'Meskada' Movie Review
Written by: Karen Benardello
Sometimes just simply watching everyday life can be the perfect inspiration for screenwriters and directors who want to perfectly reflect the conflicts of small-towns across America. As Josh Sternfeld, who wrote and directed the new crime-drama-thriller ‘Meskada,’ thought of the fights over territory, the class system and human rights across the country, he visited small towns throughout the U.S. to witness their everyday way of life. What came out of his journey was not only a showcase of these small towns’ way of life, but a plot filled with intrigue, suspense and murder.
‘Meskada’ follows detective Noah Condin (played by Nick Stahl), who works in the small, peaceful town of Hilliard. He’s assigned to a case involving the murder of the young son of Allison Connor (portrayed by Laura Benanti), an affluent woman who works on the Meskada County Board of Commissioners. Noah believes Allison’s son was murdered in the heat of the moment, as his killers only entered the Connor house to burglarize it. His killers didn’t realize he was there, and needed to get rid of any witness to the crime.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/09/meskada-movie-review/#ixzz17kcyLv9E
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Wil Wheaon/Aldis Hodge Leverage Interview
Read our interview with Leverage star Aldis Hodge and guest-star Wil Wheaton, who portray computer hackers Alec Hardison and Colin “Chaos” Mason, respectively. Wheaton returns to the show when it airs its special Christmas episode on Sunday, December 12. The series then airs its two-part season 3 finale the following Sunday, December 19. The two actors discuss, among other things, what it’s like to portray a “computer geek,” how Hardison and Chaos relate to each other and why Wheaton decided to return to the hit TNT drama.
Question (Q): Wil, in your 2009 book Just a Geek, Neil Gaiman wrote in your forewords, “As we all discover sooner or later you’re never just a geek.” So Aldis, how has your character Hardison evolved in Leverage to be more than just the geek?
Aldis Hodge (AH): Well he’s taken an interest in a much more substantial role than just being behind a computer. He’s learned from everybody else on the team coupled with the ambition to run his own team one day. He has taken of grifting and he’s learned a little bit about thieving but he’s more learning the mastermind part of it. He wants to do more for the cause of what we do as opposed to just being a player, you know what I mean? So he’s consistently growing watching everybody, learning their moves.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/06/wil-wheaton-aldis-hodge-leverage-interview/#ixzz17Rm5ts5u
Question (Q): Wil, in your 2009 book Just a Geek, Neil Gaiman wrote in your forewords, “As we all discover sooner or later you’re never just a geek.” So Aldis, how has your character Hardison evolved in Leverage to be more than just the geek?
Aldis Hodge (AH): Well he’s taken an interest in a much more substantial role than just being behind a computer. He’s learned from everybody else on the team coupled with the ambition to run his own team one day. He has taken of grifting and he’s learned a little bit about thieving but he’s more learning the mastermind part of it. He wants to do more for the cause of what we do as opposed to just being a player, you know what I mean? So he’s consistently growing watching everybody, learning their moves.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/06/wil-wheaton-aldis-hodge-leverage-interview/#ixzz17Rm5ts5u
Sunday, December 5, 2010
'Tron: Legacy' Overview
'Tron: Legacy" Overview
Written by: Karen Benardello
One of the most anticipated films of the year is the new Disney sci-fi sequel ‘Tron: Legacy,’ which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 17, just in time for awards season. ‘Tron: Legacy’ follows the original 1982 film, ‘Tron,’ which received largely positive reviews upon its initial theatrical release, in part for its surprising use of special effects. However, ‘Tron’ initially bombed at the box office, but has since garnered a cult following. It has also been turned into a successful franchise, with Disney releasing multiple ‘Tron’ video games and comic books. The studio is now even planning a television series.
Several ‘Tron: Legacy’ stars have given interviews about the film, discussing, among other things, the story’s message, the movie’s use of special effects and what it was like working with first time director Joseph Kosinski. Lead star Jeff Bridges, who returns as video game developer Kevin Flynn, is one of the actors who has spoken about the film. He admitted that he resisted returning to the role that made him well-known among the sci-fi world. Bridges said he was worried how Disney would pull the special effects off.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/04/tron-legacy-movie-overview/#ixzz17FenF6Gu
Written by: Karen Benardello
One of the most anticipated films of the year is the new Disney sci-fi sequel ‘Tron: Legacy,’ which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 17, just in time for awards season. ‘Tron: Legacy’ follows the original 1982 film, ‘Tron,’ which received largely positive reviews upon its initial theatrical release, in part for its surprising use of special effects. However, ‘Tron’ initially bombed at the box office, but has since garnered a cult following. It has also been turned into a successful franchise, with Disney releasing multiple ‘Tron’ video games and comic books. The studio is now even planning a television series.
