So, after weeks of waiting for it to come, since it was such a popular new release with our mail order DVD service, we finally got the see the much touted Black Swan, with the very lovely and talented Natalie Portman leading the way as the neurotic, repressed ballet dancer Nina Sayers.

This movie is quite different, with the vivid, visually stunning imagery, and scary portrayal of a woman losing her mind.  Natalie Portman is stunning in it, and she deserved winning the Oscar for her performance in this very different movie.  She apparently went through three years of ballet training, and was a dancer as a child, and it does show, with her very thin body (both her and Mila Kunis dropped a lot of weight for the movie to look like authentic ballerinas, and neither had much to shave off in the first place).

There are some pretty spectacular dance scenes and choreography in this movie, and that’s half the fun. Warning, this is a very sexual movie. There’s not even any real nudity in it, but there is a lot of implied sex acts and a lot of sexuality and brutally honest sexual scenes in it.

But that is what makes this film more raw.  Everyone in it is good.  Mila Kunis didn’t have as much screen time as I thought she did, but her character is the antithesis of Nina’s uptight, perfection driven.  Nina begins to think that her rival Lily, played by Kunis is “after her” when she starts to have vivid delusions about her, and even has a vivid sexual fantasy about her after a night of drug induced fun.

Nina also is harassed, but also is falling for and fawning over the head of the ballet Thoma, who is played by the ever spectacular villain, Vincent Cassel.  His over the top sexual predator ways are at times totally disgusting, but Nina finds herself both repelled and drawn to him, her inadequate sexual experience and uptight demeanor clearly clouding her judgement on what a sleazebag he is. 

The movie quickly shows her downward spiral into total paranoia and delusion when she can’t handle the role of the white and black swan and all the pressures that come with having the biggest part in her dedicated career.

The imagery is amazing, and the sometimes ridiculous plot seems downright dreamlike and ok when you realize that you can no longer tell the difference between Nina’s reality and her delusions.

This movie is a pleasure to watch.

So we are now on the second season of one of the biggest guilty pleasures we indulge ourselves in when it comes to trashy reality TV. I’m speaking of course of the international phenomenon of Jersey Shore, the hit MTV reality show about a bunch of “guidos and guidettes” who all inhabit a little party house in Jersey Shore.

Of course, the second season shouldn’t really be called Jersey Shore, because it’s actually filmed in another hot young party spot, Miami Beach. This time, the girls are hotter at the clubs, but the interesting part of the show isn’t there quite as much because the gang all knows eachother, and that first-meeting and getting to know you part just isn’t there, which takes away from some of the excitement of the first season.

However, one person who’s definitely come out of his shell and is more interesting, albeit more dastardly to watch, is Ronnie.  I used to think he was a nice, quiet boy who fell in love on the show and seemed to cowtow to all his girlfriend Sammi’s crazy possessive ways.  Well, apparently he’s no prize either, and they sort of deserve eachother.

These two are just plain annoying in the second season with their volatile, on again off again relationship. Sammi is just as bad as he is because she’s an insecure wreck this season, always asking if he got on any chicks and wondering where he is. As a grown woman, I want to shake this girl and say “go out and have your own good time, and stop obsessing over this guy who is obviously taking your for a ride!”

Ronnie’s excessive partying is pretty much the focus of the first 4 shows that we’ve watched, so the rest of the cast really hasn’t done much. Angelina is still trying to make her way into being cool with the girls on the show, and finally manages to at least get them to ask her out with them.

JWOWW is pretty much the same. Man, she is one chick that I’d never want to get mad at me. She will fight you at the drop of a hat. She is definitely not a wishy washy girl, this one.  She’s still rockin’ the split down the middle shirts that pretty much leave nothing to the imagination, God bless her.

Snooki is still the center of the show. She’s definitely the most interesting, and oddly sometimes seems the most sane at times, even though I know she’s the one with the biggest reputation on the show.  You can’t help but like this girl. She just seems like she’d be a blast to have as a friend, even though she obviously screws up a lot.

The guys are all the same. It’s hard to believe that Mike “The Situation” seems to be one of the more level headed ones now. Looks like somebody did a little maturing while the show was on hiatus!  He’s still chasing skirts of course, but there is something a little older, a little wiser about this kid this time around. 

I’ll admit, I’m stuck on the show now. I’m pretty much a lifer. Until the show gets unbearably scripted, which I’m sure it will because I can see inklings of that already, I’ll be a fan!

I was really excited to see the movie “Kill the Irishman”, about a Cleveland gangster, or gangster wanna be shall I say, that caused quite  ruckus with the Cleveland mafia, which apparently controlled much of Cleveland in the sixties and seventies unbenknownst to me.

