They are Taking Over Film and Television!

Has anyone else noticed that it is hard to turn on the television or watch a movie today that does not involve vampires in one way or another? I mean they really are taking over. Vampires have always been one of the more popular supernatural figures, but thanks to the Twilight franchise, their popularity has skyrocketed.

Twilight paved the way for two very successful television shows. First there was "True Blood" on HBO and now there is "The Vampire Diaries" on The CW. There have also been vampires on the show Supernatural as well as in several movies such as Daybreakers and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. We won't even go into all of the books that have come out about vampires. I think Barnes & Noble even has a vampire section.

One thing I find interesting about these vampires is that they are not all the same and they tend to poke fun at each other. Most of them have fangs...except for Twilight...and most of them will die with prolonged exposure to sunlight...except for Twilight. The Vampire Diaries vampires are able to walk around in the sunlight, but only because of some special talisman. The way that they can be killed or weakened also differs. In Twilight they have to be ripped apart. For most of the others, a stake through the heart, beheading them, or burning them tends to do the trick.

It's interesting to see how many different types of vampires there are. If you think back to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", From Dusk Till Dawn, Van Helsing, and Interview with the Vampire. All of the vampires are different in someway or another. And, even though I enjoy a good vampire story as much as the next person, I hope they lighten up on them soon. I'm getting tired of them.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter finally has an opening date! Universal just recently announced that the new theme park will open June 18, 2010. This is very exciting new--at least it is for me, as a big fan of the franchise and theme parks.

Incase you have no idea what I am talking about, Universal Studios in Orlando has a new addition to its already wonderful theme parks. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be a new island inside Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. The park will feature several places from the books and movies including Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

The park will be home to three rides. According to Universal, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey--which is housed within Hogwarts castle--is the heart of the new park. The ride combines a powerful story line with new technology. It is suppose to be unlike any other ride currently in existence. The Dragon Challenge is a roller coaster based on the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It's basically the Dueling Dragons roller coaster that used to be at Universal reworked into the Harry Potter story line. The last ride is the Flight of the Hippogriff. This coaster is suppose to be more kid friendly, and less intense than the the Dragon Challenge.

Hogsmeade will house several of the shops and food stops that it houses in the books and movies. The Three Broomsticks will be an actual restaurant that serves Butterbeer (a drink featured in the books). Other familiar stores include Honeydukes (a sweets shop), Ollivanders, as well as Dervish and Banges.

I am very excited to visit this park sometime in the future. I will not be going over the summer though. Orlando is much too hot and crowded during that time of the year.

Shows You're Probably Not Watching...But You Should Be

For this blog, I'm going to clue you all in on four of my favorite shows. All of them have been on for at least two seasons, and they are all worth watching if you haven't seen them.

Castle is a semi-new show on ABC. It's in its second season and I just recently started watching it. It's a mixture of comedy, drama, and mystery. Castle is about famous mystery novelist Rick Castle and NYPD Detective Kate Beckett. Castle is initially called in to help the police solve a copy-cat murder based on his novels. Following his encounter with Detective Beckett, Castle decides to use her as the inspiration for the main character in his next series of novels. He uses his contacts and receives permission (much to her chagrin) to accompany Detective Beckett while investigating cases. Lots of witty banter ensues between them as well as romantic tension. There is also, of course, intriguing mysteries in every episode as well as a great supporting cast. Castle's mother and daughter are great comic additions to the cast. Castle airs Monday nights at 10pm on ABC.

http://abc.go.com/shows/castle

Psych is a criminal comedy-drama that airs on the USA Network. The show completed its fourth season last Wednesday and the fifth season is expected to start over the summer. The show centers around Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts allow him to convince people that he solves cases with psychic abilities. Other main characters include Shawn's partner and best friend Gus, his father Henry (a former cop), and SBPD Detectives Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O'Hara. Psych is a funnier and less dramatic version of The Mentalist. In fact, the show tends to poke fun at The Mentalist on occasion because its premise is so similar. There is also a hidden pineapple in every episode which is fun to look for.

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych/

Supernatural is a drama/horror show that airs on The CW. The show is currently in its fifth season. Supernatural centers around two brothers--Dean and Sam Winchester--as they hunt demons, ghosts, and other paranormal figures. The main reason I love this show is that you never know what kind of episode you're going to see. The episodes range from being scary, to dramatic, to hilarious. The funny and scary ones are my personal favorites. I also love the music that can sometimes play a part in setting the tone of the show. They use a lot of music you would hear in Guitar Hero. The show has been on hiatus for the past few weeks but will begin airing new episodes next Thursday at 9pm. According to the preview, the Winchesters will be up against zombies.

http://cwtv.com/shows/supernatural

Now, I will tell you about my favorite show currently on televsion...Chuck. For those of you that don't know, Chuck is a television show that is in its third season and airs Monday nights on NBC. It is my favorite show and I want to spread the word that you all should watch it (and not just because it needs the ratings)! This ingenious show centers around Chuck Bartowski--a computer expert that works for the Nerd Herd at the local Buy More (similar to Best Buy). At the beginning of the series, Chuck receives an e-mail from an old college roommate who is believed to be a rogue CIA agent. Upon opening the e-mail, all of the US Government's secrets are downloaded via a series of images (the intersect) into Chuck's brain. The CIA and NSA send agents to retrieve the information, however upon finding out that all of the information is buried in Chuck's brain, they end up staying to protect Chuck and use his brain to their advantage. Currently, Chuck is in the process of becoming a real spy due to an upgraded version of the intersect. The The show has the perfect combination of comedy, action, and romance. The writing is fantastic. Some of the most interesting characters are Chuck's co-workers at the Buy More. During one episode, we see the Buy More workers hosting a "fight club" in the storage room. It was very amusing to see the nerds beating each other up. Chuck airs Monday nights at 8pm on NBC...watch it!

http://www.nbc.com/chuck/

Shutter Island:Great Movie...Bad Experience

I am so lucky to have friends in Nashville that are lucky! One of my friends received tickets to an advanced screening of Martin Scorsese's new film Shutter Island. It will be released in theaters on Friday February 19.

