilland, who remains one of the most innocent and charming characters in the movie. Another great de Havilland rolethat just popped into my head- The Heiress. It's a shame she could not make up with her sister. I mean, they're both well into their 90's... don't you think it's time to bury the hatchet?

So happy birthday Olivia! Here's to hoping many more wonderful years ahead!