So how many of you caught last night’s premiere of HBO’s highly anticipated Boardwalk Empire?

I have been eagerly awaiting the premiere for months! I absolutely adored Soprano’s – and there has been a huge hole in my Sunday night lineup since it ended in 2007.

HBO’s new mob series made its big premiere last night. So how was it? Let’s talk after the jump! (more…)

Not the type of movie I typically review, for sure. But I took my youngest son to see Nanny McPhee Returns last night, and I loved it so much I thought I’d share it with you!

I loved the first movie. Nanny McPhee was released in 2005, and Emma Thompson played the lead character, a strange and wonderful nanny of sorts. She wrote the movie herself, and the end result was pure magic.

Five years later Nanny McPhee Returns, and this time with an equally cute cast and storyline. The sequel finds us in the middle of World War II, on some farm miles from London. On this farm is Isabel Green, played by an adorable Maggie Gyllenhaal, and her three children, Norman, Megsie and Vincent. Her husband – who turns out to be EWAN MCGREGOR!! – is off at war, leaving Isabel to care for the children herself.

When her nephew and niece show up for a visit, Isabel finds herself utterly overwhelmed as the children can’t seem to get a long. In walks Nanny McPhee to save the day! Once she arrives all the magic begins, and it’s absolutely a joy to watch. It’s cute and charming.

Emma Thompson actually doesn’t even have much screen time. The children steal the show. Every one of the actors gave very strong performances for being so young! Did I mention that Rhys Ifans plays Isabel’s scandalous brother Mr. Green? And the brilliant Ralph Fiennes also makes an appearance as Mrs. Green’s brother in law!

I’m guessing Nanny McPhee won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s cheesy and over-the-top and obviously very unrealistic. But it’s also totally cute and a great family movie!

Go see it!

I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling Eat Pray Love, and I loved it (well, most of it). I could connect with Liz, and feel her pain, her joy, and ultimately her love.

I waited until last night to see the big screen movie adaptation of the book, and I had high hopes.

I like Julia Roberts. I was talking about the movie with my mom about a week ago, and she said “but Julia Roberts isn’t a good actress.” I said “what are you talking about! There was that movie…” and I drew a blank. I mean I guess she was good in Erin Brockovich, no arguing that – she won the Oscar. But ever since – has she been great in many movies? Not really.

When I heard she had been cast to play Liz, I thought it was perfect casting. It would be a good opportunity for Julia to flex her acting muscles. But the whole time I was watching the movie, I couldn’t get past all the Juliaisms. The loud cackling laugh, the smiling, the crying. Julia Roberts was just too Julia Roberts for the movie. You never really saw her as Elizabeth Gilbert, all you could see was every Julia Roberts character she’s ever played. They’re all so similar – either that’s a sign that Julia’s a good actress, or as I suspected earlier, and she’s not a very good actress at all. The character was deep, and interesting, and Julia did not portray that on film very well.

From the beginning, I just didn’t care for how the movie was filmed. It was glossed over, and too cheesy for me. The first half hour is painful to get through. Julia doesn’t really connect with any of the characters. From her first husband, played by Billy Crudup, to her rebound boyfriend James Franco - to the friends she meets along her journey – I just felt the relationships weren’t deep enough for me to care about. I adore Richard Jenkins whom she met in India – and I thought Javier Bardem – whom she falls in love with in Bali – was the best part of the whole movie.

I thought the movie wasn’t bad – but it definitely wasn’t good. Immediately after seeing the movie, I thought they totally miscast Elizabeth. Julia Roberts was not the right choice. I get why they cast her – seems like a sure thing, financially. But she didn’t do the material justice. Sure she can cry with the best of them. She does that laugh that made her famous in Pretty Woman. She smiles and we’re supposed to melt. Those cutesy tactics were lost on me.

In my humble opinion,  better choices for Liz would have been Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts or even Kate Winslet (even though she’s a bit young).