I knew it would be good. All of the films I have seen by Martin Scorsese that star Leonardo DiCaprio have been fantastic. This is their fourth film together. The other three are The Aviator, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. Shutter Island is my favorite so far, it was a superb film. I highly recommend it.

The movie is a psychological thriller centered around DiCaprio's character. The film is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and his partner are investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane located on the remote Shutter Island. The movie is not really scary, but it is definitely an intriguing mind game that will have you guessing until the end.

The movie was fantastic...the movie going experience was not so much. The theater gave out more tickets than were seats, so you had to get their early to ensure a seat. Then, there were no attendants in the theater to make sure that people did not take up more space than they needed. My friends and I ended up having to split up our group of five. Three of us were seated near each other. We were seated near this family. Two large women with infants were taking up four seats--two for themselves and two for their baby carriers. The women were holding and breast feeding their infants through out the film. They were also very hostile towards us. They were mad when we sat down near them and their other family members. They were taking up a grand total of nine seats for four people. The theater was full. they didn't need nine seats. One of the women was in front of me and she was leaning so far back in her chair, that I had no leg room. I accidentally hit her chair when with my knees when I moved, and she proceeded to ram into my knees with her chair several times. I heard the other woman threatened violence--and this was all over me accidentally hitting her chair. They were the rudest people I had ever been around in my entire life.

That was the most bothersome experience, but there was also something else that bothered me. Shutter Island is rated R, it is not for little kids. Why were there so many young kids there? I saw several children that were no older than 8. One child even started crying during the movie. That is not something that should happen when you go see an R rated movie! Find a sitter, stay home, or see a more age appropriate film!

And the Oscar Goes to....

And the Oscar goes to...well, we will not actually know until March 7. However the nominees were annouced this past Tuesday. For the first time since 1943, the Academy has included a wopping ten nominees for the Best Picture category. The category normally consists of five.

This year the nominees include:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Which film will be awarded the Academy Award for Best Picture? It's hard to predict since three films so far have garnered a similar award from other award shows. Avatar took home the Golden Globe for Best Picture: Drama; Inglourious Basterds was awarded Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards; and The Hurt Locker won the Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures at the Producers Guild of America Awards. It will most certainly be a tight race.

Of the ten nominees, I have only seen three: Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9. All three of the films were outstanding. I have a feeling the Best Picture Oscar will got to either Avatar or The Hurt Locker. Although I love Avatar, I would really like to see Inglourious Basterds take home the prize. It should at least win for its original screenplay.

Who do you think will take home the Best Picture Oscar this year? Who do you want to win? Who should have received a nomination? I personally think The Hangover was overlooked. I don't think it should win, but a nomination would have been nice.

I'm With Coco!

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past two weeks, chances are you have heard about NBC's late debacle involving Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno. Four years ago, NBC announced that Leno would pass The Tonight Show over to Late Night host O'Brien. Leno was given his own show to air in primetime at 10:00 pm beginning in the fall of 2009. O’Brien took over as host of the Tonight Show in June of 2009.

Two weeks ago, NBC announced that The Jay Leno Show was going to be cancelled and they planned to put him on another show that would air at 11:35 pm, pushing the rest of their late night programming back 30 minutes. O’Brien was not happy to hear this and refused to allow his show to be bumped a half-hour later; following Leno yet again. In his public statement last week, he expressed "enormous personal disappointment" and added, "I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is (Tonight's) destruction." I agree with Conan that airing The Tonight Show at 12:05am would mean that it was no longer The Tonight Show, it would be more like the really early today show.

I watched this whole debacle play out in late night programming over the past two weeks. I believe that NBC is handling the whole situation wrong. It’s their fault that Conan’s Tonight Show is failing. He did not have the lead-in ratings Leno had from scripted shows. Conan had poor lead-in ratings from Jay’s show—which was also causing poorer ratings for the news casts. When Leno takes over The Tonight Show again, he will have the lead-in from Law and Order. That’s simply unfair.

I have gained a lot more respect for O’Brien—my favorite late night host after Chelsea Handler. He has handled the whole ordeal with class for the most part. He at least was willing to step down so that Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night would not suffer the consequences of the move. I feel that Leno should have been the one to step down. He gave up the show; if he didn’t want to, he should never have agreed to it. It’s been interesting to see most of the media, also take O’Brien’s side. He and the other late night hosts have been able to create a lot of good material from the fiasco. They have really been taking aim at NBC and Leno. Jimmy Kimmel—who at one point had been friendly with Leno—even went so far as to insult him on his own show. "Listen, Jay, Conan and I have children....You've got $800 million. For God's sake, leave our shows alone!"

O’Brien said hosting The Tonight Show has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and reminded the kids in the audience, "You can do anything you want in life; unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”

NBC announced today that the network had reached an agreement with O’Brien. The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien will end tomorrow after seven months of being on the air. I’m really I glad I had the chance to attend a taping of his show when I was in California back in August. My t-shirt’s value will likely increase…I suppose you could consider that an upside.

O’Brien struck a deal worth around $45 million, with around $33 million for himself and the other $12 million in staff severence payments—most of his staff moved from New York to California for the show.

Well, I think this was a bad move in all for NBC. Jay Leno’s image is tarnished for the time being and possibly for good. I personally hope he tanks when he returns in March, after the Winter Olympics. I fully intend to follow O’Brien to which ever network he sets up shop. I’m with Coco!