Album Review: Not Falling In Love With Kylie's 'Kiss Me Once'

For over 25 years Kylie Minogue has been a staple of pop/dance music. With her 12th studio album Kiss Me Once, her first album since 2010's Aphrodite, Minogue shows no sign of wanting to stop making the world dance, but at 45 she appears to be slowing down on this latest set, yet more focused on sex at the same time.

Since Aphrodite, Minogue has teased us with high energy tracks like "Timebomb" and "Skirt," and then doing an intimate, orchestra cover album called The Abbey Road Sessions. These were all delightful releases but now we have this, a compilation of slower dance tracks and a step backward for the Australian Queen of Pop.

"Into the Blue," the lead track and first single, starts the mood for the album immediately: a nice listen, but not kinetic. not as great as other album openers, but good nonetheless. The pockets of  momentary dance segments  proceed with songs "Million Miles" and the '80s-sounding "I Was Gonna Cancel," and some forgettable "sex" tracks. Her cover of Tom Aspaul's "Indiana," renamed to "Feel So Good," is a bubbly electronic ditty that is just as good as the original, a definite highlight of the album.


The songs chug along until the album's conclusion where we are left to feeling "Fine," which is a good bookend to "Into The Blue" and wants you to dance once more.

Not a great set, Kiss Me Once isn't too impressive the first go around - probably barbecue it's been four years since an album of original content and I was anxious - but there are some enjoyable nuggets to listen to second time around. However, this isn't a really danceable album that we expect from her. Is 26 years in the music industry taking a toll on her? She seems so slowed down on this set. Even Madonna is still performing all crazy at her age, so Minogue needs to be just as lively as she was on "Timebomb" and the albums before this.

Rating: C

Movie Review: 'Enemy' Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Jake goes head-to-head against himself in the doppleganger thriller 'Enemy'

The second collaboration in a matter of months between Jake Gyllenhaal and Canadian director Denis Villenevue after "Prisoners," "Enemy" is so unforgivably bad, it makes their first effort together look like a masterpiece. There's nothing worse than having a good plot that doesn't build up to anything and seems stale from the get-go.

"Enemy" opens with a really weird sexual party a la "Eyes Wide Shut" where pregnant girls nakedly frock around and kill spiders with their stiletttos. Yes, I'm serious. The spiders come back periodically as larger than life symbols trouncing through Toronto for no reason. When that unnecessary sequence ends, we meet Gyllenhaal's first character, the melancholy professor Adam Bell, who discovers an actor named Andrew St. Claire (also played by Gyllenhaal) who looks just like him.

Obsessed to discover who this look-a-like is, Adam manipulates his way into Andrew's life, eventually meeting with him in private. They are, indeed, some kind of twin, sharing the same voice, facial/body structure and even body scars. A slow build up to that point in the movie, it develops split personality afterward and turns into a sexual "Parent Trap" for the last 30 minutes.

I'll leave you with that.

Academy Award Predictions- "Gravity" Will Win Most, "Slave" Could Earn Best Picture

Man, what an awards season it has been. A fine sprinkling of comedy, sci-fi, drama, and historical films littered the field this year. Though this year's best picture line-up is not as perfectly diverse as last year's, nine films of varying themes, stories and genres still make this an interesting group. In case you forgot, here are the nine films vying for Hollywood's highest film honor- "American Hustle," "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Gravity," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena," "12 Years a Slave" and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

You have five dramas, three comedies, and one sci-fi blockbuster. Though I didn't like most of these films, it's showing how the academy is making strides to broaden their appeal when they decided to expand the best picture category to up to 10 nominees over five, and save for "Her," they all have acting nominations. And unlike years past where best picture nominees would only have two nominations - "The Blind Side," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" -, not one of these films has less than four nominations each. These aren't just showcases of great acting, but of great craftsmanship across all branches of the academy.

However, the acting races seem all sewn up so there's nothing fun to report there, but best picture is a true nail-biter.

Best Picture
While last year was a runaway for Ben Affleck's "Argo," this year is more heavily contested among three films; absolute frontrunners "Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave" (with 10 and nine respective nominations each) and"American Hustle" whose nominations in all of the acting categories favors heavily for it and their 10 total nominations. Almost every single precursor has gone to these three films, with a tighter split between "Gravity" and "Slave.'

