reviewer

Murphy the cat

During this holiday season there have been many families that have lost their homes from foreclosure. Not only have they lost their homes but they had to give up their pets as well. The pet living without a home is growing in population and need both in finding a new home and helping in donations to keep these animals alive and well. Many organizations such as humane societies are bombarded with so many animals that some are not able to take in anymore until some more are adopted out.
Bucho the dog

Some humane societies such as the Dallas humane society at dognkittycity.org have done so much to help the homeless animals that they run close to running short on money to continue to stay open. They will take donations if we all just help lend a hand.

On Real Chance at Love there were two girls eliminated. After making viewers wait two weeks before seeing the dramatic ending to the last show where Milf and Risky were fighting, we finally got to see the result. Milf was sent home while Bay bay bay and Cornfed remain. Chance’s girls were able to spend the day with his parents and they basically told him that Risky was like a ticking bomb, Cali wouldn’t make a good wife, and Rabbit was a good choice but unstable when it came to loving Chance. Chance ended up eliminating Rabbit. Neither Cali or Risky are going to be good for him. So, it looks like Chance will be with a girlfriend rather than a wife and Real will find a good woman in Cornfed. Bay bay bay is just too controlling and he has no attraction towards her.

The fight between milf and the rest of the girls was crazy. Milf was crazy and stupid to say the things she said. Apparently Real had told her that his brother was fooling around with Risky a little more than the rest of the girls. So what? But she was so dramatic about it that she made it a big deal and acted like it was insider information. Risky denied everything though and Real denied he ever said it at least in front of everyone. Then when he spoke with Milf alone he told her he was angry because she told everyone personal stuff. And she keeps doing so. Therefore, she went home. According to the previews for next week Bay bay bay will be giving Cornfed a very hard time. She is too much and too agravating. She needs to go home and should have been sent home three weeks ago.

Jason Mraz released his third solo album this year entitled We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. The first single off the album is called “I’m Yours” and is a song that has been used across the globe. In Australia they use the song for various television ads for a television show while in Brazil they use it as a theme song for a soap opera. “I’m Yours” is also nominated for two Grammy’s. Amazing how I never heard of the song until recently when I decided to listen to it online. I never heard of Jason Mraz nor his music. After listening to “I’m Yours” I know why. It wouldn’t be very popular on the radio. It is a folksy type song that is simple yet beautifully written and sung by Mraz. It just isn’t radio material for popular stations. There would be no way this song would make it onto the pop, r&b, or rock charts. Maybe the song could make it onto the contemporary charts. Or could it? Then I find out that it made it onto the Billboards top 100 charts back in February and went as high as number 5. Go figure.

The video is carefree and shoots scenes near beaches, waterfalls, driving in the back of a truck, and skateboarding. Eventually it comes to Mraz on a boat singing his song with his band. Very well done video and fits the music perfectly.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan was released in theaters in the summer of this year. It stars Adam Sandler who seems to try way too hard to be funny. There are way too many sexual jokes that fall flat and you find yourself thinking “did he just do that?” Sandler could do better than this movie and with all of the good comedy actors included in the film you would think that they could make it work. But they can’t seem to save this poor plot.

Sandler stars as a special forces soldier from Israel who gets tired of fighting off “terrorists” and decides to fake his death in order to achieve his dream of becoming a hair dresser in America. There are too many problems with this film that rubs me the wrong way. There are too many sterotypical jokes that are intended to be insulting. Even though I don’t fall into the stereotypes that they were targeting I find it hard to watch. No real comedy should be stoop to such levels in order to try to get a laugh. A comment in the movie was that they had wished that Israel could get along with the Arab countries yet You Don’t Mess with the Zohan takes every opportunity to send the message to the audience that Arabs are stupid or evil. Knowing of the bad relationship between Jews and Arabs it is rather odd to me that a film with so many jewish actors are playing the parts of Arabs and portraying all of them in a bad way. How is that repairing the relationship between the cultures and countries?

