2008?!

Wow, another new year is upon us and look where we are. Still stuck watching the same old shows with no new hopes on the horizon. Since the networks have so cleverly cancelled all the promising shows, that left us (or more ostensibly, me) with yet another new year of nothing to look forward to but AMERICAN IDOL 2008. Yayyy!! Gosh, can I curb that enthusiasm or not.

Come January, there will be new auditions, new people to humiliate, new William Hung wannabes and new tight t-shirts for Simon? Can't wait for Jan 16 when my Wednesdays and Thursdays nights are filled with thrills and spills again.

Well, the year started on a low note for me as I got into my car (and with a dark foreboreding, might I add) to start my engine and find that it would not, no matter how hard I wished it wasn't the case, start. Great, first day back to work (on a Friday, no less) and that happens. I hope the year does not continue on that kind of note, else I might as well just call it in now.

So I guess it helps to have SOME things to look forward to throughout the year, aside from Idols. Movies that I would like to be able to get to at least try to if not manage to watch are: (in no particular order whatsoever)

1. Atonement - I know the movie is actually already out in 2007 but I haven't seen it yet nor has my pirated source downloaded it yet, so that makes it still something to be seen. I have been wanting to see it since I first heard of the storyline and especially so when James McAvoy was in it. I'm sure his portrayal will make the storyline all the more effective and heartwrenching but why do they have to go and put Kiera Knightly in it? And to have her go around boasting that James was the best onscreen kiss she ever had - c'mon Kiera, we already know that he is, use something else to get attention!

2. Stardust - Doobert saw this and cleverly recommended it to me. When I asked who was starring in it (as I had assumed it was the Claire Danes movie, of which I am also dying to watch), he said it was that blond girl, and I said which blond girl lah, he said, the famous one that's in that movie, I said, which movie lah, he said oh oh, the one that was in the Justin Timberlake video, and I was like oh oh Scarlett Johansson issit? And he was like, oh is that her name, I donno lah, ya, her lah. As it turned out, when I was doing some surfing online, I came across the movie and it WAS the Claire Danes one. Ishhhhh...

3. Sweeney Todd - Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp singing. Johnny Depp singing and slicing people. Need I say more?

4. Enchanted - Ok, so it's another 2007 one, maybe I should change the list to what I'd like to watch regardless of when it came out, hehe. Anyway, for a high profiled movie, I really don't know anything about it nor who's in it, except James Marsden and now I can't recall what the chick's name is. But I heard it's a romantic movie and I'm sold alone on the feel good factor it'll bring. And finally Marsden gets the girl (I hope)?

5. The Other Boleyn Girl - Well, maybe I really anticpated this when I first heard about it, but I think the initial anticipation has died down tremendously somewhat. It could be that I've already read the entire script of the movie, or it could be that I've already watched countless accounts of the Tudors' lives, or it could also be that I know the history of the Boleyns and King Henry (and his other 5 wives) even better than I know about what has been going on in my own office! (Incidentally, I just found out a lot of drama has been going on in the office that rivals those of Hong Kong's TVB serials - a recently employed colleague's wife has been harassing him and staff of the office because of her insane jealousy! Just had to get that out of my system). Well that aside, I think the only thing to watch here is probably how other people play the same characters differently. As this is a Hollywood version, I think a lot of speculative elements would be added in for dramatization's sake. I've always like Eric Bana so it should be interesting to see how his Henry pans out. And Natalie Portman as the bitch for a change. Scarlett Johansson is always a favorite, but I haven't managed to catch a lot of her movies, one which immediately comes to mind would be The Nanny Diaries. And I'm not even gonna mention the fact that they have non Brits in, essentially, what is British history. Nope, not gonna mention it.

I've been annoyed at some movies, or, more accurately, at the overrated attention these supposedly lowkey movies are getting especially from the critics, in order to propel them to the top. The overrated movies of 2007/2008:

1. Juno - with everyone touting 'up and coming star' Ellen Page to be the next breakout kid. Maybe Jamie Lynn should watch and learn from this movie (hehe), which is about a 16 year old girl getting pregnant (and by Michael Cera? Why am I so surprised that I'm not?). And what is up with this Michael Cera with his John Heder impersonation? So he was the same awkward geeky kid in Arrested Development, also the same one in Superbad, also the same one here. It's just bloody annoying, not funny. And especially in a sketch shown by E! where an interviewer appears to keep grabbing his knee (god knows why) and he keeps brushing it off like it's a geeky reflex. Just made me go, what on earth...?! Is that what humour has become nowadays? No wonder people find The Office funny. (Which by the way, is another annoying show).

2. Knocked up - with Katherine Heigl and, I'm going to feign ignorance and say, that tubby unknown Jack Black wannabe with the curly hair. What is so funny about getting knocked up on a one night stand with an ugly guy? And I don't think Heigl is THAT funny or anything (as what the critics say). And for that matter I am liking her less ever since knowing she and T.R. Knight are buddies and that his little sissy self needs Ms. Heroic to fight his battles for him.

3. Any 9/11 movies - oooh so we're allowed to talk about 9/11 and make movies about terrorists now is it? Sufficient time has passed when this is no longer a taboo subject in film making? So all those pent up stories are all rushing to be the first to be told. I think sufficient time has passed enough for this to be a boring subject as well.