Fame is a cross between American Idol and a promising television pilot

Fame «««
PG, 107m., 2009

Cast & Credits: Anna Maria Perez de Tagle (Joy), Kristy Flores (Rosie Martinez), Asher Book (Marco), Paul Iacono (Neil Bacynsky), Paul McGill (Kevin Barrett), Naturi Naughton (Denise Dupree), Debbie Allen (Principal Angela Simms), Charles S. Dutton (Mr. James Dowd), Kelsey Grammer (Mr. Martin Cranston), Bebe Neuwirth (Ms. Lynn Kraft), Megan Mullally (Ms. Fran Rowan), Kherington Payne (Alice Ellerton), Collins Pennie (Malik Washburn), Walter Perez (Victor Tavares), Cody Longo (Andy Matthews), Kay Panabaker (Jenny Garrison). Screeenplay by Allison Burnett. Directed by Kevin Tancheroen.



This remake of the 1980 original directed by Alan Parker is a cross between American Idol and a promising pilot for a new drama/musical series based on the 80’s television show Parker’s film inspired bearing the same name.

Watching perspective students audition for various instructors in the film’s opening moments in hopes they will be accepted into New York’s School of Performing Arts is like watching supposedly talented singers perform in hopes of avoiding a critical drubbing from Simon Cowell or Paula Abdul.

The difference in Fame is the instructors here aren’t nearly as brutal, though they are still truthful. The most hurtful criticism Kevin (Paul McGill) receives from dance instructor Ms. Kraft (Bebe Neuwirth) is a warning if he doesn’t do better in his craft, he may find himself on a plane headed back to his home state of Iowa.

Like the judges on American Idol, we meet a few other helpful faculty instructors who, every time we see them on screen, are always giving students helpful advice, if not needed criticism. Mr. Dowd, (Charles S. Dutton), the theater arts teacher tells one freshman named Jenny (Kay Panabaker) how she needs to learn to be spontaneous. On the other hand, Ms. Rowan (Megan Mullally), the singing instructor tells Jenny how well she did reciting the lines of Someone to Watch Over Me. Trouble is Rowan just didn’t feel any emotion coming from her. She was saying the words but not playing the music.

The one teacher though who doesn’t waste time getting his points across though is the music instructor Mr. Cranston (Kelsey Grammer).

“You have talent,” he tells one undisciplined student. “Now let’s see what we can do with it.”

Grammer says very little in the few scenes he is in. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of lines and pages of dialogue he was given to say is about as much as Arnold Schwarzenegger said The Terminator (1984), which was 16 lines according to movie trivia on IMDB.com.

Grammer has a unique gift of reciting dialogue that makes an emotional impact here though, even if a lot of them are just throwaway lines.

Of course, the main focus in Fame is not on the instructors but the on students’ struggles to make a name for themselves and their often times troubled relationships. Some of the performances, as well as a few scenes, are repeated caricatures from Parker’s original. Kevin, for example, almost throws himself in front of a subway train after being told he won’t make it in the world of ballet just like in the original. By comparison, the scene where Jenny thinks she is auditioning for a known New York actor where the situation is nothing more than a ploy to get her into bed is similar to a scene in the Parker film where a female student is also fooled into thinking she is auditioning for a role but is instead forced to strip for the camera.

Others encounter success like Denise (Naturi Naughton) whose beautiful singing voice could make her their next Beyonce, and the talented dancer (Kherington Payne) who gets picked to go on tour with a dance group and has no qualms about dropping out of school as a result.

You will get no argument from me that these characters and their situations reek of familiar clichés, especially the scenes where various parents question their kid’s decisions or don’t approve of them messing up their studies. The soundtrack is forgettable and unlike the original, you won’t be seeing any of the songs on the list of contenders for Best Musical Score or Best Original Song at next year’s Oscars.

Still, the movie grew on me and I liked the performances by the young cast as much as I enjoyed the brief scenes of student interaction between Dutton, Grammer, Mullally, and Neuwirth.

I don’t watch American Idol but as a result of this remake, I understand why the reality talent show is so popular with fans. I have to wonder in today’s world of entertainment, if there really is a need for a performing arts school. Why should there be? Want-to-be musicians and singers can just take their chances now at being the next Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood by simply performing in front of three judges who, like the instructors in Fame, can decide if they have talent based on what they’ve just seen and heard.

