Monday Movie Box Office Recap - Labor Day edition....

Surprise, Labor Day weekend was quite slow for box office totals letting Tropic Thunder managed to remain at the top for the third week in a row. It was followed by newcomer Babylon A.D. and The Dark Knight came in third with a little under ten million, bringing its box office total to just over $500 million and a new record for the box office history books. As of now, this movie could come close or shatter Titanic’s record for $600 million. The House Bunny and Traitor also faired nicely even with the lackluster numbers at the box office.


I finally caught Pineapple Express this weekend, which finds itself in ninth place, and I have to say I thought it was truly hysterical. It successful blurred the lines between stoner comedy and 80’s cop/action/druggie movie. Ironically, I also caught Hard to Kill for the first time this weekend and it made me appreciate “Express” even more. Personally, I need to be entertained or educated while watching a film and this movie was straight up entertainment. Car chases, explosions, weed paranoia, corrupt cops, slacker losers, ninjas and a cursing Ed Begley Jr.! Really there isn’t much more you can ask for from the movie studios nowadays. In a weird way, I found the almost clicheness of the film refreshing. It reminded me of buddy/crime flicks like Tango & Cash, The Big Lebowski and even Die Hard.
Let’s not get it twisted the premise, characters and events in this movie are ridiculous, but that’s what makes it amazing. When a film jumps the shark within the first 10 minutes, my hats off to it. I found it fresher than “Tropic Thunder” which I also liked and I thought the breakout actors had much more fleshed out roles in this film. Danny McBride, as always is a scene stealer and James Franco always succeeds as an affable stoner. Seth Rogen was like Dan Ackroyd and John Goodman’s first born in this film and Craig Robinson is finally given the screen time he deserves in a good movie I really can’t find a flaw with it. If you like movies that make you laugh and don’t explain how people can survive multiple explosions, you will LOVE Pineapple Express.

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. Tropic Thunder - $11.5 million
2. Babylon A.D. - $9.6 million
3. The Dark Knight - $8.6 million
4. The House Bunny - $8.3 million
5. Traitor - $7.8 million
6. Death Race - $6.3 million
7. Disaster Movie - $5.8 million
8. Mamma Mia! - $4.4 million
9. Pineapple Express - $3.5 million
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona - $2.8 million

And lastly, some sad movie news. "King of the Voiceovers" Don LaFontaine has passed away at the age of 68. He died from complications to an illness he was suffering and his survived by his wife and children.

New Day, Same Old Crap from the Right Side...

It's hilarious how a straight answer is nearly impossible form the Republicans. Family and private lives are apparently not important anymore when you have a VP choice, who believes in abstinence only education, and a pregnant teenage daughter. And when you ask about Palin's direct experience, you simply hear more of the same - shit about Obama. Kudos to Campbell Brown for not backing down on the questions. I would love to have known how the Republicans and their armies of Dodos would have treated John Edwards' daughter in 2004 if she was in a similar situation. Lord knows they all had such tact when it came to Chelsea Clinton. Republicans are flipping the script on the Democratic party and the American public once again. Experience at an executive level from being the mayor of 8,000 people? Really???? But I do think Brown's strongest point was asking the McCain aide why, fully knowing that her daughter would be going through such a difficult time in the upcoming months, Palin thought it would be appropriate to throw the situation into the public eye? I too wonder where the judgement is there. I am fairly certain that Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton would ever stoop to that level to win a Presidency.

Spaghetti Cat, Spaghetti Cat....

I have a comedy boner for Joel McHale and is writers over at The Soup....

Here is why...



Long live Spaghetti Cat...

Labor Day Weekend....

This week has been amazing with all the speeches and fanfare in Denver. And of course John McCain had to go ruin it for me and all of us women who are actually intelligent enough to know when we are being pandered to. Below is Obama's awe inspiring speech.

Please watch it in its entirety and understand: YES WE CAN!

And on that note, my posts will be few and far in between the next few days as I am going to be spending as much time outside as possible, including seeing Sonic Youth at the last show at McCarren Park Pool.

Enjoy your weekend. And see you lovelies on Tuesday!

Project Runawy - Driven to Product Placement - Episode 7 Recap !

So I know it’s been a bit since I dished about and recapped the previous night’s Project Runway, but I have missed it so and apparently so have you readers so here we go.

