Considered by many as "larger than life" not only in stature, but his music, Notorious pays tribute to the talented Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G.) who passed long before his time.

The movie takes us back to his childhood where as an intelligent kid, Wallace gave up school to sell dope on the streets, unbeknownst to his mother Voletta (Angela Bassett) until he was almost an adult. He was addicted to making money no matter the cost, as shown when he doesn't hesitate to sell crack to a pregnant women.

There we follow him into adulthood. From landing in jail, to landing a record deal with the help of Sean "Puffy" Combs, Notorious depicts Wallace as a boy with a calm and charming demeanor, yet has a lot of growing up to do. Yes, his ability to create and deliver lyrics is phenomenal and came to him with ease. However, his rise to the top in this film finds a way to spin the childish, wreckless behavior of his personal life. It feels like the film tries to overly soften Wallace's image, as he's selling drugs, neglecting his daughter or cheating on his wife, Faith Evans (Antonique Smith).

The casting of Jamal Woolard as Wallace was an absolutely brilliant move. Woolard nails his portrayal of The Notorious B.I.G. with every mannerism, and it's fascinating to watch him bring this film to life. Naturi Naughton also does a great job as the feisty Lil Kim. It's funny watching Derek Luke as Sean Combs. With the real Sean Combs as Executive Producer of the movie, it's only natural that his charcters comes off as the one that keeps Wallace's eyes on the prize, and continually provides him with wise insight on life with quotes like, "You can't change the world until you change yourself." Unfortunately, Tupac's (Anthony Mackie) character is hard to watch; he comes off as nothing more than a caricature.

The movie does show the East Coast/West Coast feud and how it became out of hand during Biggie's perspective, but doesn't get into detail about his (or Tupac's) murder because it's a film about his life, not an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries." Near the end Wallace seems to go into reflective mode about his life, citing that he's finally realized what really matters most in life (aka his family). However, that comes off as being too cheesy and screams "something bad is going to happen, so we have to give his character pseudo peace and realization of his maturation."

Notorious is a fairly solid biopic that covers the highlights of Biggie's life just enough for fans and newcomers alike to enjoy.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Revolutionary Road is one of those films that could easily reinforce fear into anyone who already feels as if they're "trapped" in their life.

Frank (Leo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) are just like any other married couple living in suburbia in the fifties: they have a nice house and two kids. Frank is a businessman and April is a homemaker. They've settled into a nice life on Revolutionary Road, but THAT is the problem. Frank hates his job and April hates the fact that she never fulfilled her dream of becoming an actress. Each one allows the fact they're going through the motions of what they believe is a dull, mundane life gnaw at them until the breaking point, which they take out on each other in explosive arguments. Their marriage has led them into a hopeless, empty life.

April believes they can escape if they pack up and move to Paris, because it makes perfect sense to uproot your kids (who we only see literally 3 or 4 times in the movie) and move the family across the Atlantic. Frank eventually agrees, but it's funny to watch as all of their friends or coworkers seem to think it's a silly idea. Of course the promise of Paris comes to an end once Frank is offered a promotion at work, and April discovers she's pregnant. All of their decisions are, in their minds, meant to grant them each the life they want. However, in reality their motives are purely selfish. They somehow believe they are special. But once their dreams are spoiled yet again...let the mega meltdown begin.

The best parts of this movie are during Frank and April's fights. It's one of those situations where it feels "eerily familiar"...you know what I mean. Their fights get more intense as the movie goes along, as the pure emotion flows from DiCaprio and Winslet's brilliant performances. With their chemistry you'd think they'd been acting together for years, though this is the first time they've been together since "Titanic."

Michael Shannon also gives a GREAT performance as John. Recently released from a mental institution, he's the son of a real estate agent (Kathy Bates). Not only does John's vocal and incredibly blunt nature provide humor, it also serves a knife that cuts right through Frank and April's delusional bullcrap. John shows no mercy as he calls them both out and force feeds them the reality neither wants to face. I'd say Michael Shannon more than earned his Oscar nomination this year for "Best Supporting Actor."

I felt like the story in Revolutionary Road unraveled a bit at the end, and I didn't like the fact that Frank and April's children were nowhere to be seen almost the entire movie. However, that's minor considering the fact that DiCaprio and Winslet both give Oscar-worthy performances. It's quite a shame neither were nominated.

RATING: 9 out of 10

Inkheart is virtually a two-hour promotion about the "power of books" and how your imagination can bring them to life.

Mo (Brendan Fraser) is a guy called a "silvertongue"; someone who can bring characters, etc. from books to life simply by reading the book aloud. After accidentally freeing a villain name Capricorn years ago from the book "Inkheart," and Mo's wife Resa goes missing, he and his daughter Meggie go on an adventure to defeat Capricorn and find Resa.

Sounds innocent, yeah? Innocent, and boring. What starts off as a pretty straightforward and interesting movie turns into a heaping bowl of chaos and confusion. Mo and Meggie get help from Dustfinger, a character from "Inkheart" who can create fire on command. It's not until the end that we see him use it in a productive manner. I screamed at him the entire movie; YOU CAN MAKE FIRE...FREAKIN USE IT TO BURN CAPRICORN AND HIS GOONS TO A CRISP YOU JERK!

