The Muppets

After a decade-plus absence from the big screen, those loveable Muppets triumphantly return in, you guessed it, The Muppets. And those Muppets are as self-aware as ever, taking their Hollywood and mainstream hiatus as a reason to rally the troops for a welcome comeback.

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: The Fighter

The first thing we see when The Fighter begins is Dicky Ecklund being filmed for a boxing documentary. He’s definitely seen better days. Drugs have destroyed his body and mind. He shows the classic signs of a drug addict. Not just someone addicted to one drug. This is a person addicted to every drug. Ecklund talks about his career in the ring and the fight of his life against Sugar Ray. He talks about living on the rough streets of the suburbs of Boston, how drugs have changed his life but one day he’ll be back in the ring. He even mentions about how much he loves his little brother, Micky Ward. Ward’s a boxer working in the New England boxing scene. He says he hopes Micky makes it bigger in boxing than he did.

The Fighter

The first thing we see when The Fighter begins is Dicky Ecklund being filmed for a boxing documentary. He’s definitely seen better days. Drugs have destroyed his body and mind. He shows the classic signs of a drug addict. Not just someone addicted to one drug. This is a person addicted to every drug. Ecklund talks about his career in the ring and the fight of his life against Sugar Ray. He talks about living on the rough streets of the suburbs of Boston, how drugs have changed his life but one day he’ll be back in the ring. He even mentions about how much he loves his little brother, Micky Ward. Ward’s a boxer working in the New England boxing scene. He says he hopes Micky makes it bigger in boxing than he did.

Actor Spotlight: Julie and Julia

In this delightful film based on the book, Julie and Julia, we follow the lives of two women: French-American culinary icon Julia Child (beautifully played by Meryl Streep), and Julia (played by Amy Adams), who is a young, married woman at a dead-end government job. The film goes back and forth between the two parallel lives of these two women who live during different times. We see how both Julie and Julia’s lives run parallel to each other with how they are bored and wanted to try something new after moving. Julia Child takes up a few hobbies while her husband works for the US government in Paris. She ends up taking a hobby cooking class, and wants to learn more than basics, and ends up graduating from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, and writes the first French cookbook in English. Julie Powell takes on the extraordinary task of cooking through Julia Child’s entire cookbook and documenting her results on her blog. Julie’s cooking challenge begins with an idea to make a chocolate cream pie. Julie’s marriage gets strained when the recipes get harder.

Devil’s DVD Disappointment: Leap Year

Leap Year is typical post-Oscar craze fare. And the truly sad part is that Oscar sweetheart Amy Adams is in this uninspired selection. She will no doubt come out unscathed, because everyone is allowed at least one bomb. Right?

Episode 8: Leap Year

This week Veer and Mike reveal Leap Year to be an affront to the Women’s Lib movement and discuss making good career decisions. 

iTunes Feed:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=343227972

RSS Feed:

http://pamp47.libsyn.com/rss

Leap Year

Leap Year is typical post-Oscar craze fare.   And the truly sad part is that Oscar sweetheart Amy Adams is in this uninspired selection.  She will no doubt come out unscathed, because everyone is allowed at least one bomb.  Right?

(300) Days of 2009: Our Oscar Picks So Far

The Oscars are upon us already! Just yesterday they announced the hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. To get prepared for the upcoming season, I asked each member of the staff (if they could find the time, which is difficult these days) to make a list of their 5 favorite films so far and two picks each for the other major categories (although they didn’t have to use all the spots). Here are the full lists for those who were able to participate:

Sunshine Cleaning DVD

Expectations were high for me going into watching Sunshine Cleaning.  After-all it is from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine, which I absolutely loved.  While director Christine Jeffs didn’t quite hit those expectations, she did deliver a real heart warming film.