For a very quick recap, Daniel was sent home in Episode Six for his lack of creativity and flamboyance in his drag queen outfit. Joe took home the prize that night and her seriously deserved it. Honestly, I think its insanely hillarious that the straight dude from Detroit is the designer who took home the prize that night. On the previous challenge, Episode Five, the designers had to pair up and create an outfit for Brooke Shields’ cahracter on that NBC’s Lipstick Jungle. Kelli and Dan produced the worst outfit, which was in Michael Kor’s words “Slutty, Slutty, Slutty” and Kelli was sent packing.


So last night, Episode Seven, greeted the designers with an interesting individual challenge. They were to pillage “car parts” from a bunch of Saturn Hybrids (HELLO PRODUCT PLACEMENT!) from some rooftop in Murray Hill and create a “fresh look” with it. Basically what Tim Gunn said was that since almost all the designers used tablecloths in the first challenge (Supermarket Madness) they wanted to see serious “out of the box” stuff here. All around I think most people did quite well on this challenge and it seemed that they took Tim’s ideas and criticisms to heart. The only two who truly messed up in my eyes were actually the bottom two, Keith and Stella, but more on them in a bit.

In my opinion, Korto, Terri, Jerrell and Leanne knocked this out of the park and I think those could be the final four. Terri created an ensemble that could have been Stella’s but it was made much better than Stella could have. Her biker chic look was just deemed as safe by the judges since they can only pick out three. I think the outfit as a whole was very wearable, but didn’t have that “what the hell is this made with” feel the other top three did. Jerrell made a bustier and a skirt with real car parts and it looked incredibly futuristic. Korto’s seat belt woven coat was breathtaking and beyond well done, but the overall shaped of the coat was similar to other pieces she has already made this season, which is what probably separated her from a win. Her coat was lauded over by the female judges as something “they would want to own in many colors”. Laura Bennett, one of the final four designers from season three stepped in for Nina Garcia last night for the runway show and she adored the coat. And finally the winner was Leanne. Her leather, overly constructed, yet streamlined dress was beautiful. It fit her model incredibly well, looked unlike any other pieces up there and the silhouette was now. Rachel Zoe, incredibly skinny stylist, future Bravo star and guest judge last night, said it was “ready for the Paris runways”. Joe’s wasn’t terrible, but it was way too “designed by a straight male” for me. It definitely fit the Saturn concept, just wasn’t great. Suede and Kenley’s were truly forgettable and those two were lucky Stella and Keith were around. And Blaine, who I usually can’t stand, ended up in the bottom three for an ill fitting gown which personally I liked but the judges couldn’t stand. He was safe for another day. For some reason, Stella, the designer who uses leather, grommets, chains and all other kinds of hard ass biker crap in her designs decided to create some Conway looking version of a Thierry Mugler bandage suit. Not so cute. It was ill fitting, poorly constructed and not well thought out. It was a bore to be honest and didn’t really represent Stella. And then there is Keith, who whined and pouted the whole episode about the judge’s “not getting his aesthetic” which is code for “why does everyone think I stink?”. Ugh his self pity party was boring me and his designs were pretty bad overall. It also doesn’t help when you yell at the judges, tell your model she can’t sit in the garment and then talk to both the model and judges like they are dirt really isn’t the way to win this competition. Michael Kors gave him a swift kick in the butt and the judges sent him packing.

Here are my favorites...












And my not so muches....












Next week it should be a whole bunch of other whining about something. All in all the season is moving on as a meeker version of it’s original self. There has been a lot of chatter this go around, from myself and other bloggers, that Bravo just wants this season to just go away and have the show leave for Lifetime. The challenges are uninspired. The designers I think are actually a bit more accomplished than previous seasons, but without exciting challenges there is no way to showcase their talent. And with that idiot Blane adding “licious” after ever word and Suede speaking in the third person, I am sometimes pondering throwing my TV through a window. Andy Dehnart over at MSNBC.com looks deeper into how moving networks and possibly cities might actually get this ship sailing the high seas again.

And as always, check out other recaps at:
- Blogging Project Runway
- The Cut on NYMag.com
- Brian’s blog on AfterElton

I'll Say It...Thank You Hillary Clinton...