Mo's aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) also tags along. Why Helen, why would you agree to take on such a bad character? Elinor's dialogue is bad, and her character is a waste. Midway through the movie Elinor decided she was going to just go home and I thought "Damn, it's bad when your characters decide to bail on you before the end of the movie." She eventually returns and she's even worse than before.

Elinor isn't the only "waste of space" character. They all are to an extent, except for maybe Meggie. Several times Mo or other silvertongues bring characters to life. Capricorn has a collection of them at his castle ranging from minotaurs, to flying monkeys. Even Toto from "The Wizard of Oz" is there through a good portion of the movie. The ending gave me a slap-you-in-the-face feeling. They sputtered along for two hours to do something that could've been done in a few minutes. I spent way too much time calling characters idiots because their screw ups were there to obviously prolong the plot longer than it should've been.

It's great that a movie promotes reading as hard as this one does. However, I'd expect a movie about the power and eloquence of books to be less sporadic and more clear. Take the passion the creators obviously have for books and place that passion inside the characters, not along side them through characters from some of the most popular books of all time. Oh, and Jennifer Connelly appears very briefly in the movie a couple of times. Her eyebrows now officially scare me.

RATING: 2.5 out of 10
LoLz Factor: 1 out of 10. "You're as sour as goat's urine."

So there I was, sitting in the movie theater as the ending credits for "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" started rolling. I thought to myself "What in the hell just happened?" It wasn't until five minutes before I started writing this that I found out this movie is a prequel to the first two Underworld movies. Really?

Rise of the Lycans takes you all the way back to the beginning of the Vampire/Lycan drama. A baby named Lucian is born, the first Lycan EVER! Before him, werewolves were just mindless beasts, but he's the first human-form lycan. Viktor, the lead vampire, finds him. Instead of stepping on the baby's head like a real villain would, he decides to be kind and enslave Lucian instead, along with others of his kind. Of course when there's vampires there's always romance, so Lucian has a secret love affair with Viktor's daughter, Sonja. This is so Romeo and Juliet-ish, and is a distraction to what should be a violent, manly film.

The action scenes are alright. Even though it obviously looks fake, you've gotta love watching a lycan get beheaded while blood squirts everywhere. Raze (aka the big black guy) sounded like Worf from Star Trek. I felt no connection to the characters whatsoever. I also felt no sympathy. I was slightly bored until Lucian and the lycans FINALLY decided to rise up and rebel.

This is the second straight movie I've watched where the ending has been crap. I told you I didn't realize Rise of the Lycans was a prequel, so it looked like it was setting up for the next movie, obviously. But now in retrospect, it's as if they wrapped this movie up in a rushed manner just to keep continuity leading into the first Underworld.

At this point I'm sure I'm babbling right now, so here's the final verdict: there was no need to create a prequel. Why should I believe this adds anything substantial to the Underworld series? It doesn't. This is more of a movie for the Underworld fans to "sink" their teeth into while the creators work on a fourth film. You could've just told jokes until that film came out.

A vampire and a lycan walk into a bar...

RATING: 3.5 out of 10

Wow.

I enjoy R-Rated Horror because (as I've said many times) I enjoy watching people get dismembered by an indiscriminate force. I knew it had that, AND it was in 3-D. I was so excited for this movie. Imagine a head getting chopped off and flying in your direction. Heaven!

However, My Bloody Valentine 3-D is a great example of how a horrifyingly bad story can ruin everything.

A guy named Tom returns to his hometown to sell the mine his family owned. It's 10 years after 22 people were massacred in the mine. The guy who did it is apparently dead, but after Tom returns to town people start getting slaughtered again so he's suspected of being the killer. There's really no explanation as to why the original killer went on a killing spree. Heck, there's really no reason as to why the current guy is on a killing spree.

The characters are pretty worthless too. I could care less that Tom sorta misses his old girlfriend Sarah, who's now married to their old friend Axel (who you'll recognize as "one of those guys from Dawson's Creek"), who's secretly screwing Sarah's employee Megan. They introduce these characters in the opening flashback as teens (which you don't realize it's a flashback until it's over...STUPID), and throughout the rest of the film they proceed as if we know them like they were our BFF.

The 3-D for this movie was underutilized and 100% oversold in the commercials. Yeah you get an eyeball here, blood flying there, but it was more of a hinderance than anything. The daytime scenes were fine, but when it was nighttime it was a little too dark to see much given the fact the glasses are tinted. You're almost better off watching it all blurred without the glasses.

Yes I laughed at the deaths. I found some of them quite humorous. I mean how is it not funny when a guy rips your jaw clean off with a pickaxe? However, all of that was VOID once we were subjected to "the big reveal." I think it was the worst "reveal" of a killer in the history of movies. The reasoning behind it is enough to make you take the 3-D glasses and poke your eyes out with them, then have your friends dump your body in the blue "Recycle Your 3-D Glasses Here" box placed outside the theater entrance.

