Reviews

This will be a brief review of Michael Buble's Christmas in the City (2021).

I have definitely missed viewing his Christmas specials and enjoyed this one as well except for a couple of things.

I thought that having the special on the "Saturday Night Live" set was a bad idea. The set is just too small and cramped for this particular special and especially his orchestra. Also, the SNL set is a distraction because it screams out SNL's set!

The second issue that I had with the special was the appearance of "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon. I get that "Saturday Night Live" and "Tonight Show" producer Lorne Michaels' production company was involved, but seriously does he have to keep shoving Jimmy Fallon down our throats? Sorry, but Fallon has a horrible singing voice and just comes off like a brown nosing tool.

I did enjoy watching the special and would recommend it minus my two complaints.

I've enjoyed NBC's New Years Eve specials in the past but the 2021edition was dreadful because of the edition of Amber Ruffin. Carson Daly and Twitch from the "Ellen Degeneres Show" were great but Ruffin was just plain annoying. It felt like I was watching a preteen bouncing around on set who felt that she was being cool. It also felt like she was trying to upstage Daly and Twitch. I understand that NBCUniversal has given her a talk show on their streaming platform Peacock, and that they want to promote her but still she wasn't the right fit for the show. She would have been great on a Nickelodeon show for kids.

I hope that next year NBC does not include her as a co-host on the special or else I'll be forced to watch one of their competitors.

This review has SPOILERS!!!! This will be a short review of "La La Land."

To be blunt, "La La Land" is basically "(500) Days of Summer" (which came out in 2009) with more song and dance numbers. I read one review about "La La Land" along with hearing all the buzz about how great of a film it is. So, I saw a late showing of it on New Year's Eve. I was the first in the theater, and I thought that I would be the only one, but about ten random people walked in. I thought that the retro intro of the film such as the "CinemaScope" graphic was cool. But as the film started, I felt like, "Why does this movie seem so familiar?" Then it hit me, "(500) Days of Summer!" I then was able to predict what was going to happen in the film.

Here are SOME of the similarities of both films:

Both films have the theme of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl.

Both films have the change in seasons.

"La La Land" has Angels Flight," and "(500) Days of Summer has Angels Knoll."

In "(500) Days of Summer" Tom and Summer see an older film. In "La La Land" the same thing happens.

"(500) Days of Summer" has Expectations vs Reality and "La La Land" has a dream sequence scene at Sebastian's jazz club Seb's where the characters imagine what their lives would have been like if they had stayed together.

But, "(500) Days of Summer" wasn't the only film that "La La Land" will remind you of. As I watched some of the other scenes I kept thinking why does that look so familiar? The film is basically an homage to musicals such as "Singin' in the Rain," and an "American in Paris." The scene that is so obvious is towards the end with the boy and the giant red balloon, which was a blatant homage to "The Red Balloon," which teachers at my elementary school seemed to have enjoyed screening for us. I read a review after watching the film and it had still comparisons of dance numbers from the plethora of films it pays homage to including "Sleeping Beauty." One of the homages to "(500) Days of Summer" is when Sebastian and Mia are riding Angel's Flight in downtown Los Angeles. Although Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) didn't actually go on Angels Flight, they sat on one of the benches next door at Angels Knoll.

How many homages can a current film have in it from films decades old along with a super similar story line to a more current film from 2009 before it stops being an homage, and starts being something else like a best of compilation piece?

Do I think that "La La Land" is a GOOD film? Yes. Do I think that it is a great film? NO! Do I think that it is an overrated film? Yes! Do I think that it will receive countless awards and nominations? Yes! Hollywood loves films with song and dance numbers, especially if the actors aren't known for those talents. This would have been a much better film if Joseph Gordon-Levitt had portrayed the character of Sebastian instead of Ryan Gosling. Gordon-Levitt can show more emotions on screen than one look Gosling, and has a better singing voice, along with dancing talent.

"(500) Days of Summer" was original, and felt more real because of the characters and the non-cliché happy ending, and the real places in LA that the average person could visit that aren't normally scene in films that are made in LA. "La La Land" is definitely a fun date film, and likable, but when you realize as I did that this is a lesser version of "(500) Days of Summer" with more song and dance numbers, (along with a boatload of homages) it doesn't seem as creative as the current Hollywood buzz/hype portrays it to be.

This will be a very brief review of "Clerks." As the title of my review states, "Overrated Student Film." It's an OK student film, but it seems that its niche audience has glorified it into something it isn't.

