Weekend Wrap Up: Quick Thoughts

I was out of town this weekend and am still playing catch up with my TiVo but here are some brief observations I gleamed from the weekend:

I’m afraid John Cusack is in for another rude career awakening. While I’m happy to see his new movie 1408 open so strongly I’m afraid some studio knucklehead is going to once again try and make base a film’s success on him, (Serendipity anyone?). Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge Cusack fan and it irritates me that the guy has taken a great deal of undeserved abuse for never becoming a huge star after the success of Gross Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. Truth is he’s a good actor but he’s not a movie star.

If you liked seeing a wannabe chef cry on Hell’s Kitchen (i.e. Aaron the Asian Cowboy), then watch a repeat of last nights Next Food Network Star and catch not one, not two, not three, but four, four crying chefs. You’d think after chopping all those onions these guys and gals would be made of sturdier stuff.

Is mixed martial arts becoming the new poker? After watching the finale of the Ultimate Fighter this weekend I was struck with just how much MMA programming is on and it reminded me of when poker began to become overexposed. Between the new show on Versus, the team vs. team syndicated show, and all the various UFC programming its hard to keep track of what’s important much like all the satellite tourneys being televised detracted from the main event at the World Series of Poker. What’s next Celebrity Ultimate Fighter?

Let’s all thank the execs behind Evan Almighty for guaranteeing that Steve Carrell won’t be leaving The Office anytime soon to do movies full time.

Is it just me or is Transformers looking better and better with each passing ad? Could Michael Bay have pulled it off or is this Pearl Harbor part deux? Either way I’m getting super hyped.

On the opposite end of the spectrum there’s Live Free or Die Hard which looks worse and worse with each passing ad. Can’t believe he’s doing the “yippee ki yay” line again….

Another movie I'm dreading is Hairspray. I love the original film that spawned the musical which has now spawned this remake and the idea of John Travolta doing Devine's role is sacrilegious to me. If you like musicals, how about looking forward to this fall's upcoming flick Across the Universe. I don't know much about it but I'm loving the trailer below.