Sitting in my desk at work, there's a partially-written, "horror-ish" mini-movie script that I started a long time ago. I'm almost tempted to dig it out and finish it, because I'm sure that it could be better than My Bloody Valentine. Apparently they thought they could get away with creating a crappy movie because viewers would be too distracted by the fact it's in 3-D. My Bloody Valentine 3-D is, so far, the biggest disappointment of 2009.

RATING: 1 out of 10

LoLz Factor: 4 out of 10. The deaths get a little boring after a while (there's only so many ways to kill someone with just a pickaxe). But one of them makes me wonder, are dryers these days powerful enough to burn the flesh off of someone? If so, I may need to look into getting one because the one here at my house sucks. :-/

Paul Blart is good for only two things:

1) Making you aware that hypoglycemia exists.
2) Saturating you with the idea that Segways are awesome.

Paul Blart: hypoglycemic loser who lives with his mom and daughter. Paul Blart: Mall Cop who takes his job too seriously. While working he falls for a girl named Amy, who works at a kiosk in the mall. A girl, who in real life, would NEVER...EVER give a guy like Blart the time of day.

After taking way too long to set things up, the action finally happens when a group of thugs take over the mall. These weren't just ordinary thugs; they're skateboard-riding, bike-pedaling, jump-and-flip-over-anything-and-everything-because-it's-the-only-way-we-can-make-the-bad-guys-seem-interesting thugs. And unfortunately they're so stupid that they easily get taken out by Paul, one by one.

Once the mall takeover happens, the story goes into near boring mode. It's either Blart chasing or being chased by the bad guys, or he's sneaking around the mall like a buffoon. A lot of the humor is supposed to be either slapstick, or Paul making fun of his weight. It was okay at best. Instead, I chose to sit there in the theater and wonder things like "How in the world did this movie become the number one film at the box office this weekend?", and "Why is everyone else in the theater laughing hysterically at Blart as he puts a 'Hello Kitty' band-aid on a tiny scratch?"

I do have to admit, there were a few times where I laughed out. But when I say I laughed a few times, I literally mean a few times and that's it. A few times in a comedy movie that's 90 minutes is not nearly enough.

RATING: 2 out of 10

LoLz Factor: 3 out of 10. A few great laughs, but that's about it. Ever wonder what Paul Blart is like when he's drunk? You'll see. The card is cheesy funny too. It's PG and has no crude humor, so the LoLz Factor for families is MUCH higher (6 of 10).

I'd been waiting three months to see this. Ever since I watched "The Diary of Anne Frank" back in 8th grade, any Holocaust-related movie gets to me. The idea of having to hide for your life for months, even years to avoid innocent persecution is indescribable. Maybe that's why my heart was racing all throughout Defiance, even when there was nothing happening.

Defiance is the story of three Jewish brothers (Tuvia, Zus and Asael) who escape Nazi forces after they're parents are murdered and build a community in the Belarussian forest. It starts off just them wandering the woods, but as the movie progresses more Jews flock to the forest in need of help and they begin to build a village in order to sustain them all.

There's all sorts of conflicts going on. First they're hiding from the SS squads who are constantly patroling the villages around the woods. There's also the conflict between Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus (Liev Schreiber) as they disagree about many things. Tuvia doesn't want to turn away anyone that comes for help, but Zus doesn't want to be responsible for feeding and protecting them all. Zus wants to go on a German killing spree; Tuvia doesn't want to become monsters like them. Also, Tuvia must deal with the trials of being the leader of a group of people that grows into the hundreds.

As many separate conflicts were going on, it felt like the movie was spreading itself thin by focusing on so many different things. Zus and a few of the men leave the group to go fight with Russian resistance fighters. The movie would cut between them and the village, and it was hard to feel attached during those times.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed when they focused on the plight of Tuvia and those in the forest. I immersed myself into those scenes, trying to feel what it would be like to be in such a terrifying situation. One scene that's burned in my mind is after a night of killing Germans (instead of bringing back food), it shows the group, still pretty small at this point, sitting there in the woods in dead silence. The look on everyone's face as they haven't eaten for days is gripping. Scenes where they do have food, they get one bite of a pickle and pass it on; they get one spoonful of soup and pass it on. When they fight they're out powered and out numbered. Don't even get me started about how horrifying the winter months had to have been; they run out of food, and people either get sick or develop frostbite.

I thought this movie was great, even if its storytelling elements were predictable. It's great to see a movie where the Jews weren't portrayed as completely helpless or held captive. Always running, always hiding, but willing to fight back...HARD. The action scenes were well done. I was on the edge of my seat because the Germans were portrayed as this looming threat that could discover them hiding in the woods at any time; and they do find them. And you'll have to go see Defiance to find out what happens.

RATING: 8.5 out of 10

I'm a morbid jerk, so when I first saw the trailer for this movie months ago, I thought it looked AWESOME! Then about a week ago when I finally saw the commercial for it on tv, I was convinced it was going to be BAD for two reasons:

1) It's a PG-13 rated horror movie. After all these months I had apparently assumed it was rated R.

2) It's tagged as the movie brought to you by "The Co-Writer of The Dark Knight (David S. Goyer)." You're gonna mooch off TDK with THIS?!? Jackass.