Several ‘Tron: Legacy’ stars have given interviews about the film, discussing, among other things, the story’s message, the movie’s use of special effects and what it was like working with first time director Joseph Kosinski. Lead star Jeff Bridges, who returns as video game developer Kevin Flynn, is one of the actors who has spoken about the film. He admitted that he resisted returning to the role that made him well-known among the sci-fi world. Bridges said he was worried how Disney would pull the special effects off.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/04/tron-legacy-movie-overview/#ixzz17FenF6Gu
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The Warrior's Way Movie Review
'The Warrior's Way' Movie Review
Written by: Karen Benardello
The holiday season is the most important time in the film world, as it leads right up to the awards season starting in January. One movie being released this month that will surely be overlooked by the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, the first televised movie award show of 2011, is the martial arts, stunt-filled ‘The Warrior’s Way.’ Directed by Sngmoo Lee, the film, in typical action fashion, forgoes plot and character development. However, it’s meet with disastrous results.
The numerous trailers released for ‘The Warrior’s Way’ promise viewers a plot full of sword-fighting and special effects. However, the film, which follows the world’s greatest swordsman, Yang (played by South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun), as he refuses his latest mission, doesn’t live up to his high moral standards.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/03/the-warriors-way-movie-review/#ixzz17AsT3ZO0
Written by: Karen Benardello
The holiday season is the most important time in the film world, as it leads right up to the awards season starting in January. One movie being released this month that will surely be overlooked by the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, the first televised movie award show of 2011, is the martial arts, stunt-filled ‘The Warrior’s Way.’ Directed by Sngmoo Lee, the film, in typical action fashion, forgoes plot and character development. However, it’s meet with disastrous results.
The numerous trailers released for ‘The Warrior’s Way’ promise viewers a plot full of sword-fighting and special effects. However, the film, which follows the world’s greatest swordsman, Yang (played by South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun), as he refuses his latest mission, doesn’t live up to his high moral standards.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/12/03/the-warriors-way-movie-review/#ixzz17AsT3ZO0
Thursday, December 2, 2010
'Conviction' Movie Review
Aren’t Movies Based on Real-Life Stories Supposed to be Touching?
New Drama ‘Conviction’ Doesn’t Do Academy Award-Winning Actress Hilary Swank Justice
Written by: Karen Benardello
Sometimes all it takes is one person to stand up for what they believe is right in order for justice to be served. That was certainly the case with working mother Betty Anne Waters, who spent over a decade working to obtain her law degree solely to represent her wrongfully convicted brother Kenny. Director Tony Goldwyn and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank teamed up in the new drama ‘Conviction’ to prove not only that justice delayed isn’t justice denied, but that women can also accomplish anything they put their minds too.
The movie, which is based on the Waters’ real life story, starts off to a slow start however, as it shows several seemly unrelated events from their childhood and early adult life. While Goldwyn and screenwriter Pamela Gray most likely did this to show the close bond between Betty Anne and Kenny (played by Sam Rockwell), and the fact that they caused mischief as children, there were no cohesive storyline for the first 15-20 minutes of the film. The audience is unable to bond with the characters, and is left wondering how these unconnected events relate to the central storyline.
‘Conviction’ finally got to the point when it showed the adult Betty Anne working part-time as a waitress while she takes classes to earn her degree from Roger Williams University. While she struggles to raise her two teenage sons, Richard (portrayed by Conor Donovan) and Ben (played by Owen Campbell), on her own at the same time, Betty Anne is determined to prove Kenny was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983. Kenny was arrested for the 1980 slaying of Katharina Brow, but Betty Anne fights to get biological evidence to send to the Innocence Project, an organization that works to overturn unjust convictions.
Expectations for Swank’s performance were high, as she won her first Oscar for her portrayal of transgender man Brandon Teena in the hit 1999 movie ‘Boys Don’t Cry.’ In that role, Swank proved that she knows how to connect to, and accurately depict the emotions of, real-life people. However, in ‘Conviction,’ Swank fails to recapture her former glory; not only does she have the same body language and monotone voice in almost every scene, and doesn’t resonate any of the joys or fears Betty Anne feels. This lack of emotion may in part have been due to the fact that over 18 years’ worth of events was packed into a one-hour and 45-minute film, and a lot of information from Betty Anne’s life was omitted from the final script.
The true stand-out star of ‘Convicted’ is Academy Award-nominated actress Melissa Leo (who first rose to fame in the mid-1990s on ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’). In the film, she plays Nancy Taylor, the only woman police officer in the Ayer police force in the early 1980s. In order to excel at her job, she pins Katharina’s murder on Kenny. Leo convincingly plays someone who doesn’t care who she has to hurt or what she has to do in order to get what she wants. Viewers will certainly enjoy watching Betty Anne try to take down Nancy and see justice prevail.
