"Avatar:" Simple Entertainment or Destructive Stereotypes?

It's gotten nine Oscar nominations and is destined to take home at least a couple, but how good is "Avatar?"  Here's my review.

Some have called director James Cameron's "Avatar" a visually stunning film that's not to be taken more seriously than an afternoon's entertainment at your local multiplex.  Others have called it another in a long line of films illustrating Hollywood's racial insensitivity.

Which is it?  I'll get back to that.

First let me tell you what "Avatar" is all about.  Set on the futuristic planet of Pandora, "Avatar" is about a native people, the Na'vi whose planet is being exploited for a valuable natural mineral, unobtanium, by a colony of money grubbing humans.  The humans, who include a non-money grubbing staff of scientists are trying to negotiate mining rights to the unobtanium, but if that doesn't work, they're not above taking it by force.

Sigourney Weaver is Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of a science team who've developed a way for humans to become one of the Na'vi using computers and a home grown Na'vi body.  Or something like that. 

The scientists do it to learn.  The military do it to "win the hearts and minds" of the Na'vi and get their unobtanium without a fight.

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine who becomes part of the experiment when his brother who was scheduled for the program is killed.  As Jake becomes accustomed to the nine foot, blue bodies of the Na'vi, he becomes enamored with the Na'vi people, their spiritual connections, culture and traditions.

"Lost" Has Returned! Sniff, Sniff... (Spoilers)

"Lost" has returned and it's terribly good and terribly sad! 

Good because the premiere jolted us back and forth like a ping pong ball and made us question everything we know about our intrepid characters and the island world.

Sad because it's almost over!  Only fifteen more episodes before the end.

Look at these pictures from last week's screening in Hawaii of the Season 6 premiere, "LAX" Parts 1 & 2.

The cast looks happy.  Hurley, Kate, Jin, Michael, Ben, and Ben's wife--who plays on "True Blood" by the way.

They don't feel our pain, our loss, our devastation at the thought of no more island mysteries.

Oh the humanity!

The Oscar Nominations Are Here!| Gold Derby | Los Angeles Times

"Julie & Julia" star Meryl Streep is the only two-time Academy Award-winner contending this year. She widened the gap for the most total acting nominations by earning her 16th nod today. And she broke Katharine Hepburn's record of an even dozen Oscar nominations in the lead race, landing what she must hope will he her lucky 13th bid.

via goldderby.latimes.com

The most glaring omission on first glance is "Star Trek." As usual with the Academy voters, out of sight, out of mind.

"Star Trek" came out in the summer and despite it being a very good film and there being ten nomination slots, movies that came out more recently took up the bulk of the slots.

Ah well.

"Mad Men's" Jon Hamm is Hilarious as Republican Scott Brown on SNL (Video)

Jon Hamm seriously needs to host "Saturday Night Live" more often, 'cause the show is so much funnier when he's on it.

Check out this fabulously funny sketch where top Democrats have bedroom fantasies about the newly elected Republican senator, and former Cosmo pin-up boy, Scott Brown.

The 25 Best Moments of "Lost"

 
All right Losties, it's here! 

The moment we've all been waiting for -- the return of "Lost" for its 6th and final season beginning February 2nd on ABC at 8/7c.

In honor of the big event, I thought it was the perfect time to review where we've been before we move forward.  Or backward, depending on what the island is doing.

I spent the last few weeks watching the show from the beginning to pick out my 25 best moments of "Lost."

Here they are:

Megan on Blog Talk Radio - Controversy Surrounding "The Princess and the Frog"

Last night I was interviewed by the fabulous Renee of the blog Thinking Out Loud for Blog Talk Radio.  Our discussion was about the Disney film, "The Princess and the Frog" and some of the controversy surrounding the star Tiana, Disney's first black princess.

The interview runs about 50 minutes but feel free to skip around.

If you have difficulty with the volume on the podcast, you can download it from iTunes and adjust the volume accordingly.

 

Glenn Close leads 'Damages' cast in Wall Street charge - USATODAY.com

Obviously, what most of us would like is to see it happen in real life, but since that's impossible, FX's twisty legal mystery Damages gives us the next best thing. Patty, played once again with a bracing mixture of venom and good intentions by the inimitable Glenn Close, is about to get our money back for us from a fraudulent financier.

via www.usatoday.com

"Damages" returns tonight at 10pm e/p on FX!

