Heroes - Volume 4 Finale

I'm semi-live blogging the finale of Heroes tonight. I'm not going to waste a bunch of posts, so I'll just edit in to this one as the show goes on. Even though I like this show, I'm a little surprised it's not getting cancelled.

Pre-credits -
How did Danko fire two darts into Nathan's back with one shot?

We kind of just get some more random clips from last week with a little expansion. HRG knows well enough to let Claire and Angela run off to save Nathan, and then gets pulled over like we saw.

Sylar can shapeshift, so he figured out that if he moves that spot in the back of his head where he's vulnerable, he can't really be killed. Umm... put him through a wood chipper. Fargo his ass. Anyway, he gets everyone to think Danko killed another guard and throws Nathan into the bathroom to get to later.

Commercials: Star Trek looks really good. Good for Zoe Saldana to keep finding work.

Angela's off to find Matt Parkman, because we need more annoying people for this finale to work. Also, she dreamt he was there. Must have been a nightmare.

Sylar's now in Nathan's form using his stolen power of object-memory thing like "sniffing" from the movie Push. Claire is dumb and can't tell the difference between Sylar and her father. Their personalities are not similar at all, and it's kind of obviously not right.

Hiro and Ando are still running around being pointless. Hiro's so boring, especially now that he might not have a power.

These scenes are so short. I never really realized how we bounce back and forth between storyline so quickly.

Commercials. I hate so many of these characters. I'm not sure why I like this show.

I heard a spoiler that someone's dying tonight, but it didn't say who. I hope it's not just Danko since his storyline is ending.

Peter gets Nathan. That's the scene. Meanwhile, Danko admits his storyline for the past several episodes for HRG, because apparently since they don't have powers they can be trusted to share a big cell at Building 26. They're going to work together for mutual benefit! Yeah?! No. How contrived and obvious. Especially the handshake. But no, Hiro stops time and while Ando takes their photos from the wall of suspects we stare at all the frozen people.

They make their way to the hospital room of heroes and only save Suresh, because why save the others and find out if they have any useful abilities when you can just save the most annoying and not pay the extras. So, Suresh magically knows that Hiro's body is rejecting his powers.

Claire and not-Nathan check in to see the president.

Hiro saves HRG from being knocked out by Danko, but collapses as his eyes go bloodshot and his nose bleeds. But I thought Ando was supposed to kill him in that vision of the future we saw? If you're going to admit that random events and choices will continuously change the future, you should stop showing us scenes from the future, Show.

Sylar's captured Claire and boasts to HRG.

Commercials.

Sylar's monologuing for Claire and comparing their lives. It's awkward since apparently Sylar can control her movements, but not what she's saying. Now he's hitting on her over wine?

Nathan and Peter arrive to take down Sylar and Claire goes flying out the door at them. She get's looked out the room and we don't get to see the resulting fight scene because that would cost too much money. The room does end up on fire though. She finds "Peter", and then Sylar and Nathan return, so it really was Peter. Wait!!! Sylar just slit Nathan's throat. He's dead. Wow. He's not really who I was the most sick of on this show, but I will not miss this character.

Back from commercials and Matt's met up with Angela. He refuses to help her because that's 'not why he came there,' but is soon convinced because really what kind of plan is "I'm going to DC to save the world!"

At the hotel/political headquarters Angela does a good job finding/mourning for her son. She's easily the best part of the show. Meanwhile, not-Nathan is stalking the president. But wait! The president is really Peter who had absorbed all of Syler's powers during the fight. Oh, it's important to note that during an 'everyone dies' speech, Sylar name-dropped Arthur Patrelli, because remember that whole power? Peter uses it to make Sylar normal and vulnerable. He gets drugged and is done for.

More commercials, but I can tell we're pretty much done. We just need a nice little wrap up...

