Cirque du Soleil do MJ

Michael Jackson comes to life with Cirque du Soleil

If you have ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show you know they are amazing. I have seen the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas and it is one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life. They have now announced they are bring us a new show called ONE and it revolves around the music of the incredible Michael Jackson. The story of the show is supposed to be about 4 people who go on a journey and while using Michael's music by journeys end they show us everything that Michael was about. I can only imagine how this show is going to look and sound, I just know it is going to be amazing and make MJ fans and I am sure the man himself proud. The show will be playing at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas and tickets will go on sale to the general public on March 7. The show is set to officially premier June 29th but will have preview performances starting on May 23rd. I am sure tickets for the first couple weeks will be sold out very quickly. I can not wait to see this show and suggest everyone get a ticket to see it as well. And if you can't get tickets to this show you need to see one of the many other Cirque du Soleil shows playing in Vegas, I am sure they are all amazing and worth your time and money. 

Dancing With The Stars 16

Who will be dancing in Season 16?

Today we got to find out who will be staring on the 16th season of the ABC show "Dancing With The Stars". Like most seasons there are some people that we know are not going to do amazing and some we know are already front runners. Here are the pairings....

-US Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman will be dancing with Mark Ballas. She is already so athletic I think she will be easy to work with and a fast learner especially since Mark is such an amazing coach and knows how to push his partners just the right amount. I think she will finish top 3 if not win.

-Comedian Andy Dick will be dancing with Sharna Burgess. Andy Dick is not know for his serious or sane side so seeing him do something that is kind of serious and involves a great deal of discipline will be interesting for sure. With him being this way and being paired with a first time pro on the show I think his time on the show will be short lived for sure. 

-Comedian D.L. Hughley will be dancing with Cheryl Burke. I could see D.L. having some hidden moves and no one is better than helping him bring those out then Cheryl. She is such a great coach and has a great way of working with her partners. I think he will make it to at least the half way mark. 

-US Olympic skater Dorthy Hamill will be dancing with Tristan MacManus. Dorthy is one of the older contestants this year which is always hard when you have much younger competition  Being a skater could give her some help in the competition though. Tristan is a good coach so I am sure he will help her a lot. 

-Soap star Ingo Rademacher will be dancing with Kym Johnson. Kym is a great coach and I can see her making up some steamy dances with Ingo. I don't know what his dancing ability is but I am sure he will still make it further than others. 

-NFL player Jacoby Jones will be dancing with Karina Smirnoff. Coming off the high of winning the Superbowl I think Jacoby will be looking to win DWTS as well. I don't know if he has dancing ability but I see him being able to move. I am sure he will make it pretty far with Karina by his side. 

-Country star Kellie Pickler will be dancing with Derek Hough. Derek is one of the greatest coaches on the show and I think he is going to find Kellie's inner dancer and pull it out. I  can't imagine them going home early in the show unless she really can not dance. 

-Reality star Lisa Vanderpump will be dancing with new pro Gleb Savchenko. New pro paired with an older reality star, hmm I don't see it going well. Remember you need fan support and I don't see her having as much as many others. 

-Pro boxer Victor Ortiz will be dancing with new pro Lindsay Arnold. Ortiz is a a determined cutie that will fight to get to the end. I think he will work very hard to be a great dancer I just hope Lindsay is a good pro. 

-Country legend Wynonna Judd will be dancing with Tony Dovolani. Wynonna is also one of the oldest dancers on the show. I don't see her being a great dancer but Tony is an amazing coach so he could get her far. Even with Tony though I see them being out of the competition pretty early. 

-Disney star Zendaya Coleman will be dancing with Val Chmerkovsky. Ok this girl dances for a living so I am going to say right now she is going to make it to the last show. I know she will say but I have never done ballroom blah blah blah, I don't care she know the basics of dancing and knows how to move and is young. The only thing that worries me about this pairing is from what I have seen of Val (from last season) he can be overly sexy sometimes with his partners and this is a very young girl he is paired with. I think it will be interesting to watch but for sure she is making it very far in this competition. 

