EDIT #1: So this interview didn't happen today and has been postponed to tomorrow because of Kate's schedule! I will still fill everyone in on how it goes!
Yes you read right!
After work today I will be heading to Kate Nash's hotel (aka the hotel she's staying at while in Toronto) and will be filming an interview a co-worker from Vervegirl will be doing with her!
After filming the interview I'll also be editing it and it will be posted on Vervegirl Magazine's official website!
I'll make sure to post it here and tell everyone how it went!
For those of you who don't know, Kate Nash is a singer from the UK who sings indie pop music. Here's a song:
Jennifer Lopez? J.Lo? Is that name even relevant anymore? Since 2007's album Brave, Jennifer Lopez disappeared out of the limelight. The name that was always on the tabloids whether it be for music, movies, or personal life, Jennifer Lopez was one of the biggest celebrities of the new millennium...until she got married (this time for good...so far at least) and had kids. She disappeared for almost 3 years until the AMA (American Music Awards) last year in which she performed a new single from her upcoming album Love? And now, she's making her official comeback to the big screen with her latest theatrical release, The Back-Up Plan.
The Back-Up Plan is a romantic comedy film starring Jennifer Lopez as Zoe. The movie starts off showing Zoe getting artificially inseminated through a sperm bank in order to get pregnant. Through flashbacks we find out that she doesn't a feel a man is right for her at the moment, as she isn't able to find the perfect one but at the same time she really wants a child so, she feels getting inseminated is the best way to achieve that goal. Soon after she gets inseminated, of course, she meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin, Whiteout) who at first seems like a jerk to her, but eventually they warm up to each other and fall for each other...if only it could be that simple. As she continues to develop feelings for Stan, her insemination proves to be successful and she becomes pregnant. Trouble. How does Stan take the news of the pregnancy? Does he stand by her Zoe or does he walk away? Does Zoe cope well with her pregnancy and balance a new love in her life? All these answers can be found by watching the movie. Now, the real questions are: How did I enjoy the film? Was it movie worth the anticipation? Was Jennifer Lopez successfully able to make a comeback or should she just become a stay-at-home mom? Keep reading!
Khizer's review:
The movie was excellent! It was a very refreshing romantic comedy and definitely did pass my expectations thus being worth the anticipation. What I liked most about this movie was that although the plot has its cliche moments it was unique in its own genre; instead of falling the typical pattern of a romcom, the story went in reverse order: she gets pregnant, then finds love, then delivers her kids, and then decides whether marriage happens or not. This made watching the movie even more interesting. Jennifer Lopez, who is no where near a shabby actress, pulled of this role with much ease. I think being pregnant and actually going through the process of delivering a child (twins for that matter) really helped her get into the role and gave her much comfort when acting many scenes. Her chemistry with Alex O'Loughlin was great and boy did she look gorgeous throughout the film! Jennifer Lopez is now 40, married, and has kids, but she still somehow manages to look hotter than ever, especially while sporting bangs! The movie does have its cheesy and cliche moments but that is expected from almost any romantic comedy. Also, if there are any animal lovers, there is a dog in the movie who is handicapped and on a wheelchair that is so cute and adds to the movie. This idea does steal a little from Along Came Polly, but nonetheless it is cute. The one problem I had with the movie was how they chose to introduce it; it just started off showing Zoe getting inseminated and then through flashbacks explaining why she did it. I would've preferred if they made the film a little longer and showed some more at the beginning about how she is over the dating scene and just wants children before showing her get inseminated. Other than that, the movie was great.
So the big question is, was Jennifer Lopez able to make a big comeback with this film? In general, yes. The movie was the #1 movie on its opening day, and eventually was #2 with the overall weekend box office making over 12 million. The movie had great anticipation and although getting some negative reviews, there are many positive ones as well. Commercially, yes, it was a good comeback movie. Was it a good comeback movie career wise? Well, she could've done better. Jennifer Lopez has shown her versatility as an actress from dramatic roles like Selena to an abused woman in Enough and a temperamental daughter-in-law in Monster-in-Law. Dramas, thrillers, romantic comedies, and action are all genres in which Jennifer Lopez can successfully pull off a role. However, since romantic comedies aren't always praised for the acting in the film, nor do they get much recognition during awards season, I think in that aspect this film wasn't the best role to choose. Regardless, I don't think Jennifer Lopez did this film for the purpose of critical praise and award nominations, but more to get back on the map, which I think this film will help her do. Romantic comedy well done. Jennifer's back and she's still from the block.