The film has mediocre acting by actors who are really only known for portraying characters in Kevin Smith films.

The film wasn't shot in black and white because Smith was trying to give the film a certain noir look or because he was trying to be artsy. The film was shot in black and white film because it was cheaper than color film back in 1994. Today the film would be shot in color using a digital camera.

"Clerks II" is definitely better than this film because it looks professionally done, and the acting is somewhat better, and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" is by far the best of the three films.

If it weren't for "Clerks" we probably would never have heard of Kevin Smith, and heck he might have still been working at that store. Critics at the time seemed to have had the same fascination that they had for Diablo Cody when "Juno" came out. "Wow, she's a former stripper who wrote a screenplay." "Wow, Kevin Smith actually works at the Quick Stop,and made a movie." He is basically a comic book nerd who got extremely lucky because of this film, and his fellow comic book fan boys have catapulted this film into the stratosphere.

Not a fan of "The Late Late Show with James Corden." Almost feels like the network decided to give a high school drama geek who is really into musicals a late night talk show. The Carpool Karaoke seems like a cheap gimmick that is overused. The annoying and repetitive theme song was apparently composed by Reggie Watts, and the show's band. The theme song more or less repeats the show's title over and over. I thought that Reggie Watts was great on "Comedy Bang Bang," but so, so on this program. Seems like he doesn't want to upstage Corden.

"The Late Late Show with James Corden" is just too show tuney. It's basically one step below "The Tonight Show Starting Jimmy Fallon." When Craig Ferguson was the host it seemed far more creative in a weird and surreal way, and not in a dumbing down way.

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" seems to be the only decent broadcast late night talk show. Although Kimmel seems to be trying very hard to almost recreate "Late Night with David Letterman."

The only real positive thing that I have to say, is that James Corden doesn't have the personality of a wet blanket like his counterpart Seth Meyers, the host of "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

If you want to see an example of the lowest common denominator, watch James Corden as host of "The Late Late Show."

This will be a short review for the Comedy Central "comedy" "Another Period."

I have the main stars of the program (Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome) on my Instagram feed, and was seeing photographs of them dressed in period costumes. I thought, "Oh they must be doing an episode of the hilarious Comedy Central hit 'Drunk History.'" Then I kept seeing more, and more of the photographs, and thought, "Are they shooting multiple episodes of 'Drunk History?'"

Then I started to see promos on Comedy Central for "Another Period." I then realized what all of the Instagram photographs in period attire were for.

I wanted to like the program, but too be blunt it just isn't that funny. There are too many comedians on the show trying to play their roles straight, and in-turn they fall flat, and just come off as bad actors. Some exceptions Thomas Lennon (Marquis de Sainsbury) who seems to be hilarious in whatever he does, Christina Hendricks (Celine aka Chair) who isn't a comedian by trade, so she can actually act and is able to play the character straight with ease, Lauren Ash, and Kate Flannery from the U.S. version of "The Office." Most of the characters are annoying, and not very likable.

It's almost if series creators Leggero and Lindhome said, "Hey "Drunk History" is pretty darn funny, why don't we just have a show focus on the same characters over and over like a parody of "Downtown Abbey," but without the funny lip syncing to someone who is is drunk?" Jeremy Konner who co-created "Drunk History" is an executive producer, and director on "Another Period."

Going back to the show not being very funny, I tried to watch season one/episode three more than once and I couldn't stay awake. It is definitely NOT "Drunk History," but more of a "Saturday Night Live" skit that went on for too long.

There are some chuckles here and there, but I really can't recommend the show. If you really want to see Riki Lindhome be funny, watch her on season one repeats of "Garfunkel & Oates," with Kate Micucci on IFC.

I would be very shocked and surprised if there is a season two, but the show is on during the summer, which usually means less competition for viewers.

"Juno" has got to be one of the most overrated movies in recent memory. The annoying hipster dialog by a knocked up teenage girl along with the annoying "indie" music is tiresome. The more you watch "Juno" the more you think to yourself "this won an Oscar for best original screenplay?" I think the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with critics were enthralled by the writer Diablo Cody (not her real name and Diablo is the Spanish masculine version of the word devil, it should actually be Diabla), ex-stripper turned writer more than the actual film and then they projected that admiration towards it.

