Wipeout!

I have never laughed so hard!  Wipeout is the summer game show hit for me.  I was checking out the full length videos on ABC.com Full Episode Player and decided to give it a watch. Below is a taste of some of the great spills, but I just keep enjoying the pain they put these people through!

Wall·E

Directed Andrew Stanton

Written by Andrew Stanton and Jim Capobianco

Big business kills the globe, obesity, mass forms of instant communication, and zero human interaction.  Sounds like a bleak future, right?  But fear not, after 700 years there is still someone who cares about this planet and who wants nothing more than to be loved.  Wall·E.  This "Hello Dolly" fan has a nice little life for himself here on earth.  He gets up, charges his battery from the sun and goes to work, recycling, but not before feeding his pet cockroach a twinkie.  He is the last of his kind that is trying to clean up this mess left here by the humans.  But in steps EVA.  Sleek little robot who comes to earth to find if anything is or can grow in the barren wasteland of what looks like Manhattan.  As our "silent movie esqu" love story starts to unfold, our little antagonist starts to believe he will finally get his movie musical ending.  So he gives EVA what any love struck guy would give a beautiful girl, gifts.  One of them being a plant, the one thing she was looking for.  This causes her to shut down leaving Wall·E alone once more.  

This is where the movie really grabs you and lets you know how caring and sweet Wall·E truly is.  He doesn't know what happened to EVA and stays by her side until the "mother ship" comes back to take her to the surviving humans, who are all uber obese and have zero contact with one another.  And our hero follows her straight there.  He has many bumps along the way and you see that everyone that he "bumps" into is somehow changed by him.  As if they woke up for the first time, humans and robots alike.  Overall this is a great tale about love, compassion, and overall, taking the time to care for this earth and all things big and small placed on it.  It is never to late to start to care for something and plan to make change happen. The devices and mode of storytelling are so simple and so powerful, that the use of dialogue is almost non existent, making it a great movie for all ages.  Over all I give this movie the Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow!

Who is the Mole?

Mark!  Come on this Steve Carell wannabe has to be the mole! That is my guess and I am standing by it.

Hancock

Directed by Peter Berg

Written by Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan

Does Will Smith own the 4th of July weekend? I'm not sure, but I seem to spend each 4th with him. This year was no different when I when to see his latest flick, Hancock.  It's about an unlikely superhero who is hated by the masses, drunk all the time and has most of his embarrassing moment posted on YouTube. The movie starts off with a high speed car chase, with bullets flying and "where is our hero?"  Asleep on a bench, passed out and next to him is a liter of Gentleman Jack.  A cute little kid wakes him up to let him know he is needed, and reluctantly he flies off to save the day.  Just how bad of a superhero is he?  Well, he take us on a ride of what it would be like to fly drunk; he almost hits a plane and flies into a gaggle of birds (it's not like getting a fly stuck in your teeth). Of course he ends the car chase (mainly because they shot the bottle of Gentleman Jack), but no one is happy about it. Apparently every time Hancock helps out he causes millions of dollars in damage.  So in steps the real superhero Jason Bateman (the other Teen Wolf). He shows us that the modern day hero is a super PR agent who helps him shake off his hated image.  How does he do this you ask?  Sends him to jail!  I know Batman would have never agreed to go.  And this is where my description of the movie has to end (without giving away the true meat and potatoes of this flick).  I will say that Charlize Theron steals the movie not only with her beauty, but also in her fierce choices.  An honorable mention  has to go to the writers because the villain in this movie is also not what you would expect. There is the fated power struggle, but rather within our hero himself (Hamlet he is not).  I am hoping that there will be a sequel to this film, like Jumper it left the audience with more questions than when the picture started.  You really do come to care about these people, which is all any writer or director can wish to achieve.  Over all I give it a ROYG out of ROYGBV. So sneak out of the summer sun and check it out!

Katee and Joshua; Hometown Glory

Last night on So You Think You Can Dance, Katee and Joshua got it right once again with a piece by Mia Michaels.  This couple hit the ground running when they performed No Air the first week. Their Broadway routine, All for the Best, was not my favorite piece of theirs, but they still totally redeemed themselves when they showed how sexy they can dance with the samba.  But just watch below how Katee steals this performance with her control of her body, her perfect level of projection and emotion.  You can feel and see the struggle the character she is performing faces. For me this dance is all in the shoulders where you can feel the pain, frustration and uncertainty everything Mia wanted you to feel and Katee got it right.  Joshua just missed the mark in this dance with tension in his shoulders. That being said he did everything else that a male dancer should do.  He was not only there for his partner for all the lifts, he made them seem effortless. He did not pull any focus from Katee to let her stand out as the feature performer in this dance.  A great dancer need to know when it is about them, and when it is about the person next to them.  The costuming definitely helped Katee stand out, she was exposed, whereas Joshua was covered from the top of his head, to his feet.  Just watch the beauty that these two created last night and I hope that you were as moved as I was. 

New Music

To kick off my new blog since the separation of The Urban Naturalist (you will be missed), I am going to start off easy.  I want to talk about a new album that I just bought; Katy Perry's One of the Boys.  Now this album is everything that a pop listener will LOVE!!  It has great easy beats with fun topical lyrics.  The play of gender roles through out the record keeps me laughing from the way she views life and relationships.  The picture above is from one song called "U R SO Gay", about her metrosexual ex-boyfriend and it is just a gem!  This will make any subway ride go much faster and way more enjoyable.  So just remember if you see someone bopping with their headphones on, on your next commute, they might just be enjoying her as well.