©9/25/09

Like an annoying song you cannot stand, Jennifer's Body plays one lousy tune

Jennifer’s Body ««
R, 102m., 2009

Cast & Credits: Megan Fox (Jennifer Check), Amanda Seyfried (Needy Lesnicky), Johnny Simmons (Chip), Adam Brody (Nikolai Wolf), Sal Cortez (Chas), Ryan Levine (Mick), Juan Riedinger (Dirk), J.K. Simmons (Mr. Wroblewski), Amy Sedaris (Needy’s Mom), Cynthia Stevenson (Chip’s Mom). Screenplay by Diablo Cody. Directed by Karyn Kusama.

I equate watching Jennifer’s Body to that of being subjected to a popular song that makes me cringe every time I hear it. The annoying tune I couldn’t get out of my head for over 90 minutes was Taylor Swift’s You Belong To Me (2008).

By comparison, at one moment early on during the film, Needy (Amanda Seyfried) shares the same negative feelings about a popular song a satanic band called Low Shoulder, wrote in honor of several students killed in a blaze at a bar that both she and her “best friend forever” gal pal Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) were at.

The reason why I was so bothered by the Swift song was because the lyrics practically fit the description of the two females leads, played by Fox and Seyfried. I have to wonder if the Oscar winning screenwriter of Juno (2007), Diablo Cody, didn’t write the screenplay using the lyrics as a means of creating the characters.

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers

She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers

Dreaming bout the day when you'll wake up and find

That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

Even if Swift’s lyrics don’t describe Fox and Seyfried’s characters, they certainly describe the film’s opening moment at a high school pep rally. We see Needy sitting on the bleachers watching Jennifer, the head cheerleader perform on the gym floor.

There goes those lyrics again…"She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.”

Is it a coincidence that near the middle of the film after the two engage in some lesbian love making when Jennifer tells Needy what happened to her that night she was abducted by the satanic rock band, I started thinking about these lyrics as well?

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you

Been here all along so why can't you see?

You belong with me

The Swift song wasn’t the only thing I couldn’t get out of my head. I started asking myself what kind of movie is Jennifer’s Body supposed to be. Who is its intended audience? I eventually came to the conclusion that this is a movie that doesn’t know what it wants to be about. Perhaps the story just wants to be different things to different people. On one level, I suppose it can be considered a dark comedy in which Jennifer, after being abducted by the satanic band members and is sacrificed as a virgin, though it’s obvious given her sexual prowess that she is not, becomes a voracious man eater, literally.

Maybe the story is a warning to those who when choosing to sacrifice female virgins to Satan, make sure they actually ARE virgins. Otherwise, the dead will come back as Jennifer does disguised as a demon you can’t kill.

Perhaps the film is about what happens when young female high school teens don’t get sex. They become grouchy like as though they just had their period. At one point, Jennifer fails to exhibit that supposed happy glow one gets after they’ve just had sex.

One thing I can definitely say this movie is not is it is in no way a film about being accepted by one’s peers in high school. I came to the conclusion the studio had no idea who the film’s intended audience was so they just cast Megan Fox in the title role and added the advertisement “From the academy award winning writer of Juno” as a means to bring in audiences opening weekend. (The film failed to make it in the top three when it debuted Sept. 18 opening instead at number five).

I can also say the ones who will embrace Jennifer’s Body are those infatuated with Megan Fox, who can’t get enough of seeing her in the two Transformers films and plastered on the front pages of movie magazines, Rolling Stone and such girlie men’s publications as Maxim and FHM (Europe’s For Him Magazine). The film’s only selling point, ok, two selling points, and I am not giving away anything here, is other than that infamous lesbian make out scene is the shot of Fox swimming naked in a pond. And no dear reader, I was not aroused by neither of these scenes. I won’t be surprised, though, if months from now I see an announcement on thedigitalbits.com that an unrated version of this movie will be released showing perhaps more of those very scenes.

The best thing I can say about Jennifer’s Body is at least it wasn’t predictable and like her Oscar winning screenplay, Juno, the film boasts a couple memorable witty lines like “Jennifer’s evil. No I mean she’s actually evil. Not high school evil.” The script, however, is far from being Oscar worthy.