Oh, apparently Matt's here so he can turn Sylar into Nathan by mentally manipulating him. Which... sounds really weird, even for a show about super powers. It also seems like it would easily wear off as soon as Matt leaves the room/gets knocked out/takes a nap. But apparently not. Also, apparently Peter didn't steal the whole shapeshifting power, because he turns into Nathan. So while Nathan died, it's really Sylar's personality who died. What a dumb ending. They all decide to name their new effort The Company, because that hasn't been done before.

Hiro and Ando head home, because they have nothing else to do. Suresh is randomly hanging around to be in the scene.

Volume 5 is called redemption and starts six weeks later. We start at the home of a Building 26 agent who's house has flooded. The water becomes a nude Ali Larter who has become evil since she shattered a few weeks ago. She's been tracking down and killing those who tried to kill her in front of her nephew.

Nathan 'doesn't feel like himself,' which is really poor foreshadowing. He still has Sylar's clock thing going on and Angela's worried.

I'm not looking forward to next season. Ali Larter as a villain doesn't really fit with what we saw of her previously.

Tropic Thunder

I just saw this movie for the first time on Wednesday. I loved it for so many reasons, from its status as a parody of war movies, to its commentary on cinema in general, there were so many little things that add to it.

1. The Soundtrack
War movies (especially those based on Vietnam) have this wonderful tendency to use music by artists that were involved in the anti-war movement of the counterculture. Like using The Doors to open Apocalypse Now, Tropic Thunder uses a great collection of 60s music including Buffalo Springfield and The Rolling Stones.

2. Alpa Chino
A great send up of hip-hop rapper/actors, Alpa Chino also provided a sort of 'straight' man to Kirk Lazarus. The movie opens with his ad for "Booty Sweat" and "Bust-A-Nut," his energy drink and food bar in the same vein as Pimp Juice. He represents LL, Will Smith, T.I., 50, Luda, and any other rapper who decides to get into acting (Mos Def doesn't count), and the revelation that he's gay is also pretty funny considering the rumors surrounding Will Smith, Diddy and other hip-hop stars.

3. From the beginning fake trailers to introduce our actors, Tropic Thunder makes passing jabs at the movie business throughout the entire film. When Lazarus advises Tugg Speedman to not go "full retard" to get a more meaningful performance, he spouts off a long list of Oscar winners to back up his claim. Also, the Klump-bashing Fattie franchise Jeff Portnoy stars in was hilarious. It was nice that it only played such a small part in the movie, but it was great that it was put in there. Also, Ben Stiller used his standing in the industry to get a wonderful collection of cameos. Tobey Maguire as a gay monk fondling Lazarus's rosary beads and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lance Bass and Jon Voight at the Oscars made great additions to the movie just by being there.

4. Ben Stiller and Jack Black were not Ben Stiller and Jack Black
Usually I hate Jack Black and Ben Stiller has a tendency to place the same character over and over again. Stiller did a very good job of writing characters that both used his strengths, without being the cliche man in over his head he usually ends up with. Jack Black really toned down his energy and I greatly appreciated it.

5. I'm not even familiar enough with war movies to begin to list the references here. Check out this list:
www.imdb.com
Although I do want to add that I don't think it's complete yet. For example, the first big explosion where the trees explode from left to right was taken directly out of Apocalypse Now.

Capoeira in Television

So both Survivor and ANTM had a little segment on Capoeira, Brazil's form of martial arts mixed with dance. Survivor: Tocantins had the final 8 compete for a reward challenge that involved a feast and participation in a capoeira routine, while the model wannabes learned moves for a photo-shoot challenge.

While I guess it would make sense to feature something indigenous to their location to be featured, it was really funny that they ended up being on back to back nights.

ANTM - The Girl From SoCal

This week the models had to pose with a fruit hat... in the slums of Sao Paolo... and make it 'fashion.' Is it just me or did all the talk about how their location was full of life and fun just a diversion to make us forget that these Americans were coming into the poorer neighborhoods to exploit the look and feel for the sake of some quasi-models? Also, notice how they cart those kids around to be in the background of every shot. Models are discussed individually in the order I rank their photos:

I thought for a second Fo might actually have gone home, then she wasn't in the bottom 2? The whole thing about trying to emulate the Chiquita Banana, but not at the same time was such crap. However, acting so immature about the whole 'this is a competition' thing with Teyona does not a winner make. She's not making the top three. I do love her photo this week. It's not her fault she looks like their inspiration. I feel like the direction this week was too contradictory to blame Fo for acting too much.