Overall, Goldwyn and Gray deserve credit for wanting to showcase Betty Anne’s hard work to free people wrongfully convicted of crime and to fight for inmates’ rights. While obviously the numerous struggles she faced during her two-decade crusade to free her brother couldn’t all be featured in the film, many viewers will still feel cheated from ‘Conviction’s simplistic plot.
New Drama ‘Conviction’ Doesn’t Do Academy Award-Winning Actress Hilary Swank Justice
Written by: Karen Benardello
Sometimes all it takes is one person to stand up for what they believe is right in order for justice to be served. That was certainly the case with working mother Betty Anne Waters, who spent over a decade working to obtain her law degree solely to represent her wrongfully convicted brother Kenny. Director Tony Goldwyn and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank teamed up in the new drama ‘Conviction’ to prove not only that justice delayed isn’t justice denied, but that women can also accomplish anything they put their minds too.
The movie, which is based on the Waters’ real life story, starts off to a slow start however, as it shows several seemly unrelated events from their childhood and early adult life. While Goldwyn and screenwriter Pamela Gray most likely did this to show the close bond between Betty Anne and Kenny (played by Sam Rockwell), and the fact that they caused mischief as children, there were no cohesive storyline for the first 15-20 minutes of the film. The audience is unable to bond with the characters, and is left wondering how these unconnected events relate to the central storyline.
‘Conviction’ finally got to the point when it showed the adult Betty Anne working part-time as a waitress while she takes classes to earn her degree from Roger Williams University. While she struggles to raise her two teenage sons, Richard (portrayed by Conor Donovan) and Ben (played by Owen Campbell), on her own at the same time, Betty Anne is determined to prove Kenny was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983. Kenny was arrested for the 1980 slaying of Katharina Brow, but Betty Anne fights to get biological evidence to send to the Innocence Project, an organization that works to overturn unjust convictions.
Expectations for Swank’s performance were high, as she won her first Oscar for her portrayal of transgender man Brandon Teena in the hit 1999 movie ‘Boys Don’t Cry.’ In that role, Swank proved that she knows how to connect to, and accurately depict the emotions of, real-life people. However, in ‘Conviction,’ Swank fails to recapture her former glory; not only does she have the same body language and monotone voice in almost every scene, and doesn’t resonate any of the joys or fears Betty Anne feels. This lack of emotion may in part have been due to the fact that over 18 years’ worth of events was packed into a one-hour and 45-minute film, and a lot of information from Betty Anne’s life was omitted from the final script.
The true stand-out star of ‘Convicted’ is Academy Award-nominated actress Melissa Leo (who first rose to fame in the mid-1990s on ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’). In the film, she plays Nancy Taylor, the only woman police officer in the Ayer police force in the early 1980s. In order to excel at her job, she pins Katharina’s murder on Kenny. Leo convincingly plays someone who doesn’t care who she has to hurt or what she has to do in order to get what she wants. Viewers will certainly enjoy watching Betty Anne try to take down Nancy and see justice prevail.
Overall, Goldwyn and Gray deserve credit for wanting to showcase Betty Anne’s hard work to free people wrongfully convicted of crime and to fight for inmates’ rights. While obviously the numerous struggles she faced during her two-decade crusade to free her brother couldn’t all be featured in the film, many viewers will still feel cheated from ‘Conviction’s simplistic plot.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
How Far Will Sara Bareilles’ Music Career Go?
How Far Will Sara Bareilles’ Music Career Go?
The ‘Love Song’ Singer Proves She’s Not Just a One-Hit Wonder with Her Second Album, ‘Kaleidoscope Heart’
Written by: Karen Benardello
‘Kaleidoscope Heart,’ the sophomore album from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 chart during the second week of September, www.epicrecords.com/news is reporting. The album, which was released on September 7, outsold her debut record, which was released in 2007.
The new record also held the number one album spot in iTunes’ Top 100 album chart, while the video for the album’s first single, ‘King Of Anything,’ hit number one on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown. Of her success, Bareilles proved yet again how much she cherishes her fans by saying “I’m over the moon about this. I had no idea that this was even possible and so here I am once again inspired and amazed by the impact of the most generous fans in the world.”
The ‘Love Song’ singer received much-deserved praise from numerous critics, proving she’s not just a one-hit wonder. The Wall Street Journal rightfully placed her alongside other pop music greats by saying “‘Kaleidoscope Heart’ plants Sara in Billy Joel territory.” Bareilles was able to move past the two-time Grammy-nominated song that made her famous with her new album. PEOPLE Magazine rightfully praised her for it, saying “In 2007 the singer-songwriter rocketed from obscurity with her album ‘Little Voice’ (which sold over 1 million copies worldwide) and the Grammy-nominated pop-rock gem ‘Love Song.’ How does she follow up on that? Impeccably.”