The concept is somewhat interesting: a girl named Casey is basically fighting off a spirit that wants to possess/kill her. During all of this she finds out she had a twin brother who died in the womb, and "He wants to be born!" Every aspect of this movie is poorly executed. There's nothing to say about the acting, except for I nearly cried when I saw Gary Oldman's mustache was missing. HE WILL ALWAY BE COMMISHUUUUNERRR GORDON IN MY HEART, so the plot I came up with in my head was that Commissioner Gordon retired, left Gotham City, and became a Rabbi. It's the only way I could keep interest.

There was a stretch of about thirty minutes where I was thoroughly bored. There was incredibly way too much time spent following Casey around, talking about the demon, her past, and her freaking out because it wants to kill her. Here's an idea for The Unborn 2: Less talk, More Exorcism. Yet even with Commissioner Gordon, the exorcism was anticlimactic. The ending was random and vomit-inducing.

The biggest travesty of course were the deaths. You know, when I watch a horror film it's because I want to see people screaming for their lives as they're being dismembered. I'm so disappointed in the way Meagan Good's character was treated. She is beyond fine, and deserved a more beautiful, brutal death than what she received. Heck, everyone that died in the movie had lame deaths. David Goyer, you should be ashamed of yourself.

The Unborn isn't scary. The only thing I was scared of was that I might've had to get in a fight with the people sitting around us in the theater because Chloë and I kept laughing loudly at everything. There were many unintentionally funny moments (which I'll detail in a bit). Chloë said I should give this movie a HIGH rating, but I simply can't. As a matter of fact, because of this movie I've had to add an additional rating system to measure its "laugh out loud" factor. Never has excitement turned into disappointment so quickly for a movie.

RATING: 3.5 out of 10

The LoLz Factor: 6 out of 10. Welcome to the "LoLz Factor," which is basically determined by how much the movie made me...laugh out loud. The Unborn was very bad. However, I can admit it was quite funny even though it wasn't supposed to be. Possessed fetuses? Granny getting the high, hard one (NOT in the good way)? Commissioner Gordon performing a Jewish Exorcism? There were many nuggets of laughter, but not enough for my taste. I would've loved to watch the demon try to get his breastfeed on instead of trying to climb into Casey's tummy. And the dog wearing the mask should've been in the movie more often!

It's one thing to have a fairy tale. It's something completely different to have a fairy tale done right. Slumdog Millionaire is that completely different something.

Slumdog Millionaire is about an Indian boy named Jamal Malik, an uneducated street kid who finds himself one question away from winning the final prize (20 million rupees) on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." However, he gets thrown in jail because they think he cheated. There's no way some punk kid could've known all of those answers...right?

This is where the incredible storytelling comes in. To prove he's innocent, he tells the story of his life, from witnessing the death of his mother to adventures with his brother Salim. He's able to describe in detail how he knew the answer to each "Millionaire" question through the various events he's been through in his life. The answers are so subtly presented within the story, and feel so minor in comparison to the situations he finds himself in. The visuals are stunning enough to leave you tense with anticipation.

They could've overdone it with the romance, but they didn't. Jamal meets Latika after the death of their families. They keep getting separated throughout the movie, going for years without seeing each other, yet they never forget each other. Other than when they're young, there's no emphasis on developing their relationship. The rest of the way it's driven purely by his idea of her; his desire to be with her. It's Jamal's quest to not let anything stand in the way of him reuniting with Latika, and the movie isn't cheesy about it.

Using flashbacks to tell the story of this kid from the slums is smoother than I have ever seen. The fusion of real time, flashbacks from the game and flashbacks to Jamal's childhood is seamlessly brilliant. There's never a dull moment, and it's one of those rare films that evokes the entire range of emotions. It also captures and engages you in a culture completely different from America's. I couldn't help but think about Benjamin Button while writing this because of its great flashback element. However, Slumdog seemed to do the same thing, but did it better and in a shorter amount of time. Slumdog Awesomeness.

RATING: 10 out of 10

It's been forever since I've blogged here! Since August of '08 I've started going to movies and writing reviews about them. Why? I have no idea, really. I was going to post all of my movie reviews since then, but unfortunately it'd take way too long. I'm just going to start by posting the ones I've done so far in 2009. To read any of my reviews from 2008, you can check out my movie blog.

It's been a long time since I've seen an old man say the words "Get off my lawn," while pointing a rifle in someone's face. In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays Walt, that crotchety old war vet neighbor that you absolutely hate at the beginning. He is the epitome of cynical and antisocial. His character is so crass and vivid, it's like getting a bucket of cold water dumped on you while you're asleep. Walt is a bigot, so just know he's throwing out curse words and derogatory remarks left and right throughout the entire movie.

The story idea is a good and simple concept. A gang tries to recruit his young next-door neighbor Thao by having him steal Walt's Gran Torino. After failing miserably and being called lovely names like my new favorite word pusscake, Thao tries to make it up to Walt by doing odd jobs around the neighborhood. An even more odd friendship forms as Walt teaches Thao life skills to stay away from gang life, and Thao (and his sister Sue) help Walt learn about their culture as well as not take life so seriously.