As many of you know, I’ve been a pretty big Hilary Duff fan, for quite some years now. Consequently, I get pretty excited when she releases new material whether it be movies, music, or TV guest appearances. As of late, she’s had quite a few new releases including her movie Greta, her appearance on the current season of Gossip Girl, and the latest release, her made for TV movie, Beauty and the Briefcase.
Beauty and the Briefcase is a romantic comedy film that recently premiered on ABC Family. Despite being just a TV movie, it is Duff’s first motion picture that has gotten major publicity and promo since 2006’s Material Girls. Although I’m a huge fan, I wasn’t going into the film with high expectations. Her latest projects did disappoint a little; Gossip Girl, although a mature themed show, didn’t quite showcase Duff’s acting capabilities and According To Greta, despite being a really good film, disappointed with the ending. Therefore, I went into the movie with no expectations and no bias. How did that turn out? Keep reading.
The movie revolves around Lane Daniels (Hilary Duff, War Inc.) who is an aspiring journalist trying to get a position for Cosmopolitan. Although at first she is rejected, the editor in chief reconsiders and gives Lane the task to do the cover story for the next issue. This job is a little more than what Lane bargained for; she has to go undercover, work at a financial office and date various men to ultimately writing an article about dating men in suits. Of course, you can see where the story will go with this plot, and although it is a cliche story, that’s what most romantic comedies; recycled plots. Lane has a checklist that she follows for her “magic man” which includes things like being able to play an instrument, having an accent, etc. and while working on the story, she meets a man that completes the checklist, but the only problem is, he isn’t a “man in a suit” as she meets him at a restaurant not in the office. The film goes on with her trying to balance all these men which include her boss Tom (Michael McMillian, True Blood), her co-worker Seth (Matt Dallas, Kyle XY) and the guy she meets at the restaurant, Liam (Chris Carmack, The O.C.) and of course getting all tied up and going over her head to the point that the focus of her article changes.
Khizer’s Review:
The movie was cute. Nothing more, nothing less. From beginning to end, it was cute seeing Lane’s character develop and see her go undercover and work on her story. The movie was engaging enough to make me actually want to yell to the screen telling Lane what and what not to do. As a result, I think it can be said that Hilary’s acting in this film was above par. Although the script was a little redundant and cheesy, Hilary had no blame for that nor did the writers of the script as the movie is actually based on the book “Diary of a Working Girl” by Daniella Brodsky. Hilary shared great chemistry with almost all her co-stars, however what bugged me was the fact that for doing a story on dating men in suits, she only really dated two men in suits, and one of them was her boss, Tom, whom she only really had lunch with. I know this may have been part of the storyline, but I would think that they would have a few more men that she could have dated in her process. As well, for people who are familiar with (and like) Lizzie McGuire, this movie will be a sort-of treat. Throughout the movie, Lane’s character has a voiceover of her inner thoughts, reminiscent to Lizzie McGuire’s alter ego. Having this voice gave the movie a “Lizzie All Grown Up” feel. At first I thought it was a bit cheesy, but by the end of it, I started liking it.
Overall, there’s not much to review on this movie. The storyline is typical and cliche, but that’s what romantic comedies are, as I stated above. For what it was, I think the movie was well done. Hilary definitely showed a mature side of her acting, and it was nice to see her in a romantic comedy geared more towards her older fans. If al else fails, she could create a niche in the romantic comedy genre and could possibly become the next Sandra Bullock or Kate Hudson of the genre. Oh and I must mention, Duff looked beyond gorgeous throughout the movie. Matt Dallas, Michael McMillian, and Chris Carmack were all good in their roles, however Chris Carmack’s British accent in the film was evidently fake. Other notes about the movie; Amanda Walsh (former MuchMusic VJ) was also in the film playing the role of Hilary’s best friend, and Jennifer Coolidge (Hilary’s step mom in A Cinderella Story) made a guest appearance.
Final verdict? If you’re into romantic comedies, this won’t be a huge disappointment nor will it raise the bar for future romcom’s. If you’re into Duff, this movie will be a treat for everyone. Or if you’re simply looking to pass time, this movie will do the trick. If romantic comedies aren’t your thing, I wouldn’t recommend watching this one as it won’t sell you on the genre. Basically what I’m trying to say is, the movie was a good watch for a TV movie and that is about all.
So I will start of by apologizing for the lack of posts on this blog; the last post I made was in February and now its nearly May! Time has just gone by so fast, and so much has happened in the last two months that I haven’t posted on here...yet!
Despite not posting official entries on the blog, I have been writing entires and have been keeping track of topics and events I want to blog about and I promise by the end of this weekend, I should have a few posts up.