I have lived in the greater Cleveland area pretty much my entire life, so naturally I was excited to see a movie that was based on a little piece of our local history.  And of course, gangster movies are always interesting. Being a fan of movies like Casino, Goodfellas and Godfather, I thought this movie would be interesting, and it had great actors in it.

Boy was I wrong. Something went wrong with this movie. It had such great potential to be really interesting and really well done, especially considering some of the talent they enlisted. However, ridiculous scenes and some terrible dialogue and direction really bogged this movie down into something very forgettable.

It had the potential to be a big hit, even an Indie hit or sleeper hit, however it has only grossed $700,000 so far at the box office which is a pretty miserable showing.

Where to start with the problems of this movie?  I think the director was going for a Scorsese type of feel, however, the montages and the musical scores just didn’t mesh with the characters and seemed forced and even over the top.

Christopher Walken phoned in an appearance that was laughable as a Jewish restaurant owner who was involved in organized crime. Ray Stevens, a big lug of a guy who has been great as a supporting actor in some great movies and even the HBO show Rome, just couldn’t pull off the lead in this movie.

He was too wooden, and frankly, too unlikeable. This was only compounded further by the director’s attempt to make him likeable by making it seem like he was some sort of Robin Hood, a thug, with a goden heart.

Some of the scenes that were made to get this point across were downright ridiculous, including one where this Irish elderly neighbor gives him a necklace that belonged to her father another “celtic warrior” (gag), and a little boy riding up to him on his bicycle asking is he was the Irishman as if he were a worship hero. 

Where this movie made attempts for us to feel something for these characters, it just felt forced.  The supporting cast was promising, including Paul Sorvino, Vincent Donofrio, Val Kilmer and others. However, their performances fell flat on a lackluster script and forced direction.

Wish I could say I liked this movie. It wasn’t unwatchable, but there were parts where my husband and I laughed, and we weren’t supposed to.

So, I just got done watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the first part of the last two-part installment of one of the biggest grossing franchises of all time. I really have enjoyed almost all of the Harry Potter movies. They are of such consistent quality that it’s hard to not look forward to each one with the anticipation of a child.

They are so visually stunning that one almost feels like they’ve taken some sort of hallucinotory drug when they start watching. You really feel the escapism aspect with these movies because they literally transport you to a dimension in which all things, no matter how ridiculous, are possible.

The last few movies in the Harry Potter series have become progressively darker and more adult themed, as Harry and company grows up, right along with the audience that they appeal to. This last one definitely had some more adult themes, and even bordered on a little too creepy (even one slightly, very generically racy scene) for anyone watching that is under say ten years old.

We pick up where the last one left off, where all Muggles are being persecuted and hunted down. It’s very strong in its holocaust parallel undertones, with Muggles being subjected to anti-Muggle propaganda and fear, and the talks of Muggles and the “real magicals” breeding together brings scorn and fear as well.

It’s almost like watching a movie about the persecution of the Jews in the Holocaust, except it’s in this fantastically escapist magical fantasy world. I know that these movies have been criticized for portraying things a certain way, but honestly I just few them as purely enjoyable escapism, and I refuse to read any higher social responsibility into the whole thing.

Harry Potter and his closest friends are being fiercely hunted by Lord Valdemort and his cronies, whom it seems are more fearfully obeying him than ever, rather than feeling any real allegiance to him.  Harry, Hermione and Ron set out to escape by jumping from one location to another constantly, where paranoia, fear and depression set in.

It is the most adult themed and serious of them all so far.  There are even some unfortunate deaths in this one that will surprise everyone, and that make it feel even more real than ever that their world is in jeopardy and that they must all rally to save Harry Potter, their only hope against, ultimately, evil and a sort of dictatorship.

This movie was really enjoyable. Even clocking in at over two hours, it was immensely appealing to me as an adult. The acting, as always is so superb that you really believe this parallel universe of quirky characters actually exists. And as usual, the stunning special effects make you feel like it’s all real.

So my hubby and I went to see the next major Marvel motion picture, which is one of the first few in a string of movies that the now standalone film company has endeavored on its own. And it looks like the decision to split off into its own venture has paid off in spades.  Thor, which is based on the comic book character by the same name, is very watchable and very entertaining.

This is in in large part due to the fantastic, and very charismatic performance by a relative newcomer, and a gamble I might add for the producers to put in the movie. His name is Chris Hemsworth, and he’s a strapping six foot something blonde stud that plays the role exactly how it’s meant to be played.

Hemsworth is excellent, and he largely steals every scene he is in, even with the legendary Anthony Hopkins who plays Thor’s father.  Another pleasant surprise was an actor who I haven’t seen much of anywhere else either. He plays Loki, the brother of Thor, who we soon find out has a jealous envy of his brothers strength and obvious edge over him when it comes to who will succeed his father on the throne.