It's awesome watching the slow transition of Walt's character from a hostile loner into a mentor of sorts. He still maintains his bitter edge throughout it all, making it believable. The supporting casts' acting is awful and their characters are undeveloped, but it's to the point of being unintentionally funny...I like unintentionally funny. BUT I think the film's natural feel would've been ruined had they cast well-known actors in those supporting roles. The ending is predictable and kind of over-the-top, and that's the only part of the movie that felt contrived. However everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) good about this movie rests completely on the shoulders of Clint Eastwood. It is simple, yet refreshing. I mean how can you not help but think an old man who beats down a gangsta in their own front yard is badass? He does a great job, foul mouth and all.

RATING: 8 out of 10

Season 7, the longest season of Degrassi ever(24 episodes) is finally over. After seven years we finally got to see Emma and her best friends graduate, no longer bound to the halls of Degrassi. With that said, all of the original cast of Degrassi: TNG has graduated and are moving onto their lives post high school.

Now what? The creators say it's now onto Season 8. I'm not sure that's a very good idea.

In seasons 6 and 7 we saw the younger part of the cast at Degrassi, while the older cast was living the college life. Now with all of the original cast either off at college, or being written off, Where does the school Degrassi stand itself? It's going to be left in the hands of a group of newer characters who joined the show in season 7, and a brand new group of characters that will be introduced in season 8.

Anyone who has watched season 7 knows that this group of newer characters are incapable of holding up this show as main characters. Danny, Derek, Peter, Jane, Holly J, Anya, Holly J, Lucas, Mia...Mia and Lucas have potential, but the rest of those characters have no depth to them whatsoever. I'm sure the new characters that will arrive in season 8 will be worse.

Degrassi was always good at introducing new characters. Even during the Degrassi High series of the 80's. Characters would usually appear, first as background characters, then they'd become main characters in a slow-transition fashion. Now characters just appear out of nowhere, and they're supposed to take the place of the characters we've known and loved for years. Think of it this way: would you still enjoy "Friends" or any other tv show as much if after 7 or 8 seasons they decided to replace Monica, Chandler and the gang with a whole new group of people?

Even worse is the fact that it's obvious the writers are running out of ideas for compelling storylines that made Degrassi what it is. Darcy is the only character that would possibly have an interesting storyline in season 8, and she'd be the best character out of anyone at Degrassi if she were going to be around. However, the actress that plays her (Shenae Grimes) is leaving the show for a lead role in the new 90210 show.

Since the stories of the Degrassi students are going to be crap in season 8, one of the biggest questions is going to be how will they focus on the college kids? Emma and Manny are going to the same school, so it's obvious they'll still be around. Since Liberty is going off to Banting by herself, consider her gone from the show. What's going to happen to Jimmy and Spinner? Since Marco, Ellie and Paige aren't roommates anymore...oh wait...hopefully Marco and Ellie will be written off because their characters have become useless. The actress that plays Paige (Lauren Collins) will leave the show in season 8, and if they don't follow up on Paige's possible illness before she does, then the show has screwed itself.

The quality of episodes in season 7 was up and down. One episode could be great, then the next episode could be absolute crap. I have a feeling season 8 may be the worst season ever by a landslide. However, here's some things that may keep Season 8's head above water:

*Focus a lot on Mia/Lucas. They're Degrassi's only hope.
*Don't give big storylines to any of the new characters that will be introduced in Season 8.
*Lots of Emma/Manny interaction. Don't allow either of them to get back together with any of their exes.
*Don't write off Jimmy and/or Spinner.
*DO write off Marco and Ellie.
*Find out what happens with Paige's illness before her character is written off.

Degrassi:7 Ways Season 7 COULD Be Great

by Kary Bowser

It doesn't take much to notice that Degrassi isn't the same show it was when it started six years ago. I remember when I started watching the show during season three, the best season hands down, and the characters seemed so innocent, yet vulnerable. Change is inevitable, since it IS a teen drama about growing up and becoming mature, but somehow that message is becoming lost in the shuffle of a teen drama who's putting more emphasis on the drama part these days.

This show isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the storylines have definitely gone downhill since the school shooting in season four. Degrassi is about to go into its seventh season. Here is a list of seven things Degrassi can do in season seven to help return the show to its mid-series glory:

1) Tone down the relationships.

Just to make a point, I'm going to list all of the relationships or hookups that were focused onin season six:

- Emma & Peter
- Emma & Sean
- Jimmy & Ashley
- Spinner & Darcy
- Peter & Darcy
- Jesse & Ellie
- Ellie & Craig
- JT & Liberty
- JT & Mia
- Toby & Liberty
- Craig & Manny
- Manny & Damien
- Marco & Dylan
- Alex & Carla
- Paige & Spinner
- Paige & Jesse
- Paige & Alex

Focus on relationships much?

2) Get the Lakehurst kids involved, ASAP.

Lots of people are having a hard time understanding why some of the Lakehurst kids are suddenly having to transfer to Degrassi halfway during the school year. My response: stop overthinking it. It's not as if the reason they're transferring is because the school board decided to "paint all of thehallways pretty new colors" or something. Anyway, I think the writers need to thrust these kids into the spotlight immediately. Degrassi has a long history dating back to the Degrassi Junior High days of using people as background or secondary characters, THEN bringing them to the forefront as a main character after a while. Some believe that only the characters who have been there since forever should be the ones getting the major storylines, but I disagree. The logic is simple: fresh faces present an opportunity for fresh storylines.

