BB 11 episodes 5-7

Here are the links to this week's episode recaps. Watch the actual shows on cbs.com.

Episode 5 - July 19.
Episode 6 - July 21.
Episode 7 - July 23.

Ronnie nomiated Laura and Jeff for eviction this week. Since he found out about Laura's complaining about him (even though she was 100% dead on balls accurate), it was no surprise that she was nominated. Jeff is the pawn, even though he probably had no idea that he was going to be.

Jeff won the POV competition and took himself off of the block, forcing Ronnie to choose a replacement nominee.

Ronnie had been getting everyone together and letting them know that he was 99.9% sure he was going to nominate Russell as the replacement for Jeff. Most all of the other houseguests said that they'd go along with that and vote him out, which I think would be a smart idea. That's certainly what I thought he would do....

But ooooooooh no. Ronnie, proving to everyone in the house what a weasel he is, nominates Jordan. Jordan! Jordan!

Apparently he's had it in for Laura the whole time, because she could see through his crap and probably said so a bit too loudly.

So it's Laura vs. Jordan. That sucks becasue they are two of the houseguests that I like. If I had to guess though, I'd say that Laura will be sent packing. (Indeed she was, being voted out 8-1.)

The only problem now is that Ronnie isn't making any friends in the house. Any chance of repairing the relationship between himself and Jordan and Jeff is shot. He better hope that he or his brains clique win the HOH on Thursday (they did not) - otherwise he's a sure bet to get nominated. I hope he does get himself booted out of the house. It would serve him right.

Can't stand the guy.

Jessie won HOH again, so we'll see what remains of the brains and athletes alliance. Jessie is unpredictable, so it's hard to say who he might nominate tonight. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to nominate Chima and Ronnie - totally blowing up the alliance.

SNMR 6.28: "Summer School"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "Summer School" (1987, PG-13, 97 minutes), starring Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, Robin Thomas and Courteney Thorne-Smith> The film was directed by Carl Reiner.

PLOT SUMMARY: A high school gym teacher is forced to teach a summer school remedial English course to a bunch of underachievers at a California high school.

MY OPINION: "I'm Chainsaw."
"And I'm Dave."
(together) "We'll see you at the movies."

For me this is one of the most memorable lines of the film because it was one of the lines we frequently quoted in college. Even back then I was a big movie fanatic.

Which is why I find it hard to believe that this movie came out 22 years ago this week. This was, in my opinion, one of the most underrated comedies of the 1980's. I hadn't watched this movie in about fifteen years prior to watching it recently. I was amazed to find that the majority of the jokes in this movie still made me laugh. Veteran producer/director/actor Carl Reiner directed this movie and did an excellent job with a lot of unknown actors, buoyed by a few established actors (Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley) in the lead roles. At least one of the unknowns (Courtney Thorne-Smith) has gone on to a successful acting career (Melrose Place, According to Jim).

It's interesting that Harmon and Alley have had more successful careers in television than on the big screen. Of course, this film came out just as a still thin Kirstie Alley was beginning her successful stint on Cheers and Mark Harmon is still thriving on NCIS.

Yes, the movie is quite silly and rather dumb in the grand scheme of movie history but still a whole lot of fun.

*** out of *****

It's about time!

A long overdue honor, in my opinion:

Rice to have jersey retired by Red Sox

Associated Press - July 22, 2009

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Boston Red Sox are retiring Jim Rice's No. 14 jersey.

The team said Wednesday it will honor Rice in a ceremony at Fenway Park on Tuesday, two days after Rice is inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

It will be the seventh number retired by the Red Sox.

Rice, an eight-time All-Star, batted .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs in 2,089 games for the Red Sox from 1974 to 1989.

He was the American League MVP in 1978, when the Red Sox captain hit .315 with 46 homers and 139 RBIs. He had 406 total bases, still the only time an AL player had 400 total bases since Joe DiMaggio in 1937.

BB 11 episodes 2-4

Here are the links to the recaps for last week's Big Brother shows, found on cbs.com. You can also watch the actual episodes there, if ya like.

Episode 2 - Sunday, July 12.
Episode 3 - Tuesday, July 14.
Episode 4 - Thursday, July 16.

Lydia and Chima weer nominated for eviction. Russell won the POV competition and took Lydia off of the block. HOH Jessie nominated Braden as a replacement.

The vote was a 5-5 tie for who to evict. When it reached that point, I knew Braden was toast as Jessie had to break the tie. Chima lives for another week.

I don't like Chima - she's a whiner. Nor do I like Ronnie - he's a goober and a double crossing schemer. I can do with out Kevin, too. His harsh words to Braden in his good-bye video were totally unnecessary.