Not sure if it's from having grown up in the 90s with the help of Murphy Brown, Angela Chase, grrrl power and my strong single mother, but I will always hold a special place in my heart for Hillary Clinton. Last night's speech at the DNC was awe inspiring for so many reasons and the least of was the discussion of the party's policies. What Hillary has done has removed the narrative of "Can we do it?" to when will we do it. Her sentiments do not only make her a stand out as a politician but as an American woman. Have I agreed won everything she he done? Absolutely not, bit she's a politician and she's used to it. What I can appreciate more is her determination in the eye of he storm. Similarly to most woman in positions of power she has been vilified for years, but what make this year special was that it happened from her own party. Yet she never backed down. Bigger people have run from lesser opposition. But don't forget this woman is a pro at being vilified and demonized. Remember when her husband was very publicly caught cheating on her and the joke was that it was her fault. The woman has been picked apart by the media for the past twenty years so why should now be any different. She had to sit and listen while her preteen daughter was publicly compared to a dog by members of the media and the Republican party. As a wife she was found in unattractive and the likes of Rush
Limbaugh questioned whether we could even choose her as President and sit back and watch her AGE!

During her first Senate run she was called out for using her husbands position to win a political seat all the while only a few years ago being known as the brains behind the pants. Hillary has virtually taken all the abuse most men and angry woman wanted to lodge at feminism for the past 40 years and has happily done so with a smile. When she ran for President last year, I was excited but not just because she as the first viable female candidate to even have a chance at the position but that she had the guts to do it. Whatever you can say able this woman let it be known she has one he'll of a set of cajones. With nearly half the votes democrats placed during the primaries her reasoning as always questioned. While it takes a great deal of ego for anyone to run for the presidency it took her even more for the mere fact she has to deal with about twice the amount of criticism and backlash than others. I believe in her cause of breaking through that ceiling and can only imagine what her words did for young girls watching . I won't personally rehash her policy or the issues that some mark as the demise of her campaign in this here editorial because this is truly a portrait of her as a woman. Someone who didn't want her daughter to hit the middle aged mark and still hear the phrase "the First Woman" in front of any profession or title. And I can't agree with her more. What you can fault the woman for must be kept separate from what she was able to accomplish with such silly backlash. While I am excited for Obama as a candidate I can not say I was not upset last night that this will not be the person to represent us across the world. And I do hope that with all the work Hillary has done and those who came before and will come in the future, by the time I am the Senator's age "The First Woman" anything will be just a description of past events.

Here is Clinton's speech in its entirety from last night:

Monday Movie Box Office Recap!

I'm back baby.....and so is the Monday Movie Box Office Recap.

So Tropic Thunder, my pick to finally take The Dark Knight down from the number one spot, did that and then some. Hindered by the high performance of the 2008 Olympics, which ended up being the highest rated television program in history, Tropic Thunder has remained at the number one spot for the second week in a row. With no real strong competition this past weekend other than Michael Phelps and surprisingly The House Bunny, Tropic was a shoe in for the number one spot. The Hollywood skewering film within a film is freaking hilarious and was one of the only things that cheered me up post surgery last week. Robert Downey Jr., is as expected brilliant in a performance that could be one of the most hilarious self-satirizing in Hollywood history. Ben Stiller and Jack Black are for bad or worse Ben Stiller and Jack Black, but I can say that Stiller’s directorial hand in this did help to make himself look much more appealing on the screen. Standouts were Danny McBride as a buffoonish special effects man, Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino, a rapper cum actor, and Jay Baruchel, MY FAVORITE, who reminded me of a young Tom Hanks. His portrayal of the naïve, yet intelligent newcomer to Hollywood felt authentic and managed to steal a lot of screen time from the big guys on campus. So Hollywood, if you are looking for the youthful version of Tom Hanks, I say look no farther.


This movie is truly a crowd pleaser if you enjoy you enjoy satire, action, screwball comedies and Hollywood. In other theaters around town, The House Bunny, starring the always funny Anna Farris and up and coming stars like Emma Stone and Kat Dennings came in a strong second and will hopefully remain in strong numbers with the young female demographic and the shitastic looking Death Race came in third, which is not surprising to anyone. Dark Knight comes closer to the $500 Million mark with each day and Star Wars: The Clone Wars is up on their heals. I think crazier than anything is Mamma Mia!'s staying power. I guess once the Phelpps nonsense died down, moms headed out for some fun in the theater with Meryl Streep and ABBA.

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. Tropic Thunder - $15 million
2. The House Bunny - $12.3 million
3. Death Race - $16 million
4. The Dark Knight - $10.3 million
5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $5.7 million
6. Pineapple Express - $5.6 million
7. Mirrors - $4.9 million
8. The Longshots - $4.35 million
9. Mamma Mia! - $4.3 million
10. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $4 million