As you can see there are three new pro dancers this season and one fan favorite pro is missing, Maksim Chmerkovsky (Val's brother). He says he is going to explore other opportunities instead of come back to the show. This is not super surprising since Maks and the judges have had some disagreements in past seasons where you could see he was getting fed up with being there. He will be missed from the show though since he is an amazing dancer. The show is set to premier Monday March 18th at 8/7 c. I will be watching will you? 

The 2013 Oscars

My top ten moments from the 2013 Oscars 

Yesterday I posted a blog predicting how I thought last night would go and I was pretty dead on. As far as awards went all of my predictions were right except for the category of best director which did not go to Steven Spielberg  but to Ang Lee for his directing of "Life of Pi". Seth MacFarlane was great like I thoughthe would be but never went over the top with his jabs. And my fashion predictions were pretty on as well. Here are my top ten moments of the night. 

10. Seth MacFarlane and Kristen Chenoweth singing "Here's to the Losers". Instead of just saying congrats and goodnight Seth decided to sing his way off the air with the amazing Kristen Chenoweth and they sang out to all the losers. It was a lighthearted and funny way to end the show for sure. Bless all the losers. 

9. The Jaws theme stepping in for the light classical music that usually plays people off that take a little to long with their speech. Some thought it was mean but I thought it was kind of hilarious, I mean anyone who hears that song move a little quicker with whatever they are doing for sure. One person early in the show got the Jaws theme played on them and it got louder and louder and faster and faster and he kept talking so they eventually just turned his mic off but after that people either kept it short and sweet or talked super fast during their speeches (talking to you Ben Affleck!) so I guess you could say the Jaws theme worked and did its job. 

8. The fashion of the night. There were so many great looks last night. These three women stood out to just about everyone who was watching. Kerry Washington wore a beautiful coral/red colored dress that was beaded on the top. I loved how she had a pop of color because there wasn't a lot of bright colors on the red carpet last night. Naomi Watts wore a metallic silver number that was unique and looked great on her. Resse Witherspoon looked stunning in a blue gown that her teenage daughter actually helped pick out. None of these looks were my favorite of the night though, my favorite dress and all around look of the night was a favorite of many....

Jennifer Lawrence was perfect last night in her white Dior Haute Coutoure gown. Her hair was pulled back perfectly, make-up was great, and to cap it off she had a "back" necklace that was so simple but worked so great with the dress. I think for someone who has looked so amazing this award season she ended it so amazingly all around. 

7. Anne Hathaway walking away with an Oscar for supporting actress for her role in "Les Miserables". She had a great performance and really deserved to win the award. I think many people have known she is a great actress but this movie really showed us. Her speech was great, humble, and very gracious. You could feel how much she had dreamed of this moment and how happy she was to finally get it. I am sure this will not be her last time being at the Oscars. 

6. Barbara Streisand making a rare performance singing "The Way We Were" for the memoriam section of the show. It was amazing seeing this singing legend show us all that she still has it. Her voice is still amazing that is for sure and she looked great. 

5. Adele! She sang, she won, she cried. Adele was nominated for best original song for "Skyfall" from the James Bond movie also titled "Skyfall". She performed that song an did a wonderful job with the performance. Then came time for the award and she won and immediately she lost it. You couldn't help but smile for her while you watched her try to keep it together while she accepted the award. Seeing her just look at her Oscar like "Oh my god I can not believe I won this" was awesome. Got to love Adele. 

4. Seth MacFarlane and the way he opened the show was great. He started off with a few light jabs at some stars like bringing up how the academy snubbed Ben Affleck for best director and Daniel Day-Lewis's method acting and then a screen dropped down and there was William Shatner as Captain Kirk from "Star Trek". He goes on to inform us that he is from the future and that Seth bombs the show by doing things like singing a song called "We Saw Your Boobs" about the many actresses who show their boobs in their movies. To make up for this he sings a couple tunes while celebs like Channing Tatum, Charlize Theron, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Daniel Radcliffe  danced and backed him up. It was pretty great to watch and I think he did a great job though many people (including Captain Kirk himself) are saying Amy Poehler and Tina Fey would have done better since they did so great hosting the Golden Globes. Seth did say during the opening they will host next year, we shall see if that happens. 