The best quote about this movie comes from "Variety's Peter Bart: "I like the movie, but it seemed to me Juno talked more like a 30-year-old ex-stripper trying to make a name for herself as a screenwriter." And that's the way that Ellen Page played the part, not as a teen but as an annoying 30 something trying to still be cool and hip.

You have to see this movie more than once in order to grasp how truly OVERRATED it is. "Knocked Up" is more realistic than this trite. I actually lowered my rating for the film.

"In the Loop" was a pretty god awful show for many reasons. One reason was the interactive part of the show via the web. This was primarily useful if you were in a market that was actually airing the show live, if not, you would have to try and get up earlier or at a different time to try to interact with the show, which is lame if you can't actually watch it at the same time.

Secondly the program's hosts were another reason this show tanked. Bill Rancic, apparently winning a reality show means that you are a superb actor/TV host and that you should have your own show. Sorry Mr. Rancic, but that phony TV jerk smile didn't fly on this show. He exuded the aholeness of a human resources rep telling you that it's nothing personal but you are fired. This show was primarily geared towards women, so I have no idea why they had stiff Rancic co-hosting. Kim Coles gave the appearance of having ADHD while being a co-host. She was just a tad annoying because of that. She didn't seem to act like a host but more like a fan who somehow got on stage by mistake to ask questions. Ereka Vetrini, should I even go there? Again being on a reality show doesn't mean that you are talented enough to be an actor in a movie or a TV show host. Vetrini seemed like the overshadowed little sister on this program because of the stronger and louder personalities of Rancic and Coles. The hosts were just not compelling enough to tune into.

Another reason that this show tanked was that it was geared towards women and not both sexes. Seriously why even have a male host if you are going to just deal with women's issues? Oh, and it was located in Chicago, which seems irrational because most of the talent that can be booked as guests are either in Los Angeles or New York. I recall Rancic or one of the other hosts frequently being in LA to do interviews with celebrities vs. being actually on set of "In the Loop." "In the Loop's" predecessor show "iVillage Live" originated in Orlando Florida. Seriously didn't NBC learn from their first mistake with the location problem? "iVillage Live" was actually worse than "In the Loop with iVillage."

I thought having celebrities sing theme songs and then having the home audience was both interesting but a flawed concept. It was OK (very gimmicky) but I really didn't care for the various celebs singing the themes. I also thought it was unfair to West Coast viewers because the show was aired live in the East Coast but taped for the West Coast. That meant that viewers out here were unable to see the performances and then vote on them because the balloting was closed.

I thought the tribute to the late Johnny Carson by David Letterman was teary eyed. Obviously Carson liked Letterman more than Jay Leno and that's probably why he was selected. I would have preferred to have seen Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen give the tribute to Carson. The clips for the tribute were basically the same ones that have been shown since Carson retired. I wish they could have made a new reel for the tribute.

The news tribute to anchors Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and the late Peter Jennings was nice to see because it gave the viewer a chance to see the importance of journalism and how having journalists who gave you the news vs. a political agenda.

The tribute to the victims of hurricane Katrina, which entailed the wearing of large Magnolia flowers, which are the state flowers of Louisiana and Mississippi, was too much. The flowers were extremely large and they looked like those comical squirting flowers on the men and like giant corsages on the women. They should have worn the "traditional" ribbons or wristbands, which are visible but not distracting.

What can I say but nice about a move that has Live Tyler in it. `Inventing the Abbott's' is a good look back at a 50's family feud where you really cant escape the small town and its mentality you have to make your own world in your head to deal with its confines. I enjoyed Live Tyler's performance as Pamela Abbott. Tyler gave the perfect nice girl next door. Jennifer Connelly was perfect as the bad girl sister. Connelly does have that girl next door look but she can also give that I want you performance of a bad girl that Tyler can't. Joaquin Phoenix as Doug Holt was blah. Phoenix just seems too gay for this role. I think that they could have found a better actor for it. Billy Crudup plays the role of Jacey Holt perfectly. He was believable as the jerky older brother that is mad at the world for what he perceives it has done to him so he lashes out at it and screws practically everyone in the process. Kathy Baker as Helen Holt played the perfect 50's mother. She had the look and gave a realistic performance of a single mother on her own. The other performances weren't bad such as Barbara Williams as Joan Abbott. She did look like the kind of mother that would be on some sort of pill. She was very cold. My favorite line in the film is when Pamela Abbott says "But unfortunately life is just not a cafeteria." The movie does drag a bit which is the only major flaw in it.