More to Love Review

On Tuesday Evening Fox premiered it's newest reality dating show. With so many reality dating shows out on the market (The Bachelor, Next, Daisy of Love, ect) FOX recognized that they had to do something a little different. As the title suggests, More to Love is a reality dating show featuring overweight people.

The concept is a sound one. It's a fact over half of Americans are overweight or obese, it makes sense that one entire half of the population might be drawn to a dating show featuring people who share a common struggle with the audience.

Usually the type of people who are drawn to reality shows are desperate for fame or money, with "More to Love" you get the definite sense that the contestants are actually there to find love. I can't seem to decide if this is a positive or negative for the show.

On the one hand the emotions are genuine, and you don't have any idiots attempting to use the show as a platform to launch their music career. On the other hand you have a bunch of people with very low self esteem who are about to be rejected on national television.

In some ways the premier of "More to Love" was quite depressing. I watched beautiful girl after beautiful girl talk about how they honestly saw this show as their only chance at love. Some of the female contestants admitted that they had never been on a date before, or that they had been with men who were embarrassed to be seen with them in public.

Reality dating shows are all about wish fulfillment. Weather you want to be perused by twenty gorgeous potential mates, live in a mansion, go on romantic excursions to tropical islands, or perhaps you simply want to be loved. Reality dating shows offer us all a chance to experience all of that by living vicariously through the contestants. There have been shows dedicated to dating millionaires or rock stars, and one can certainly understand the appeal. Yet on some level I find it sad that the greatest fantasy of many overweight Americans is simply to find someone who will find them attractive and love them.

I am predicting that the elimination ceremonies will be heartbreaking to watch, but for some reason I plan on watching them anyway. "More to Love" appears on FOX on Tuesdays at 9/8 Central.

So You Think You Can Dance 100th Episode

I am a huge fan of SYTYCD and have been since season 2.

Each season has it's own sort of style and feeling. I think the remarkable thing about the current season (season 5) is how close everyone is in terms of talent. In years past there has been that one dancer that stood head and shoulders about everyone else in terms of talent, like Travis in Season 2 or Danny in season 3. Or there have been contestants that had tremendous amounts of charisma like Benji and in season 2, Sabra in Season 3, or Joshua in Season 4. There have even been dancers that have stood out for being completely unique like Cedric or Hok from Season 3 or Mark from season 4.

Every fan of the show has their own personal favorites and can list them from each season. Here is my own little list
Season 2: Benji, Donyelle,and travis
Season 3: (my favorite season) Hok, Domenic, Lauren, Sabra, Jamie, and Danny
Season 4: Joshua, Katee, Chelsie Hightower, Twitch, and of course Mark

With season 5 my favorites have been switching around depending on what dance they did this week. Honestly I didn't want any of the top 8 to go tonight.

It's beautiful to have a reality show that takes extremely talented people and makes them even better. The show isn't about humiliating contestants or taking everything to trashy new lows. This show elevates and inspires people, and for a reality show that is very very rare.

Tonight was the 100th episode and I was so happy to see the show reach this point. I really hope to see it reach another hundred episodes. It was so good to see some of my favorite routines again, especially the Hummingbird Routiene with Hok and Jamie, and "Ramalama Bang Bang" zombie prom dance.

My only complaint: Katie Holmes

Literally for months they have been reporting that Katie would be doing some big dance number on SYTYCD. It was supposed to be a big tribute to Judy Garland. I thought it was an odd choice since Katie Holmes isn't exactly know for being a signer or a dancer. I thought it was crazy but thought that maybe, just maybe it would all turn out. There are so many people in Hollywood who turn out to be triple threats. I mean who would ever think that the man who plays Wolveriene would also be a great singer and dancer.

As it turns out Katie Holmes isn't very talented. Her performance on the show was easily the worst part of the entire hour.

It takes very little talent to do what she did. She lipsinked to a pre-recorded song. She performed a "dance" which required her to walk, pause, and let herself be lifted by attractive men. To top things off she didn't have the balls to perform it live in front of the audience.