3. The theme of musicals and the performances from the musicals. This was the first year the Oscars decided to go with a theme and it was movie musicals. John Travolta came out and introduced three musicals that have won awards or were nominated and then we got performances from those movies. We started off with "Chicago" and Catherine Zeta-Jones came out and sang "All That Jazz". I think she did great though some say she was not really singing. Regardless that movie came out I think 10 years ago and she looked fantastic last night! Then came out Jennifer Hudson and she sang "And I am Telling You" from Dreamgirls and holy crap she sang the hell out of that song. I mean not going to lie I almost shed a tear. When she was done that whole place was on their feet and I thought well the next act better bring it. The next thing you know one by one the whole cast of "Les Miserables" came out singing. By the end of that you have a stage full of people singing and they drop the french flags, it was beautiful and once again the crowd was on their feet. They were all great performances and a great tribute to those musicals. 

2. "Argo" taking home best picture. It capped off an amazing award season and showing us that Ben Affleck was so snubbed by not being nominated for best director. Seeing him thank his wife and talk about how far he has come since he won for "Good Will Hunting" so many years ago made me smile and realize how far he really has come. I think he is going to continue making amazing movies. 

1. Jennifer Lawrence winning and just being herself was a great highlight of the show. She came out on the red carpet looking amazing (as I said earlier) being by far the best dressed. Then she won best actress for her work in "Silver Linings Playbook" and her face was priceless. She was shocked and then while walking up to stage she fell on her dress and tripped on the stairs. But of coarse she picked herself up and went to get her award. You could tell she could not believe she had just won, her shocked face was great. I love how real and genuine she is, it is just amazing. I think she is going to continue surprise us and herself and do more amazing work. 

Such a great award season. I can not wait for the year ahead and all of the movies yet to come out. I am sure we will get many more great films before the next award season. 

Oscar Predictions

My 2013 Oscar Predictions 

Tonight is the night all movie lovers have been waiting for, the 85th Academy Awards. Tonight we get to see who is wearing who on the red carpet, great performers like Adele and Barbara Streisand serenade us and most importantly who get to see who thanks the academy and gets to take Oscar home. I have a few predictions on who I think will be winning the Oscar tonight. 

Best Picture

I think this award will go to "Argo" for sure. All award season this movie and the man behind the movie (Ben Affleck) have been cleaning up award after award. This is a great movie and I think it deserves the win. If "Argo" does not win I hope "Silver Linings Playbook" takes it. The acting in that movie is great and the movie has so much heart that it would be nice to see them win as well. I think even though movies like "Lincoln" and "Les Miserables" and favorites by many I do not see these movies taking home the award for best picture tonight. 

Lead Actor 

I truly believe there is no doubt that many people, myself included, think that Daniel Day-Lewis will be taking home the best lead actor Oscar tonight for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in the movie "Lincoln". He became that character so much you truly believe he is Lincoln. This is not surprising since Daniel Day-Lewis is such an amazing actor. The world will be shocked if someone else walks away with this award tonight. 

Lead Actress 

This is a category where things are a lot closer. Personally I think (and hope) Jennifer Lawrence receives the award for her performance in "Silver Linings Playbook". Her performance is so raw and emotional as she expressed such a range of emotions through out the movie. Though I could see Jessica Chastain walking away with the award as well with her performance in "Zero Dark Thirty". We shall see which actress takes home the award. 

Supporting Actor 

The supporting actor category has many talented men in it (they have all taken home an Oscar before tonight) and they all had very strong performances. I personally would love to see Christoph Waltz take home the award for his performance in "Django Unchained". He is so amazing in that movie and that movie would have not been the same if someone else played the role of Dr. King Shultz. 

Supporting Actress 

Even though Anne Hathaway isn't in a great deal of the movie "Les Miserables" her haunting and emotional performance in the film I think will win her the Oscar for best supporting actress. Even though the other nominees were also good I just don't see any of them beating her for the Oscar. If someone else does take home the award I will be shocked. 

