That’s Hot!

Hello all,

I watched Hottie and the Nottie just last night and first all, I must state that I am not a Paris Hilton-aholic or anything like that, but I actually enjoyed this movie.

The movie starts with a girl breaking up with her loser boyfriend. Said boyfriend then goes on a quest to find the prettiest girl from this school, whom he’s kept a picture of all these years. A point of fact, the picture of this pretty girl is from when she was 7. So once he finds this pretty girl, played by Paris Hilton, he discovers that she is single and will only date once she finds the perfect guy for her best friend, June, the ugliest girl from school.

After several attempts, including hypnotism, the perfect guy, Johann, comes into June’s life. Johann is only interested in June due to the fact that after he fixes her face and body, June will be hot, but will still be grateful like an ugly girl, and that is what he’s into.

This is when the movie starts to pick up, with some very humorous parts, including the main character, Nate, telling everyone that he is a stunt pilot in his spare time and likes to take children up to perform stunts for them, and endangring their lives in the process.

Eventually, Nate has a chance with Paris Hilton’s character, Christabelle, but only after a very pathetic attempt of a relationship test. The test being, that Christabelle will show up to a costume party, dressed as a bride, telling everyone she wants to get married, then pretends to be very drunk. The test is that if Nate really cares for her, he will stick it out with her. So basically Paris Hilton is very drunk and wants to hook up and the relationship test is that he is the right guy if he sticks around.

So after this test and Nate is in the room with Christabelle, Nate realizes that he has feelings for June and that he has cared for her even before she was hot, so he goes to her and they end up together.

Even though the users of IMDB only gave this movie a combined rating of 1.4/10, this is completely undeserved. The movie has some pacing issues, particularly in the beginning, but it does pick up once Johann enters the picture, and is humorous for what it is, a Paris Hilton-trying-to-act-movie.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who liked the movie She’s All That, which has basically the same plot, ugly girl turned hottie. Except in this movie, the ugly girl knows she is ugly and doesn’t change her personality once during the entire movie, so she comes off as a completely realistic, well developed character, unlike Christabelle. Clearly, Christine Lakin (June) stole the show.

Mr. Big Meeting, A Sitcom Failure

Hello all,

So I watched the latest episode of Welcome to the Captain today and wow, I did not think this show could get any worse! The plot is that the main character, Josh Flug (played by Fran Kranz) has an interview to pitch his new screenplay to the president of Paramount Pictures. The secondary character, Uncle Saul (played by Jeffrey Tambor) decides to help Josh prepare for his pitch. The B-plot is that Jesus is allowed into every apartment to check the fire alarms. While in Josh’s room, he stumbles upon the screenplay and he must read it, much to the dismay of Hope, Josh’s flame.

So, let’s start with Josh’s screenplay pitch. The pitch was developed with the help of Uncle Saul, who has pitched many a screenplay in his time, since he was a writer for Three’s Company (T-Co). The coaching basically consisted of Saul reminising about his old pitches and a story involving a monkey throwing a pillow at him.

Once on the Paramount lot, Saul sees an old partner of his. This partner, Mickey Tittle, played by Bob Einstein, of Super Dave fame, supposedly stole Uncle Saul’s pitch for Housemates, a series which has become a huge hit. This entire sequence has completely removed my love of Super Dave, especially after Uncle Saul attacks Mickey Tittle and beating him in a fit of rage. The acting was horrible, the plot was annoying, and the direction was lacking for a sitcom on network television. The actors are not utilized, the emphasize is put on characters that cannot carry the show, while other better know actors are pushed into the background.

The secondary plot involves Jesus reading Josh’s screenplay. I will be honest, I tune out Jesus as his character is the most annoying character I’ve ever seen on television. Hope, played by Joanna Garcia, walks in on Jesus and ends up reading the screenplay as well. Both adore the screenplay and cannot stop from reading it. At the end, Josh catches them and Hope tells him that they two characters have to get together at the end of the film. This is just a small piece of the overall story of Josh and Hope’s sexual tension. In the beginning, I wanted them to get together, but now, I’m just sick of the entire series. Hope, while cute, cannot act and does not deserve to be on television. The plot line from the previous episode was completely absent, as Josh was making Hope jealous by asking out another girl from the building.

Raquel Welch is completely wasted in this show, though she is well past her sex-appeal prime. her character is basically a token female for this cast as Joanna Garcia cannot carry this show as the sole female. Wait, I forgot about Astrid, played by Valerie Azlynn. Astrid is the biggest ditz on the show and I cannot stand watching her. Her character is an actress that isn’t on television, so basically an unemployed LA actor, a walking cliche.

Overall, this show is terrible. I believe that the entire reason this show ever saw the airwaves is because of the Writer’s Strike of ‘08. If any of you want to watch a terrible sitcom, with horrible acting from the main characters, but entertaining moments from the secondary actors, specifically Uncle Saul, who really does carry this show.

