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Mamma Mia an ABBA themed musical, set the day before Sophie's wedding. She reads her mother's diary to hopefully find out who her father is. Instead she discovers that she has 3 possible fathers, so without her mother's knowledge or permission, she invites all 3 mysterious men, whom her mother hasn't seen in 20 years.

I love musicals. Fantastic examples are Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Grease, Newsies, etc. (not listed in any particular order) If it's done right it's just a really big music video. The dancing and songs especially are what I love about this genre. You are already emotionally involved in the story and music always helps to amplify that emotion the character is conveying.

Mamma Mia was... corny, at best. The transitions of acting to singing just didn't come off well. The scenes were choppy and the songs and dancing weren't really well done. No doubt that Meryl Streep has a good voice, but she's going in her 50's(?) skipping and jumping around in an overall. I like her better as Miranda Priestley in Devil Wears Prada.

The whole movie came off amateur. The songs went on a bit too long, or maybe that's because it just wasn't really that enjoyable. Muriel's Wedding was a better ABBA themed musical then this. I actually fast forwarded through the movie only to discover a very predictable ending.

Again I don't know if this movie is just bad, or if it was a bad translation to film like Rent was. (God, that one was just as awful, if not more, because I loved the Broadway version so much.)

Coraline is based on the books by Neil Gaiman.

Coraline Jones moves to a new house and on top of feeling sad and alone from the move, her parents ignore her completely. They are both writers and incredibly involved with their work, and the mother especially is annoyed everytime Coraline is in her presence. Upon exploring the house, she comes across a door that has been wallpapered over. After pestering her mother to help her find a key, they find one, with a button as a handle. With her mother present, they open it, only to find that it's a brick wall.

During the night she is awoken from her sleep and sees little white mice leading her to the door. This time it leads to a tunnel. On the other side is the exact opposite of her mother... with buttons as eyes. At first all seems to be an ideal world.

I'm a HUGE fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, so without a second thought I went to see this one. (FYI: It seems a lot of people are confusing this little fact that Tim Burton DID NOT direct Nightmare Before Christmas. He wrote and produced it.)

I was kinda disappointed with this one. There wasn't much else to the story. It wasn't a story where it had a beginning, middle and end. We dont' know how that door got there. We don't know why the evil woman on the other side captures little children. We just know she's there and Coraline went through it and defeated the evil woman.

The story wasn't really captivating enough for me, which is a shame because the animation was simply fantastic.

For the handful that have actually been reading my blog, I've been absent because I've been OBSESSED with The Wire. It's 5 seasons centered around the Baltimore, Maryland criminal, judicial and media system.

The overall writing and events are so raw, compared to the filtered crime shows on the network, such as Law and Order, or CSI. You get to see the detectives working the case getting personal in certain situations or just joking around amongst the guys.

Season 1: The Streets
Probably my favorite season, it revolves around the drug dealings on the street. You see the interaction of business being handled from the corners where the transactions take place. The market depends on the addicts staying addicted to the product. Avon Barksdale leads the most prominent gang in Baltimore and follows an old school code and takes his business seriously. The group of investigators trailing to capture Avon involves Jimmy McNulty, a black sheep in the police who constantly breaks rules and burns bridges by not following the chain of command. Through the investigation you see the frustration as the unit doing the investigation is constantly challenged with obstacles that the Police Commissioner and the justice system puts out, as well as trying to be one step ahead of the gang, by putting wire taps on the pay phones being used.

Season 2: The Docks
They step away from the streets and focus on the blue collar section of Baltimore. A family works cohesively to steal shipments coming in from a certain ship, overseas. The stolen products range from electronics to various items that could be sold for profits. But the case takes an interest when a cargo arrives and a secret compartment of dead girls is discovered. McNulty who was demoted to patrol the docks joins his old team to help solve the case, which turns out to be the importing of the drugs to sell to the dealers for the streets.

Season 3: The Streets Part 2
We focus back on Avon's crew, but this time we see the dynamics higher up in the food chain. The story of seeing the pressure between Avon and his second in command, Stringer Bell, is all too familiar. You have two partners in a business that don't see eye to eye anymore. Stringer, a business man at heart, attends business classes at the local community college, and tries to apply real world economics into the street business. Avon, struggles with his partner's idea of trying to apply them to a business that isn't conventional. Stringer's investments with the political circle leads you into a world of dirty politics, where money does make the world go round. Avon would rather use the old and ancient form of making the world go round: guns and power.

Season 4: School System
We follow 4 kids entering a school system where the education system is in a deficit of $54 million dollars. The school's main concern is to meet the minimum requirements of the state to receive the funding, meaning, each student really only has to show up to school at least once a month. ONCE A MONTH! After that it doesn't matter whether these kids pass the school, they usually will advance to the class most appropriate to their age group, known as "social promotion". Test scores are bumped and adjusted to meet the requirements. The relationships between the frustrated faculty who do want to make a change, and the kids who have no other choice but to work the streets is heartbreaking.

