News for the Gleeks!

New episodes of Glee don’t start until February (with the first one airing immediately after the Superbowl), but I have a bit of new Glee scoop to tide you over.

On the Valentine’s Day show, Darren Criss (Blaine) has hinted that there might be some movement on the Blaine Kurt front. He told E! News, "There's going to be some fun things. Every day Chris (Colfer) and I are both equally curious to see what's going to happen between the two of those guys." He continued, "We're definitely going to start seeing some layers to the two of them. The pink elephant in the room will finally be addressed, let's put it that way."

Actress Anne Hathaway (most recently of Love and Other Drugs) is on board to play Kurt’s long-lost lesbian aunt. On Jimmy Fallon back in November she said, “In my head, I’ve cast myself on ‘Glee’ and I know what song I’d sing. I would play Kurt’s long-lost aunt, his mother’s sister who is also gay, who comes back to help him deal with his sexuality, and I would sing, ‘You Are Not Alone’ from Stephen Sondheim’s epic show Into the Woods.”

Ryan Murphy said they’d probably shoot her episode later in the spring. No word yet on whether she’ll get to sing her song choice.

Congratulations to the show for picking up 3 Golden Globes last night!

What to Watch

It’s January. In other words, the first half of the 2010 – 2011 television season is over. What do we have to show for it? The nuttiness of Raising Hope, the critical acclaim of Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods and inexplicably Sh*t My Dad Says. Gone are Lonestar (I’m still mad about that), Outlaw, The Whole Truth and the unfunny Running Wilde was finally run off the schedule. (Click here for a list of shows debuting in Janary).

Surprisingly, there isn’t a lot of new shows I’m looking forward to. Really there is only one!

Harry’s Law: Kathy Bates comes to TV in a legal dramedy from the king of legal dramedies, David E. Kelley (L.A. Law, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal). This one premieres tonight. Expect my review tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it. Monday’s, 10:00 PM (NBC)

American Idol: I’m curious about a post-Simon Idol. Besides I never watched it for the judges, I’ve always watched it for the talent and the competition.

What I’m Passing On
Off the Map: Medicine in the jungles of a South American jungle. This one is brought to us by Shonda Rhimes who has given us hot docs on Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. I apologize, I should have reviewed this but I didn’t. Here’s the micro review: Didn’t like it. Take that Twitter. I review in just 14 characters! Wednesdays, 10:00 PM (ABC)

The Cape: This started last week and I’ll be honest I didn’t watch it. The Cape? Seriously? I’d be more interested if it was The Louboutins? Think about it, would you rather see a crime fighter in fabulous heels or a dude in a cape?

Movie Review: The Dilemma

 

As I’ve said repeatedly, January is like a movie graveyard. It’s where bad movies go to be released. It’s as far away as you can get from awards season; people are burnt out from the holidays and aren’t seeing too many flicks; and, everything really worth season is being saved for summer (or nowadays even spring) or fall as the ramp of for awards seasons begin. As such, forgettable movies come out in January.

I went into The Dilemma with the requisite low expectations, and I came out pleasantly surprised. I actually kind of liked The Dilemma. Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) play best friends who run a business building hybrid car engines. They are sort of a dynamic duo with Ronny being the fast-talking salesman and Nick being the brains behind the scenes. It isn’t surprising that Ronny, the fast-talker, is slow to commit to his sous chef girlfriend, Beth (Jennifer Connelly), or that Nick, the stable one, is happily married to the beautiful Geneva (Winona Ryder). In Hollywood, the average guy always ends up with the hot wife. However, I digress.

Things get complicated when planning a proposal for Beth, Ronny sees Geneva with the truly hot Channing Tatum playing a hottie named Zip. Now Ronny has quite the dilemma: to tell or not to tell? And then, how to tell and when to tell? While figuring all of this out, his dilemma gets even more complicated when he realizes that even the innocent party isn’t as innocent as he seems.

The Dilemma takes a real dilemma which, if you have a best friend (and I have several) makes you wonder what you would do and how would you do it. Unfortunately, as a comedy, the dilemma The Dilemma faces is making this scenario funny. There were a few laugh out moments in my audience (one lady laughed VERY loud), but to me there should have been more of those. Queen Latifah has a few funny moments as the executive from Dodge who is working with them on a big partnership opportunity. Still I wanted more.