This movie to me, was a huge gamble to make in the first place. It’s not often that a story about a guy who is a God on some world we’ve never heard of, who weilds a mighty hammer as his weapon of choice, and who travels through wormholes to get to the other worlds he inhabits, would translate well into film.

But they pulled it off pretty well in Thor, without it feeling too hoaky. This is really only because they had a stellar cast. This included Natalie Portman, who is great as Thor’s down the earth love interest. She’s believable, as usual, as the humble human that Thor’s affections have found.

There is a lot of humor and action as well, but the humor is the part that really keeps it interesting and down to earth.  Hemsworth pulls off the humorous scenes flawlessly, and we genuinely believe this guy is cocky and arrogant, which makes it all that much funnier to see him struggle on earth without his usual powers.

The special effects are good, without being too over the top.  Unlike another movie coming out in the summer about a superhero, which I have no faith in being good (Green Lantern), the special effects don’t look like cheesy technicolor.

I just got to see the Comedy Central Talk Soup-style show about web clips and other pop culture stories, Tosh.o.  I had never heard of the comedian who headlines the half hour show before, Daniel Tosh.  Well, now I wish I had known about him a long time ago. Because this guy is off the hook funny.

I saw some of the shows, starting with the very first one in 2008, on Demand over at my husband’s cousin’s house for Easter weekend.  We were drinking some cocktails later at night and surfing, and found that these were on demand, so we started watching them. We ended up watching all five shows that were available for viewing.

Among other things, Tosh.o had the “Leave Britney Alone” guy (who everyone thought was a girl when the video first went viral), a big woman getting up on a small table to sing and biting the dust, a self proclaimed karate master trying out for a movie and totally screwing up his moves, another karate guy saying he could chop a whole line of coconuts, and not smashing one single one of them, and more.

Tosh basically does a twenty second commentary on each one (which is side splittingly funny, and many times oh-so wrong), offers the person in the video a chance for “web redemption), and shows a host of other videos that are the latest sensations to go viral in our increasingly short attention spanned, web focused world.

He is not only quick and witty, but he’s also totally inappropriate, offensive and politically incorrect (that’s an understatement). That’s what I absolutely love about this show. It’s not afraid to examine any subject, and that’s what makes it so ridiculously funny and over the top.

My husband and I really enjoy that type of edgy humor, and little did his cousin know that he turned us on to a new favorite show when he put them on for us late at night. It’s not often that my hubby pretty much almost busts his pants laughing at something, and I know that’s the true mark of comic genius when he does!

Word to the wise though, if you are easily offended and do not like edgy humor, or if you have no clue what any of the latest web videos are, or don’t pay any sort of attention to viral or gossipy types of news items, a lot of the jokes may be lost on you. You will LOVE this show if you keep up with pop culture though!  GOOD REVIEW!!!

Ok, ok, call me a late bloomer when it comes to certain fads. The fad I’m referring to here of course, is the fad of the incredibly popular MTV reality show, Jersey Shore.

The show became pretty much an instant sensation when it launched. It’s sort of like The Real World, only it’s filmed on Jersey Shore in a house that “Guidos” and “Guidettes” inhabit for the summer.

The eight housemates have one thing in common. They are all of American heritage. And they all love to go tanning and work out – oh, and do laundry. One feels like they are back in college when watching the show, even though several of the show’s stars are really way past college age.

I must admit, I thought this show would be total schlock, not even entertaining. But it actually is entertaining, in a sort of cringe way.  The people on the show, although they are all pretty immature and seem to be shallow, are actually likable people, and I think that’s what makes the show work.

Even Snookie is very likable. She may be a drunken mess when she drinks, and she may embarrass herself a lot, but at her heart she’s a good girl who’s just very misguided and has low self esteem.  Which is ironic because she is by far the biggest star that came out of the show.

We are done with the first disc of Jersey Shore season one, and it’s been very fun and light tv to watch. The last one we watched in the infamous one where Snookie got hit in the face by a guy at a bar. What a scumbag!  We were both stunned that a guy would actually hit a woman, no matter what she was saying to him, especially in the presence of a bunch of muscleheads who would flip out on him.

Of course then, we also have our budding romance (of course I have no idea if this romance is actually still on or not) of Ronnie and Sammy Sweetheart.  Sammy Sweetheart has captured that attention of quite a few guys in the house. First she was holding hands with “The Situation” then we came to find out that it was really Ronnie she was sweet on the whole time.

These two are definitely interesting to watch, but they may be a little more fun to watch if they were really single.  Ronnie went into the house saying that his one true rule was not to fall in love at the Jersey Shore house, guess he broke that one, because she’s obviously got him wrapped around her little finger!

And who can forget JWOWW in her ridiculously skimpy split down the middle tops with her big fake boobs hanging out? She’s interestingly not in the first four episodes a whole lot except for her fighting and breaking up with her jealous boyfriend, who has a right to be jealous.