I'm sorry but I feel like my time was wasted. I would have much rather seen another performance from a past season. There are so many fantastic ones to choose from.

I would have loved to see Katee and Joshua perform the Mia Michaels dance to "Hometown glory" by Adele

Or Lacy and Kameron's dance to "Dancing" by Elisa also choreographed by Mia

Or Mark and Chelsie's "Bleeding Love" routine by Napoleon and Tabbitha

Or Lauren and Pasha's Transformers routine choreographed by Shane Sparks

Or Sabra and Neil's dance to "Sweet Dreams Are Made of These" choreographed by Mandy Moore.

The list could go on and on.

But instead of seeing a great performance we see a star who was seriously lacking in star power. She sauntered about lip sinking for a pre-recorded number. It was pretty clear that the voice track for her song had been heavily filtered, and it was still mediocre at best. Any idiot off the street could have done her part of the dance routine, and it was an insult to put her on the same show with so many talented dancers.

Perhaps most offensive of all was the way in which she sang the song "Get Happy". Did she not listen to the lyrics she was singing? "Get Happy" is meant to be sung with a real edge to it. Look at the lyrics she is telling people to get happy about the apocalypse, you have got to do that with a wink or a bit of sarcasm in your voice. Katie Holmes sung the whole thing in a weak and wavering voice gently asking us to be genuinely happy.

Judy Garland was a Star and she deserved a better tribute then that. In case any of you non Broadway types were wondering here is how it should be done folks.



I know what your thinking: "But Renegade Film Snob, it was all done for charity. Why are you being so mean."

Well I'll tell you. First off I am The Renegade Film Snob, I am not in the business of being nice. Secondly it wasn't the most efficient way to raise money for charity. You see if Katie Holmes forked up a ton of her own cash for the privilege of living out her little fantasy on stage I would have been all for it. Yet you see what Katie Holmes donated her performance fee to the charity. So she made the show pay her to pay the charity attached to the show.

Yes I know that money came from FOX and is now in the charities budget but really it's the principal of the thing.

I'm very happy to see SYTYCD be so successful, but please next time just let us see the good dancing. If you have to let a less then talented celebrity perform make them fork up their own money for charity in order to do so.

The Movie Psychic: A Perfect Getaway

Allright this is a new segment to the blog and I hope it works out.

I am notorious for ruining the endings of movies. Obviously I avoid giving spoilers when I am writing here, but often when I watch a movie for the first time I call the ending a few minutes into the story, and I have a pretty good accuracy rating. Mind you I don't claim to have any mystical powers, I just have a very good knowledge of film and how plot lines tend to go.

This is to be for entertainment purposes only. I have not seen this movie, nor do I know anyone associated with the film. There is a chance that this could be a spoiler for "A Perfect Getaway" but then again it might not be. Honestly if I can guess the ending just from seeing the TV spot, it probably doesn't deserve to be called a spoiler.

I give to you the TV spot for "A Perfect Getaway"



Prediction: With a "Twist you won't see coming" I can only assume the killer is Steve Zahn.

Here's my reasoning:

1: He is Steve Zahn there is something really lovable about him and it's hard to imagine him playing a killer.

2. It all seems too obvious of a set up. The spot makes the second couple who joins Zahn and Milla Jovovich look really shady. It would be way too easy if it was then.

3. Steve Zahn is the most clean cut looking guy there, which makes him look less suspicious. Or more suspicious depending on which type of serial killer you are thinking about.

4. The trailer also seems to set up Zahn and Jovovich as the main characters, now that is a twist most people won't be expecting.

Now another Trailer seems to indicate that a couple may be responsible for the killings. But if that is the case I still stand by my prediction that Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich are the killers.

I generally don't like thrillers and have no plans to see this until it's free on HBO, so if you have seen this film or plan on doing so please leave a comment and let me know if I am right.

Where the wild things are trailer

I'm not going to lie my favorite part of seeing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was getting to see the trailer for Where the Wild Things are. It looks like it is going to be beautiful, magical, and make everyone feel like they are a kid again. I can't wait to see it.

