Movie Reviews

Hi guys! Uh oh! 2 more days till we say sayonara forever to 2009. Isn't it crazy? I mean I was just 10 years old yesterday thinking the 2000's were like eons away, now we are a decade in? I am not complaining sha, at least I am alive. Sooo, as I am channeling my inner bum and doing nothing, I have been watching movies like they have been going out of style so I thought I'd share my thoughts with you and you can decide if you'll see it or not.


PRINCESS AND THE FROG: For those that have missed the hand drawn cartoon days a la Aladdin, Little Mermaid (remember those days in naija of just memorizing and singing disney tunes, or was that just me?). Anyways, it seems Disney got nostalgic too and went back to their originals and wait for it...they made the character black, lol. The movie was cute and was a typical disney affair, full of song and dance especially since it was set in Louisiana with lots of jazz music. I especially loved Ray the Firefly and his Evangeline. Nothing really spectacular or different but if you are looking to smile and reminisce, you'll enjoy it. - Go see it.

BROKEN EMBRACES: Yet another collaboration between Penelope Cruz and Pedro Aldomavar. This was a spanish movie that reminded me of their last collabo, "Volver". The movie itself is a laid back affair with a lot of its messages delivered through strong but subtle scenes where it's up to the audience to decide what they feel. It's basically about a writer who was seeking revenge for something done to him many years ago after having an affair with his boss's wife. - DVD it.

FANTASTIC MR FOX: With the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep, I actually didn't expect to like this movie as I did. The story of a cunning fox who made a living out of stealing chickens and stopped when his wife got pregnant. He picks it up again and gets into more wahala than anticipated. You can almost see George Clooney on screen instead of the character he is voicing, because the fox is that charming. All in all, director Wes Anderson(Royal Tenenbaums, Where the Wild Things Are) hit a home run with this. - Go see it.


YOUNG VICTORIA : The story of the beginnings of the youngest queen to take the throne and her marriage to Prince Albert. Again, some might say I am hard to please but it was an okay movie and didn't suck. I know personally that I don't care for victorian movies because they are usually the same format. Some surly or liberated girl for her time, some man she is interested in, some country or feuding parties, some talk of marriage etc. This wasn't any different but I'll give it props that it was well done. It's what I'd call a textbook movie, everything was done by the book, nothing exciting. Produced by Sarah Ferguson (former duchess of York) and Martin Scorcese, it's worth watching even if it's on dvd. - Dvd it.

THE MESSENGER: Indie movie starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. It's the story of two military men whose jobs it is to inform people that their loved ones have been killed in action and one of the men falls in like with one of the women he delivered the news to. Some would see this as depressing, which it is but I liked this movie, it made me remember the people out there in Iraq and all the people it affects. Go see it.

AVATAR: Everybody and their mama has been raving about this movie, as I heard it described it was a "visual orgasm". A friend of mine was so sure I would hate the movie but I liked it. 15 years James Cameron has been slaving over this movie, he created a special camera for this, he hired linguists to make up the language used for the Navi people, he had so much pressure to prove he was still the "King of the World", did he come out victorious? Yes he did. If there was anything to pick on about the movie, it would be the plot but you have to remember the kind of movie and can't expect anything great. If he had delivered an intelligent plot he would have alienated the "see it 3 times" audience because sad as it is, our nation is dumbing down and we always have to present things at the simplest of levels. I think Cameron spent so much time on the graphics and visual image that we are supposed to forgive the simple plot and just keep it rolling, but the plot wasn't terrible so we can keep it moving. At a certain point, I had a "Am I watching Pocahontas?" moment but I got over that. Everyone said to watch it in 3d but I think I would still have enjoyed it even if it wasn't 3d. I do have to say that this year was the year of naija sha, see as the marine commander had to mention that he fought in Nigeria, lol. Go see it.

UP IN THE AIR - This was a really, good movie. Especially if you are like me. In your twenties and just asking yourself over and over again, "What's the point?". The movie shows the different view points of life between George Clooney's older character who enjoys living life solo and spends his life flying here and there firing people and Anna Kendrick's twenty something year old character who has a life plan and is quite uptight. Clooney meets his match when he meets Vera Farmiga's character, the movie unfolds and we get to know George and Anna's characters and their backgrounds and we also see how they begin to realize that maybe they don't have it all figured out. I just kept wondering what was going through George Clooney's mind since in real life he is anti-marriage and anti-kids. Anyway, Jason Reitman(the director) is on a roll after Thank you for Smoking and Juno, he has made it a triple with Up in the Air. - Definitely go see it.

IT'S COMPLICATED: Meryl Streep can do no wrong even if she tried and neither can the new Alec Baldwin. Yet this movie wasn't it for me. It had it's funny moments and its quirky moments but something about it was scattered and I can't lay my finger on it.Maybe, it was that I would think that people in their 60's or whatever age they were would have their life more together than these characters did. I don't know but it's Nancy Meyer (something's gotta give)'s latest effort in old people romance about a woman whose husband leaves her for a woman half his age and then begins an affair with his ex wife while she starts a romance with her architect?(did that make sense?). go dvd it.


I am wishing you wonderful people of blogsville a happy happy new year. I wish you all that you wish yourself with the blessings of our Lord to complete it, have a wonderful day and be safe and in the meantime enjoy the following mashup, it's the top 25 songs of 2009 in 5 minutes. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


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Merry Christmas Y'all!