Other winners for the night 

I think it is pretty safe to say that Disney will win another Oscar t since three out of the five nominated animated films are Disney films. They also might win for best animated short film with the wonderful "Papaerman". I think Steven Spielberg will win for best director for "Lincoln". I would like to see Quentin Tarantino win for best original screenplay for "Django Unchained". I think Seth MacFarlane will do a great job as a host with being funny but not rude. And I think best dressed of the night will be Jennifer Lawrence who has looked amazing all award season. Can't wait to see how it all goes down tonight on ABC at 7pm E/ 4pm P. Watch along with me on twitter as I live tweet tonight @ebphotosJami and check back tomorrow to see what my top 10 highlights from the night are.  

Argo

Argo review

Argo is based on true events that happened 1979 in Iran. The movie opens showing us Iranians storming into the U.S. Embassy and taking 52 American's hostage. We see that six of the American's make it out of a back exist and make an escape and are hiding out  with  Canadians. Tony Mendez, played by Ben Affleck, works for the CIA and he is determined to find a way to get the six remaining American's out of there. 

He thinks about pretending to make a movie and act like he and the remaining hostages are a film crew to get the hostages out. Tony teams up with Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers, played by John Goodman, and film producer Lester Siegel, played Alan Arkin, to make a fake movie. They take the proper steps to make it look like they are starting the movie making process to makes things as believable as possible. Once Tony gets to Iran he tells the hostages the plan and from that moment on we are on the edge of our seats seeing them come so close to getting caught on their way to freedom.

As the movie goes on you become more and more invested and involved in the story. In the end when they finally make it over the border and are out of harms way you are so invested you take a giant sigh of relief and cheer with them. Ben Affleck did a great job starting, producing, and directing this film.  "Argo" takes you on a great cinematic ride and deserves to be nominated and to even win best picture at the Oscars this Sunday. Everyone should pick up the DVD and check this movie out. 

TV Comedy Changes

TV Comedy changes

Fans of the NBC comedy "Up All Night" have to be a little sad to hear the news that the lead actress Christina Applegate is planning on leaving the show due to creative differences. I personally have never really watched the show (sorry) but I do love Christina Applegate and think she is hilarious so I am sure the show is going to be weird and a little off with out her. This comes after the staff has lost other members that were key to their staff. Rumors are "Friends" actress Lisa Kudrow might come on bored to take over the role. We shall see if this is true or not in the next couple months. 

In other sad news the time is almost upon us to say good bye to our beloved friends at "The Office". This show has been on for nine seasons and has been so great and hilarious threw most of it. I will say it became a lot less fun to watch once Steve Carell left which I am sure most people would agree with me on that one. The season finale is set to air on May 16th. It will be interesting to see what NBC can come up with to fill the void of "The Office" and potentially "Up All Night" for next falls line up. 

In good news (especially for all of you 90's teeny boppers out there) we are expecting to see a "Home Improvement" reunion with Jonathan Taylor Thomas making an appearance on Tim Allen's new show "Last Man Standing". The episode is set to air sometime in March or April and has JTT playing a restaurant manager and Tim Allen's daughter will be applying for a job at the restaurant. I for one am very excited to just see what good ole' JTT looks like these days since no one has seen him in years. I am sure the episode will be very funny to watch and great to see these two together again. 

Silver Linings Playbook

My Review of "Silver Linings Playbook" 

"Silver Linings Playbook" is a movie that has so much heart and yet at the same time shows the raw emotion of a man dealing with the ending of a marriage where his wife cheated on him and basically made him go crazy. We get to see him go on a journey to becoming a better man and someone who looks for the silver lining in life. 

Bradley Cooper plays Pat a man who is suffering with bipolar disorder while also dealing with the fact his wife has cheated on him, left him, and took everything. After a few months in a mental health facility he gets to go home and live with his parents till he can get back on his feet. While doing this he catches up with an old friend named Tiffany (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who has had some tough times of her own like dealing with the death of her husband and many rumors about her own love life. The two strike up  a deal to help Tiffany with her new found hobby of dancing and to help Pat be able communicate and show his wife how he is a better man. In the end they realize they were actually each others silver lining in life. 

