The end of the year is my least favorite time for pop culture.  TV shows go on hiatus.  News outlets are only doing their “Best Of’s” and not reporting any news.  Though unless you count what Demi Lovato is getting her mom for Christmas as ‘news,’ there really isn’t anything to report as people are spending time with their stupid families instead of working.  The only good thing to come out of all this is the movies released on Christmas Day.  But you can really only see one on Christmas.  So then you get a huge backlog of movies you have to see and spend $13 per ticket (in New York- I hear there are magical places that charge less than $10 for a movie ticket but I don’t believe they exist) to see. But you can’t really afford to see them because you just dropped a ton of cash on DVD box sets for the whole family.  Hang on, I need a cookie.

Ok, I’m much more cheerful now.  Here’s all the news from this week that you probably missed:

Today in, “Was That Even An Option?”

Ben Affleck has officially denied rumors that apparently existed that he will be running for the Massachusetts Senate seat left vacant after John Kerry was named Secretary of State.  I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that any rumors of me running for Postmaster General, Mayor of Hidden Springs, Idaho or the Empress of Mars are false.

Les Miserables is a film

After a long wait, Les Miserables is upon us.  I saw the film as my family’s traditional Christmas Day Cinema Outing.  Now obviously I knew it was a musical. It’s not the musical aspect exactly that I had a problem with. It was the singing exposition that I found jarring.  I know that’s part of the stage show, which I admittedly have not seen.  But I found the unpredictable musical phrasing of the singsposition rather jarring and I just couldn’t lose myself in the film as I would had the dialogue been spoken.

My only other criticism of this film is Russell Crowe.  What the blazes was he doing in this film?  Don’t get me wrong here- Crowe does a perfectly fine job.  I was actually surprised by his singing.  But that in no way, shape or form means that he was the best person for this role.  Come on, in casting a musical, how does Russell Crowe’s name even enter the conversation?  Again, he was perfectly fine.  But I can’t help but wonder if he just wandered onto set one day and no one was brave enough to question him being in the film.  Side note (SPOILER): How jarring was his suicide?! Not that he committed suicide but the actual body hitting the water?  I mean, the height of the bridge was enough that I was convinced his jump meant certain death.  Did they need to have the splat as well?

(UNSPOILER):  Really, Anne Hathaway singing “I Dreamed a Dream” is worth the ticket price alone.  It is mostly one shot and is just perfect.  I cannot stress enough how blown away I was.  Girlfriend has really nailed down the cry singing.  Overall, this was a good film.  It was solid.  I don’t know if its because of how much press it is already getting but I just can’t bring myself to join the voices of resounding praise.  It was worth the ticket price but I would hardly call this a life changing experience.

Love Actually is The Walking Dead

A bit of light reading for you:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn’t that heartwarming?  This fun little mash up was created by Corey Pandolph.

You are welcome.

That is literally all that happened this week.  And admittedly, one was a non-event, one was a review and one was just pandering to my audience.  So since this week is kind of a wash and I know you need something to read if you’re working this week….

Here’s Everything I could Immediately Find on Kate Winslet’s New Husband, Ned Rocknroll

My first question when I saw that Winslet had married this man was, “Rocknroll?”  Well, my in depth research reading one article on MTV.com has discovered that he was born Ned Abel Smith.  But poor poor super fortunate Ned decided that people take themselves too seriously.  So after much discussion with then-wife Eliza Pearson, he decided to legally change his name  to the stupidest thing ever.  After finding out the story behind his name, you might think, “Ok well if Kate likes him enough to marry him, he must have some sort of good qualities…right?  What does he do for a living?” Well, dear reader, Ned RicknRolled is the “Head of Marketing Promotion and Astronaut Experience” for Virgin Galactic, which is owned by Uncle Richard Branson.  So how I imagine all this is if Huey (or Dewey or Louie) Duck grew up to work a made up space marketing job for Uncle Scrooge and changed his name to Huey Crackcocaine.  And you know what else?  He has stupid hair.

 

That’s all I have my friends.  Til next time, – cvm