I’m not exactly sure where/why the movie fell flat…it just did. It was pretty bland. Sure, it was pretty to look at, and Julia Roberts is definitely gorgeous. But I could never really connect with the movie the way I did with the book.

Bottom Line? If you didn’t read the book, you might like it more than I did. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just not a great movie.

If you’ve seen it, I’d definitely love to hear your opinion.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as Nic and Jules, a lesbian couple with teenage children in the brilliant The Kids Are All Right. Their children, played by Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson decide they’d like to look up their sperm-donor father, played by the amazing Mark Ruffalo. (Man, do I love me some Mark Ruffalo)

Mark plays a hippie-ish farmer/restaurant owner, who seems to be having the time of his life as a bachelor, who doesn’t realize how badly he wants a family until they are dropped in his lap.

The movie is smartly written, brilliantly acted, and I loved every minute of it. Every character is explored, every emotion is well played, and by the end, you really feel for all the characters individually. Annette was astounding, played Nic with force.

I don’t want to give much of the movie away, but I really think you should see it. It’s one of those movies that everyone is going to be talking about come awards season, I guarantee it. And if you like Mark Ruffalo, you should see it for the simple fact that he has literally – never looked hotter!

The most talked-about movie at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and the winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival, The Kids Are All Right is directed by Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) from an original screenplay that she wrote with Stuart Blumberg (Keeping the Faith). The movie combines comedic surprise with poignant emotional truth in a funny, vibrant, and richly drawn portrait of a modern family.

When I first started hearing about Inception about a year ago, I was sold before I knew anything about it. Christopher Nolan? Love him! Leonardo DiCaprio? Genius. Put all the elements together, and it should be movie magic. In my opinion, Inception was absolutely brilliant.

Christopher Nolan was rumored to have worked on the script for Inception for 10 years. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but if it is – I can clearly see why. It’s obvious he spent years going over and over the script, weaving a maze of a story, just as his characters did in the film. Come to think of it, I can’t think of another director who could pull off such an amazing movie. Nolan wrote directed it, and you can see his thumbprint over the whole movie.

It’s hard to even describe what the movie is about. I suppose it’s about the difference between reality and dreams, and the blurry line in between the two. I’m not really going to try and explain the movie in depth, because really, you need to see it for yourself, because anything I say wouldn’t make sense anyway!

Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are amazing in the movie, but Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic. He is such an amazing actor, he really does better in each film. I just can’t wait to see what he does next!

If you liked Memento and Dark Knight, you’re going to love Inception. It’s very confusing, so pay attention! The movie opens and jumps right into the story, no warming you up to what’s going on at all. I think it took me 20 minutes just to figure out what happened in the first 5 minutes.

But enjoy it! It’s a great movie, and when I left, I wanted to turn around and go right back in and see it again. It was brilliant, that’s all I can say. It was brilliant.

Did you see it? What did you think?

When I heard the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack last year, I fell in love with so many artists I had never heard before! After listening to the New Moon soundtrack, I went on to buy albums from some of the artists on the CD like Grizzly Bear and Band of Skulls. In fact, New Moon the movie was terrible, but New Moon the soundtrack was fantastic.

So I was eagerly awaiting the release of the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack, because like the one before it – I hoped the CD would be amazing! And it absolutely IS. No matter if the movie is good or bad, the soundtrack is something everyone should own. It truly is a wonderful mix of amazing music. Whether you love or hate the Twilight movies, I think you will love this CD.

The CD is full of incredible talent like Muse, Sia, Vampire Weekend and Metric. And full of hot new talent like Florence and the Machine . One of my favorites, Bat For Lashes makes an appearance in a duet with Beck. The CD is just full of these powerful songs, written by the hottest talent out there right now.