3) Create intriguing subplots.

In season seven, twenty-four episodes are going to take place over the course of one semester of school: that's more than double the amount that could've occurred inany other season. The subplot is a great way to have fun with the show, but at the same time tie into the overall message of the episode. The subplots for Degrassi have been lackluster the past couple of seasons because they're either not interesting, or they focus on one of the other main plots from the season. Whatever happened to the fun subplots, you know, the ones with JT and Toby being silly or following around Spinner, Jimmy and the rest of that gang? Derek and Danny are supposed to be the "new" version of the "JT and Toby comedy relief duo", but they are not funny to watch at all. The main story archsfor season seven are probably going to be streched out longer, since this is the longest season Degrassi's ever had. I'm not saying the subplots need to be funny, but they do need to be interesting.

4) Spread out the characters' plots.

In season six, Paige dealt with the pressures of college in a two-parter called "Free Fallin". The episode directly after that, we follow Paige as she tries to spice up her love life in "Love My Way". The same thing happened following the Sean/Emma/Peter love triange in 601, 602 and 603. Focusing on a Degrassi character formore than two consecutive episodes is character overload (Best example: See Manning, Craig: Seasons 3-4). It might not seem like it in the overall scheme of a season, but to the average Degrassi fan it seems as if you're spending too much time with one character, when you could be spending it onone of the characters who doesn't receive as much face time.

5) Have more than one breakout star.

Deanna Casaluce (Alex) wins my award for "Breakout Star of Season 6". I thought she did a phenomenal job of portraying Alex throughout all of the ups and downs her character had to go through. I don't think anyone's had a breakout season like her since Jake Epstein in season two. Cast members that I'm predicting could have a breakout year in season seven: Shane Kippel (Spinner), Sarah Barrable-Tishauer (Liberty), and possibly one of the Lakehurst transfers.

6) Don't make the college kids lame.

...Too late. The college kids (Paige, Marco, Ellie, Dylan) provided what were the most boring and/or disappointing storylines of season six. Rarely did we actually see any college action, but 99 percent of the storylines for them were self-contained, relationship plots. How many times do we have to watch Ellie deal with her love life, or hear Marco complain about how he feels Dylan doesn't love him enough? Though they're technically still in high school, the only saving grace for the group of college kids was that Jimmy and Spinner still hung out with them. Oh, and on a side note: Where in the hell is Jay?

7) Get back to focusing on the ISSUES.

Degrassi's trademark is its ability to deal with real teen issues, in a realistic manner (most of the time). However, if you've noticed in seasons five and six, the issues have been pushed aside and nearly replaced by the catty relationship bug that is the focal point of all other teen dramas today. The executive producer of Degrassi himself recently admitted that the show has "veered a litle bit too much into the relationships, and didn't explore the issues and their reamifications quite as deeply as in the past." The fact that he's aware of it and intends to make a change gives me hope that season seven will indeed be pretty great.

I currently have a blog that I write in daily over at wordpress.com. I recently started posting Degrassi newsin my blog that other fans find. My blog hits have easily quadrupled since then, with people searching all over the web for season 7 info (wordpress allows you to see what people were searching for when they visit your blog). My thing isn't about "trying to take credit" for finding the info or whatever, I just want it to be available to everyone....there are a lot of uninformed Degrassi fans out there, who rely on the-n.com and imdb as their "sources".

You can find any Degrassi-related blogs over at http://wordpress.com/tag/degrassi/. It's the same info you'll find at theDegrassi forumhere as well as the updated Degrassi fansites, but probably easier to find if you're searching through google or something.

Before today, I had only seen 4 episodes of the latest season of Degrassi. I just hadn't been motivated to watch it because it seem like the show is going in a far different direction that I thought it should. Today I had nothing to do so I spent the entire day watching the final 15 episodes of the season, marathon style. Here are my random thoughts on season 6:

Degrassi has gone full circle with relationships...and it's silly.

Relationships seemed to take over this season more than ever before...more than actual issues. Maybe because I know nothing about relationships, but someone's going to need to explain to me the logic behind getting back together with exes and "taking your friend's leftovers" because I don't understand it. It happened way too much this season:

1) Emma and Sean (dated in seasons 2-3: got back together at the beginning of this season and broke up at the end of the season)

2) J.T. and Liberty (dated in seasons 4-5: though J.T. dated Mia the entire season up until his death, there was the constant tension between him and Liberty because they never wanted to admit they still cared for each other until it was too late.)

3)Ashley and Jimmy (dated in seasons 1-2: after they broke up in season 2 they didn't speak to each other for nearly 3 years...now they're suddenly together and in love? What's worse than that is the fact they've been reduced to much smaller roles, with Ashley being virtually non-existant after "Can't Hardly Wait".)

4) Paige and Alex (the writers have made their entire relationship one of those on again, off again types the entire season. Either keep them together as a couple, or keep them as just friends...the "will they? won't they?" is getting old.)