I haven't seen any episodes from Season 3, so I can't give you the benefit of my stellar critiquing skills, however you can check out the review by Robert Bianco in today's USA Today.

He and I almost always agree and until I can give you my own thoughts after tonight's premiere, his will have to do.

Besides stars Glenn Close and Rose Byrne, this new season of "Damages" will showcase guest stars Martin Short, Lily Tomlin and Len Cariou.

Personally, I can't wait.

Hysterical Ken Burns Documentary, "The Late Night Wars"

This comes from Jimmy Kimmel and ABC. Enjoy!

It's Done: Leno to Return as ‘Tonight’ Host on March 1 - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com

Choosing their words oh-so-carefully, NBC and the comedian Conan O’Brien issued a joint statement Thursday morning about a “resolution of the issues surrounding O’Brien’s contract to host “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.’”

via mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

It's a done deal. Conan is out and Jay is back.

Conan O'Brien's last "Tonight Show" will be Friday and Jay Leno will return to the "Tonight Show" on March 1st.

The Winter Olympics and an assortment of O'Brien reruns will have to serve late night viewers in the interim.

Now that this long, national comedy nightmare is over, I can go back to worrying about more important things like what's Heidi Montag's next plastic surgery is going to be.

NBC's Leno/O'Brien Debacle: Audiences Chuckle, Letterman Laughs

This NBC Leno/O'Brien late night brouhaha is better than "All My Children" in its heyday.  It's got everything:

• Corporate blunders of epic proportions.
• Millionaires fighting it out over turf.
• Audiences protesting and taking sides.
• Two distinct personalities trapped in a legal, corporate morass.
• A peanut gallery of one, cackling about how payback is a bitch.

First, a little background.  Five years ago, NBC told Jay Leno, "In five years we're replacing you with Conan O'Brien, 'cause if we don't seal him up now, he's going to the competition.  Your audience is old and replaceable and we want Conan's following of 15-29-year-old frat boys who love guys with tilted red hair."

Jay was like, "But I'm number one!"

NBC was like, "But that won't last so you're out!"

Jay was like, "Okay, I'll go home to work on my 500 classic cars, see ya later, peacock."

David Letterman watched from afar.

Golden Globes 2010: Mo'Nique Rehearses for Oscar

At last night's Golden Globes, Mo'Nique gave a preview of her Oscar speech when she won Best Supporting Actress in a drama for her role as a monstrous mother in the film "Precious."

Rockin' a gorgeous gold gown, she also gave the most touching speech of the night when she tearfully thanked director Lee Daniels.

I celebrate this award with all the Precious's, with all the Mary's. I celebrate this award with every person that's ever been touched--it's now time to tell.  And it's okay.

Other big winners were director James Cameron and his blockbuster "Avatar."  "Mad Men" won for Best TV drama and Kevin Bacon took home the award for Best Actor for the HBO TV movie, "Taking Chance."

Comedian Ricky Gervais was this year's Golden Globe host and had some excellent one-liners.  For example he celebrated "some of the great work that's been done this year--by cosmetic surgeons."

He also took a pot shot at NBC:  "Let's get on with it before NBC replaces me with Jay Leno."

More comedy came in the form of Drew Barrymore's bumbling speech when she accepted the award for Best Actress for her role in HBO's "Grey Gardens."

The marvelous Michael C. Hall won for his lead role in the Showtime drama "Dexter."  Hall who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma wore a black cap to the ceremony, possibly to hide his loss of hair due to cancer treatments.

Let's hope he's well on the road to recovery.

Dexter's adversary this season was the Trinity Killer played with fabulous creepiness by John Lithgow.  Lithgow was rewarded with a Supporting Actor award.

Several celebrities referred to the crisis in Haiti due to last week's earthquake.  Many wore red and yellow ribbons in remembrance.

Meryl Streep, while accepting her award for her role as Julia Child in "Julie and Julia" talked about finding it difficult to dress up and celebrate.

I come to Golden Globes weekend and I am really honestly conflicted how to have my 'happy movie self' in the face of everything that I'm aware of in the real world.

On a more positive note, Julianna Margulies got a well deserved win for CBS's freshman series, "The Good Wife."  Taking another pot shot at NBC and the failed Jay Leno experiment, she thanked CBS execs "Les Moonves and Nina Tassler for believing in the10 o'clock drama."  Heh.

You can see a complete list of the winners on the Golden Globe website.