Jennifer’s Body is instead nothing more than that annoying Taylor Swift song I can’t get out of my head, nor can I seem to escape from.

The moment I turned on the car radio the other day, I heard:

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers

She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers

This song follows me everywhere. There is just no escaping it.

©9/23/09

Despite outburst, Joe Wilson was right

Like most, if not all Americans, I found South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson's “You lie” comment during President Obama's Sept. 9 address to be rude and disrespectful. It doesn't matter whether you agree with the president or not.

I felt that way, AT FIRST, that is. I think Wilson’s comment is another reason why the Republican party is not in power right now and the Democrats control not just the presidency but all of Congress.

Then something happened less than 24 hours later after the “shout heard round the country” was said live on television.

House Republican Leader John Boehner came to Wilson’s defense on "substance" in an article on www.politico.com while still condemning the South Carolina Republican congressman’s outburst. Boehner offered reporters proof from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that illegal immigrants would receive health care benefits under the Democrats’ reform bill.

The article states, “On the one hand, the report says the bill 'reiterates current law that unauthorized aliens are not eligible for full-benefit Medicaid coverage'.” The article, however, quoted from the CRS report saying also that some undocumented immigrants “would be eligible for emergency Medicaid” and that some families of illegal immigrants would qualify for subsidies if other members of the household are eligible for those benefits.

So Wilson was right, on “substance” that is, even if his outburst was condemned by congressional members of both parties. It’s one thing if the guy was dead wrong but he wasn’t. Wilson, who told Fox News Sept. 13, that he was not going to apologize again for his inappropriate comment, was speaking what some Americans wished they could say is wrong with President Obama’s health care plan.

“The American people are fed up with the political games in Washington, and I refuse to participate in an effort to divert our attention away from the task at hand of reforming health insurance and creating new jobs,” Wilson said.

The backlash Wilson is getting demonstrates yet another example of how, when a Republican says something against a Democrat, the liberal drive-by media go out for blood but when a Democrat steps out of line, the media says nothing. Things would be so much better if people would quit resorting to the good old double standard.



I didn’t hear anyone disapprove in 2005 when President Bush was booed by Democrats when he spoke before Congress about how Social Security would be bankrupt by 2042 unless steps were taken to prevent it.

Where was the protocol then?

I had to laugh when ABC news anchor Charles Gibson and commentator George Stephanopoulos had never heard such a comment come from the House floor during a president’s address until Wilson uttered those fateful two words.

Take a journey with me now down memory lane back to Feb. 2, 2005 after “Dubya’s” State of the Union address in which he said social security will be exhausted and bankrupt, according to quotes from mediamatters.org.

ABC host Ted Koppel said:

“When the president talked about the bankruptcy of Social Security, there were clearly some Democrats on the floor who thought that that was taking it too far. And they did something that, apparently, no one at this table has ever heard before. They booed.”

CBS White House correspondent John Roberts said:

“At a couple points in this address, it looked more like the British Parliament than the United States Congress. I've never heard the minority party shout at the president during the State-of-the-Union address.”

Former President Bush was merely speaking the truth back then on the issue of Social Security and the truth was something the Democrats didn’t want to hear. Social Security, which is a joke, is the Democratic Party’s baby.

So, too, is this health care bill.

Wilson spoke the truth and because of it, he is taking heat and could even lose his seat next year to Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, as a result in the 2010 congressional elections. I wouldn’t be surprised if some are saying Wilson is racist, which he is not, because he spoke out against a president who happens to be African-American.

Up until now, I had absolutely no respect and no faith in Congress. Their approval ratings are worse than the president’s.

In a Sept. 2, 2009 article on www.reuters.com, one in five Americans (21%) give Democrats in Congress positive ratings while 47% give them negative ones and one-third (32%) say they are not familiar enough to have an opinion.

The same goes for Republicans, according to Reuter's.

Even lower numbers (12%) give Republicans in Congress positive ratings and over half (52%) give them negative ones while 37% are not familiar with them.

The American people put these men and women in office to work for us. They are our voice. On Sept. 9, 2009, one person in Congress was working for us, and that was Joe Wilson.

So while the rest of you utter that infamous phrase said by a young kid to baseball player “Shoeless” Joe Jackson after he was banned from the game for his participation in the Black Sox Scandal during the 1919 World Series, “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” I have three words for Republican Congressman Joe Wilson.