Directed by Ron Howard, there are a few scenes that might have packed a greater punch if they had been a little shorter. There is a painfully long ‘toast’ Ronny does at Beth’s parents 40th anniversary that focuses on the importance of honesty in a marriage. We got it. Ronny made his point but it just kept going on and on. As did the fight scene between Ronny and Zip, call ‘cut’ already!

If your dilemma is whether or not to see The Dilemma, I’ll make it easy for you. If you really want to see it, make it a matinee. Otherwise, wait for the DVD.

I Told Ya!

So I stopped by Rotten Tomatoes to check out my theory about January releases. Here are the ratings of some of the 'major' January releases so far (the higher the percentage, the better). I've also included some of the more colorful excerpts from the reviews.

Season of the Witch (Nicholas Cage) 4%
"Season of the Witch is as bloodless as a starved vampire. Instead of a review, it deserves a stake in the heart."
Pete Travers, Rolling Stone

"It's The Seventh Seal meets Get Him to the Greek meets Lord of the Rings as if filtered through Uwe Boll's hack-tastic brain. "
Jen Yamato, Movies.com

"Did they really say "I've saved your ass" in medieval Europe?"
Allan Hunter, Daily Express

The Green Hornet (Seth Rogen) 44%
"At least Seth Rogen has the good sense to wear a mask for much of The Green Hornet. If I'd made this movie, I'd want to hide my face too."
Kevin Williamson, Jam Movies

"A big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie."
Adam Graham, Detroit News

"Here's a 3-D movie that should have been shot in Zero-D."
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

The best part about reviewing bad movies is writing the reviews. It's actually fun ... which kind of makes up for the pain of having to sit through two hours of horrific drivel in the first place.

So tomorrow, I will be seeing The Dilemma with Vince Vaughn, Kevin James and Winona Ryder. Right now, it's at 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. With any luck, I'll be adding my (hopefully) witty two cents to such rave reviews as...

"This isn't a date movie... unless it's a blind date that you realized you didn't like during dinner and want to ensure there will be no second date."
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures

"A very poor effort from a talented group of people, this is a terrible movie wrapped in a glossy package."
Leremy Legel, Film.com

Come back tomorrow and see what I thought about The Dilemma.

ABC Gives Six Shows the Nod

ABC’s gone ahead and gave six shows the good news early … they are being renewed for next season! Grey’s Anatomy, Castle (a fave of mine), Modern Family, Cougartown, The Middle and Private Practice will all be back in the fall. Desperate Housewives will probably be back but since several contracts are up for renewal it might take a minute.

TV Review: Bob's Burgers

I loved King of the Hill. I still watch it almost daily now that it's in syndication. As much as I loved KOTH, I hated The Cleveland Show. Hated It! When I heard the opening notes of the annoying theme song (“My name is Cleveland Brown…”) I knew it was time to take a shower or a bath, walk the dog or do something other than watch that damn show!

So I was curious about Bob’s Burgers, the show that was taking The Cleveland Show’s post-Simpsons spot. I watched it for about 10 minutes. Didn’t laugh. Didn’t like it. 8:30 PM on Sunday is still prime showering and dog-walking time.

First off, I didn’t like the animation. Something about it felt off to me. Secondly, I didn’t think it was funny at all. Here's one joke: the burger of the day was The Child Molester. It was funny because it came with candy! Get it? See, child molesters often use candy to lure children. If you didn’t get that, one of Bob’s kid was there to explain it. Ha!

I’ll pass.

You've Been Warned!

Two kinds of movies are released in January. The good ones came out in limited release in December, in time for awards consideration and the rest, well, … they suck. On the slate for January: The Dilemma or Season of the Witch or The Green Hornet, but trust me, after reviewing movies for half a decade, January is where bad movies go to die.
On the bright side, I get to write some scathing reviews, which is always fun. But for you, my budget-conscience movie-goer, this is a great month to see what you missed at the $2.00 movie (if you are fortunate enough to have one. Otherwise, Red Box it, Netflix it or, if you’re old school, pick something up at Blockbuster.

If you absolutely must see a January release do it at an early matinee. You can thank me for it later. ;)

Having read my warning … are there any movies you want to take a risk on coming out this month?