Television
Television Show:
It only started right at the very end of the year, but it’s Modern Family, it’s hands down one of the funniest, best ensemble casts I’ve ever seen in a show. Even without the rest of the cast I’d put this show as the best juts for Ty Burrell’s performance as Phil Dunphy which is comic gold. Every single member of the cast holds their own, even the young kids and there genuinely isn’t a character I don’t love. If you haven’t seen this yet, then do so, it’s brilliantly funny.
TV Actor:
It’s easy, it’s Ty Burrell from Modern Family. Every single episode I will laugh at him, his face, his actions, his character… genius. It’s amazing he stands out so much when the rest of the cast are so good too.
TV Actress:
I’m going to have to say Kaley Cuoco, she’s really grown into her character Penny on The Big Bang Theory, she’s a perfect example of quality character development. She’s funny, sexy and has great comic expressions and has turned into quite possibly my favourite character on the show.
Movies
Movie:
Slumdog Millionaire if we’re counting movies I saw in 2009 (although I did see it in 2008), but if we’re talking a film I originally saw in 2009, then I’ll say Avatar. I’ll go with the latter for the sake of argument. I’ll say Avatar because it’s a film I really didn’t think I’d like, I thought the CGI would look wrong and that the cast would look awkward acting against such large CGI creatures and I was proven wrong on every count. It delivered a great story, brilliant acting and, for the 2.5 hours it was on, I really couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. It was a packed cinema, not a seat spare and not a single word was spoken by anyone, not even the kids. That’s the sign of a great movie.
Actor:
I’m surprised because it was the very first film I watched in 2009, but Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler really was rather fantastic. Everything about him fit in that role, the beaten up face and body, the voice, and watching him you genuinely believed that he’d been and lived that life and had gotten little return. He deserved his Oscar nod, but having not seen Milk, can’t say Sean Penn didn’t deserve it (as well as Sean Penn being one of my 3 favourite actors ever) but this really signaled the return of Mickey Rourke as a leading man.
Actress:
I’m in love with her anyway, but she was sensational in Julie and Julia, so I’m going to go with Amy Adams. I really hope she gets an Oscar nod for the role because she was brilliant, but all the press seems to go to, in fairness, probably the greatest actress to ever grace the big screen, Meryl Streep. It’s a great film which I absolutely adored, but for me, it’s really Amy Adams who was the star of the show.
Who should retire?:
Uwe Boll. Seriously, fuck off and stop giving the impression that video games don’t have quality stories that can be made into good movies. You’re single handedly limiting an entire side of the media!
Music
Album:
The best album of 2009 wasn’t actually released in 2009, it’s Amy MacDonald – This is the Life, I listened to this album at least once a week. I absolutely love every single on this album, there’s not a single track that gets skipped. It’s a musical masterpiece for me.
Single:
Amy MacDonaTrack 6, Let’s Start a Band. It just builds up into the most amazing ending and it just gets me smiling and moving around.
I’m sure many of you have heard about the smash American TV series Glee which has been advertised over here for going on 6 weeks almost none-stop and for anyone who trolls the download scene for this kind of thing, even longer.
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Well so far I’ve read through the Ben Mezrich book mentioned in my previous post, ‘Ugly Americans’, which was quite entertaining, but not exactly the thrill ride that I got from ‘Bringing Down The House’. Ugly Americans centers around a young American graduate from Stamford, Malcolm, who travels to Japan and trades on the Japanese stock exchange, the Nikkei, and millionaire traders from the United States who were able to amass fortunes within 24 hours of trading. It was based on a true story, though the protagonists of the book did have their identities hidden, but you do get a rather clear story of the trials and tribulations faced by the young Americans, but all too often the terminology of the stock market just went over my head, I guess a similar problem people had with ‘Bringing Down The House’ in regards to poker, and if you understood the stock market and trading then this wouldn’t pose a problem.
I’ve also read through half of ‘Belle de Jour, the Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl’ (a catchy title, I know), which is better known to the Television watching public of Britain as ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ starring Billie Piper. I know I said I was sick of half reading books, but this isn’t so much a book as it is a series of events formulated through a diary that I believe was posted on the Internet. Again, the people in ‘Belle de Jour’ are given aliases as to hide their true identities, but it works rather well, adding a further layer of mystery to the whole thing. The book itself is rather excellent at times, some entries rather interesting and as far as the stories go, it does ‘go there’ in terms of a graphic nature, but never to disgust or intimidate the reader, instead dragging them along on a voyeuristic adventure. It’s something that I am able to turn to if I need a quick reading fix. You also don’t feel overly connected with the TV series, which, for me is definitely a good thing as they can co-exist as two different entities.
The third book was Gordon Ramsays, ‘Humble Pie’, the autobiography of the ‘celebrity chef’, a term I know he hates but has come to accept. As a biography it was both excellent and lacking in equal measures. At times it was incredibly in-depth and very vivid in its descriptions such as the drug problems of his brother or the abuse he received from his father who he later disowned. It’s a great insight into why he’s become arguably the Worlds most famous chef, certainly Britains. A three-michelin starred chef, a highly successful restaurateur and a culinary TV megastar. I found his book a very enjoyable read, especially learning about the people he has worked with, but I would have preferred more information regarding who had worked for.
As I enjoyed Ramsays book so much I went on to another autobiography for a chef, this time arguably the greatest British chef of all time, if not the world, Marco Pierre White. This is an interesting one for me because from what I have seen of him on TV, I didn’t like him, but what I couldn’t take away from him is what he has achieved in his life, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m currently only 1/3 through the book but so far I am really, really enjoying it immensely, it’s often laugh out loud funny and the stories he tells from working in the 3 best restaurants growing up are fantastically realised. It’s a battle of the Great British chefs (Ramsay worked for MPW at Harveys for those who don’t know) and I’m looking forward to finding out which is the best.