Movie reviews: The 2013 Academy Award Nominees For Best Documentary Feature

The 2013 Academy Award nominees for best documentary feature show a pretty diverse collection of stories that are told in conventional documentary ways of storytelling and even a newer approach that strongly blurs the line between fiction and truth. Stories about war, art, music, and revolution all come together in one category that open our eyes to wonderful people and the most unruly of characters.

The five nominated documentaries are "The Act of Killing," "Cutie and the Boxer," "Dirty Wars," "The Square" and "20 Feet From Stardom."

Thanks to Netflix, it was easier than most years to actually watch the nominees (all but "20 Feet" are available for streaming), and it was an interesting experience. Though they all had different narratives and used different techniques, this wasn't an extraordinary slate.

Academy Award Nominations Predictions!

Image courtesy of AMPAS

Ah, yes. With the turn of a new year comes a new slate of Oscar nominations. There was a good bunch of films released in 2013, but nothing compared to 2007 (in my opinion). Last year's was perfectly ecclectic; there was a foreign-language film ("Amour"), a musical ("Les Miserables"), an action movie ("Zero Dark Thirty") and plenty of drama that covered the gammit from historical epic to childhood survival.

The 2013 won't look anything like that.

Instead, there are no foreign films to highly consider, or any musicals. OK, if you want to include "Inside Llewyn Davis" as a musical, go ahead, but just because music plays an integral role in a film does not necessarily make it a musical. Instead we have dips into sci-fi ("Gravity" and "Her"), a deep historical drama ("12 Years a Slave"), comedic ensemble pieces ("American Hustle" and "Nebraska") and a sprinkling of moderately modern stories about pirates, corrupt greed and AIDS.

With 5-10 slots ready to be filled with best picture nominees, it's easier to say which films will definitely can in than the ones just may tip-toe in.

I think we could see one or two films collect double-digit nominations, maybe three depending on how the Academy is feeling. Expect big returns for "Gravity," "12 Years a Slave," and (maybe) "American Hustle." Though I don't predict it, there's a possibility "American" can get two more acting nods (actress and supp. actor).

Nominations are announced Jan. 16 at 8:38 EST.

BEST PICTURE
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
(Dallas Buyers Club)

Golden Globe Awards Predictions!

As the first, and last, big kudos before the Academy Award nominations are announced on January 16, the Golden Globes are usually the pre-Academy Awards because there is such an overlay of winners between the two kudos fests. Last year was different in that the Academy Award nominations were announced BEFORE the Golden Globes.

Anywho, here is a list of predicted winners I made. I think "12 Years a Slave" and "American Hustle" will do well in their respective genre categories.

Edit: Winners listed with original predictions

BEST PICTURE - DRAMA
Winner: "12 Years a Slave"
Predicted: "Gravity"

BEST ACTOR - DRAMA
Winner: Matthew McCounaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"
Predicted: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave"

BEST ACTRESS - DRAMA
Winner/prediction: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"

BEST PICTURE - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Winner/prediction: "American Hustle"

BEST ACTOR - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Winner/prediction: Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street"

BEST ACTRESS - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Winner: Amy Adams, "Amerian Hustle"
Predicted:  Meryl Streep, "August: Osage County"

"Gravity" Floats Away With 11 BAFTA Nominations

"Gravity" leads all films this year with 11 nominations including best film and outstanding British film.         

              

The space blockbuster "Gravity" crashed into cloud 9 Wednesday morning after receiving 11 EE British Academy Film Award (BAFTAs) nominations, the most of any film this year.

"Gravity" was nominated for best film, outstanding British film, best director, best actress for its star, Sandra Bullock, and best original screenplay, and six technical nods. The film was a co-production between the British company Heyday Films and the Mexican company Esperanto films.

In addition to his nomination for directing, Alfonso Cuarón earned the most individual nominations this year with five, earning his four other nominations as a producer, writer and editor of the film. He shares his nomination for outstanding British film with producer David Heyman and co-writer, his son, Jonas Cuarón. This bring Alfonso's total BAFTA nominations up to nine.

Not far behind in nominations was "12 Years a Slave" and "American Hustle" earning 10 each, both competing for best film and best director. While "12 Years" sought three acting nods (actor- Chiwetel Ejiofor, supp. actor- Michael Fassbender and supp actress- Lupita Nyong'o), "American Hustle" earned a nomination in all of the acting categories (leads Amy Adams and Christian Bale, supporting for Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper). The "American Hustle" cast earned the same nominations at the Golden Globes, with Adams and Bale competing in the comedic races.