Bareilles has been busy promoting ‘Kaleidoscope Heart,’ which she wrote, by appearing on such shows as ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ ‘The Today Show’ and ‘Live! With Regis and Kelly.’ She also kicked off her Fall Headlining Tour on September 23rd at Idaho State University, and has plans to visit 30 major cities across America. The tour will end on December 17th at the Van Duzer Theatre at Humboldt State in Eureka, Californai. Hopefully, her fans will like her new music and attend the concerts to show their support.
The ‘Love Song’ Singer Proves She’s Not Just a One-Hit Wonder with Her Second Album, ‘Kaleidoscope Heart’
Written by: Karen Benardello
‘Kaleidoscope Heart,’ the sophomore album from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 chart during the second week of September, www.epicrecords.com/news is reporting. The album, which was released on September 7, outsold her debut record, which was released in 2007.
The new record also held the number one album spot in iTunes’ Top 100 album chart, while the video for the album’s first single, ‘King Of Anything,’ hit number one on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown. Of her success, Bareilles proved yet again how much she cherishes her fans by saying “I’m over the moon about this. I had no idea that this was even possible and so here I am once again inspired and amazed by the impact of the most generous fans in the world.”
The ‘Love Song’ singer received much-deserved praise from numerous critics, proving she’s not just a one-hit wonder. The Wall Street Journal rightfully placed her alongside other pop music greats by saying “‘Kaleidoscope Heart’ plants Sara in Billy Joel territory.” Bareilles was able to move past the two-time Grammy-nominated song that made her famous with her new album. PEOPLE Magazine rightfully praised her for it, saying “In 2007 the singer-songwriter rocketed from obscurity with her album ‘Little Voice’ (which sold over 1 million copies worldwide) and the Grammy-nominated pop-rock gem ‘Love Song.’ How does she follow up on that? Impeccably.”
Bareilles has been busy promoting ‘Kaleidoscope Heart,’ which she wrote, by appearing on such shows as ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ ‘The Today Show’ and ‘Live! With Regis and Kelly.’ She also kicked off her Fall Headlining Tour on September 23rd at Idaho State University, and has plans to visit 30 major cities across America. The tour will end on December 17th at the Van Duzer Theatre at Humboldt State in Eureka, Californai. Hopefully, her fans will like her new music and attend the concerts to show their support.
Lylit Unexpected EP Review
Lylit Unexpected EP Review
Written by: Karen Benardello
Singer, song-writer and instrumentalist Lylit, who hails from Austria, the classical music capital of the world and the birthplace of such music legends as Mozart and Beethoven, is striving to bring her unique gospel-infused jazz sound over to the US. Her new EP, ‘Unexpected,’ comes with high expectations, as she has the same look and feel as R&B/pop-rock singer-songwriter-musician Pink. Even at the young age of 25, Lylit already stands out, as she has a life full of diverse experiences to write about.
‘Unexpected’ doesn’t fail to deliver with its first song, titled ‘The Plan,’ as it instantly grabs its listeners’ attention and refuses to let go. ‘The Plan’ definitely sets a high bar for the rest of the EP with a catchy instrumental melody leading up to Lylit’s surprisingly powerful voice. The gospel singer draws her listeners in and refuses to let go; the song infuses the Austrian gospel countryside with African American traditions. Lylit creates a unique sound by channeling the hip-hop/jazz/classical mix she learned while being professionally trained during her university years. She surprises yet again during the last minute of ‘The Plan,’ as her instruments are tuned down to primarily feature her commanding voice.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/11/28/lylit-unexpected-ep-review/#ixzz16sOjII8x
Written by: Karen Benardello
Singer, song-writer and instrumentalist Lylit, who hails from Austria, the classical music capital of the world and the birthplace of such music legends as Mozart and Beethoven, is striving to bring her unique gospel-infused jazz sound over to the US. Her new EP, ‘Unexpected,’ comes with high expectations, as she has the same look and feel as R&B/pop-rock singer-songwriter-musician Pink. Even at the young age of 25, Lylit already stands out, as she has a life full of diverse experiences to write about.
‘Unexpected’ doesn’t fail to deliver with its first song, titled ‘The Plan,’ as it instantly grabs its listeners’ attention and refuses to let go. ‘The Plan’ definitely sets a high bar for the rest of the EP with a catchy instrumental melody leading up to Lylit’s surprisingly powerful voice. The gospel singer draws her listeners in and refuses to let go; the song infuses the Austrian gospel countryside with African American traditions. Lylit creates a unique sound by channeling the hip-hop/jazz/classical mix she learned while being professionally trained during her university years. She surprises yet again during the last minute of ‘The Plan,’ as her instruments are tuned down to primarily feature her commanding voice.
Read more: http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/11/28/lylit-unexpected-ep-review/#ixzz16sOjII8x
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