Toni Braxton's New Video: Yesterday featuring Trey Songz

Check out the new video for Toni Braxton's first single off the new album. Toni remains the baddest, sexiest R&B/soul singer in the game. She could sing the A-B-Cs and I'd be ok with that.


If you can't see this video, go to http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid340480126?bctid=51648704001

Critics Agree: New Twilight Sucks

The new Twilight film isn't something I'd ever pay to see, considering the last one -- which I also didn't pay to see -- was so boring I imagine taking a non-stop flight from LA to Miami without a laptop, earphones or in-flight film would be more interesting.

So, I rely on others to tell me if this one is worth watching or not. And it's not.

My friend Mara reports: "Was bored out of my skull for most of New Moon."

Her assessment is pretty consistent with the critics. The Twilight Saga: New Moon only scores 29 percent on Rottentomatoes.com.

Tom Long of the Detroit News says, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a mess."

Stephanie Zacharek over at Salon.com calls it "badly shaped."

David Germain, reporting for the AP, says, "All three lovers are so joyless, it's hard to imagine why any of them would want to spend eternity together."

And, the best, comes from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone: "I can't comment on the acting because I didn't catch Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner doing any. They basically primp and pose through the same humdrum motions they did before."

Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal enter the Oscar Race

Check out the trailer for the new Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal flick, Crazy Horses. Current buzz is both are serious contenders for Academy Award nods -- and Bridges (with four nods behind him) is considered a front-runner in his category.

Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

Bridges has four Academy Award nominations and two Screen Actor's Guild nominations. Gyllenhaal has been nominated twice for the Golden Globe and Indy Spirit, and she should have gotten an Academy Award nod for her work in SherryBaby.

See the trailer at http://www.foxsearchlight.com/crazyheart/

Angie Does Action Again: First Look at Salt

Angelina Jolie's newest movie, Salt, probably won't compete for major awards like the Oscar or Golden Globe next year. Still, it looks kinda hot. The movie is set for July 23, 2010 release. Check out the trailer.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfV5CTyVkwI

Must See - Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire

(Gabourey Sidebe and a refreshing Paula Patton in Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire)

As Precious opens, the 16-year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones is pregnant for the second time with her father’s baby. She is illiterate, overweight and living with a mother who beats and rapes her. But things begin to change for Precious when she enrolls at an alternative school for young women. Here, with the help of her teacher, Ms. Rain, she begins to learn her value and starts the slow processes of learning to read. She also starts to confront and excise her demons.

Lee Daniels manages something remarkable with his adaptation of PUSH, a 1997 novel by the poet Sapphire. Where the novel is perhaps the bleakest, must unsettling work of fiction I've ever read, the film is sometimes humorous despite the pain, and it ends with the clearest signs of hope. We have Gabourey Sidebe to thank for this.

Sidebe raises Precious above caricature and stereotype by displaying the fullest range of emotions. She’s, at first, understandably withdrawn, tight-lipped and angry. She shouts at her classmates when they cut up in class. She fantasizes about what her life could be if she were wealthy, pretty, skinny, white and living in Westchester or somewhere with the math teacher who smiles at her. In her fantasies, we see a happy Precious, someone effusive and expressive. The contrast is striking and wholly believable.

Then, there is Mo’Nique. And my god, Mo’Nique is brilliant. She’s grotesque in her physical want for her daughter and horrifying in the violence. Mo’Nique digs deep within the soul of this woman and lays bare the pathology that brought her here.

In a 1988 interview for Women’s Review of Books, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison said no one who’s been hurt or abused tells her story voluntarily, but “when they do say it, and hear it, and look at it, and share it, they are not only one, they’re two, and three, and four, you know? The collective sharing of their information heals the individual – and the collective.”

We witness a sort of collective healing in Precious. The story belongs to the title character; it's her journey. But the healing is also Ms. Rain's, the girls in Precious' class, even the counselor (a convincing Mariah Carey).

It's also ours. Yes, this is a work of fiction. But the circumstances that created Precious -- the fucked-up school system, the cycle of violence in the inner city, parents so downtrodden and wanton they abuse their children -- all of this is part our America, one that resides alongside the pretty picture of Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House.

Some people won't like this movie. They'll say it's too harsh, that what Precious endures isn't realistic, that movies are supposed to entertain. But I think movies -- and stories in general -- are supposed to do much more. They're supposed to inform and uplift. And if they're truly great, enlighten. Monster's Ball, the Lee Daniels-produced movie that won Halle Berry her Oscar, fell short by a few miles. Precious, though not perfect, gets rather close.

Review: This Is It

This Is It is about Michael Jackson and his music. And through his work we get glimpses of his humanity.

I saw This Is It at a Sunday matinee with my sister, niece and mother. We waited in line to see the film, and by the time the lights dimmed, the theater was full. Children hushed, phones went to silent, and the woman sitting two seats away leaned forward against the rail as if she would be able to more fully experience Michael Jackson this way.

This film is, of course, a final farewell to the King of Pop. But there is no sadness here. Only a celebration of what made Michael Michael.

The film opens with "confessionals" from dancers preparing to rehearse. They're all overcome with just the possibility of performing with him, though they've yet to be selected. This opening vignette offers the films only tears. But these tears are filled with optimism, some hope.

Then we watch what would have been. Michael choreographing dance numbers. Michael singing and dancing in jeans and blazers, and once in sweats. We watch Michael the perfectionist correcting his musical director, at one point telling the man: "I want it the way I wrote it." He's talking about the opening of "The Way You Make Me Feel" here, and the musical director isn't getting it. In another memorable scene, a frustrated Michael takes his ear piece out and complains to the show director that volume is so high "it's like someone's shoving a fist in my ear."

And despite reports that he had lost it (a newspaper claimed he'd lost his voice and could barely dance anymore), Michael does it all. Rewrites melodies to some of his best tunes, goes to church at the end of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," and the dancers and crew members go crazy! And so does the audience at Aventura AMC 24.

Bottom line: If you weren't a fan, this ain't for you. If you were a fan, there's nothing here you won't like. It's a celebration of a body of work that has withstood tabloids, scandal, macabre news reports about autopsy photos and the like. It's about a man who lived, from the time he was five, for music and entertainment. We know based on published reports and a family biopic that the road was never easy. We witnessed a decade of decline in general public image. But here, with this film, we're reminded that despite it all, there was -- there is -- his music.

Undeniably, hands down, the most important pop culture figure of the 20th century.