Emmy noms!

Awww... Love the Emmys. I don't care enough to really, REALLY get invested in them, but they come right at the perfect lull between movie awards seasons.

So... the nominations. With commentary. Because I kibbitz. It's what I do.

Best drama series: Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights, Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Mad Men.

I didn't love The Walking Dead as much as I thought I would, but I wish it were up here. And I suppose I need to see Boardwalk Empire. Also, it should be an interesting year since Breaking Bad is ineligible till next year.

In conclusion: Dexter! Dexter!

Best comedy series: Modern Family, 30 Rock, Glee, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, Parks and Recreation.

Community community community. COMMUNITY. Also: Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Drama actress: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife; Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men; Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU; Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law; Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights and Mireille Enos, The Killing.

Comedy actor: Steve Carell, The Office; Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory; Matt LeBlanc, Episodes, Louis C.K., Louie; Johnny Galecki, Big Bang Theory.

Joel McHale. I will say, though, that I'm kinda happy about Matt LeBlanc's inclusion.

Drama actor: Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights; Michael C. Hall, Dexter; Hugh Laurie, House; Timothy Olyphant, Justified.

Huzzah! Timothy Olyphant!! Also: Michael C. Hall. I know a lot of people weren't fans of the last season, but I loved it.

And I'm happy Chris Meloni is moving on to other endeavors, since he never got the recognition Mariska did.

Comedy actress: Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie; Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation; Laura Linney, The Big C; Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope; Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly.

Yay Martha Plimpton! (Is Raising Hope supposed to be any good?)

Supporting drama actor: Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age; John Slattery, Mad Men; Alan Cumming, The Good Wife; Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones; Josh Charles, The Good Wife; Walton Goggins, Justified.

I'm still a little sad that Ryan Kwanten didn't win for S2 of True Blood. But, happy to see Peter Dinklage and Walton Goggins on here. Plus, I love Alan Cumming, and Josh Charles can do no wrong (although I really don't need to add one more tv show to my 'to be watched category' - stop it, Good Wife!), so.... pretty strong category. I'm going to root for Walton Goggins, though. (I tried to watch Game of Thrones for Peter Dinklage, but.... I just couldn't get into it...)

Supporting comedy actor: Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family; Ed O’Neill, Modern Family; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family; Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men; Chris Colfer, Glee.

Danny Pudi and Neil Patrick Harris. Just... stop with the Modern Family thing.

Supporting comedy actress: Julie Bowen, Modern Family; Sofia Vergara, Modern Family; Jane Lynch, Glee; Betty White, Hot in Cleveland; Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live; Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock.

Really? Betty White over Lea Michele? Really?

Supporting drama actress: Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife; Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire; Christine Baranski, The Good Wife; Michelle Forbes, The Killing; Margo Martindale, Justified; Christina Hendricks, Mad Men.

Movie or miniseries: Mildred Pierce, HBO; Downtown Abbey, PBS; The Kennedys, ReelzChannel; Cinema Verite, HBO; Too Big To Fail, HBO; Pillars of the Earth, Starz.

The Kennedys? Really?

Reality competition: So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Project Runway.

Reality host: Jeff Probst, Survivor; Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance; Phil Keoghan, Amazing Race; Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars; Ryan Seacrest, American Idol.

Variety, music or comedy series: The Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Conan, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.


You know, I don't watch it, but shouldn't somebody have gotten an acting nod for In Treatment? Also, I've heard from those that watch it, that the most deserving actor on the Killing is Stephen Holder. Then again, it took the Emmys a little while to come around on Aaron Paul.

Also also (from Vulture): "Con: And speaking of Oscars, the debacle that was this year's James Franco–led Academy Awards somehow got nine Emmy nominations, including one for Best Direction." That's so wrong.

I suppose I should go bump Mildred Pierce up my queue.

Whoops!

I had some linkspam I was putting together about a month ago that I never ended up posting. Better late than never?
The Future Trailer

Eating your Cultural Vegetables

Meek's Cutoff Review

Nostalgia for the Light Review

I love the SF Appeal weekend roundups. This week's makes a particularly good point; "Everything Must Go - Everywhere It's the latest entry in the "Old White Man Finds Himself" genre. These are especially poignant if they star Michael Douglas or Jack Nicholson. Or an ex-SNL star, as is the case here. You know what sucks? Besides EVERYTHING? This: Everyone is wondering about the box office potential of a comedy starring a woman (the horror!), but nobody is worried about a film that's basically two hours of a boring old white man sitting on a lawn?"

