CliqueClack

The Motown murders row appear on American Idol

If you saw The Top 8 perform on American Idol this week, you witnessed something interesting. You saw walking, talking, “performing” mug shots of The Criminals Of Detroit, The Murders Of Motown and the newest portraits to grace the walls as America’s Most Wanted for perpetrating competition hopefuls.

What you witnessed were massive steps backward in the competition. It was an “unlearning” of what the guys have gained up to this point … which by the evidence below wasn’t much. I’m surprised the travesty they committed on stage Wednesday night wasn’t nixed after a few rehearsals. Devo would tout it as a chapter right out of “devolution.”

What happened on the stage with the three remaining guys was horrific, sad and cringe-worthy as they stumbled over each other on their way to completely mangling The Four Tops “I Can’t Help Myself.” It was done with such amateur slovenliness it just might cure Idol of repeating its token Motown Week come next season — if there is a next season. Continue reading 'The Motown murders row appear on American Idol' »

Game of Thrones Read Along: Valar Dohaeris

Everyone knows we’re big fans of HBO’s epic series Game of Thrones. One of the biggest distinctions in the show’s fandom is between those who have read George R. R. Martin’s series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire that the television series are based on … and those who have not. Many fans have read the books — some to the point of obsession — while others are staying as far away from them as they can.

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Splash, week 2: Still not all wet

Look … you and I both know the use of the word “competition” in Splash is rather the glaring oxymoron, right? So let’s just chalk up its use to throwaway fluff whenever co-hosts Charissa Thompson and Joey Lawrence blurt it out. If you can put that thought into play, you’ll be better off all around. Me? I’m in it for the fun of the show, for a little spectacle that comes across the screen every now and again and for a few chuckles. That’s the kind of stance you should be taking going in. Do that and I can about guarantee you’ll find it more enjoyable than you would expect.

And if you’re still not on board with Splash, there’s another side to it. Really. Consider the following: I don’t care who you are, Drake Bell’s statement during his intro prior to his individual feat claiming he went 3,600 dives before the first “competition” (see what I did there?) is nothing to sneeze at. The competition aspect of the program may be laughable — especially given judges David Boudia‘s and Steve Foley‘s wide-ranging (and sometimes seemingly jaw-dropping) scores from contestant to contestant — but make no mistake about it: There is some seriousness going on during the show. Continue reading 'Splash, week 2: Still not all wet' »

The Place Beyond the Pines – free passes for Baltimore and D.C.

Ryan Gosling. Bradley Cooper. Eva Mendes. Ray Liotta. With a cast like this, The Place Beyond the Pines is sure to be one of the must-see movies of the spring. And CliqueClack, in partnership with Focus Features and Allied Integrated Marketing, is going to give our readers in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore a chance to see the movie before anyone else! We will be offering free Admit Two passes to two different screenings, so please carefully read the information below.

• The D.C. screening will take place on Thursday, April 4th, 7:00 PM at AMC Mazza. All tickets for the DC screening have been claimed. The offer for the DC screening has expired.
• The Baltimore screening will take place on Wednesday, April 10th, 7:00 PM at AMC Loews White Marsh.

To receive your Admit Two pass by email, simply leave a comment on this post telling us why you want to see this movie. Important: make sure you tell us which city you need the pass for! We will not be able to reply to your comment without that information. Please make sure you have entered the correct email address as well. As passes are limited and to allow all of our readers a chance to claim a pass, we will accept one comment per email/IP address. Multiple comments from a single email/IP address will be held in reserve. If passes are still available the day of the screening, we will send passes to those on the reserve list. If you want to be the first to see The Place Beyond the Pines, leave your comment today!

The Place Beyond the Pines opens April 5th in D.C. and April 12th in Baltimore.

Game of Throne’s third season will see more changes from the book

Finally, it is only a couple of days away. The third season of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones will premiere this Sunday, bringing with it dragons and white walkers and wights and wargs (oh my!). George R. R. Martin’s third novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords, will serve as the basis of this season. The book’s narrative will actually be spread out across season three and an as-yet-unannounced fourth season, so we’re not entirely sure what will happen when.

Adding to that air of mystery is the certitude that season two brought to fans of the series: the story on the screen will not match the story on the page. The differences started small – a character’s age increased here, a name change there – but last year definitely saw some major departures from the books. While there are many fans of the books unhappy with the changes,

As with every installment of Beyond the Wall, spoiler warnings are in effect. Our discussion is from the context of people who have read the books – and are enjoying the show. So if you don’t understand why Meera and Jojen Reed are just now being added to the cast, you should probably move along … you sweet summer child.

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Psych’s 100th episode is here! Yes, that means another giveaway!

Are you ready, folks? Wednesday night (March 27), USA Network airs the 100th episode of Psych, titled “100 Clues.” Not only will it be an awesome Clue-themed episode — featuring some of the players from the movie of the ’80s — but fans have the opportunity to determine the show’s ending by voting on psych.usanetwork.com and via Twitter using a custom hashtags for each possible culprit: #PsychButlerDDit, #PsychGroupieDDit, #PsychManagerDDit, #PsychAuthorDDit and #PsychHostDDit. Wait, where’s the #PsychShawnDDit?