It's really funny that this pic was chosen for Allison because it's actually the same old face Nigel hates, and he loved this. She had a lot of variety from what we saw during her shoot, but of course Tyra chooses this one so during the finals they can look back at all the same expressions so she won't win. Her body positioning does help here though. Her talking about Carmen's death a la her nosebleed fixation was hilarious.

Celia is old. Did you know that? The judges keep giving us little clues about her age/appearance so she can get knocked out at third place when they give her the Renee/Melrose/Jade treatment. This photo isn't really that good, but the crossed legs and face kept her out of the bottom. Celia got lucky that Aminat and Natalie did actively poor rather than nothing like her. Still, even though she's just kind of standing there, I do like it. It's more the combination of her wardrobe and skin tone popping out from the background than anything she's doing.

Teyona's not mad at Fo for taking her frames... but she wants us to know how they're not cool anymore. The commentary about learning how to smile is just to show us progress so she can win. This photo is just average, but it would have ranked above Celia if it weren't for one thing. Janice would have never let someone who look 'amputeed' in their photo be called out second. Where is Teyona's right arm? We even saw Jay tell her to remember her body and keep her limbs in the shot.

Could Natalie's edit this episode be any more obvious this episode? /Chandler Bing voice. Seriously though, after reminding us all of where she's from continuously (Hannah's from Alaska anyone?) she complained the entire episode. The only thing that had me fooled for a second was when she wasn't one of the two people Jay criticized. I thought maybe she was just being set up to go home next week. She also kind of has the Jayla Bollywood shoot thing going on where she's a lot smaller in the frame than everyone else.

Aminat kind of did what I figured she would, but I am surprised she's still around. How many chances can she have? She's gone in the next two weeks with Fo. I guess I should have known during the episode that Aminat wouldn't have gone home. There was so much focus on Fo/Teyona and Natalie that she was almost invisible by comparison. Still, Paulina and Miss J were right in their critique. Even though Aminat altered it slightly by twisting her right arm, this is such a basic pose we see every cycle.

Twitter

I hate twitter. I hate what it stands for, I hate the smurf-like conjugation involved, I hate that it's the refuge of Ashton Kutcher and Spencer Pratt.

I'm not sure what made me decide to share this with you, but I've become aware how much of our pop-culture leaders have embraced this technology and it's somewhat frightening. Who needs an up to the second account of everyone else's life? It leads you no time whatsoever to actually live if you spend all this time writing it down for everyone else to read about.

However, every once in a while I see a story that makes me think Twitter's not all bad...


via attuworld (site NSFW)

Model Night - (Preview)

Wednesdays offer two modeling competition shows worth watching, even if it is just to make fun of them.

First, the six remaining girls on America's Next Top Model (cycle 12) head off to Sao Paolo, Brazil in their quest for a contract with covergirl and the right to appear on 2-3 episodes of next cycle. See who continues to impress the judges (Teyona, Celia) and who gets to go back to folding fleece pullovers at Old Navy (Aminat) on the CW at 8 EST.

If you're more interested in seeing some model-ass, head on over to Bravo at 10 EST for the second season of Make Me A Supermodel. It was pre-empted last week for the 'A-List' Awards, so I forget what's supposed to be happening, but I think they're down to the top ten. While a different dynamic from ANTM due to the inclusion of men, the judges are even worse - you've been warned.

American Idol - Disco Night

This... is... American Idol.
For some reason they keep trying to make it seem like it's a good thing Matt got saved. I'm not buying it. Simon's dressed up for the night by wearing a light gray shirt as opposed to his usual dark. Moleman's looking extra Timberfake douchey this evening.

No video's this week? YAY! They're trying to come in on time.