“You go, Joe!”

He’s got my vote in 2010 and I don’t live in South Carolina.

©9/17/09

No to government run health care!

If I ever had a great reason to NOT support President Obama's health care reform plan, it is that I don't want our government dictating my, or anyone else's, medical lifestyle.

When are people going to get it that having too much government control doesn't work?

Haven't you been to the post office to see how poorly things are run there and how unhappy those overworked postal employees are? Have you ever met a happy postal service worker?

Where in the Declaration of Independence does it state that government is required to give health care to everyone or anyone?

The more I hear how people want a government-run health care system, the more I feel like saying those same words Han Solo said in Star Wars (1977) as the Millenium Falcon was being pulled in by the Empire's Death Star, which I might as well call President Obama and the Democratic Party.

"They're not going to get me without a fight," Solo says.

The Republicans and conservatives who are against the president's health plan might as well be like Jedi Master Ben Kenobi who says to Solo, "You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting."

And fighting, angry Americans are equally upset, as seen by what's been going on at various town hall meetings across the country the past two months with shouts of "You work for us," "Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!" and "Read the Bill!" against Democratic representatives.

I won't deny that the health care system needs some changes, whether or not you agree with the proposal.

One alternative that perhaps might keep health care costs from skyrocketing is for people to stop eating like pigs, change their diets and go out and exercise for a change. Sooner or later, the medical profession is going to have to call "obesity" a disease, given how fat people in this country are getting. This is a billion dollar business for pharmaceutical companies whose job is to create medications to treat symptoms, most of which would go away if people would change their eating habits.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee, when asked about the health care system at the 2007 GOP primary debate in Orlando, Florida, said the nation doesn't have a health care crisis.

"We have a health crisis," Huckabee said. "Eighty percent of the $2 trillion we spend on health care in this country is spent on chronic disease. If we don't change the health of this nation by focusing on prevention, we're never going to catch up with the costs no matter what plan we have."

Letting people decide for themselves who and how they want their health care is something Huckabee said he is for.

"The reality is it's a health crisis, and I would further say that one of the challenges we face is that a lot of the Democrats want to turn it over to the government, while the Republicans want to turn it over completely to the private insurance companies," Huckabee said. "I think the better idea is to turn it over to each individual consumer and let him or her make that choice. I trust me a lot more than I trust government or a lot more than I trust the insurance companies."

After President Obama's Sept. 9 speech to Congress, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, a doctor, said in his response for the Republican Party that replacing the family's current health care system with government-run health care is not the answer.

"In fact, it will make health care much more expensive," Boustany said. "That's not just my personal diagnosis as a doctor or a Republican."

Boustany outlined four areas that both parties can agree on.

"One, all individuals should have access to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions."

"Two, individuals, small businesses and other groups should be able to join together to get health insurance at lower prices, the same way large businesses and labor unions do."

"Three, we can provide assistance to those who still cannot access a doctor."

"And four, insurers should be able to offer incentives for wellness care and prevention."

Boustany said the possibility should exist to allow families and businesses to buy insurance across state lines.

"I and many other Republicans believe that that will provide real choice and competition to lower the cost of health insurance" he said. "Unfortunately, the president disagrees."

I can only think of two words when it come to the idea that this country could have a socialized health care system like Canada, France, or anywhere else where it's been clearly documented that government-run health care doesn't work.

They are the words uttered by Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz near the end of the Vietnam War epic, Apocalypse Now (1979): "The horror, the horror."

Anyone who thinks we can rely on the government for America's health care system should take a look at the post office, something President Obama recently said "is always having problems."


"People say, well, how can a private company compete against the government? If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? No, they are. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

As Huckabee said in his "Closing Remarks" on his Aug. 17 radio program, "Doesn't that seem like a good reason to NOT let government take over health care?"

©9/16/09

The great lengths a dog owner goes through to keep an ailing pet healthy

When it comes to man's best friend, I have always held the belief that dogs are the equivalent of human beings. I held this belief long before my dog, "Mad" Max, a 12-year-old Lhasa Apso, got sick with heart disease last October.

Some, if not most, parents probably love it when, after a hard day at work, they see their kids' greeting them at the door.