So what’s been new and exciting with my life?
Well, as some of you might know (and I think I made a post about this late last year), I got an internship at Toronto magazine company Vervegirl in which I edit interviews they do with celebrities, behind the scenes photo shoots, special features and other exciting things like that. I’ve been interning there since November and I finally got “upgraded” in the sense that now I’m not only editing these pieces now, but I’m going out and getting to film them as well! My first project will be filming an interview with British singer Kate Nash at her hotel room! In addition, my name is finally posted in the header of the magazine under the “intern” section. I’m pretty excited about both of those and cannot be thankful enough!
Of course, my life wouldn’t be complete without my fix of music, concerts, and film, and I have a bunch of news regarding that as well. Since my last post in February, I attended a Hedley concert in Ottawa which was amazing. Opening for Hedley was Boys Like Girls, Stereos, and Fefe Dobson so it was a pretty big show. Asides from Fefe Dobson’s opening performance, the show was incredible. I saw Lady GaGa and Timbaland in concert as well that I didn’t blog about (however those were in November (2009) and January, respectively) that were also both great. Upcoming concerts include Lights & Owl City at the end of this month, Faber Drive with Jesse Labelle and New Cities in May, Bamboozle festival in June, and Lady GaGa in July to say the least. I’ll make sure to post reviews on all of these as they happen! Some movies that I will be reviewing for my blog are Beauty and the Briefcase starring Hilary Duff, and The Back Up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez. Everything I listed above will be posted in their own respective entries in retrospect (for example, since Timbaland happened in January, it will be filed under January in my blog, however I’ll create a reminder post so everyone sees it).
I’m sure all of you are dying to know about juicy gossip in my personal life. I don’t want to give too much away, but I did turn 20 in March and had a pretty awesome birthday party (I believe I posted my birthday invitation poster on the blog). Shots by LMFAO featuring Lil’ Jon became the song of the night and consequently my 20th birthday theme song. I also made a trip out west to BC earlier in March and visited some friends (a blog will be up about that) and I recently booked a trip to go to Europe for 10 days in August so I’m pretty stoked for that! Drama in my life has been minimal (for once)! Speaking of drama, I did meet Ms. I Just Wanna Be No Drama Adrianna aka Jessica Lowndes from 90210 in March which was cool. So I’m in Toronto for the full summer and I’m currently trying to get a full time summer job and who knows, I might migrate back to Toronto for University? Who knows!?!
Anyways, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on what’s been good with me. I promise this blog is going to get very exciting really soon! I don’t want to give too much away since I like secrets, BUT I am working on getting some exclusive interviews just for this blog. A few months ago I did get Marianas Trench to show some support for the blog, which they did as you can see in the top right hand corner...now I’ve been working on getting some interviews for the blog so let’s hope this post doesn’t jinx that!
Concert Review: Hedley: The Show Must Go...On The Road Tour
Featuring: Fefe Dobson, Stereos, Boys Like Girls
Date: April 10, 2010
Location: The Civic Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
Hedley recently released their third studio album “The Show Must Go” and have been doing a nationwide tour dubbed “The Show Must Go...On The Road Tour” with special guests Fefe Dobson, Stereos, and Boys Like Girls. As a huge fan of Hedley as well as Stereos, I was really excited to see the show and was able to catch it during their stop in Ottawa.
Before the show, I was fortunate enough to meet the band who were super nice. I had a friend that was supposed to meet them with me, but she was unable to get off of work in time for the meet and greet (she did attend the actual show with me though). As a result, when the band saw me alone and I explained how my friend was working, Jacob cut me off and was like “you were supposed to come with a friend....and YOU GOT DUMPED!”.Playing along with their joke, I said yeah unfortunately, and when I did the band got serious and felt bad, “Are you serious, omg, wow sorry.” “I’m just kidding, she had to work,” I replied. “Oh good, I was going to say you’re a huge trooper if you still decided to come out to the show the day you got dumped!” he replied. It was a really fun meet and greet, although it was a bit short, the band was really nice and meeting them made me more stoked for the show.
The show started about an hour later with Fefe Dobson opening. Fefe Dobson released her debut album in 2004 and had a few somewhat popular singles including Take Me Away and Bye, Bye Boyfriend. Her sophomore album went unreleased when she parted ways with her label, and she is currently finishing up her new sophomore album for release sometime this year. Opening for Hedley would be the perfect way to do early promo. She performed for about half an hour singing songs from her debut, and a bunch of new songs. To me her performance was below average. She had this rocker look going on during her performance, however it seemed so force and unnatural. Her live voice wasn’t horrible, however most of the songs she performed were just screaming and/or sounded the same. From the crowd response, I was’t the only one not impressed with her performance. Thankfully, it was only an opening performance so it was short.