Locke & Key. ARGH. I am holding out hope that SyFy may turn this into a miniseries at some point. Otherwise, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Nick Stahl auditions for the Michael Chabon/Darren Aronofsky project about WWII magicians. Because that is the next tv project in development that I am going to stupidly get my hopes up for.

Emmys postmortem

[Ed note: update - I just realized that half of the dress links are no longer working because the slideshow shifted around or something. However, everything that directs to yahoo tv will be somewhere in that slideshow.]

Dresses - the good:
Jane Lynch, Lea Michele (although hon - that pose looks uncomfortable), Christina Hendricks, Tina Fey, Dianna Agorn, Jayma Mays (I think that is my favorite gown of the night), Kyra Sedgwick, Susan Sarandon, Besty Brandt (runner up), Heather Morris, Jennifer Carpenter, Maura Tierney.

The middling: Clare Danes looked fabulous, but her dress didn't quite move with her. It ended up looking like the martian girl in Mars Attacks. (And what was with how she said David Strathairn?) Also Emily Blunt, Glenn Close (scroll down) and Toni Collette. Rutina Wesley - great dress, bad hair. Jane Krakowski - without that hip ruffle, I would love it.

The bad: Julia Ormond, Emily Deschanel, Padma Lakshmi, Kristin Wiig, Anna Paquin, Heidi Klum, Kim Kardashian, Lauren Graham, Rita Wilson and Keri Russell. Naya Rivera and Mindy Kaling both came in from an 80s prom. Also - Rose Byrne's hair (bride of Frankenstein in the house!), and Julie Benz's makeup - I couldn't tell it was her in most pictures (gorgeous dress, though).

The godawful: January Jones.

[ETA: the charmingly debonair: Alan Cumming]

Thoughts on the show:

The opening number was fantastic. I loved it. Yay for having a host who comes from a skit background.

I realized part way through the show that every time Parenthood commercials came on, I kept confusing Peter Krause for Garret Dillahunt.

I thought Juliana Marguiles had a tattoo? Yup - she did, at least (scroll way down)

YEAH AARON PAUL!!! Tell me this isn't the best photo of the night. It was the one category I was really rooting for (other than best drama - *SNIFF*). Yay!

As for most of the wins...

Oh Community. Your sad product placement commercials keep reminding me of how overlooked you are.

Ricky Gervais - hilarious.

On that note - waiters? Don't offer beer to those who have been through rehab (like Matthew Perry).

I bet if Patrick Stewart had won, he wouldn't have babbled on about teachers incoherently. Thanks, David Strathairn.

Jewel? Wha.... oh. oh you sing really pretty.

Jimmy Fallon as Elton John/ Boys II Men/ Billie Joe Armstrong. So hilarious.

Clearly they thought Christina Hendricks would win, since Nathan Fillion was up there presenting for supporting actress in a drama.

Oh Michael Sheen. Someone needs to make a special Tony Blair award for you.

EMMYS!

I love the emmys for many reasons, most important of which are:
1 - they come at a point in the year when I'm missing awards shows.
And 2 - while I enjoy a lot of tv (read: watch too much), I don't feel any personal pride at stake for guessing the winners correctly, so I'm free to cheer on my dark horse candidates.

Let's take a gander at the nominees, shall we?

COMEDY SERIES
"Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"Glee"
"Modern Family"
"Nurse Jackie"
"The Office"
"30 Rock"

Glee got the most nominations, but Modern Family seems to be where the smart money is. However, the couple of episodes I've seen have really not been funny. I'll root for Glee, the Office, or 30 Rock (I think only Glee has a chance of winning), and quietly mourn the overlooked Community and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

COMEDY ACTOR
Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory")
Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm")
Matthew Morrison ("Glee")
Tony Shalhoub ("Monk")
Steve Carell ("The Office")
Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock")

I haven't seen the Big Bang Theory, but from what I hear, Jim Parsons is fab and most likely to win. Fine by me - I think Alec Baldwin has been way over-recognized for 30 Rock and, really?, Joel McHale was the funniest man on a sitcom last year.