5) Paige and Spinner (dated in seasons 2-4: though they didn't date this season, they did hook up as friends with benefits. I mention them in this relationship category because Spinner did want to have a relationship with Paige, but she just wanted to "have fun" and see other people at the same time. A prime example of why friends with benefits is a bad idea (for me at least).)

6) Ellie and Jesse (dated throughout season 6: they broke up near the end of this season, but in the season finale Marco walks in on them in bed. Huh?!?!? First off a) Excluding Marco, Ellie is usually the type to hold a grudge against a guy who has hurt her, and b) I thought Ellie wasn't the type to get sexual, though I speculate that they didn't actually have sex.)

Emma truly is the epitome of mean, cruel and hurtful.

"Mean, cruel and hurtful"...that's how Emma described herself after realizing she's gone too far in one of the episodes. Emma's character is a perfect example of someone in your life who has to be in control of everything. It's they're way, or no way. They're opinion is always right...always more important than yours and they'll go to any measure (even hurting people) in order to prove it. Just ask:

*Manny, Emma's best friend. In "If You Leave" Emma tries to sabotage the spirit squad championship by protesting that Lakehurst shouldn't be allowed to compete (J.T. was killed by someone who went to Lakehurst). She didn't care that the competition meant everything to Manny (one of the leaders of the squad), and tried make her look like the bad guy.

*Snake, her stepfather. Snake finds out that Emma's becoming sexually active. He's upset that she wouldn't have "the talk" with him, and Emmagoes so far as to humiliate him with a presentation about women and sex during school(he is her Media Immersion teacher at Degrassi).

*Sean, her boyfriend. It seems that Sean finally figures out what he wants to do with his life, and he feels he can accomplish it by joining the Army. Emma doesn't agree and has this idea in her head of how her life with Sean is supposed to be, so what does she do?? She fakes a pregnancy scare thinking it would keep him from leaving from the Army, but he would still plan to go off anyway. She didn't care that Sean wants to have a future and that one of the reasons he wanted to join was to help her, but Emma only sees what she wants to see.

"Rock This Town" was hard to watch...even while knowing the ending beforehand.
J.T. gets killed in this episode. Because of spoilers, etc. everyone knew he was going to die months before the episode aired, but it didn't make the episode any easier to watch. Everything happened so quickly. The ending was heartbreaking to watch as Emma, Sean, Liberty, Toby and Manny huddled together in mourning at the hospital. J.T. is the first major character to ever be killed off in the 25+ years Degrassi has been around.

The older kids are more interesting to watch than the younger ones.
I thought that because most of the older kids were going off to University this season, their storylines would be more boring, but it was actually the other way around. Overall, the older characters are much more interesting to watch (especially Alex, Paige, Jimmy and Spinner). Out of the younger characters, Emma got the most airtime, but that gets old. Manny is awesome, but she went back to playing Emma's sidekick again since Craig wasn't around. Peter and Darcy are cute together, but it's only amount of time before their "forbidden love, we have to sneak around to meet each other" relationship gets old.

Ellie is ridiculously OOC (out of character)...but I feel her pain.
Ellie had one of the best storylines that ran through seasons 2-3, where she dealt with her mom's alcoholism by cutting herself. After that, any plot involving her has been all about boys. She officially went OOC in Season 5 as she hopelessly chased after Craig. She became his best friend, but she never lost feelings for him. That was obvious in "What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost Pt. 1 & 2", when he returned with the dark secret that he was now into doing drugs. In a brief moment they kissed, and she was heartbroken by him (again), this time it was the the drugs that caused it. Ellie is cursed when it comes to guys. Boy does it suck to be continually rejected by someone you truly care for. Ellie will always be OOC until the writers decide she deserves happiness.


I secretly like Peter.
Peter is a liar, and a manipulator. Some of the things he's done:
1) shot video of Manny flashing and posted it on the internet in season 5.
2) planted drugs in Sean's locker and got him expelled for it .
3) took racy photos of Darcy of e-mailed them to everyone.

Yeah, so after reading the list the word "pervert" comes to mind too. However, even after all of that, when he pursued Darcy he seemed genuine. I don't think any other person would've forgiven him for what he put her through in "Eyes Without A Face". It's as if his character did a complete 180. He seems like a completely different person with Darcy, and I enjoy watching the transformation.

The show CAN survive without Craig.
For the longest time Craig WAS Degrassi. Ever since he appeared in season 2, his character got a lot of the major storylines of the show...everything from child abuse to the Cranny/Crash love triangle. If Craig was around, excitement wasn't too far behind. I thought that after he left for Vancouver, the show would nearly go in the tank because noone could fill his shoes. However, I've been impressed with how the rest of the characters has stepped up. The whole J.T./Liberty saga was enjoyable to watch because I wanted to know how things would end between them before J.T. died. Though I'm getting tired of the Paige/Alex on-off relationship, I do enjoy watching them. Lauren Collins (Paige) is a great actress, and the various storylines involving Alex have been great this season.

Danny and Derek are the worst comedy relief duo ever.
The writers are trying to make Danny and Derek what J.T. and Toby were back in the early years of the show. In seasons 1-4, you could usually find J.T and Toby involved in a humorous subplot that was supposed to offset the seriousness of the episode's main plot. They were extremely fun to watch...Danny and Derek are not. Their humor seems forced, and it's almost annoying. I think the writers would be much better off giving these guys more serious storylines...I enjoyed the plot in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" where Derek dealt with the verbally abusive teacher.