The second performance of the night was with the new boy band Stereos. Stereos gained recognition on MuchMusic’s Disband from which they landed themselves a record deal and released their debut album last year. Since then, their popularity significantly increased and they did their own nationwide tour last year, toured the U.S. with Kill Paradise early this year, and are now opening for Hedley. Their music is a fusion of rock, hip-hop, and pop and thus they have a pretty big fan base. The crowd went wild when they showed up on stage and they didn’t fail to disappoint with their performance. As a matter of fact, people got so into their performance you could actually feel the floor shake during some of their songs, especially during “Turn It Up”. It was really interesting to hear them live as their music uses real instruments as well as the recently popular auto-tune and hip-hop beats. Lead singer Pat’s voice isn’t the strongest voice, but he did prove that he could sing without the use of auto tune, and the rest of the band put on a great live show. They were definitely a good opener for Hedley and they definitely had great stage performance. This is rare for new bands, especially when these new bands perform at arena sized venues as opposed to clubs.
The third performance was by American band, Boys Like Girls. I was actually surprised that Boys Like Girls was opening for Hedley as they are pretty big themselves, not only in Canada, but in the USA as well. Not being a huge fan of the band, I still managed to enjoy their performance. I saw them a few years ago playing alongside Good Charlotte at a club venue, and performing at a bigger venue wasn’t a hard transition for them. They opened the set with a cover of I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas and went on to perform a half hour setlist including their hits Love Drunk, Two Is Better Than One, and The Great Escape. They brought a fan on stage as well, and the lead singer sang to her. Overall, they put on a good show.
Of the three openers, I would have to say Stereos were my favorite.
After a short wait, the lights dimmed and the crowd began to scream louder than they did for any of the other acts; it was Hedley time. Their performance started with an intro video that showed each member of the group doing their own day to day activities, when they receive a phone call that they have to be at a performance. All of them rush to get to the performance, which of course, is our show. It was a neat idea for an introduction video and definitely built excitement for their show. They opened their set with Cha Ching and did not disappoint. It seemed as if Jacob didn’t know what city he was in for the first few minutes of the performance as he addressed us as “Kingston” a few times. By the end of the song, he finally got it right and called us Ottawa. I wasn’t sure if that was an intentional mistake or if he was reliving his show from last night. Either way, the performance was a great opening song and they did not disappoint with their stage presence. They had props, videos, costume changes and divided their show into sections. One section of their show was campfire songs in which they brought some fake trees onto the stage, logs to sit on, a fake campfire, a video in the background depicting the night sky and sounds of owls hooting, and a fan that let out a gentle breeze in the audience. They definitely set the mood and started performing some of their slower and more acoustic songs. This included “Friends” from their latest album which became one of the highlights of the show. Other songs they performed included Perfect which was done on a grand piano and was very raw. You could hear and feel Jacob’s emotion during his performance of that song; it was another highlight. Of course the show wouldn’t be a true Hedley show if there weren’t some shenanigans on stage. During the performance of Don’t Talk To Strangers, Jacob did some butt shaking and some of the other members showed some of their rear end on stage during the camp fire scene. They performed almost all of their singles including 321, Gunnin’, On My Own, She’s So Sorry, Trip, and Never To Late which was the final song before their encore. During the encore, they performed For The Nights I Can’t Remember on the grand piano in which Jacob made a really deep and touching closing speech. In his speech, Jacob told the fans how much their support means to them as well as talking about how everything they do is for the fans, and they don’t deserve the success they have etc. Although some lines of the speech did seem a little rehearsed, made up and simply crowd pleasing, it did seem honest and sincere. I believed it.
Overall, the show was fantastic. Hedley definitely proved they can put on a great live and visually appealing show, something that I haven’t seen from a rock show as of a late. For being band with not much popularity outside of Canada, they definitely put on a show equivalent to the level and quality of some major international tours by worldwide famous artists. The funny thing about that is that had the group not have all the cool sets, videos, and props, the show still would’ve been just as good. Their live performance is just so raw and brilliant that it doesn’t need the aid of visuals to get itself across.
The Show Must Go...On The Road was an amazing show that did not disappoint in any expect (minus Fefe Dobson’s opening) however by the end of the show, that was all forgotten about. Here’s hoping a tour DVD is released!
EDIT #1: So this interview didn't happen today and has been postponed to tomorrow because of Kate's schedule! I will still fill everyone in on how it goes!