I wouldn’t recommend You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Don’t waste your time. The film never gets going due to the many stupid jokes and plot that goes nowhere. Mariah Carey and John McEnroe make cameo appearances and probably regret doing so. They served no purpose to the movie other than to be able to promote that these stars are in it. The only thing good about You Don’t Mess with the Zohan is the music. Sandler always picks good music for his films and once again he didn’t disappoint. Too bad he isn’t so lucky with his film choices.

Rob Schneider, Kevin Nealon, and Chris Rock have small roles in this film. Rock probably appeared to bring in viewers while the other two just needed work.

Jennifer Hudson released her first single “Spotlight” off her self-titled debut album during the summer. It had reached as high as 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It hasn’t been played much on the radio and it should be. “Spotlight” has a different sound from todays music and resembles the 70’s style music. “Spotlight” also compliments Hudson’s voice.

The video tells a tale of how Jennifer’s boyfriend is too controlling and has to know where she is all of the time. Jennifer shows off her attitude in this video as she struts around. Very simple video for a simple song. Since Jennifer can sing she doesn’t have to prove herself with a flashy video or a song with an overdone chorus.

On the latest addition of Double Shot at Love, the Ikki twins make more eliminations. There were more females eliminated this week than last week. One guy that was let go scared the twins as he showed his obsessive side and made all of the competitors nervous when he re-entered the room. He touched Rikki’s shoulder and she became extremely nervous. She was nervous over the guy touching her shoulder? Uh, ok. She was worried he was going to do something drastic since he proffessed his love for her and said he thought they had “something”.

Anyway, the Ikki twins eliminated two girls or should I say a girl that dresses like a guy and a real girl. The man girl punched a hole in the sign outside the doors as she yelled out in anger. All of the competitors were crying and putting on the face of fear and shock. They were so worried that someone was going to come back in and start punching. The funny thing is the man girl was tougher than the guy that was eliminated. Their excuses for why they acted the way they did was because they had true feelings for the Ikki twins while other competitors didn’t. Oh well

Double Shot at Love eliminates one girl and three guys. This show is very weird. I find myself watching out of curiosity and I don’t care for these twins at all. Rikki and Vikki Ikki are bisexual twins that MTV has decided to give their own reality tv show to find “love”. These girls really are Ikki. They look like men in drag and in fact they don’t even look as good as some guys do.

The guys that are competing don’t seem to care one way or the other. They are so obviously anticipating reality tv fame by trying to stay on the show longer and make out with these girls. The girls that are competing for the Ikki twins are just as bad. If they are not skinny and dress like a skank then they don’t stick around. The only girl they did let go ended dieing in a car crash. I hope it wasn’t on the way home either. The poor girl was in tears after she got eliminated and said that she really has a good heart and no one seems to give her enough time to show it. How depressing. I was shocked by the news of the girl’s death. The Ikki twins made an announcement after the show to say that they were glad to have met her. There was no sincerity about it and it was so obvious that they were reading it. It’s pathetic the girls couldn’t come up with something from the heart or actually be able to memorize two lines.

Anyway, Double shot at love is bizarre and hard to watch. Sometimes I will happen to catch it on tv but just like the original Shot at love show with Tila Tequila there is just something off about the entire idea of the show. It isn’t like they are really looking for love and people are acting like animals for an opportunity to win in the end. What do they win anyway? A relationship with the person they lust after? After only several weeks how is it possible that anyone could say they are really falling in love. Well, good luck Ikki twins.

The winner was announced on Rock of Love Charm School. With the final three belonging to Lacy, Brandi M, and Destiny they were given a final challenge. The show brought back Megan, Brandi C, and Heather. They were teamed up with each competitor in order to raise money for charity. Whoever raised the most would be safe. Brandi C was teamed up with Destiny and Heather was teamed up with Lacy. Both Destiny and Lacy lost the challenge leaving Brandi M who was teamed up with Megan to win. She was safe. This was actually a very funny part of the show. Lacy began yelling at women that wouldn’t donate for homeless people and had arguments with those that would say no. What was even funnier was to watch Megan posing with people and getting pictures when she was supposed to be getting donations. Then she would leave some of the donations behind when she did get some or put them in someone else’s bin when they were supposed to go in Brandi M’s bin. Each girl was given a list of products along with the value of the products and Megan made sure to get the cheapest things on the list. Then at the announcement of who won the challenge Megan to acted like she worked so hard. When Brandi M won anyway Megan made it obvious she was not happy.