Deanna Casaluce (Alex) is the best actress (and character) of the season.
Alex is by far the best character to watch in season 6. Deanna Casaluce did a fantastic job of not only balancing her character out, but she brought character and flare to Alex. Once the girl who hung out with the bad crowd and living in an unstable home (she still is), I felt myself rooting for Alex as the girl who was destined to drop out of school got straight A's. Though I felt the concept of a 17-year-old teenage girl stripping in "Don't You Want Me" a little odd, Deanna conveyed the pressure that Alex and her mother were in perfectly, and made love Alex has for Paige seem believable. If there's anything to look forward to in season 7, it'll be the continued character development of Alex.

I work for a syndicated radio show called The Matt & Ramona Show. Of course I love Degrassi, and they bust my chops on the show for it, lol. Today I briefly mentioned Degrassi on the radio, and you can listen to it at the link below. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to mention the degrassi forum here at tv.com on the air, haha. :p

http://www.snapdrive.net/files/13216/degrassi%20on%20the%20radio.mp3

After weeks of laziness, I FINALLY finished a quick Degrassi project I'd been working on. Recently I've taken an interest in learning about voice acting, so I re-created a commercial The-N did last year for "Degrassi Tells All". I did the voiceover for this promo (the original voice was a female). The only annoying part was that I basically had to re-create all of the audio, since her voice stepped over some of the main parts. It's good to see I'm putting this radio experience of mine to use, lol.

Oh yeah, here's the video if you want to see it (and hear me!) The-N needs to hire me to do all of their Degrassi promos, haha:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOnaGWN1_DY

This past weekend was the Link's Barenaked Holiday Bash.  The Barenaked Ladies were there in concert.  She came along today.  It was the most awkward situation I have ever been in.  I was completely torn.  On the one hand I was under the impression that before she no longer wanted anything to do with me.  On the other hand, I was glad to see her there...I missed her dearly.

A pleasant torture it was.  My feelings were still there.  They still are.  I made jokes and smiled, trying to curb the idea that I now mean nothing to her in that way.  It didn't work.  The entire day my mind was flooded of thoughts about her, remembering the thoughts and feelings from the past:

I remember meeting her, instantly noticing her rosy cheeks as she grinned and laugh.  She was nothing less than lovely.  I instantly adored her.

I remember talking with her.  I was always so nervous, even while we were dating...I just wanted to say things perfectly.

I remember kissing her for the first time.  It was as if time stopped, and everytime I think about it time rewinds and replays it vividly in my mind.

I remember things like standing with her on top of a building in dowtown Charlotte, overlooking the city.  My mind and heart fluttered through the air as if they were caught in the wind, as we shared a kiss amidst the skyscrapers.

I remember every time she held my hand, it gave me goosebumps.  It was a feeling I never took for granted. 

I remember feeling like we were the only two people around when we were together.  Society was invisible in her presence.  When she was near, only she mattered.  Even when she was far away, only she mattered.

I remember poking fun, cracking jokes and making a pure fool of myself just to see her smile.  It's far beyond words that I could describe, but that smile was like a sunrise that reflected the sincerity of her heart.

We exchanged gifts that afternoon because we wouldn't see each other before Christmas.  The gift she got me was awesome.  However, I don't care about the silly gift I got for her.  It wasn't good enough to give her in my opinion.  I should've gotten her something better.  She should've had the gift of knowing someone truly does care about her more than anything.  I couldn't give that to her, because I am a fool.

That day of the Barenaked Ladies concert was the hardest I've ever worked at containing my emotions in.  It killed me to walk with and stand next to her, trying to keep myself from blurting out the words that were trying to burst out of my heart. I wanted to turn around and run back to her as we said goodnight and parted ways.  "I lo---" is exactly what I said aloud as I walked to my car:  I stopped myself because it was pointless.  The person that needed to here it was gone.  The person that needed to here it is still gone.

WOW it's been forever since I've posted a blog here.

Lately I've been wondering if I've lost interest in Degrassi.  I have not watched any of season 6 this year.  Well I did watch "Here Comes Your Man", but I didn't pay very much attention to the episode.

Why have I not watched Degrassi this season?  I was very excited about Season 6 this summer, but when it finally arrived I was like "oh well".  I've made no real attempt to watch any of the episodes so far.  Could it be that I feel Degrassi may go off the course I believe it should be on, and was on during S1,S2, S3 as well as Degrassi Junior High?  Maybe I'm afraid that I'll be disappointed with this season, that I think it'll lose the "aura" that makes it Degrassi, making it no different than any other teen drama.  Maybe it's just the fact that I've been so incredibly busy lately, and the lack of enthusiasm is a side effect from being tired all the time.  Who knows.

I don't really think I'm losing total interest in the show, because I purchased the season 4 DVD, and I'm excited about the minis, graphic novels, etc.  I just wonder why I'm being weird about this season...I can't really participate in board discussions here or at any other forum unless I know what the hell is going on. 

Blaaaah.