COMEDY ACTRESS
Lea Michele ("Glee")
Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("The New Adventures of Old Christine")
Edie Falco ("Nurse Jackie")
Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation")
Tina Fey ("30 Rock")
Toni Collette ("United States of Tara")

I honestly want Lea Michele to win this for that stunning rendition of Don't Rain on My Parade, which was one of the best moments of television in the last year. Otherwise, I'm fine with any of them. It should have been Portia De Rossi on Better Off Ted.

SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Chris Colfer ("Glee")
Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother")
Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Modern Family")
Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family")
Ty Burrell ("Modern Family")
Jon Cryer ("Two and a Half Men")

Please let the Modern Family guys split the votes and give Neil Patrick Harris his way-overlong due. However, it is criminal that Charlie Day was snubbed in this category.

SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Jane Lynch ("Glee")
Julie Bowen ("Modern Family")
Sofia Vergara ("Modern Family")
Kristen Wiig ("Saturday Night Live")
Jane Krakowski ("30 Rock")
Holland Taylor ("Two and a Half Men")

It's Jane Lynch.

DRAMA SERIES
"Breaking Bad"
"Dexter"
"The Good Wife"
"Lost"
"Mad Men"
"True Blood"

God - PLEASE not Mad Men. I'd be okay with Lost, Breaking Bad, Dexter, or True Blood. I'm really rooting for Lost. The finale was brilliant.

DRAMA ACTOR
Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad")
Michael C. Hall ("Dexter")
Kyle Chandler ("Friday Night Lights")
Hugh Laurie ("House")
Matthew Fox ("Lost")
Jon Hamm ("Mad Men")

As glad as I am to see Matthew Fox recognized (the finale was my favorite Jack episode ever - words I never thought I'd say), he doesn't have a hope in hell. If Hugh Laurie were ever going to win it, it would be for the fantastic rehab two parter. Otherwise, Bryan Cranston and Michael C. Hall are both continually brilliant. And I'm a little sad Timothy Olyphant was overlooked. But I guess Kyle Chandler needed at least one nom.

DRAMA ACTRESS
Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer")
Glenn Close ("Damages")
Connie Britton ("Friday Night Lights")
Julianna Margulies ("The Good Wife")
Mariska Hargitay ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit")
January Jones ("Mad Men")

Apparently Julianna Margulies is going to win, and I don't care.

SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad")
Martin Short ("Damages")
Terry O'Quinn ("Lost")
Michael Emerson ("Lost")
John Slattery ("Mad Men")
Andre Braugher ("Men of a Certain Age")

Aaron Paul. Hands down. First off - his work hasn't been recognized the way Bryan Cranston's has. And secondly - as brilliant as Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson both are, and really - they've been two of my favorites for the last few years - they've each won one, and I kind of don't want one to edge out the other. Is that weird?

Also - I really think Ryan Kwanten deserved a nomination for Season 2 of True Blood. He is SO COMMITTED to that character, and if he were any less good Jason would come off as terrible and false. I'm also a little sorry Nestor Carbonell didn't get in, but let's face it - LOST was spoiled for great supporting performances.

SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Sharon Gless ("Burn Notice")
Rose Byrne ("Damages")
Archie Panjabi ("The Good Wife")
Christine Baranski ("The Good Wife")
Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men")
Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men")

Awww - I'd really like Sharon Gless to win, but I don't think she will. I'll vote for Christina Hendricks, simply because she was on Firefly and she's pretty.

TV MOVIES
"Endgame"
"Georgia O'Keeffe"
"Moonshot"
"The Special Relationship"
"Temple Grandin"
"You Don't Know Jack"

Haven't seen a single one of these. I really wanted to see the Special Relationship though. When was that on? I didn't hear anything about it.

MINISERIES
"The Pacific"
"Return to Cranford"

Are there really only two nominees?

LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Maggie Smith ("Capturing Mary")
Joan Allen ("Georgia O'Keeffe")
Judi Dench ("Return to Cranford")
Hope Davis ("The Special Relationship")
Claire Danes ("Temple Grandin")

I think this is Claire Danes' to lose. Claire Danes - WHY ARE YOU DOING EYELASH COMMERCIALS?!?

LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Jeff Bridges ("A Dog Year")
Ian McKellen ("The Prisoner")
Michael Sheen ("The Special Relationship")
Dennis Quaid ("The Special Relationship")
Al Pacino ("You Don't Know Jack")

Does Al Pacino only do good work on tv anymore? I'm voting for Michael Sheen because his Tony Blair was stupidly overlooked during The Queen's run.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Kathy Bates ("Alice")
Julia Ormond ("Temple Grandin")
Catherine O'Hara ("Temple Grandin")
Brenda Vaccaro ("You Don't Know Jack")
Susan Sarandon ("You Don't Know Jack")

I didn't know Susan Sarandon or Catherine O'Hara were in these. I'm going to vote for Kathy Bates though, because I love that her Queen of Hearts (which I have yet to see) is in with a bunch of Very Serious Contenders.

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Michael Gambon ("Emma")
Patrick Stewart ("Hamlet")
Jonathan Pryce ("Return To Cranford")
David Strathairn ("Temple Grandin")
John Goodman ("You Don't Know Jack")

Wow - what a great group of guys. Patrick Stewart!!! (If only because I'm sad Hamlet didn't get more recognition over here).

VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
"The Colbert Report"
"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart"
"Real Time With Bill Maher"
"Saturday Night Live"
"The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien"

I won't lie - I'd really like the Tonight Show to win as a big screw you to NBC's mismanagement. But the Daily Show is really the best thing around.

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
"The Amazing Race"
"American Idol"
"Dancing With the Stars"
"Project Runway"
"Top Chef"

Oh, I couldn't care less.

Doctor Who

I am totally digging on Doctor Who this season. I think Matt Smith is fabulous. And while I think the first few episodes were a little uneven and the show struggled to find its feet, overall the season has been a lot of fun.

The same goes for last week's episode, the Pandorica Opens. I thought it was really fun. Even though the plot was apparent 30 seconds in. And at one point, I may have started yelling at the t.v. loud enough to disturb my housemates.

"It's the most powerful weapon in the universe..."

"It's the Doctor."

"... the most advanced military weapon ever created..."

"It's you."

"... the most cunning, most feared thing in all the universe..."

"OH MY GOD WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOURSELF?!?"

Long time no blog

Lots of catching up on life and personal work. Nothing much movie related at the moment, although I am seeing Iron Man 2 tomorrow, and hopefully Hausu on Sunday. We'll see if everything else gets done.

I am, however, 40th in my box office game (out of 3,216 players) and I'm entering a summer-wide contest for the top 5 earners this year. Here are my picks (May 7th - Labor Day):
1. Iron Man 2 - $370 million
2. Toy Story 3 - $359 million
3. Twilight: Eclipse - $316 million
4. Shrek 4 - $292 million
5. Inception - $243 million

So now I can check back in 4 months and see if I was remotely accurate. (I'm hoping for Robin Hood to be the big flop of the summer. Mwa ha ha.)

Also, Mick LaSalle has a particularly great column out today. (I tend to hate his reviews, but I love his column).

In other, non-movie news, I finished Being Human season 2, which I dragged out for as long as possible. *sigh* Only 8 episodes! And not another new one for like 8 months. Argh. I need a True Blood fix to help get me through.

Vanfire of the Bonities

*sigh* My mad box office skills are deteriorating. 253rd this week, for a total of 74 overall. I'll basically need to win next week to crack the top 50. But then the game restarts after 10 weeks for the second half of summer.

Checked out the Scooper bowl at government center. My belly is full of ice cream (Breyer's strawberry and Garelick/Gifford's Maine wild blueberry were the best).

My brother just wandered in with; "Past the rock that looks like a long neck and the mountains that burn." My family is so weird.

Here's a backlog of links. I still have more to look through, but it'll have to do for now.

Whoa. What happened to Cinematical?

Lostesness first: LOST: 4 Open questions, The pre-finale Doc Jensen, Season 4's best 15 moments

And tv: emmy nom wishlist, Castmates who click I'll second the Doctor and Rose, House and Wilon and Ben and Locke. Little Dorritt to be made into a 15 part miniseries. Supposedly the cast is brilliant. I recognize only Matthew Macfayden and Freema from Doctor Who.