It comes out October 16th 2009 and I can't wait to see how Director Spike Jonze's adaptation of the book turns out. I am a huge fan of his work as a music video director and I loved Being John Malkovitch. Spike Jones has such a wild imagination (Honestly who else could have thought up a video where Christopher Walken was tap dancing on the ceiling)I am genuinely excited to see how he handles his first kids film.

Spoiler Free Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review

It seems fairly redundant to do a spoiler free review for a movie based an an absurdly popular book, but I shall try to do so.

Whenever you move a story from one medium to another things will inevitably be lost in translation. The pacing in the movie is vastly different from the pacing of the book. The first part of the movie is almost entirely dedicated to an obscene amount of awkward teen drama going on around Hogwarts, while the second part of the movie covers more of the actual important plot points of the story. While the teen awkwardness does provide some much needed humor in a rather dark story, I feel it goes on for far too long. I'm being honest when I say that there are probably more then 15 minutes of this film devoted solely to awkward silences. For me the movie moved along quite slow until we reached the point where actual story begins, intrigue and danger tend to do that to a film.

Overall I would say that they did a very good job with this movie. As is expected with the Harry Potter franchise the acting, sets, and special effects are all fantastic. Again I could have dealt with a lot less of the teen awkward moments, but overall they did a good job staying true to the story.

My only real complaint is that there is a villain on screen who is never properly introduced. If you have never read the books you will probably wonder who the hairy dude on screen is, and why they seem to devote so many closeups of him while never mentioning his name or why he looks so creepy. He is Fenrir Greyback, he is a werewolf who is into cannibalism, and I am sad they didn't devote a little more time to introducing a very creepy well made villain.

Oh that and a big battle was left out, but that is not the point here.

Naturally the movie isn't as good as the books, but it's quite enjoyable.

Bruno Das Ubber Fantastich Review

I'll admit it the title is a bit overblown. It's more like Bruno the very mediocre review. Sadly I don't remember how to say mediocre in German, I came really close to failing that class.

Anyway...

I saw Bruno in theaters today, and the overall verdict is that it's good. It's not the funniest movie I've ever seen, and it was offensive as hell, but it was funny and certainly worth watching.

I have to warn you if you are easily offended do not see this movie. I mean seriously Y'all. I mean unless your a difficult person to offend I wouldn't go see this movie.

I know I stand pretty much alone here, but I did not like the Borat movie. I found all of the humor infantile, the racial and cultural jokes made me so uncomfortable I couldn't laugh. Much of Borat was centered around making fun of American's. While I can't say we don't deserve it, some of the movie was hard to watch for me.

I laughed really hard at Bruno, I don't know what that says about me, but I thought that this movie was actually funnier then Borat. The humor was every bit as crude, but perhaps I felt more comfortable with it because it was mostly poking fun at fashion and pop culture.

You should go see this movie because (if you aren't hideously offended) you will have a good laugh.

From a film studies perspective the movie is actually quite fascinating because it blends the lines between fiction and reality. Some of the skits in the movie are set up, some of them are real and often it's difficult to know for sure which is not.

Some of the movies more offensive bits are done to make a point. Sure it's absurd and offensive that Bruno would adopt a baby from Africa with as little thought as if he were getting a fashion accessory. It's sad but it does seem like some celebrities and others are adopting for reasons of image, not out of a desire to actually raise a child. Just look at the Sex and the City movie. Charlotte's adopted Asian daughter is really treated more like an accessory then a child, the movie even goes on to make a very big deal about Charlotte getting pregnant showing that she can now have a "real child". It makes me sick but celebrities tend to get caught up in the strangest trends involving adoption, dangerous diets, and religion. Bruno makes fun of celebrity culture and all the things one must do to achieve celebrity.

But I digress.

Really I feel like the previews for Bruno gave away too much already so I won't say anything else about the movie. If you are not easy offended it's a pretty funny movie, if you are easily offended don't even think of seeing it.