And now, the giveaway details. We’ve got one Psych-themed t-shirt, commemorating the show’s 100 episodes, with the top-pictured image, and a Psych iCade box (for an iPad, not included). All you need to do is leave a comment to this post saying what your favorite episode of Psych has been so far. We’ll pick one commenter amongst the comments to this post, completely at random, and alert them after the giveaway ends on Wednesday, April 3 at Midnight ET (make sure your spam filters aren’t blocking mail from @cliqueclack.com!). Only one entry per person per method and you must have a valid U.S.-based mailing address. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents of 18 years of age or older only. Not following these guidelines voids your entry. Good luck!

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Could The Ritz be made today?

In 1975, new playwright Terrence McNally hit Broadway with the racy, screwball comedy The Ritz. The show starred Jack Weston as a Cleveland garbage man who married into a very Italian family, and with the patriarch’s final words being “Get Proclo,” a hit was put on the unsuspecting spouse. To save his life, he hops in a cab and tells the driver to take him to the last place anyone would think to look for him, and he ends up at The Ritz. Not the hotel. A gay bath house. Guy Proclo spends his time dodging a “chubby chaser” and a delusional nightclub singer, Googie Gomez (Rita Moreno), while trying to hide out from a squeaky-voiced undercover detective and his homicidal brother-in-law. Luckily he has Chris (F. Murray Abraham) as his guide to keep Guy from seeing things he shouldn’t see and to help divert attention from him as well. Meanwhile, Googie believes Guy is an important Broadway producer and is stalking him in hopes of getting cast in a bus and truck tour of Oklahoma! And all of this set in an era after the Stonewall riots and before the AIDS crisis, featuring what today we would call the worst of the gay stereotypes.

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Gerard Butler still has it – Mount Olympus style

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) started my lifelong crush on Gerard Butler. Unlike Daniel Craig’s pale vanilla Alex in the first film, Butler provided a beefier and more intense love alternative for Angelina Jolie’s character. He brought an intense underlying tension and, in the love scenes, an incredibly expressive face. I followed his career to the awesome Dear Frankie (2004) and cheered when he scored the Phantom of the Opera gig. But somewhere along the way Gerard Butler stopped acting and started churning out bad rom com after bad rom com (The Bounty Hunter, The Ugly Truth, P.S. I Love You). His awesome intensity and his frame, which previously reflected his characters’ intense physicality, all exited stage right. The Gerard Butler who I previously analogized with quality and acting strength I now viewed equal to terrible movies.

After giving up, I caught Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus last year. Butler’s Tullus Aufidius provided an excellent antagonist and the cherry on top of an amazing Shakesperean adaptation. I declared “FINALLY! Gerard Butler is acting again!” and fell back in love. But, like a maiden with a previously broken heart, I remained tentative. I deliberately avoided  Playing for Keeps and wondered if I’d ever see the Gerard Butler I loved return. After watching, Olympus Has Fallen, I rescind my opinion. Gerard Butler is back, in spades, re-assuming his acting throne on Mount Olympus.

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The Walking Dead: The sainthood of Merle Dixon

If you haven’t seen “This Sorrowful Life,” the latest episode of The Walking Dead, you are hereby duly informed: There will be spoilers. (Truth be told, though: Unless you’ve sequestered yourself from everything The Walking Dead, it’s a little difficult not to know what took place in the chapter.)

I’m going to detail information on Merle Dixon, loose canon and elder brother of Daryl Dixon, touch on the last few episodes and recount items specifically from the penultimate episode of season 3.

From the beginning of the first season, it was understood the Dixon Brothers were not only shared a close familial blood bond but were continually forced apart by not only their circumstances but by their decisions as well. And, unfortunately, to the bitter end for one of them.

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The Phynx is the craziest movie you’ve never seen

If you’ve been following my posts here on CliqueClack, you know that I have a love for some off-the-wall movies and the amazing offerings from the Warner Archive Collection. Back in September I was crazy for a 1960s musical called The Cool Ones. While looking through the Archive Collection’s recent releases, a title caught my eye and I knew I just had to see more after reading the description. The movie is called The Phynx.

To say that this movie is just off-the-wall does it a huge disservice. This movie is completely off the rails … and I love it! The plot, such as it is, goes something like this: America’s biggest, most beloved entertainers are being kidnapped by Albania for reasons unknown. A US spy organization, the SSA (Super Secret Agency) has tried to send an agent (Lou Antonio) into the country to retrieve the stars, but to no avail. To come up with the best solution, the head of the SSA, Bogey (Mike Kellin, doing a really bad Bogart impression), consults a super-sophisticated computer called M.O.T.H.A. (Mechanical Oracle That Helps Americans) — which is shaped like a woman with tape reels and plastic cones for breasts — which comes up with the answer (on a punch card retrieved from its, uh, nether regions): create a fake pop band that is so popular they are invited to play a concert in Albania.

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