BEN ELTON - LIVE FROM PLANET EARTH POST MORTEM AND EPISODE THREE REVIEW

SO WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT FROM THE BEN ELTON EXPERIMENT?

Channel Nine has been rebranding itself as the home of comedy this year – with such comic treats as %&*# My Dad Says and Mike and Molly to offer up to a comedy-hungry TV audience. Part of that rebranding was Ben Elton: Live at Planet Earth, which when all is said and done was a commercial and critical failure.

THE 2011 ACADEMY AWARDS PREDICTIONS EXTRAVAGANZA

I go once more into the breach, dear friends, once more and predict who will win (and pontificate on who should win) the 2011 Academy Awards. Every single category predicted!!!  Every single category most likely incorrect!!! Feel free to leave your predictions in the comments. Here we go:

TV REVIEW - LAID EPISODE THREE

As always, after the jump lie spoilers galore... Click only if you've watched the third episode of Laid.

THE PODCASTING COUCH - OSCARS PREVIEW

I'll put up an extensive post on this too, but here's a special bonus episode of the podcasting couch predicting the winners and losers of the 2011 Academy Awards.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-podcasting-couch-oscars/id417226504?i=91565305

The (Pod) Casting Couch - Episode Five

In the latest episode of The Podcasting Couch, Shannon Harvey, Simon Miraudo, Laura Hewison and myself discuss the John Cameron Mitchell film Rabbit Hole and chat about the best and worst Best Picture Oscar winners of all time. Listen and subscribe here!

http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-podcasting-couch-episode/id417226504?i=91565306

THE INTERCHANGE BENCH - Now on iTunes

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently, will catch up soon - but a quick announcement that my new football podcast The Interchange Bench - full of dubious AFL analysis - is up on iTunes. Click to subscribe here!

http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-interchange-bench-adel/id421335695?i=91632920

We've kicked off with a team-by-team season preview of the 2011 AFL Season.

The Interchange Bench - WCE 2011 Preview

Here's the first episode of a new, irreverent AFL podcast - a West Coast Eagles 2011 Season Preview featuring Steve Allen, Beau Mitchem and Andrew Williams. Will be available in the itunes store soon.

The Interchange Bench - WCE 2011 Preview

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THE PODCASTING COUCH EPISODE FOUR - NO STRINGS ATTACHED

In the latest episode of the podcasting couch, the team discuss the Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy No Strings Attached and chat about their top four romantic comedy films of all time.

To listen either go to http://boxseattv.podbean.com/ or search 'the podcasting couch' in the itunes store!

LAID - EPISODE TWO

If you've seen episode two of Laid, check out a few specific thoughts I have after the jump. Spoilers ahead!

ADAM HILLS IN GORDON STREET TONIGHT REVIEW - EP TWO REVIEW

Does ANYONE not like this man?

Because both programs premiered within a day of each other, there were inevitable comparisons between Adam Hills in Gordon Street tonight and Ben Elton: Live from Planet Earth. They’re very different shows, though. Elton’s show is more ambitious, live and is wall-to-wall comedy whereas ‘Gordon Street’ is a genuine tonight show.

There’s one main difference though – and that’s when you watch Adam Hills in Gordon Street tonight, even when you’re not laughing, you’re smiling.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM - GLEE

A word I use often – too often – when talking about television programs is ‘potential’. So I’ve decided to start a series of articles where I have a look at a program that might not be living up to that potential and make some suggestions that might help it get there.

TV REVIEW - LAID

TV REVIEW – LAID

Now that’s more like it.

After a series of Australian television launches and new programming that never quite hit the mark, along comes a series that is well worth your time in Laid.

TOP 20 FAVOURITE FILMS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 19

‘SCHOOL OF ROCK’

Starring: Jack Black, Joan Cusack and Miranda Cosgrove

Written By: Mike White

Directed By: Richard Linklater

When you watch it too thoughtfully, School of Rock becomes kind of a disconcerting film. The school’s security is so lax it doesn’t check for ID and a complete stranger is left alone with roughly twenty primary school children. From that starting point, you’re left with either an episode of Criminal Minds or a heartwarming comedy that wears its love of rock music on its sleeve. Fortunately, director Richard Linklater delivers the latter.