Hi guys, If you are in nigeria or jand it's already christmas. If you are in yanks, it's coming up soon but either way whatever time zone you are in just wanted to wish you all a merry merry christmas! Hope you are all blessed and enjoy time with your loved ones be it biological family or the friends God sent our way to be our family. As a certified Lady Gaga groupie or a Gagarette as I like to call myself, I leave you with this song to celebrate christmas. love you guys and thank you for reading!

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End of an Era

I don't know about you guys but when I got to America, I got sucked into the Soap Opera world. I was very surprised to learn how long they had been on air and they came on every day as opposed to every week. It wasn't the best of material but somehow they were addictive. That was a long time ago, fast forward to today and it looks like yet another thing is being driven to extinction and that is the shelf life of soap operas.

It first started with the cancellation of Passions, then Port Charles, then Guiding Light( the longest running) and now my beloved As the World Turns. I was addicted to all the CBS soaps except Young and Restless. For years, I recorded these soaps everyday and wasted 3 hours of my life catching up (not counting my regularly scheduled tv shows). I decided that it was not productive and decided to give up my beloved soaps for Lent and hope it stuck. It worked and I was cured of my addiction.

So even though, I haven't watched them in years, it's still pretty sad to hear that they are being cancelled. I am not sure if it's the fact that they are leaving or if it's that it symbolizes how quickly the world is evolving and things that have been staples are slowly being phased away which in turn reminds me that I am getting older. I don't know which it is, but I have no doubt that TV stations will soon decide that soaps are not necessary and will phase them out. Well before they do *raises glass* Here is to the soaps with their out of this world story lines that kept me entertained, the hardworking and under recognised actors who had to learn their lines in way shorter time than most and for being the starting ground for most A-list actors now (Morgan Freeman, Julianne Moore, Nia Long etc).


In other news, go get Banky W's "The W experience" and unless you are still mad at him Chris Brown's "Grafitti". Pretty hot albums.

Enjoy this new video from Duncan Daniels, pretty catchy song and my boo (M.I incase you didn't know) is on it :

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R.I.P Guys.

Hi people, the year is slowly winding to a close and I thank God that we still have life. However we happened to lose a number of celebrities this year. I listed below the few that I could recall.

Natasha Richardson - wife of Liam Neeson, died March 18 after suffering head injuries from a ski trip.

Bea Arthur - who played Dorothy on "Golden Girls" died April 25 of cancer right before she turned 87.

Ed McMahon - He was the famous announcer for Johnny Carson with the "heeeeeere's Johnny" slogan. After facing, eviction issues he died June 23 at 86.

Farrah Fawcett - She was most famous for Charlie's Angels even though she was only in the first season of the show. She died June 25 at 62 after unsuccessfully trying alternative healing from cancer.

Michael Jackson - Probably the most famous death of this year, King of Pop died on June 25 also from a combination of medication given to him by his doctor.

David Carradine - most famous for being the bad guy in "Kill Bill". He was found on June 4 in a Bangkok hotel room. Cause of death: Asphyxiation. You do the math.

Walter Cronkite - The famous CBS newsman died on July 17 at 92

John Hughes - You may not know him but you have definitely heard of his work. The man behind "16 candles" and "Pretty in Pink" died of cardiac arrest on August 6 at age 59.

DJ AM - He rose to fame for dating Nicole Richie and when he survived a plane crash with Travis Barker. AM battled drug problems and was found dead in his apartment from an overdose on August 28 at age 36.

Patrick Swayze - If you haven't seen "Ghost" or "Dirty Dancing", I don't know what to tell you. But Patrick was the star of both movies and he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at age 57 on September 14.

E.Lynn Harris - the famous black writer who lived his life as an openly gay man which was usually a subject in most of his books died July 23 from a heart attack.

Ted Kennedy - the famous, loudspoken congressman from the famous Kennedy clan lost his life to a brain tumor.

Here's sending out condolences to their family and friends left behind and hoping their souls rest in peace.

Grammy Nominees

So, the Grammy Nominees were announced yesterday and I don't even know how I feel. First, I should say that the Grammys have lost their credit. I mean they've created so many categories that anyone can call themselves a Grammy Nominated Artist ( I mean alleged child molester, Pleasure P (formerly of Pretty Ricky) is a nominee this year). For the last couple of years unfailingly, undeserving albums have gotten album of the year ( they are almost always given to lesser known, older peoples/bands). I don't know if they think there is some rep they are trying to maintain but it's just pretty annoying. I read an article today that pretty much sums up how I feel :

Stuff in parentheses are my words.

"This gripe is nothing new; independent-leaning music has long been largely ignored, overshadowed by several different factions, including a) classic rock bands who were overlooked when they were good getting nominated for comeback albums that are decent at best (think Green Day and U2) b) the most successful album of that given year (think Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas) c) formerly independent bands that took over the mainstream (think Kings of Leon) and d) the second, third and fourth most successful album of that given year ( the Lady Gaga, Beyonce etc).

I mean the Grammys got some things right, I am forever faithful to BEP and Lady Gaga and I think they were deserving. Keri Hilson deserves her best new artist nomination but I'm sure most people will be like "who are these" for the others. Heck even I don't know who MGMT is and as far as I knew Silver Sun Pickups had an album a while back *shrugs. I am happy about Maxwell too. I think the biggest shocker to me was Drake not being nominated for best new artist. I mean did anyone have a bigger year than he did?? What do I know?

Anyways if you want to check out the full list of grammy nominees, you can see it here : http://www.grammy.com/grammy_awards/52nd_show/list.aspx

Have a great weekend.