Lil - I'm Every Woman - Chaka Khan
It's not a boring ballad, so that part's good. It is sung poorly, so that's bad. She almost seems out of breath and the glory note comes with this extreme close-up inside her mouth. Randy talks about how it doesn't say what kind of artist she is... because most disco songs can say a lot about singers these days. Kara's been waiting for her to sing an artist like Chaka Khan - because she's black? Jasmine should sing Rihanna. Lil should sing Mary or Chaka. Hmm... She's been every woman... but herself - courtesy of Kara's book of cheese. The judges want her to go home so bad. Ryan and Lil chat about their inner goddesses. Lil has really embraced the VFTW suggestion to up the attitude. I applaud her for trying to not be so boring.

Kris - She Works Hard For The Money - Donna Summer
The song about the bathroom attendant everyone incorrectly thinks is about a hooker? Really? Kris John Mayers it up. He does what he should do. Take the disco song, and un-disco it. This song makes me want McDonalds. Mmm... old marketing campaigns... The singing is the typical Kris performance. He's pretty consistent. Paula compares it to Santana, and then describes choosing a song by a woman as cross dressing. It is true that many guys wouldn't perform a female song. Adam doesn't count.

Mr. Dead Wife - September - Earth, Wind and Fire
He's kind of scatting. He's very smarmy. It's a little high for him. He's acting very comfortable, I'll give him that... but it almost seems like he doesn't think he'll ever get voted out. Also, those jeans are too tight. Old women love him! They have a sign. Randy was worried about the choice, even though it's kind of a cliche Danny type song. Why would Kara be worried about Danny trying to fit into a genre that's over the top and cheesy by nature? He is so full of himself. Every compliment is expected. Ha ha ha ha... Simon calls it awkward and clumsy and his smile faded so fast. UGH!

Allison - Hot Stuff - they didn't say and I'm not looking it up
She's being sultry on the stairs. You're only 16, calm down girl. It's a slowed down type performance that makes the song more 80s rock than disco or current. It's very average sounding. Eek... the bridge is really bad. Glory note! The judges are in spin mode trying to remind everyone that she can still sing. They pimp her a lot to hopefully get Lil/Anoop/Matt gone.

Adam Lambert - If I Can't Have You - from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
time for a 'vulnerable' performance. He can't do ballads. His voice is kind of theater sounding. It works for the over the top glam rock style, but it very obvious on the ballads. Paula's tearing up. Judges: blah, blah, blah. He's not going anywhere, but at least he looks like he can take compliments without being full of himself. Adam gives props to the guy who arranged the song for him - AI first! Paula looks like she's going to jump Adam after the show to try to turn him straight.

Moleman - Stayin' Alive - The Bee-Gees
It is kind of one of his better performances, but his Timberfakeness is cranked to 11. Ooh, the back-up singers are coming up front. Good for them. I want to vote for the Afro-girl. I'm sure the judges will love it. Eww. He's so sweaty. I haven't seen sweat like that on AI since Ruben. Kara's glad we're back to disco night. Wow. Matt's friend is so happy. She's falling over in her chair. She's the opposite of Whatevia. Simon says in the real world, that performance was desparate. I think it may be part of Operation: Save Allison, so I'll take it.

Anoop - Dim All The Lights
The pimp spot for Anoop? With Lil singing first, they're really hoping she goes. Anoop decided not to shave. It's not a good look. This song is so boring and adult contemporary. He doesn't stand a chance. Time to hit fast forward, which is saying something since I made it all the way through Gokey. Randy lets me know the last note was rough. Kara thinks this could be on the radio, which... coming soon to a doctor's office muzak near you. Paula teaches him how to smile. Simon says it's mediocre.

The judges want Lil and Anoop gone. I think Allison is in danger of being a "surprise" boot, but she wouldn't have been the lowest so the save might do her in. Matt had a 'good' enough performance to get his fans to vote en masse. I'm going to go with Lil, Anoop and Allison bottom three, with Allison hopefully being safe. Now to check dialidol and see if I'm right...

Yay, they finished on time!