TV REVIEW - BEN ELTON: LIVE FROM PLANET EARTH EP 2

Ben Elton started out the second episode of Live from Planet Earth by apologizing for the first one. Youch. I always think it’s a better option, if your show has been hammered in the press, to just ignore that and do a better show the next time around. Actions speak louder than words and all that. The show rated shockingly last time, but I wanted to give it a chance, so I'm back for round two and hoping for improvement.

The main criticism of the show last week that Elton responded to was that there was a prevalence of knob and vagina jokes that bordered on the pathological.

That was not what I saw the main criticism to be. The main criticism of the show, from myself and all the other reviewers I read, was that Ben Elton: Live from Planet Earth wasn’t funny. Knob and vagina jokes are fine if they’re funny – but improving the show isn’t about making it less crude, it’s about making it wittier and less obvious.

THE PODCASTING COUCH EPISODE THREE

We're back! In this third episode of the podcasting couch, the team:

- reviews the Dwayne Johnson revenge thriller Faster

- talks about the best directors working in Hollywood today and the most expensive films ever made

- admits their Top Four Guilty Pleasure Films

Featuring Shannon Harvey from the West Australian, Simon Miraudo from quickflix.com.au, Laura Hewison and myself.

To listen, simply go to http://boxseattv.podbean.com/ or search 'the podcasting couch' in the itunes store!

FILM REVIEW - FASTER

Sorry, son. It's a starring role in the Tooth Fairy for you.

You know how people have guilty-pleasure songs, or guilty pleasure movies? I have a guilty pleasure actor – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Part of it stems from me being a wrestling fan when I was younger but mostly I just find him an incredibly appealing screen presence. He’s not quite in the Patrick Swayze guilty-pleasure actor pantheon, but he’s getting there.

Wherein lies the appeal? In Johnson, you have a gregarious, cocky presence who owns the screen when given the chance to explore that side of him. (See The Other Guys, Get Smart, Welcome to the Jungle, Be Cool, Saturday Night Live). If you don’t allow that side to come out, you’re playing to his weaknesses – dramatic heft, introspection and so on. What you really need for a role like that is someone with far greater dramatic chops than muscles.

As such, in casting the sedimentary action star as a hard man on a mission who rarely speaks and has no sense of humour, the film completely wastes Dwayne Johnson. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

TV REVIEW – BEN ELTON: LIVE FROM PLANET EARTH

OR AS IT MIGHT BE KNOWN FROM NOW ON – BEN ELTON, VAGINA JOKES FROM PLANET EARTH

(Channel Nine, Tuesday night, 9:30pm)

The first ten minutes of Ben Elton: Live from Planet Earth must have contained at least 2000 words, two comedy monologues and three character sketches. Between Elton’s fast-paced stand-up delivery and the sheer velocity of the first two sketches, it was like walking into comedy machine-gun fire.

(If I was a harsher critic, I would follow that sentence with ‘but more painful’. But I won’t.)

THE (POD) CASTING COUCH EPISODE TWO - CAST HARDER

The new episode of The (Pod) Casting Couch is up! Featuring Shannon Harvey, Simon Miraudo and Laura Hewison. In this episode we discuss True Grit, some of 2010’s biggest box-office hits and our Top 5 Child Actor performances of all time. Enjoy!
Go to http://www.boxseattv.podbean.com/ to download or simply search ‘The Podcasting Couch’ on iTunes.

FILM REVIEW - TRUE GRIT

The Coen brothers have made great movies. No Country for Old Men is well loved and an Oscar Winner for Best Picture. The Big Lebowski would go close to being the most popular cult film ever made and what is widely considered their best film, Fargo, is a classic. So the Coens are no strangers to greatness.

Their latest film, True Grit, fails to bridge that crucial gap between a good, capable, well-executed film and a great one.

TV REVIEW - #&@! MY DAD SAYS

Oh, you're in this cast too? Can you move that way a bit?

Based on a very funny Twitter feed by Justin Halpern, @#&! My Dad says is directed by sitcom legend James Burrows, stars TV legend William Shatner and ends up like the ugly bastard child of Two and a Half Men and Frasier.

It’s not worth your time, but it’s also not as bad as it could have been.