Lydia wouldn't be so bad except for those tattoos and pierced tongue are a major turn off. She really wasn't too nice to Braden in his good bye video either. In her case she was more justified as Braden had said some pretty mean things to her to set her off in the first place.

I like Jordan (love that sexy Southern accent!), Natalie and Laura. Jeff and Casey are cool. I didn't care for Jessie in BB10, though he's more likable this time around. I'm wary of Russell the (self proscribed) "love muscle". He's too full of himself.

Ronnie, the snake in the grass, won the HOH competition over Michelle, so that means that the brains clique - Ronnie, Michelle and Chima are automatically safe from eviction this week.

I have no clue who he'll nominate, since he's playing both sides.

SNMR 6.27: "Sunshine"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "Sunshine" (2007, R, 107 minutes), starring Cliff Curtis, Chipo Young, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans and Rose Byrne. The film was directed by Danny Boyle.

PLOT SUMMARY: The sun is dying. Earth's last, best and only hope for survival lies in the hands of seven astronauts whose mission is to deposit a Manhattan sized nuclear device into the sun at close range. When faced with a mission changing opportunity, what do they decide to do? How will it effect the outcome of the mission?

MY OPINION: After I signed this movie out of the library, I saw it in the store for $4 but decided not to buy it. I used to only buy movies if I had seen them previously and knew that I liked them and would want to see them again. Or in extreme cases if the cover art was too enticing. Lately neither of those options are considered because I figure, eh, it's only $4 or it's only $5. So I indulge. This time though I resisted the temptation and am ultimately glad that I did.

See, this is your typical disaster movie where you know from the start that everyone is going to die, you just don't know when or how. You also have an idea that the mission will succeed, but there's always a lingering of doubt in the back of your mind that it will fail.

Director Danny Boyle takes a cast of virtual unknown actors and does a pretty credible job keeping the action moving. If there was ever a question about Boyle's directorial skills, they were answered with the project he took on after this, which only won him a few prestigious Academy Awards.

The special effects in this movie are well done. However, despite Boyle's best efforts the storyline is contrived.

Not a bad movie, but not all that great, either.

** out of *****

Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

There are some deaths that rightly should rock the world. This is one of them.

Television news icon Walter Cronkite, 92, has died, according to CBS News.

For a generation, Walter Cronkite was the Evening News. As a youngster growing up, up until his final broadcast in 1981, my parents would always have CBS News on after dinner. Cronkite's steady monotone voice was all there was. This was long before most homes had two and three televisions in the house, before cable and the multitude of news outlets available 24/7, before the advent of the home computer and the internet, before the advent of video stores and movies on tape.

You don't earn the moniker "the most trusted man in America" for nothing.

Walter Cronkite is gone, his iconic status in American television history long since secure. He will be missed.

"And that's the way it is."

Choose wisely, Mr. Cooper.

When I was out and about yesterday meeting K to give her back V amd M for the week, one of the things I wanted to do was look at the magazines. Specifically, magazines like US Weekly, People, OK! - magazines that do a good job snooping into the lives of of our favorite famous Hollywood-athlete types. You know to see who is dating whom, who is splitting up and all of that kind of stuff. This week these magazines all have more cover stories relating to MJ's death and memorial service more than two weeks ago. But I'm not as interested in that story.

Aw, let's cut to the chase.

I wonder what Bradley Cooper is thinking...

First these magazines report that he and my fave Hollywood crush (co-stars in "He's Just Not That Into You") are dating. Then I read that he was seen on a couple of "dates" with Renee Zellweger. One mag reports that Cooper dumped Aniston in favor of Zellweger, whom he's now filming a movie with. Another reports that Cooper and Zellweger are just friends and that he's still dating Aniston. Yet another magazine reports that Aniston is pissed off about Cooper and Zellweger being seen together. And finally a fourth magazine reports that Coooper is not serious about dating either Aniston or Zellweger but just playing the field..

Come on Bradley, make up your mind!

Sometimes I wish celebrities would learn to stay out of the tabloid spotlight, even though it would mean I wouldn't be able to read about them. Those are the couples that seem to last in the Hollywood circles. Couples like Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Geena Davis and whomever the doctor is that she married, Johnny Depp and whomever he's ddating/married to, or - well you get the point.

At the same time I can understand (I think) the need to keep your name afloat in the Hollywood buzz. If you're being talked about, that seems to mean you'll have no shortage of scrpits to choose from and you'll stay working.

Still, is paparazzi publicity really the kind of publicity you want?


Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe, as a Hollywood outsider, I just don't get it.


Somehow, I don't think so.

=========

Yes, I do enjoy reading the tabloid magazines when I'm standing in line at the checkout counter at the stores I shop at.

Big Brother 11 episode one

Big Brother is back for it's 11^th go around.