And my favorite lolcat in a long time

Page to Screen: Prisoner of Azkaban

Very positive Hulk reviews pouring in. I had to read that sentence twice. Maybe Edward Norton's involvement actually did make a huge difference?

Should the blockbuster season be longer? And more on the subject

The Changeling gets a new release date

A rewrite on Jake Gyllenhaal's moon movie
Miracle at St. Anna poster
Hollywood is burning

New Spirit poster I like this one better than the last one, which was very X2 (fine, and all, but it's a good idea to try something different. Although is this a bit Rosario Dawson in Sin City?)

Liam Neeson in film about the Troubles

13 impressive movie dresses Oh, Atonement dress. You are so pretty.

Jaime Kennedy As someone who did not see Scream 3.... WHAT NOW???

New Dutchess trailer I think the Diana bit is ridiculously stupid, but I love all the new plot details. I can't wait for this one.

Vote Dent

Ask Dr. Clive I wrote in. We'll see if it makes it on.

A moment of silence, please.

I am not Paul Avery. I need a polar bear.

I love, love, love this graphic from the NYTimes. It went down for a little and now it's back. Hell yeah for people under 30 with graduate educations!! (You can highlight your state to follow it as it moves).

TV: Are you a binge viewer? I'm going to have to go with absolutely I'm a binge viewer on this one. I watched 5 seasons of Oz in about a month. Season 1 of Lost in one very intense week.

15 scary shows Some X-Files were just so good. I saw one on tv the other day - I forgot how much I loved some of the early seasons. And I've always wanted to see Carnivale.

All things Shirley: The trouble I'm in - Gavin Rossdale ft. Shirley (loooove the vocals), Shirley joining the Sarah Connor Chronicles well hell - now I have to watch and catch up. But yay Shirley!! And if you have yet to sign the petition: FREE SHIRLEY MANSON!

The primaries vs. LOST Speaking of LOST, I finally watched the season finale, thus begining the long 8? 9? month wait till next season. Loved Desmond (I didn't think his scene would be till next season, so it caught me totally off guard. My poor brother was in the room as I started bawling. Shut up.) Except now I'm very very very worried; there'll still be a Desmond ep. next year, right? RIGHT? Saw the final reveal coming, loved Ben (emmy now please?), thought Michael was highly anticlimactic, and loved Sawyer. Oh, and Farraday?? Also... Finale recap, your chance to join the dharma initiative, finale may have been series best, and again: mythbuster reviews finale. I don't think anything can top last year's, but this came close. And is there someplace where the 2 alternate fake-out endings can be seen? Or will that be a DVD extra? Ah.... gotcha. (SPOILER SWEEP: Either of those other two would have been more interesting. Locke seemed pretty obvious to me. WHo else would care so much about getting people back to the island in a fate-y kind of way? Sawyer is baffling - yeah the writers wouldn't have really been able to do much with it. Desmond, I could actually kind of see. He's got connections, he could run around under an assumed name. Plus then I would be ensured of more of him in the next two years.)

Brigitte Bardot gets fifth racism conviction Wait, what?

When seafood goes bad

Top 10 secret celeb scientologists Oh Giovanni Ribisi, really?

Great advice for making movies

From Page to Screen: The Road

Independent films get SAG waivers

Emmy Rossum joins interesting cast of Dare

Russell Crowe as Joe Wilson in Doug Liman's Plame film

Brian DePalma helming Boston Stranglers film Pish. It can't be as good as Zodiac.

Guy Ritchie directing Sherlocke Holmes This smacks of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. To be based on a comic by someone not as talented as Alan Moore. And possible script.

The Dark Knight's Score, New dark knight pics God, he's handsome. Very American Psycho here.

Valkyrie reshoots I can't stand Tom Cruise, but for Eddie Izzard's sake (particularly given the Riches has yet to get a reorder) I hope this film does well. Peter Bart's recommendation is good, and the Assassination of Jesse James was pushed back an entire year and it was one of the year's best (hell, of either year, really). So changing dates doesn't necessarily mean bad news.

Jon Favreau on Iron Man 2

Gosling and Gillespie reteam for uplifting AIDS movie Just give the boy the Oscar already.