Lacy was sent home soon after which left Destiny and Brandi M to make a speech and explain why they should win. The decision was obvious that Sharon would pick Brandi M since she really has won many of the challenges and seemed to impress the judges throughout after almost being eliminated in the beginning. She really did seem to change but I find her annoying. I wanted Destiny to win since she also changed but she is more appealing and likeable. I didn’t realize she grew up on welfare and in a trailor camp. They had to go through charities in order to get Christmas gifts each year. I know Brandi M didn’t have it much better. Too bad they couldn’t give both girls some money.

On January 8th the Critics Choice Awards will air on VH1. The nominations are those that the critics felt were the best. They choose the winner among the nominees and typically it is quite different than the Oscars. Their choices tend to be similar to those of the Golden Globes.

For best picture the nominees are The Changeling, Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Milk, Doubt, Wall E, The Reader, Slumdog Millionare, The Wrestler, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The only box office success out of these nominees was The Dark Knight which was the last movie that Heath Ledger was in. The Changeling is another intense tale from director Clint Eastwood. This is definitely one of the films I want to see and haven’t had the pleasure yet. Milk just came out as did Frost/Nixon and the others I never heard of.

Best Actor nominees include Brad Pritt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Clint Eastwood for Gran Torino (another film I want to see), Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, Sean Penn for Milk, Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler, and Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon. My prediction is that Sean Penn will take this one since it is based on a true story and he is one of the best actors of our time.

Best Actress nominees include Angelina Jolie for the Changeling, Cate Blanchett for the Benjamin Button movie, Kate Beckinsale for Nothing but the Truth, Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Meryl Streep for Doubt, Melissa Leo for Frozen River. It is between Jolie and Streep. Anne Hathaway is good but she will have to take on a real serious role to be taken seriously in Hollywood.

Heath Ledger was nominated for best supporting actor and will probably be given this one. I never saw Dark Knight but I heard a lot of great words for Ledger and how he deserved getting an Oscar for his performance. I’m sure he does. He deserved it for Broke Back Mountain too. Two other of my favorite actors are included in the list. James Franco was nominated for Milk and Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for Tropic Thunder. Josh Brolin for Milk and Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt were also nominated.

There are a number of other categories that are included such as supporting actress. best director, and best song, but I think these categories were worth commenting on.

The X Files- I Want to Believe is the second film about the popular television series the X Files. I didn’t anticipate much from this film since it has been a few years since the its last show aired. I was pleasantly surprised how good this movie was. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson come back to portray their infamous characters of Mulder and Scully. They aren’t married but they live together and profess their love for one another. The storyline follows Mulder help in an investigation to find an FBI agent. As it turns out they come across much more than they anticipated. Scully retired from the FBI becoming a full-time doctor, but gets convinced by Mulder to help her partner out.

The X Files is extremely well directed by Chris Carter who has been heavily involved in the writing of the X Files as well. Duchovny and Anderson are perfect in their roles as they pull you back into their lives. The film got away a little from the X Files idea of extra terrestrials and went in the direction of investigating murders. Though they brought back a few of the old cast members and add mostly newer members the movie still satisfied old fans of the show while intriguing new fans. There are a few potential gruesome scenes that were carefully directed in a way that the television show CSI handles such scenes. The idea is horrific, but no graphic details are needed in order to scare you or make your stomach turn.

Even if you weren’t a fan of the show, the X Files movie is definitely worth seeing. It kept my attention throughout (despite two electrical blow outs at my home. I continued watching when the electricity came back on). I was never bored and was curious where the story was going to take me. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.