Walking Dead finale

Alright, so this blog started off about movies, but I think I'm going to expand into talking about TV and theater, too. Because those 3 things all share part of my IMDB (that's short for internet movie data brain). So I will start this foray in boob tube musings with the "Walking Dead" finale. Some thoughts (SPOILERS ahead, danger...also ZOMBIES ahead).

This show refuses to kill off the most unsympathetic, annoying characters and ends by stranding the only character I do care about...gah. First, a recap. The show opens with shots of the areas surrounding the farm (all the way to Atlanta I think), and someone gets on a megaphone and shouts "Attention zombie shoppers, sale on aisle Hershel's farm." After the zombies all consult their internal gps systems they settle on the simplest straight line path for the farm. What?

Upcoming: "Gypsy" news

Among things that get me very excited, the prospect of Everything's Coming Up Streisand is near the top of my list. I'm still a little wary of Babs taking on the iconic role, but if there's been enough Mama Rose to go around between Merman, Russell, Daly, Lansbury, Midler, Peters, and Lupone, I think there's certainly room for b. streis in that hallowed pantheon.

I mean, essentially, if one thinks of Mama Rose as the vessel of so much gay iconography, not only in the women that have played her but in her blend of desperation, drive, and resilience, who better than Babs? Mama Rose is a tough old queen, and nobody better rain on that bitch's parade!

But more head scratchingly awesome is that Jullian Fellowes is now attached to write. Not even the internet, with it's insane daily production schedule of at least 8,432 "Downton Abbey" + "other pop culture phenomenon" mashup tumblrs, could have predicted this holy marriage of the things I like best: musical theater and upstairs/downstairs period soaps.

So let me be the first (I think) to put this out in the universe: Michelle Dockery would make a kick-ass Louise. We got a little preview of her pipes this season, and she could clearly pull off the vulnerable, quiet "Little Lamb."

Film Review: Back to the Future? Old School "John Carter"

It's hard at this point to have a completely fair and unbiased review of John Carter in the wake of the bad press surrounding its budget, much maligned marketing campaign, and Andrew Stanton's intractability. But here we have the finished product, and let's try to examine it in a vacuum.

A faithful adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess of Mars, the film opens with a brief prologue on Mars, then zeros in on our eponymous hero (Taylor Kitsch). A Confederate Civil War veteran whose family did not survive the war, he tries his hand at prospecting for gold in Arizona where he runs afoul of the local sheriff (Bryan Cranston in a brief role). Escaping from a group of Native Americans, Johnny boy makes it to a cave which transports him to Mars, or Barsoom as the locals call it.