The latest show has made me feel a bit nostalgic. So I end this with a Super Dave Osbourne reference, watching this show makes me require medical attention.

Ryan ‘Piece’ Levy

Ellen Page Hosts…

Hello all,

So it’s the 2nd episode of Saturday Night Live since the WGA Strike of ‘08, and it’s going to be hard to top last week’s show, hosted by Tina Fey.

Ellen Page, a fellow Nova Scotian, is the host tonight and you can tell that she is not completely comfortable with all the attention she is getting  ever since her Academy Award nomination for Juno.

Ellen Page came out to do her monologue and she lasted all of 20 seconds before she gets the assist from her ‘writer’ for Juno. This skit was a little funny, but it came off as a feeble attempt to cover for Ellen Page’s inexperience in this role. You can see the nerves come to the surface during and after her monologue as she doesn’t quite know what to do with her hands, and she sways around after the segment is over.

Now, I watched Juno several weeks ago, and I thought it was insightful and hilarious. However, did I feel she was a standout actress ? Not really. I’m not saying she was great, but it wasn’t the standout performance that everyone else apparently feels it is.

But back to Saturday Night Live, the opening sequence was yet another Clinton/Obama debate sketch. This was one was not quite as good as last week’s, but still mildly amusing. The sketch was followed by a segment involved Hillary Clinton herself, which came off more as a desperate attempt to gain some buzz around herself in the hopes of gaining some ground on Obama.

Ellen Page’s portrayal of Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus was pretty interesting, as they are about the same height. The impersonation of Miley Cyrus was very close to what I’ve seen when Miley has done other interviews.

The band, Wilco was the musical guest. I’m not a huge fan of music, so this is the first time I have even heard of them. The first song the played was kind of soothing, though the lead singer looked like he had caught the red-eye flight the night before and hadn’t gotten any shut-eye in days.

The digital short was basically a rehash of a YouTube video combined with the montage to bad dreams segment of the Oscar’s. It wasn’t funny then and it was even worse when fleshed out tonight.

The Baby Gap sketch was surprisingly funny. Ellen Page playing an inner-city street trash girl was hilarious. She played off of Kenan Thompson quite well, who was also very convincing as a overweight black woman.

Weekend Update is horrible as usual. Here is the format: blah blah blah… wait for prompted laughter… insert punchline while staring at camera… wait for more prompted laughter, switch to next horrible news story.

Rudy Giuliani was this week’s Weekend Update guest. He was actually funnier than the comedians and summed up this entire episode on SNL, comparing it to his failed campaign for the Presidency of the United States.

Rudy Giuliani, “It started strong, but really didn’t have an ending”

So, as much as I like Ellen Page, her first episode (I know there will be more) of SNL was a bit lackluster. She has definately come a long way since her episodes on the Trailer Park Boys. The sketches tonight were mediocre at best. There were stand out performances, especially by Kenan Thompson (Baby Gap sketch) and Bill Hader (Peter Pan sketch). Though this episode was not as good as last weeks episode, SNL has really stepped it up since their hiatus for the WGA Strike. I just wonder how long this level of quality will hold up as the last few years have really shown how low this show can go.

Ryan ‘Piece’ Levy

Amnesia: Where What You Forget, You’ll Regret

Hello all,

I turned on NBC tonight and watched a new primetime game show. ‘Amnesia’ is a show where questions are asked of a person’s past. The questions are based on the accounts of family and friends. The whole show is hosted by Dennis Miller.

Now, let me first say that I have never been a fan of Dennis Miller, but he is actually a fairly good game show host, especially for this type of show. The show is light-hearted, good spirited, with very little chance to lose the money you’ve accumulated along the way. Dennis Miller is funny, adds to the conversation and tempo of the game without going for the cheap, crude joke of the moment.

I compare this show to Fox’s ‘Moment of Truth’, as basically both shows ask the contestant questions about their pasts. However, where ‘Moment of Truth’ goes for the dirty secrets and naughty details, Amnesia goes for the family, or at least Pg-13, rated fun. Dennis Miller is a heck of a lot better than Mark Walberg on ‘Moment of Truth’.

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t find ‘Moment of Truth’ entertaining, but I find that most primetime game shows slip too easily into removing the tempo from the game by cutting to the commercial in the (unrealized) hopes of keeping the audience. I first noticed this on Fox’s ‘Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?’ and then later, the same stunt being pulled every commercial break of NBC’s ‘Deal or No Deal’. It is nice to see a break from this type of low-brow entertainment stunts and back to a more family-friendly game show with a hint of adolescent themes.

All this being said, I urge you to check out both shows, Amnesia airs on NBC on Fridays and Moment of Truth airs on Fox on Wednesdays. Check them both out and make up your own minds, I’m sure you’ll find one entertaining.

Ryan ‘Piece’ Levy