This movie gets you rooting for both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrences' characters and the ending leaves us with a smile on our face and a warm fuzzy feeling. Both actors do such an amazing job in there roles and they don't hold back on the emotions their characters are going through. They, along with Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver who play Pats parents and do a great job at the roles, are all nominated for Oscars for their acting performances. The film is also nominated for best picture at the Oscars and rightfully so. I think Jennifer Lawrence has a good chance of taking home best actress and If "Argo" doesn't take home best picture, this is my second pick for the award. I loved this movie and really recommend for people who love romantic comedys that aren't as traditional and sugar coated as the others. 

Zero Dark Thirty

Review of Zero Dark Thirty 

When I heard about "Zero Dark Thirty" I immediately, as I imagine a lot of people did, thought I want to see that story told on the big screen. Being American we all know where we were on September 11th 2001 and no matter what your political views are we all agree we wanted to see Osama Bin Laden to pay. In the movie we are introduced to Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) who works for CIA. She is working to find out the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. 

 Seeing Jessica Chastains character, Maya, go threw the years seeing terrorist attacks happen one after the other while searching day and night for that man who took away so many innocent lives was a crazy thing. She does such a great job portraying the stress, anger, and passion that this woman had for her job and how even when people told her she was wrong she kept going with her gut which payed off in the end. You felt every emotion she had with her performance. Jessica deserves the Oscar nomination she received for her performance for sure and might even walk away with a win.

When she finally feels like she has found Osama Bin Laden hiding out in Pakistan they send Seal team six in to capture/ kill the man. Watching this raid happen as a viewer you are on the edge of your seat thinking about how "oh my gosh I can't believe this happened" It is still crazy to me that we did kill that evil man. After they finish the raid and Mayas work is done they end the moving with her sitting alone in a plane just crying because it is over and you just feel the weight of that moment and how many emotions she would have been feeling. All in all it is a great movie that really allows us to look into what was going on for the years between 2001 and 2011 and how hard people were looking to find him. On behalf of every one we thank the men and women that were searching for years and years.  

Superbowl Stunner

Superbowl Highlights

Last nights Superbowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens was one for the record books. 

First we got to have are heart strings pulled at when we got to see the children of the Sandy Hook Elementary choir sing "America the Beautiful" and then they were joined by Jennifer Hudson who sang with them. They did a great job.

Then we got to hear the longest version of the National Anthem (no seriously it was the longest version of all time) by Alicia Keys. For me the song was a little slow and not the best version I have heard. I kind of wish she would have just belted it out normally but what can you do, it was still nice.

The first half of the game was a complete domination by the Baltimore Ravens with the score at halftime being Ravens 21 San Francisco 6. 

 Then came the half time stunner. Beyonce came out and killed it. She sang many of her hits like "Crazy In Love", "Halo" and "Love on Top".  A few minutes into the performance I was starting to think all of the Destiny's Child rumors were just that, rumors, and I got a little sad, but then out came Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland to sing Destiny's Child hits like "Bootylicious" "Independent Women" and Beyonces hit "Single Women" During the performance Twitter was going crazy with so many celebrities freaking out and praising Beyonce. Later on I looked at the Today show facebook page and saw that many others did not agree claiming she was dancing to provocative and dressed way to racy.  Complaints about her not making it family friendly and not singing enough. Honestly I think she did a great job and was very entertaining. I think many people don't like her for other reasons than her singing and dancing but that is just me. I thought it was great.

After we all caught are breath from the half time performance the third quarter started with an amazing 109-yard punt return (longest in Superbowl history) from Jacoby Jones of the Baltimore Ravens to make the score 28 to 6. Not to long after this the power went out in half to stadium and took more than 30 minutes to get back on. Everyone seemed confused and wondered if this would effect the players and maybe even shift the game. It completely did and the 49ers came back to almost win the game with a final score of Ravens 34, 49ers 31. Many are still bitter saying there were some bad calls or lack of calls that could have produced a different outcome but the game is over there is nothing left to do. The Ravens winning the Superbowl means Ray Lewis is retiring on top with a nice new ring on his finger. Now that football season is over we all can't wait for fall to come for a new season to start!