I think my favorites are Muse’s ‘Neutron Star Collision’ (they are always brilliant, no?), Florence + the Machine’s ‘Heavy in Your Arms’ (cannot WAIT to get my hands on their CD!) and Sia’s ‘My Love’. I actually really like most of the songs, but those are my favorites. The CD flows well, and hopefully the movie can live up to it’s awesome soundtrack!

Here’s the Official Track Listing!
1. Metric, ‘Eclipse (All Yours)’
2. Muse, ‘Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)’
3. The Bravery, ‘Ours’
4. Florence + The Machine, ‘Heavy in Your Arms’
5. Sia, ‘My Love’
6. Fanfario, ‘Atlas’
7. The Black Keys, ‘Chop and Change’
8. The Dead Weather, ‘Rolling in on a Burning Tire’
9. Beck and Bat For Lashes, ‘Let’s Get Lost’
10. Vampire Weekend, ‘Jonathan Low’
11. UNKLE featuring The Black Angels, ‘With You in My Head’
12. Eastern Conference Champions, ‘A Million Miles Away.’
13. Band of Horses, ‘Life on Earth’
14. Cee-Lo Green, ‘What Part of Forever’
15. Howard Shore, ‘Jacob’s Theme’

Visit the official website for music videos, exclusive interviews and MORE!

Buy the CD on Amazon here!

I first fell in love with Imogen Heap when she was part of the musical group Frou Frou in 2002 & 2003. Their song Let Go, which was on the Garden State soundtrack remains one of my favorite songs of all time.

When I talked to family and friends about Imogen, no one recognized her name, but everyone knew her songs. She has a very unique and beautiful voice, and I can now say that I think Imogen is probably one of the better performers I’ve ever seen before.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect going into her show. I knew her songs, but I’d never seen her perform online or live. When she hit the stage wearing hammer pants (seriously) and lots of feathers in her hair I knew she would be different. She was – and it was absolutely BRILLIANT.

Troy Kujala shot these pictures at the concert, and they capture her essence so beautifully. She was such a charismatic performer, the pictures bring her to life online. (To see other concerts Troy’s shot, go here)

I’m so happy to have seen her perform. She is hilarious and engaging, and ridiculously talented. The musical talent she has is absolutely breathtaking. She mixes and creates songs right before your eyes. Every song is a living creature, she creates each sound – each beat herself! (She’s wearing microphones at her wrists to capture every sound)

On Ellipse, her latest album, Imogen pulls out all the stops. Her songs First Train Home and Little Bird are my absolute favorites. I’d love to hear what your favorites are!

32-year-old Imogen Heap is a Grammy-winning British singer-songwriter from Romford, Havering. She is well known for her work with Frou-Frou and her solo albums which she mixes, writes and produces.  In 2006 Heap was nominated for 2 Grammys. 2009′s Ellipse earned Heap 2 Grammy nominations, and she won one for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

For her solo work (as well as her work with Frou Frou ), Heap specializes in heavily produced and arranged singer-songwriter pop incorporating elements of rock, dance and electronica. In a 2005 interview, she commented “I just love crafting and shaping sounds. Actually, many of the sounds that I work with start off as organic instruments – guitar, piano, clarinet, etc. But I do love the rigidity of electronic drums… I would record live drums, and then I would spend a day editing them to take the life out of them. I like to breathe my own life into these sounds, and I do try to keep the ‘air’ in the music. Some people think electronic music is cold, but I think that has more to do with the people listening than the actual music itself.”

Heap also mixes ambient sound into her music where appropriate: “One night I decided to record my boyfriend and me eating dinner. I wanted to get the sound of the room. So, on “Clear the Area”, for example, you can actually hear the sound of a frying pan. People might think it sounds like rain, but it’s a frying pan. Certain sounds give the music a width and a space, and that’s important.”

Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are encoded rather than being straightforwardly confessional. She has commented “Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mum or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened.”

Imogen is still touring. You need to see if she’s coming to town near you. If she is, YOU HAVE TO GO SEE HER! She is amazing!

BUY ELLIPSE HERE!!
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