The first episode aired this past Thursday. Episode two is tonight at 20:00 EDT.

The weekly schedule is Sundays at 20:00 EDT, Tuesdays at 21:00 EDT and Thursdays at 20:00 EDT.

I haven't made any decisions about who I'm going to root for yet - but so far I'm not impressed with any one of the 13 houseguests.

I'm going to attempt to do a recap post every Sunday during the season with links to summaries of each episode. All of the episodes should be available to watch on cbs.com one to two days aafter they air on television. Of course, you can always find updates online, on blogger and even twitter.

SNMR 6.26: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002, PG, 95 minutes), starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin and Joey Fatone. The film was directed by Joel Zwick.

PLOT SUMMARY: Toula is thirty and unmarried. Nothing wrong with that by most standards. But when you're a Greek woman, unmarried at 30 is considered a failure because Greek women are supposed to marry Greek men and have lots of Greek babies. Toula finally meets Ian Miller and falls in love with him. The problem is that he's definitely not Greek. How will Toula's family handle this? Will they accept the stranger into their family? Will Ian be able to deal with Toula's very large and loud family?

MY OPINION: This is a film that had a lot of hoopla surrounding it when it first came out seven years ago. I never bought into the hype and never watched it until recently. While this is a good film, I can't really understand all of the hype that was made about it, probably because my family is relatively small and spread out all over the country, so we don't regualrly know each other's business.

Nia Vardalos wrote the screenplay and it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003. She does an excellent job in the lead role. John Corbett is also very good as the man trying to fit in to an ethnic family that is large and extremely close knit. This is a film that expresse the importance of family and family values. It's also about accepting change when change comes along, even if it is not wanted or expected.

The story is very believable and has a nice pacing to it. You almost feel like part of the family.

*** out of *****

Which is better... or worse?

OPINION TIME: What do you think?

Which is better... or worse?

If you get so upset at work that you blow up at your boss and quit OR if you lose the ability to care about your job, gradually let your performance suffer so that eventually you get yourself fired?

SNMR 6.25: "Independence Day"

I try to be topically relevant whenever possible with my movie reviews, so I wanted to review a movie with a 4th of July theme. I could have chosen "Born on the Fourth of July," but wasn't in the mood to watch a Tom Cruise movie. Therefore, I've decided on the other obvious choice. Tonight's SNMR feature is "Independence Day" (1996, PG-13, 153 minutes), starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Geoff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Vivica A. Fox and James Rebhorn. The film was directed by Roland Emmerich.

PLOT SUMMARY: Mysterious signals are being received by the military and no one knows what to make of them. Before we realize what's happening, giant alien spaceships are hovering over every major world city. Using our satellites against us the aliens coordinate one giant attack and destroy all of our cities with massive laser weapons. Fortunately, the President gets out just before the White House is blown to smithereens. Can a ragtag group of people and what's left of our military defeat the aliens? Let's hope so.

MY OPINION: I remember not liking this movie the first and only time I watched it, thinking that it was rather corny and that there was no way in heck some lame weaponry we had could outgun the aliens' firepower. This time I thought the movie was better than I remembered it. Of course, I forgot the part about Area 51 in Nevada, where fortunately for us, we've had a bit of this same alien technology under wraps since the 1950's and have figured out somewhat how to use it.

The story is similar to many other alien invasion type movies and specifically reminded me of "The War of the Worlds" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still." The writing is okay and has some clever lines in the script, which adequately serves the purpose. The special effects are excellent, and this movie won the 1997 Oscar for Visual Effects.

I didn't recall such a good cast with lots of well known actors. Overall the performances were good, but not fantastic.

The movie has a run time of 153 minutes and I thought the movie dragged a bit in setting up the arrival of the aliens. All in all though, this is a decent movie.

*** out of *****

CCXXXIII

That's a pretty cool looking Roman numeral for 233 - the age of the United States today.

Happy 4^th of July, everyone!

Aphelion

Today is the Aphelion - the astronomical term for when the earth is the farthest distance from the sun that it can possibly get.

That's 94,505,009 miles, in case you're counting.

Karl Malden (1912-2009)

If you're gonna die, this is how you ought to do it. Live until you're in your late 90's and die of natural causes.

That's the way Karl Malden, 97, went out. Sad thing is his death didn't get nearly the attention Farrah's death did. Michael Jackson's been dead for a week + and he's still getting press.

I really never was familiar with the work of Karl Malden, except for seeing him in the second Poseidon Adventure movie that came out in 1979. Malden's biggest role was on television in the five year run of the "Streets of San Francisco," which he starred in along with some guy named Michael Douglas. This is a show I don't remember ever watching in syndication but seems worthy to check out if it's on DVD.