Season 5: Media
We all know the media is a powerful tool. It controls the world. They choose what you see, and what you don't, how you should feel, etc. This season parallels with an investigation where McNulty makes up a serial murder case, to divert funding to those that need it, when the new mayor backs out on his promise to focus on crime prevention and instead routes the money towards the education debt. We follow one reporter who starts out by embellishing quotes, and then all out making up quotes, which eventually leads to making up stories. When his editor discovers this and shares it with his editors, the reporter is instead rewarded because his stories make up the front page. We get to see why something makes the front cover, and why something gets pushed back further into the paper. We see why some stories get more coverage and why others are cut down.

I don't feel I did any justice explaining the show, but it's definitely high on my recommendation list. I'm not going to lie and say that this show is just as fun to watch then it is to talk about... it does move along slow. But much like the real world, the stories are there. It's subtle and hidden beneath another story. Everything ties in together, and each character is going to have you hate them and love them from minute to minute. Then there are the other characters you'll be pleasantly surprised you'll be rooting for.

This week the challenges were Workout. Each dance team had to incorporate some form of workout move into their routine. I won't get into a detailed account like I did the previous post, but some teams seemed repetitious while others really surprised me. You can check out the each team's performance here, courtesy of MTV.

Quest started the show with their routine, "kickboxing". I really thought these theme was obvious one for them, and didn't expect to be blown away by their performance as I was. You just had absolute fun watching them perform. They used the theme of "video game fighting". Among the 7 crewmembers, 3 were dressed in red, and 3 in blue, while 1 stood in the middle acting as referee. I can't do it justice explaining so please check it out.

Now as for the judges... especially Lil' Mama and JC (gag)... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!??! They called Quests's performance mediocre and unimpressive. In fact JC said it was too "Tae-bo" for his taste, and that it wasn't choreographed enough. My only guess is he was googling himself to see how much unpopular he's been getting instead of paying attention to the show.

Worst off was that Lil' Mama agreed with him. Rightfully the audience booed them and their so called judgement. Shane West, probably the ONLY opinion that really matters, since he's an actual choreographer, retaliated by asking the two "are we watching the same show?" He was just as blown away as the rest of the audience and crediting them for many a fancy footwork and innovative moves.

If the judges continue to butcher the judging, this show is going to have to go on my axe list.

Lars is 27 years old and works a 9 to 5 job while he shares a cubicle. He goes home to the garage of his brother and sister-in-law's house. He doesn't have any friends. He hates being touched.

One day he decides to buy a lifesize sex toy and calls her Bianca. He doesn't use Bianca for the purposes as intended by the website. Instead he uses her as a companion. Toting her around everywhere on their dates, shopping, parties, etc. Their relationship grows and progresses and helps Lars to be more social and not so introverted.

Oddly enough the entire town comes together and helps to welcome Bianca. When Bianca becomes more independent they invite her to the hospital to read to the children. She goes out shopping with the girls.

By any means this movie should've been a comedy, or the new genre of "dramedy" (drama + comedy = dramedy). Look at the cover. It even suggests that there's a hint of comedy or dark humor in there. I've never been so depressed more in my life. Scratch that... I was more depressed watching Sideways, but you get the connection.

Watching Lars hit a delusional state by finding companionship in this sex doll was sad... in a really depressing pathetic way. Ryan Gosling's performance didn't help either. He just came off as a creepy delusional lonely guy, when he should've came off simply the lonely guy, you feel really bad for, for not having anyone in his life, and being abandoned by his older brother, when their father died. How do you screw that up?

I just couldn't connect to this movie. First I was sympathetic towards Lars, even when he got the doll, and the psychiatrist suggested to his family they play along, until he figures things out. But after awhile, it just got ridiculous and not at all enjoyable to watch.

Ryan Gosling can be placed in the large pool of actors/actresses who have the acting range of a teaspoon. He plays the same cocky, awkward, bored looking character almost everytime.

Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is an A-List actor on his way to becoming on the D-List.

Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is a comedic actor making fart movies, playing all of the characters in the movie in a fat suit.

Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is an award winning method actor known for fully involving himself into each character he is casted in. 'Nuff said.

All three were actors were hired to play as a unit of soldiers based on the book pretty much Saving Private Ryan. But when the antics of the actors caused the movie to be behind production by a month (3 days into shooting) and over budget $100 million, the Director tries to get them to be more in character by dropping them off in the middle of the woods and scaring them with special effects to act more like soldiers.

Something goes horribly wrong and Tugg and his actor friends are caught by a gang of drug dealers and they still thing it's part of the movie.

By all means this movie should've been fucking hilarious. Like I should be rolling on the floor laughing, busting a gut. There were moments that were funny, and they should've used that as a momentum to lead up to something funnier than the one before, but it was a stop and go comedy. You'd chuckle here, then wait for it... wait for it... Chuckle. Nothing was absolutely hilarious. The previews were better than the movie in it's entirety.

However, there are only two things about this movie that are absolutely worth seeing. First is the opening sequence. They're mock previews and upcoming trailers of the actors in Tropic Thunder. Brilliant. Then there's the closing scene of Tom Cruise, as the Jewish investor, doing his ghetto money dance. 'Nuff said.