- One of the best television shows of my short lifetime is done, thanks to a combination of incompetence and/or incredible greed and selfishness. Gilmore Girls, the always funny, interesting, thoughtful and intelligent drama about the life of a single mother, her daughter and a small town full of colorful, offbeat characters and their respective lives is ending in just over two weeks, more or less because the two stars of the show, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, rejected contract offers for a shortened eighth season of the hit show even though to contracts reportedly contained significant raises in their salaries. Without knowing the whole story and all of the behind-the-scenes details, it’s impossible to assign all of the blame to the two leading ladies, but a lot of it has to go there. How you can let down legions of fans and walk away from a show that has meant so much to so many people over a contract dispute is befuddling. Plus, Graham and Bledel could have had the benefit of a shortened season, all while enjoying a farewell tour that would pay appropriate respect to a show that’s been a wonderful part of Tuesday nights for seven years. Kudos also to the CW and its always incompetent executives for their part in failing to seal the deal for an eighth season, I am sure Dawn Ostroff and crew did their absolute best to f’up the process. I am immensely sad for all fans of the show, myself included, and the remaining three episodes of the show will now be viewed through a bittersweet lens in addition to serving as a hackneyed, inadequately short sendoff for such a great show.
- The bad news about Spiderman 3 is that the movie isn't up to the standards of the first two incarnations of director Sam Raimi’s adaptation of the legendary comic book. The good news is that even at a level slightly below expectations, Spidey is still significantly better than almost anything else in theaters right now. The basic problem with Spiderman 3 is that the film is too busy, too cluttered and tries to weave too many storylines into its two hour, 20 minute running time. Each story line is interesting, but none of them are given much time to develop. There’s the Peter Parker-Mary Jane Watson dynamic, the Peter Parker-Harry Osborne dynamic, the Spiderman-Sandman dynamic, the Spiderman-Venom dynamic and a few other peripheral ideas, and following them is nearly as difficult as trying to keep up with some of the film’s uber-high paced action sequences, which are so rapid fire that you aren't able to figure out what’s going on and who’s hitting who many times. Having said all of that, this is overall a good movie, because the visual effects, costumes and dialogue are all good and there are characters you are genuinely invested in. There are more than a few good laughs in the film, many of them as Peter Parker gets caught up in his celebrity as Spiderman and generally acts like a pompous, self-absorbed ass. Ultimately, it’s worth your time and money to see the movie, even if it doesn’t entertain you quite as much as the first two editions in the series.
- Paris Hilton now has a chance for her best-selling sex tape yet, besting the other dozen or so she’s cranked out over the past few years. The vapid, famous-for-no-real-reason socialite is on her way to jail after a judge in Los Angeles sentenced her to 45 days in county jail Friday for violating her probation. The mega-skank must report to jail on June 5 and won’t be allowed any work release, furloughs, use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled. Hilton was found guilty of violating the terms of parole she received after an alcohol-related reckless driving case. Depending on the cellmate she is assigned, Paris could actually find herself living out some of the freaky fantasies that sexually deprived pervs worldwide have been imaging her in since they watched her previous sex tapes for the 14,688th time. Good news, though: Paris says she’s “very sorry” and in the future she will “pay complete attention to everything.” Umm, thanks Paris, that was vague, unspecific and tells me absolutely nothing. You’ll pay attention to everything? Everything where? Everything in your immediate vicinity, everything you agree to when you receive probation, everything you allow guys to stick in your…..never mind. Enjoy jail, P., it seemed to work out all right for Martha Stewart so I’m sure you’ll be just fine.
- Whatever happened to strapping together some branches, milk cartons and cardboard boxes and fashioning a makeshift raft to paddle across the ocean from Cuba to the United States? Would-be refugees used to ride their hastily crafted dinghies over choppy seas and try to wash up on the shore in Florida, but now things have turned violent. A group of fugitive army recruits from the island nation attempted to hijack a plane to the United States on Thursday and killed a military officer they had taken hostage in the process before being captured and hauled off the jail, which is more or less a death sentence in Communist Cuba. This came after the rogue recruits hijacked a bus that they used to drive themselves to the tarmac, where they then hijacked the plane. These doofuses should have known rule No. 1 about hijacking schemes: never hijack more than one type of vehicle or method or transportation in the course of any single plan. You wanna hijack cars, then stick with cars. Same with boats. You try to mix it up, be versatile and hijack both a bus and a plane, your plan fails. Just think of the loss the U.S. will suffer without these geniuses being adopted into our society, their intellectual and military contributions alone would have made our country a better place by far……
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