For me, I'd rather have a little dog like Max, or Mickey, the new brown-and-white Yorkie puppy I got back in June, waiting for me to walk through the front door after a lousy day at work.

The new Yorkie I got has the body of a little pig with a little tail and a face that reminds me of the gopher from the comedy, Caddyshack (1980). Not an hour goes by that I don't yell at him for his antics.

Since June, Mickey has chased down roaches, ripped apart family pictures, chewed up wooden bed posts and squeezed his fat little pig body out from the locked backyard gate. He is going to need a microchip installed so an APB can be put out on him if he ever gets lost.

Sitting in the lobby at the vet's office last October waiting for the vet to see Max, I saw an owner looking at some literature on "Pugs," which would make sense since he had a Pug by his side.

"This says Pugs are supposed to be 14 to 18 pounds," I heard him say to his dog. "Why are you five pounds overweight," he asked.

The Pug didn't answer. It just sat there staring at me the way that dog on NBC's Frazier used to stare at Kelsey Grammer's Dr. Crane.

Talk about the lengths one goes to keep an ailing pet healthy.

When Max started incessantly coughing up some liquid white phlegm that October night, I knew exactly what the disease was. I had two other dogs who lived to be 12 years old and both exhibited the same symptoms.

Like any child, or adult for that matter, who hates going to doctors, Max acted the same way. He sat there in the back seat quietly, not once coughing uncontrollably. It was obviously his way of telling me, "I'm all better now, see?"

As Max and I sat there at the emergency animal clinic at 1 a.m. alone waiting for someone to check him out, I started to wonder if maybe I could have gotten quicker service taking him to the emergency room at Parkland.

Vet hospitals act like they do in at a normal hospital. You sit there waiting to be seen by a doctor while the nurse prepares the paperwork, checking to see if you have doggie insurance. I don't. Then they ask me to sign the papers, giving the doctor authorization to check him out and I shell out $300 for x-rays and medication.

The results were exactly what I figured. Max had heart disease and suffered an enlarged heart that was blocking his airways, causing fluid to get backed up into his lungs, causing breathing difficulties.

From late October to mid-April, I had to give him heart medication every 12 hours in hopes the symptoms would go away. In December, I decided to have his teeth cleaned, as the vet suggested that his rotting teeth were contributing to his heart disease. Max had seven bad teeth pulled that day. I spent close to $1,000, if not more, on pet medications.

I barely had the key in the door in the early morning hours of April 16 when I heard Max at the door again, coughing uncontrollably. I tried giving him his heart pills but to no avail. He just spit them right out.

Like a human in the final stages of disease who has decided it's time to give up the fight, this was Max's way of telling me, "Look. It's time to cut our losses. You've been giving me crappy medication four months and I'm not getting better. It's time to go."

For a dog who for 12 years always put up a fight every time I picked him up, because he knew when that happened, it meant he was either getting a bath or going to the vet, Max did not put up a fight that last day when I took him to the vet, where the doctor said nothing more could be done. It was now up to me to put him down.

He was euthanized that morning. I didn't stick around for the final shot. I only stayed with him as the first sleep shot was given. Max was asleep within five minutes. He looked at me one final time, and then went off on the table to make himself comfortable.

Minutes later, when one of the nurses came in to take Max away for the final injection, she told me he would soon be at a place called "Rainbow Bridge."

I never heard of that place.

A few days after Max passed away, I got a memorial card from the vet's office explaining such a place with a picture on the front not of just dogs and cats, but squirrels, foxes, rabbits and virtually anything furry.

Inside was a poem called "Rainbow Bridge" by an anonymous author.

It said, "There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge, there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys with lush green grass. When a beloved pet dies, the pet goes to this place. There is always food and water, and warm Spring weather. Those old and frail animals are young again. Those who have been maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other."

"But there is one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on earth. So, each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up. The nose twitches, the ears are up, the eyes are staring, and this one suddenly runs from the group. You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her in your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again, and you once more look in the eyes of your trusting pet. Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together, never again to be separated."

I don't know if when I leave this mortal coil if the Almighty will let me through the Pearly Gates, considering the life I've led, but if I do, I guess I can take comfort that in addition to seeing loved ones who've gone before me, I'll be greeted by a number of furry little ones I owned throughout my lifetime.

Who says, "All dogs don't go to Heaven?"

©9/15/09