Leno Slams NBC: "A Complete Disaster" (VIDEO)

Leno went on to slam NBC's decision making process. "NBC said the show performed exactly as they expected it would and then canceled us. Don't confuse this when we were on at late night and performed better than expected and they canceled us. That was totally different,"

via www.huffingtonpost.com

I promise this is my last Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien/NBC post today. But here's Jay Leno responding to what he calls his show being "cancelled" by NBC:

Conan O'Brien Quits, Declares He Won't Do 'Tonight Show' at Later Time - ABC News

In a statement released today, the late night comedian, whom NBC planned to unceremoniously oust from his 11:35 p.m. ET time slot come February, said he will not do "The Tonight Show" if his new airtime is 12:05 a.m. He did not make clear whether or not he plans to stay with NBC.

via abcnews.go.com

Poor Conan O'Brien. I know I said earlier that I don't care that he's getting kicked around because I don't think he's funny, but even I have to sympathize with the guy considering how NBC is giving him the boot.  Talk about rubbing your nose in the late night hierarchy!

NBC:  "Sorry Conan, but Leno is the jewel in NBC's late night crown and you're just around to carry his robes."

If NBC didn't look like idiots before, they've certainly rubbed that egg that was already on their faces, good and deep into the pores.

My prediction: watch Leno and O'Brien both ditch NBC for other networks.

Stay tuned.

Jay Leno Debacle Reversed by NBC

We all knew it was a crappy idea.  At least those of us who didn't have the highest corner office in NBC's headquarters.

That's right the Great Jay Leno Primetime Experiment of 2009 is over.  NBC has announced that Leno's show will return to late night, moving back to its former 11:35 home.  To add insult to Jay's injury, the show has also been cut to half an hour. That means Conan O'Brien's show which follows Leno will now be on at 12:05.

See, the guys over at NBC who made the original boneheaded decision to move Leno to primetime have finally caved to the understandable pressure from their affiliates.  Leno's yawn worthy ratings at 10PM sent the carryover audience of the affiliates' local 11 o'clock news shows into the toilet.  This at a time when local TV station's are suffering an economy induced exodus of advertisers.

Members of the Writers Guild however are dancing around their laptops now that they've reclaimed five hours of NBC's primetime schedule.

On the Conan front, many critics are upset that O'Brien's seemingly getting the shaft.  But see, I would only consider he was getting the shaft if I thought his show was funny enough for me to care.

And Jimmy Fallon?  Pretty much an afterthought.

The Boston Globe's website, Inside Track has some interesting quotes from Leno friend and fellow comedian Richard Lewis about this whole late night do-si-do.  While you're reading them, just remind yourself how much better you'll sleep now knowing the late night TV world is back to normal.

Or is it?

"Battlestar Galactica's, The Plan:" "Let's Get This Genocide Started"

"The Plan" is a "Battlestar Galactica" TV movie that tells the story of the destruction of the human civilization from the point of view of the destroyers themselves, the Cylons.

That means the machinations of John Cavil (Dean Stockwell) are front and center.  He was an active Cylon instigator on the Galactica and it's only during "The Plan" that we find out how active. 

His best line:  "Let's get this genocide started."  Heh.

Six (Tricia Helfer) is here as well, two or three versions of her in fact.

Some of the key moments from the BSG series retold here from the point of view of the Cylons:  the assassination attempt of (Edward James Olmos) by Sharon Valerii (Grace Park), how Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) became fascinated by Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and how the rebels on Caprica kept the Cylons on their metallic toes.

If you've never seen BSG, "The Plan" is pretty much a waste of time.  It's too much of an inside the airlock tale for an outsider to enjoy but that doesn't mean a diehard sci-fi fan wouldn't appreciate the stellar BSG effects and set design.

I also wish the movie was less disjointed.  Cavil is supposed to be the glue that holds it all together, but a little Cavil goes a long way and sometimes there's just a bit too much Cavil.  For example the scenes where he's talking to another version of himself are interminable.

Don't expect to see much of Commander Adama, Lee Adama, Saul Tigh or Gaius Baltar in this one.  They're just supporting players in this version of the deadly chess game the Cylons set in motion that fateful day the colonies were attacked.

The music by Bear McCreary is especially important for tying the scenes together and conveying the life and death urgency just like in the BSG series.

"The Plan" was directed by Edward James Olmos, Admiral Adama himself and airs tonight on the SyFy Channel at 9/8c.