May 26, 2008

David Cook - The Time Of My Life

This is the studio version (as well as the first single) from American Idol David Cook.

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Why didn't David Archuleta win American Idol?


If you are a fan of David Archuleta, you would be crying your heart out that he lost the title to David Cook. The following article from MTVAsia explains what went wrong for the early front-runner:
In a shock to pretty much everyone, it was Cook who walked away with the Idol title, and his margin of victory wasn't even close. The Comb-Over King trounced Archuleta by more than 12 million votes, leaving many Arch-aholics to clutch their Precious Moments figurines tightly, gaze heavenward and wonder just what went wrong.

Well, we're glad you asked. Because we were about as shocked as you were. So we convened an emergency meeting of the MTV News American Idol brain trust, and came up with the following list. It may not lessen the pain of his defeat, but it may get you through the tough times. Or it may just make you mad. You know, whatever.

1. He Was the New England Patriots
More than 97.5 million people tuned in to watch Super Bowl XLII, which featured the undefeated, incredibly hyped (and heavily favored) Patriots take on the New York Giants. And of that audience, do you think more people wanted to see the Pats win and secure their rightful place in history, or lose epically, in a big, bursting ball of flames? Basically, ever since February, when he took a seat behind the big black piano and belted out a version of John Lennon's "Imagine" Archuleta was the Idol version of the Patriots: constantly hyped, shoved down everyone's throats and crowned long before the season was over. Also like the Patriots, none of this was really Arch's fault. Still, the damage was done. America hates a front-runner, which is why there was much rejoicing when the Giants upset the Patriots, and why, in the end, 12 million more people decided to cast their vote for David Cook.

2. He Was Incongruous
David Archuleta mid-note? Graceful, skilled, soulful and powerful. David Archuleta mid-conversation? Gawking, stammering, awkward and goofy. In the history of Idol, there has perhaps been no other contestant who displayed such a disparity between the personal and the professional, and in the end, that cost him. We all loved Archuleta the performer, but after his 47th "aw, shucks" interview (highlighting his bizarre breathing pattern), we were ready to show Archuleta the person the door. This is basically the same thing that did in Melinda Doolittle last season.

3. He Was Al Gore
Or, more specifically, his supporters were Florida Democrats. During the 2000 election, all five major networks called the state of Florida for Democratic candidate Al Gore at 7 p.m. EST, despite the fact that the panhandle of the state actually falls in the Central time zone, meaning that polls there would remain open for another hour. Theoretically, the fact that Gore was the presumed winner could've discouraged Democrats in the panhandle from heading out to the polls, since their candidate had already carried the state. Gore ended up losing Florida by a total of 537 votes. Could Tuesday night's Idol telecast - in which all three judges basically crowned Archuleta as the Idol champ before polls had even opened - have had the same effect? Were Archuleta fans discouraged from voting because they assumed he already had the competition in the bag?

4. He Has a Creepy Stage Dad
There's no nice way to say this: Arch's dad gave pretty much everyone the heebie-jeebies (the goatee, the hat, the resemblance to Kevin Pollak in The Usual Suspects) and his constant presence - not to mention the rumors that his brazen careerism made Joan Crawford and Dina Lohan look like concerned, caring parents - ruined the whole "diamond in the rough" thing for his son. Instead, many came to see Archuleta as a robotic singing machine that had been trained (forced?) to perform since the age of 12 (you know, when he was on Star Search) by his taskmaster father. And when Idol producers banned his father from the backstage area, well, let's just say that didn't help matters any.

5. He Was One-Dimensional
In the end, the biggest knock against Archuleta was that he never showed he had range outside the majestic world of balladry. His choices of songs never strayed much from tried-and-true schmaltz (Robbie Williams' "Angels," the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road," Neil Diamond's "America"), and when he did try to stretch things a bit, the results were disastrous, like his take on Chris Brown's "With You." While all this may have made him a mortal lock for the cats-and-cardigans set, it didn't endear him much to anyone between the ages of 12 and 40. There's a reason the show isn't called Adult Contemporary Idol.


May 16, 2008

Scarlett Johansson & Penelope Cruz's lesbian kiss


Scarlett Johansson & Penelope Cruz will share a hot and steamy lesbian sex scene in Woody Allen's upcoming movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Apparently there's also a threesome scene with actor Javier Bardem ("No Country For Old Men").
Just as New York City was the backdrop in Woody Allen's "Manhattan," the stunning city of Barcelona is the setting for the romantic adventures of Vicky and Cristina. These two young Americans spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist (Javier Bardem) and his beautiful but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is straight-laced and about to be married. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is a sexually adventurous free spirit. When they all become amorously entangled, the results are both hilarious and harrowing.

May 7, 2008

The Incredible Hulk - Behind The Scenes

After 'Iron Man', the next superhero movie to hit our screens this summer will be 'The Incredible Hulk'. Marvel Studios thought that the Ang Lee's version released in 2003 was crap, so they decided to make another one on their own. This version stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner aka Hulk. Tim Roth stars asEmil Blonsky aka The Abomination.

Here's a behind-the-scenes clip of the movie which will be released on 13th June 2008.




May 6, 2008

Marvel announces Iron Man sequel and more!


With 'Iron Man' soaring into the box office records with a $100.75 million opening weekend debut, Marvel Studios have already started planning the follow-up. The following is taken from Marvel.com:
Fans can expect a second film to hit theaters on April 30, 2010! And a few months later in July, the mighty Thor himself will wield his enchanted hammer across the big screen courtesy of director Matthew Vaughn!

Pumped yet? You should be—and you haven't heard the best part! The summer of 2011 will kick off in style with a Captain America movie, followed just two short months later with the July-debuting Avengers!


May 5, 2008

Iron Man 'hidden' ending

I know most of you missed the 'hidden' ending which came on after 10 minutes of the credits. So here's a low quality clip for all of you taken from YouTube:



May 3, 2008

Movie endings that you might have missed

Are you one of those people who walks out of the cinema immediately once the credits start rolling? Or are you one of the few who stays behind and read the credits until the end? If you are the former, you might have missed some great endings to some of the movies.

Nowadays, the directors tend to put additional scenes during or after the credits as an inside joke or a teaser for a possible sequel.

Here's some recent blockbusters with "hidden" endings:

(**Beware: Spoilers Alert**)

Pirates of the Caribbean

We see Captain Barbossa dead in the cave. The monkey is swimming through the water up to the ground and scurries up to the chest of gold. He picks up one of the pieces and you see him turn into a skeleton in the moonlight. The monkey shrieks and lunges towards the camera as the film ends.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

The cannibals are dancing on the island. We see the dog that was left behind sitting on the throne with a bone in his mouth. He has been made chief of the cannibal tribe.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End

The words 'Ten Years Later' is shown on the screen. We see a little boy of about ten years old running through the fields by the shore, followed shortly by Elizabeth (Kiera Knightley). The pair walks to the edge of the cliff. Elizabeth puts her hand around the boy as both of them watch the sunset. Both of them are humming the tune of "A Pirate's Life for Me". Suddenly there's a green flash of light and both Elizabeth and the boy looks at each other and smile. The scene cuts to Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) hanging on the mast of his ship and he smiles.

The Simpsons Movie

During the rolling of the credits, the Simpsons appear discussing why they are watching the credits. As they get up to leave, Marge tells them that she thinks Maggie is going to say her first word. The word turns out to be "sequel".

At the end of the credits, a cinema worker appears moaning that he spent so many years at film school to sweep up the rubbish and that being assistant manager is not all its cracked up to be.

Constantine

Constantine (Keanu Reeves) visits the gravestone of Chas Kramer (Shia LaBeouf). He leaves his ornamented lighter on top of the stone and says "You did good, kid". As he walks away, Constantine sees Chas' angelic form pause on top of the gravestone. Chas spreads his wings and flies up to the sky.

Daredevil

A couple of guards stand outside a room. Inside, Bullseye (Colin Farrell) lies on a bed in a full-body cast. A fly is buzzing around his face. He starts to reach for a hypodermic needle on a nearby table. The scene cuts back to the guards outside the room. Then we hear a swishing sound. Next, we see the fly pinned to the wall with the hypodermic needle. Bullseye smiles and says "Bullseye."

X-Men 3: The Last Stand

We see Dr Moira MacTaggart and a catatonic patient. (The patient is the same one that Xavier showed on the screen during one of his lectures.) The patient wakes up and says, "Hello Moira," and she says, "Charles?". (This implies that Xavier's mind has transferred into the catatonic patient.)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Lucy sneaks back into the room with the wardrobe. She opens it up and is about to go in when we hear the professor say, "It won't work." He tells Lucy that he's been trying to get back in for a long time with no luck. Lucy asks if they'll ever be able to go back, and he says that they just need to keep their eyes open for the right door. As the two leave the room, the door starts to close by itself, but before it does we can see sunlight shining out and hear a lion's magnificent roar.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The scene returns to Diagon Alley, and the 'Flourish and Blotts' bookstore, where a new book is shown in the front window. "Who Am I?" by Gilderoy Lockhart, featuring a wizard photo of the man in a straitjacket, smiling and looking about happily.

Cloverfield

Technically this is not really an additional scene, but a sound which is heard - some static filled, garbled sort of transmission that lasted a couple of seconds. It sounded like somebody saying "Help us". But when played backwards, it says, "It's still alive!".

and finally, the latest blockbuster to hit town.....

Iron Man

Tony Stark comes home and catches sight of a figure in his living room facing the balcony glass window. The figure says "You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr Stark, you're part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet".

"Who the hell are you?" Tony asks. The figure slowly turns around, and we see it's Samuel L.Jackson wearing an eye-patch. He answered "Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. I'm here to talk to you about the Avanger Initiative".

May 2, 2008

Edison Chen is back!


This movie was supposed to have been released earlier but due to Edison Chen's sex scandal, the release date was pushed back. This is Edison's last movie before the scandal broke, so we might not see him in another movie for a long time to come. 'Sniper' is directed by Dante Lam, and stars Richie Jen, Edison Chen and China actor, Huang Xiaoming.
MING (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. But behind the legend lies a skeleton in the closet: his former teammate and superb marksman CHING (Huang Xiaoming), who was jailed for accidentally killing a hostage, has just been released. With only vengeance in his mind, Ching determines to take on Ming and the police, believing they are the real culprits for his fall.

When a high-security prisoner transfer is sabotaged by a mysterious sniper and a major convict has escaped, Ming and his team are dispatched to profile the suspect. O (Edison Chen), the hot-headed rookie on the team, surprises everyone by accurately replicating the suspect’s impossible shots. Ming sees the potential in this youngster and decides to take him under his wing. Yet when O becomes fascinated by Ching and determines to top his shooting skills, he might become another wild card on the loose.

Meanwhile, Ching continues his plan with the largest heist ever in the city. Believing that Ming had withheld key evidence that could free him, Ching decides to lure his target in by holding Ming’s daughter as hostage and re-enacting that fateful day. It is the ultimate showdown amongst three expert snipers in the Hong Kong cityscape.